Remote sensing applications program

The activities of the Mississippi Remote Sensing Center are described in addition to technology transfer and information dissemination, remote sensing topics such as timber identification, water quality, flood prevention, land use, erosion control, animal habitats, and environmental impact studies are also discussed

GIS in the Studies of Łódź Geographers

Published in: Origin of Relief of Central Poland and Its Anthropogenic Transformation in Łódź University Geographical Research, edited by. E.Kobojek, T.MarszałThe scientific community of geographers in the University of Łódź uses GIS for scientific research to a different extent, mainly as a tool for spatial analyses of the subject of their studies. They include both socio-economic geographers and physical geographers

People’s Initiatives to Use IT for Development

human development, technology

Multi-level processes of integration and disintegration. Proceedings of the Third Green Week Scientific Conference

CONTENTS: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... I; ABOUT THE MACE PROJECT... III; PLENARY PRESENTATION ... 1; Landscape agroecology: Managing interactions between agriculture, nature and socio-economy... 3, Tommy Dalgaard; DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES IN RURAL AREAS ... 13; Patterns of rural development in mountainous areas of the Mediterranean: Between innovation and tradition ... 15, Angela Guarino; Agro ecology: Hypothesis for a sustainable local development?... 22, Silvia Doneddu; The farmers' early retirement scheme as an instrument of structural changes in the rural areas after Poland's accession to the EU ... 29, Michal Dudek; FOOD MARKETS AND AGRICULTURAL MARKETING... 37; G/Local brand challenges in the Austrian agricultural food market ... 39, Bernadette Frech, Ana Azevedo, Hildegard Liebl; Willingness of food industry companies to co-finance collective agricultural marketing actions... 48, Anikó Tóth, Csaba Forgács; MULTIFUNCTIONAL AGRICULTURE ... 57; The role of multifunctional agriculture for rural development in Bulgaria... 59, Violeta Dirimanova; A methodological review of multifunctional agriculture ... 66, Concettina Guarino, Francesco Di Iacovo; A spatially explicit decision-making support tool for integral rural development ... 75, Catherine Pfeifer, Jetse Stoorvogel; AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND NETWORKS IN RURAL AREAS... 89; Feasibility and implementation strategies of dairy extension in Ulaanbaatar/Mongolia... 91, Baast Erdenebolor, Volker Hoffmann; The relevance of social networks for the implementation of the LEADER programme in Romania ... 99, Doris Marquardt, Gertrud Buchenrieder, Judith Möllers; Quality assessment problems of agricultural advisory centres' services... 113, Gunta Grinberga; INTEGRATION PROCESSES INTO INTERNATIONAL MARKETS... 125; Competition or market power in the Ukrainian meat supply chain? ... 127, Andriy Matyukha, Oleksandr Perekhozhuk; Integration of the Hungarian cereal market into EU 15 markets ... 138, Attila Jambor; Regional specialisation of agriculture and competitive advantages of East-European countries... 146, Oleksandr Zhemoyda, Stephan J. Goetz; GOVERNANCE AND USE OF NATURAL RESOURCES ... 155; An analysis of biodiversity governance in the Kiskunság National Park according to the GoverNat Framework... 157, Cordula Mertens, Eszter Kelemen, György Pataki; Hierarchical network modelling and multicriteria analysis for agri-environmental measures in Poland ... 168, Jadwiga Ziolkowska; Assessing rural livelihood development strategies combining socioeconomic and spatial methodologies ... 179, K.C. Krishna Bahadur; SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL LAND USE... 189; Linking economic and energy modelling with environmental assessment when modelling the on-farm implementation of Anaerobic Digestion ... 191, Andreas Muskolus, Andrew M. Salter, Philip J. Jones; Phytoremediation of a heavy metal-contaminated agricultural area combined with energy production. Multifunctional use of energy maize, rapeseed and short rotation crops in the Campine (BE)... 200, Nele Witters, Stijn Van Slycken, Erik Meers, Kristin Adriaensen, Linda Meiresonne, Filip Tack, Theo Thewys, Jaco Vangronsveld --

