Rule based ETL (RETL) approach for GEO spatial data warehouse

This paper presents the use of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) for integrating multi source heterogeneous geospatial data in order to facilitate geospatial data warehouse. In this study, Real Based ETL (RETL) concept is adapted in order to extract, transform and load data from a variety of heterogeneous data sources. ETL will transform data to schematic format and loading data into the Geo spatial data warehouse.By using a rule-based technique, the distribution of parallel ETL pipeline will enhance and perform more efficient in large scale of data and overcome data bottleneck and performance overhead. This can ease the disaster management and enables planners to monitor disaster emergency response in an efficient manner

Addressing sea level rise in the People\u27s Republic of China and the United States: a comparative review of administrative and policy frameworks

Sea level rise (SLR) is directly influenced by climate change through the processes of temperature affecting the growth and decay of continental ice (Barron and Thompson 1990). It is a significant environmental challenge that threatens coastal areas of many nations throughout the world. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report issued in 2007 states that SLR poses a serious challenge to sustainable development along many coastal areas. The objectives of this thesis are to examine the SLR management issue both in the P.R.C. and the U.S, identify the government agencies that are concerned with SLR issues in the two countries and the specific programs that have been conducted by these agencies, analyze the key obstacles to managing risks associated with SLR, and recommend actions to address some of these challenges. The research methods include reviewing the monitoring efforts, laws, and administrative systems dealing with SLR in the U.S. and the P.R.C., surveying a panel of experts consisting of government agency administrators and researchers in the two countries, and performing vulnerability analysis through case studies of two significant coastal areas in the U.S. and the P.R.C. The research findings indicate that the SLR monitoring efforts of the two countries are very similar, both in terms of technology used and the density of monitoring stations along the coastlines. However, different stages of policy development related to SLR were evident, with the U.S. having established a more integrated federal and state-level policy framework for incorporating SLR issues into coastal planning through the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972. Currently, risk assessments and some planning activities similar to those conducted in the U.S. are being implemented or are under development by policy makers in the P.R.C.. The main obstacles reported by the experts in both countries to systematically incorporating SLR risks into coastal zone planning were limited budgets, public apathy and the presence of other pressing coastal management issues. Public education efforts designed to convey the potential risk of SLR to stakeholders of specific coastal communities, including possible socioeconomic and environmental consequences, would appear to be a logical strategy to address key reported obstacles to integration of SLR risks into long-term coastal planning

The PREVIEW Global Risk Data Platform: a geoportal to serve and share global data on risk to natural hazards

With growing world population and concentration in urban and coastal areas, the exposure to natural hazards is increasing and results in higher risk of human and economic losses. Improving the identification of areas, population and assets potentially exposed to natural hazards is essential to reduce the consequences of such events. Disaster risk is a function of hazard, exposure and vulnerability. Modelling risk at the global level requires accessing and processing a large number of data, from numerous collaborating centres. <br><br> These data need to be easily updated, and there is a need for centralizing access to this information as well as simplifying its use for non GIS specialists. The Hyogo Framework for Action provides the mandate for data sharing, so that governments and international development agencies can take appropriate decision for disaster risk reduction. <br><br> Timely access and easy integration of geospatial data are essential to support efforts in Disaster Risk Reduction. However various issues in data availability, accessibility and integration limit the use of such data. In consequence, a framework that facilitate sharing and exchange of geospatial data on natural hazards should improve decision-making process. The PREVIEW Global Risk Data Platform is a highly interactive web-based GIS portal supported by a Spatial Data Infrastructure that offers free and interoperable access to more than 60 global data sets on nine types of natural hazards (tropical cyclones and related storm surges, drought, earthquakes, biomass fires, floods, landslides, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions) and related exposure and risk. This application portrays an easy-to-use online interactive mapping interface so that users can easily work with it and seamlessly integrate data in their own data flow using fully compliant OGC Web Services (OWS)

Ways to Help and Ways to Hinder: Governance for Effective Adaptation to an Uncertain Climate