LOCAL GOVERNANCE AND TERRITORIAL DEVELOPMENT ON THE BASIS OF GIS

The paper is contributing to the development concept through highlighting the issue of implementing a brand-new territorial management system based on GIS technology into the regional public governance of developing country (on the example of Zhytomyr oblast of Ukraine as a leader of decentralization processes in the state according the official statistics of forming the amalgamated communities). Three basic methods were used: monographic method — to identify the peculiarities of the GIS activities of regional government entities; comparative studies and benchmarking — to compare GIS managing models performed in the world and find the best relevant practices; project management analysis — to prepare solution for creating pilot model as a full turnkey intellectual product (ready for dissemination project application which include logical-structural matrix of project goals and results, stakeholders analysis, timing for activities, indicators for evaluation, budget etc). Project application is completed with an evaluation of the Zhytomyr regional geoportal, implemented on its basement. In particular, there have been analyzed geoportal functions, their impact from economic and social benefits point, existing problems related to the project implementation process, benefits and prospects for future activities. It is proved that performed model will allow to create more effective than already existing mechanism of public administration at the region; to develop algorithms for interaction between public authorities and communities, to enhance the process of decentralization and territorial development

Identifying infestation probabilities of Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis, Fairmaire) in the Mid-Atlantic region

Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) impacts all species of North American ash trees, and has caused several million dollars (U.S.) in damage to trees across the affected region. EAB is primarily spread through the movement of trees and wood products, such as nursery stock and firewood. This thesis assessed the potential risk of EAB introduction in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., where the species has not yet been as widely reported. Using a Geographic Information Systems-based approach, a risk prioritization framework was developed to assess and rank various mapped factors for EAB introduction. Results indicated high risk areas throughout the study region with approximately 30 counties being cited for potential risk. From an analysis of risk versus ash basal area for all counties, three management strategies were derived; quarantine, plan harvest, public outreach and monitoring

Mapping Europe into local climate zones

Cities are major drivers of environmental change at all scales and are especially at risk from the ensuing effects, which include poor air quality, flooding and heat waves. Typically, these issues are studied on a city-by-city basis owing to the spatial complexity of built landscapes, local topography and emission patterns. However, to ensure knowledge sharing and to integrate local-scale processes with regional and global scale modelling initiatives, there is a pressing need for a world-wide database on cities that is suited for environmental studies. In this paper we present a European database that has a particular focus on characterising urbanised landscapes. It has been derived using tools and techniques developed as part of the World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) project, which has the goal of acquiring and disseminating climate-relevant information on cities worldwide. The European map is the first major step toward creating a global database on cities that can be integrated with existing topographic and natural land-cover databases to support modelling initiatives

Urban food strategies in Central and Eastern Europe: what's specific and what's at stake?

Integrating a larger set of instruments into Rural Development Programmes implied an increasing focus on monitoring and evaluation. Against the highly diversified experience with regard to implementation of policy instruments the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework has been set up by the EU Commission as a strategic and streamlined method of evaluating programmes’ impacts. Its indicator-based approach mainly reflects the concept of a linear, measure-based intervention logic that falls short of the true nature of RDP operation and impact capacity on rural changes. Besides the different phases of the policy process, i.e. policy design, delivery and evaluation, the regional context with its specific set of challenges and opportunities seems critical to the understanding and improvement of programme performance. In particular the role of local actors can hardly be grasped by quantitative indicators alone, but has to be addressed by assessing processes of social innovation. This shift in the evaluation focus underpins the need to take account of regional implementation specificities and processes of social innovation as decisive elements for programme performance.

How does students motivation to acquire new geospatial skills influence their choices of e-learning content?

Higher education in many disciplines is affected nowadays by an evident orientation to assist students in developing a certain set of skills required by the labour market. This trend is visible also in the field of Geographic Information Science and Technology (GIS&T). The composition of competencies encompasses, apart from industry-specific technical competencies, also soft skills related to personal effectiveness, academic and workplace competencies. Moreover, soft skills are gaining in importance, being identified as future work skills. As a result, students may search for certain skills when they come into contact with a particular learning content. In this study, we investigated how the motivation to acquire specific skills influences students’ behaviour on the e-learning platform. As a case study, we selected a study programme in land management carried out at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Management (Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland). Several different motivating factors, like GIS&T skills and the ability to co-operate, were identified and compared with students’ behaviour on the e-learning platform in certain modules of the study programme. The results indicated that students only partially prospected for certain competencies during their work with the content of the e-learning platform. Students’ motivation was more evident in their on-line behaviour when they wanted to acquire technical skills than when they planned to develop soft skills