This paper compares two case studies in Alaska, one on commercial fishers of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands region and the other on moose hunters of Interior Alaska, to identify how governance arrangements and management strategies enhance or limit people’s ability to respond effectively to changing climatic and environmental conditions. The two groups face similar challenges regarding the impacts of a changing climate on wild fish and game, but they tell very different stories regarding how and under what conditions these impacts challenge their harvest activities. In both regions, people describe dramatic changes in weather, land, and seascape conditions, and distributions of fish and game. A key finding is that the “command-and-control” model of governance in the Alaska Interior, as implemented through state and federal management tools such as registration hunts and short open seasons, limits effective local responses to environmental conditions, while the more decentralized model of governance created by the Limited Access Privilege systems of the Bering Sea allows fishers great flexibility to respond. We discuss ways to implement aspects of a decentralized decision-making model in the Interior that would benefit hunters by increasing their adaptability and success, while also improving conservation outcomes. Our findings also demonstrate the usefulness of the diagnostic framework employed here for facilitating comparative crossregional analyses of natural resource use and management.Ce document établit une comparaison entre deux études de cas effectuées en Alaska, l’une portant sur les pêcheurs commerciaux de la mer de Béring et de la région des Aléoutiennes et l’autre, sur les chasseurs d’orignaux de l’intérieur de l’Alaska. Cette comparaison avait pour but de déterminer comment les ententes de gouvernance et les stratégies de gestion rehaussent ou restreignent l’aptitude des gens à réagir de manière efficace au changement climatique et aux conditions environnementales. Dans le cas des deux groupes, les défis sont semblables en ce qui a trait aux incidences du changement climatique sur le poisson sauvage et le gibier, mais il n’en reste pas moins que les deux groupes témoignent d’histoires très différentes relativement à la façon dont les incidences influencent leurs activités de chasse ou de pêche, et les circonstances dans lesquelles les incidences présentent des défis à leurs activités de chasse ou de pêche. Dans les deux cas, les individus décrivent des changements dramatiques sur le plan des conditions météorologiques, du paysage terrestre et du paysage marin, ainsi que sur le plan de la répartition du poisson et du gibier. Une des grandes observations ayant émané de cette comparaison, c’est que le modèle de gouvernance consistant à « commander et contrôler » qui est en vigueur dans l’intérieur de l’Alaska, tel qu’imposé par les outils de gestion de l’État et du gouvernement fédéral, et qui se traduit notamment par l’enregistrement des chasses et par des saisons de chasse courtes, se trouve à restreindre l’efficacité des réactions locales vis-à-vis des conditions environnementales, tandis que le mode de gouvernance plus décentralisé créé par les systèmes de privilège à accès limité de la mer de Béring donne aux pêcheurs une plus grande souplesse pour réagir. Nous nous penchons sur diverses façons de mettre en oeuvre les aspects d’un modèle de prise de décisions décentralisé dans l’intérieur de manière à ce que les chasseurs en bénéficient en augmentant leur adaptabilité et leur succès, tout en améliorant les résultats de conservation. Nos constatations démontrent aussi l’utilité du cadre diagnostic employé ici pour faciliter les analyses inter-régionales en matière d’utilisation et de gestion des ressources naturelles

Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the People’s Republic of China – An Assessment of Structural Impacts on Decision-making Processes

Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) forms a generally accepted concept to ensure sustainable development in the coastal zone. The implementation of the ICZM framework as formulated, e.g. by the World Coast Conference, is often constrained by the political system within which it should be applied. This is the case in the People’s Republic of China. This study takes a political science perspective based on approaches inherent in neo-institutional and administrative theories. This way the relevant political structures are explained and the impacts that the transformation of the socio-economic system had on institutions are located. This is extended by the reflection of related political power distribution. This part of the analysis mainly contains existing knowledge on (integrated) CZM in China but evaluates it from a so far neglected point of view. The second part of the paper is taking the successful local ICZM approach of Xiamen and a proposed approach for Shanghai as an example to show that the adaptation of a working approach to other parts of the country is impossible without modifications to the organizational structures of decision-making and implementation. So far the literature emphasizes mostly modifications in content. An important reason for structural elements being comparably important is the choice of ICZM issues and the local power distribution. It furthermore shows that these are also the determining factors obstructing the upscaling of a local approach to the national level, a fact which constrains the formulation of national guidelines in China and leaves only the bottom-up alternative of introducing ICZM to China – a hard task that leaves a disproportional responsibility to the local governmental level.Integrated Coastal Zone Management, People’s Republic of China, Political Structure, Power Distribution, Jurisdictional Overlaps

Trialing Innovative Technologies in Crisis Management - “Airborne and Terrestrial Situational Awareness” as Support Tool in Flood Response

Flooding represents the most-occurring and deadliest threats worldwide among natural disasters. Consequently, new technologies are constantly developed to improve response capacities in crisis management. The remaining challenge for practitioner organizations is not only to identify the best solution to their individual demands, but also to test and evaluate its benefit in a realistic environment before the disaster strikes. To bridge the gap between theoretic potential and actual integration into practice, the EU-funded project DRIVER+ has designed a methodical and technical environment to assess innovation in a realistic but non-operational setup through trials. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) interdisciplinary merged mature technical developments into the “Airborne and terrestrial situational awareness” system and applied it in a DRIVER+ Trial to promote a sustainable and demand-oriented R&D. Experienced practitioners assessed the added value of its modules “KeepOperational” and “ZKI” in the context of large-scale flooding in urban areas. The solution aimed at providing contextual route planning in police operations and extending situational awareness based on information derived through aerial image processing. The user feedback and systematically collected data through the DRIVER + Test-bed approved that DLR’s system could improve transport planning and situational awareness across organizations. However, the results show a special need to consider, for example, cross-domain data-fusion techniques to provide essential 3D geo-information to effectively support specific response tasks during flooding

The state of climate change in AK: agency and networking of the governmental kind

Master's Project (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017Alaska coastal villages are faced with relocating their communities' due to erosion, flooding, permafrost thaw and other slow-moving natural hazards that risk their safety. State and federal efforts to relocate, specifically, indigenous communities are thwarted by insufficient policy and restrictive agency missions, and coordination of actors, authority, responsibility, accountability, access and funding is lacking between levels of government, further complicating action. Networks are created to view mission statements from tribal, state, and federal agencies, nonprofits and private industry were coded to analyze coordination between key actors involved in climate governance and planned relocation. State and federal climate and disaster response policies are reviewed to identify areas to strengthen climate governance that is inclusive of indigenous communities' rights, culture, traditions and livelihoods