Digital Government: Knowledge Management Over Time-Varying Geospatial Datasets

Spatially-related data is collected by many government agencies in various formats and for various uses. This project seeks to facilitate the integration of these data, thus providing new uses. This will require the development of a knowledge management framework to provide syntax, context, and semantics, as well as exploring the introduction of time-varying data into the framework. Education and outreach will be part of the project through the development of an on-line short courses related to data integration in the area of geographical information systems. The grantees will be working with government partners (National Imagery and Mapping Agency, the National Agricultural Statistics Service, and the US Army Topographic Engineering Center), as well as an industrial organization, Base Systems, and the non-profit OpenGIS Consortium, which works closely with vendors of GIS products

A review of the application of databases in freshwater fisheries management and the effect of water quality on the mean relative weight of largemouth bass, crappie, and channel catfish in Oklahoma lakes.

The subject of this thesis is the development and use of databases for use in fisheries management. The thesis consists of two chapters. The first is a literature review of fisheries databases and an overview of my work as a graduate research assistant with the Oklahoma Biological Survey and Oklahoma Fisheries Research Laboratory (OFRL) of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. The Standard Sampling Protocol (SSP) is at the core of both chapters. In chapter 1, I reviewed the fisheries database literature to aid in the development of the SSP Database and emphasize some of the issues that commonly occur with database development and application. This information guided me in the development of a relational database for the SSP data. The resulting database includes approximately 1.6 million records for 150 fish species in Oklahoma. The database schema consists of five tables: Abiotic, Biotic, SSP Species List, OBIS Taxonomy, and OWRB Lake Data. Chapter 2 employed the SSP database to determine if water quality parameters in 108 Oklahoma lakes influenced the relative weights of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), crappie (Pomoxis annularis and Pomoxis nigromaculatus), and channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus). Discriminant analysis of eight water quality parameters resulted in the classification of said lakes into six classes. Mean relative weights for largemouth bass, crappie, and catfish ranged from 89.84-99.17, 91.99-98.17, and 86.90-94.01 respectively. Salinity, which was the most important explanatory variable in lake classification, ranged from 0.04-0.63 ppt among the six classes. This information could prove useful to the fisheries managers of Oklahoma by reclassifying similar lakes regardless of management region, allowing for a different perspective on management practices

Distinguishing Instances and Evidence of Geographical Concepts for Geospatial Database Design

In many geoscientific disciplines concepts are regularly discovered and modified, but the architecture of our geospatial information systems is primarily aimed at supporting static conceptual structures. This results in a semantic gap between our evolving understanding of these concepts and how they are represented in our systems. The research reported here provides better database support for geographical concepts that evolve with particular situations. To reduce the potential for schema change in such environments, we develop an analysis of the structure and function of situated geographical concepts and directly model the results in an UML schema. The developed schema explicitly contextualizes geographic information and concepts, enabling the extraction of contexts and interpretations from databases. This aids (1) the addition of empirical components to a geoscientific ontology, (2) the representation of context in geo-databases, and (3) the uncovering of the implicit aspects of data, and the sharing of meaning, via the represented contexts. Prototype implementations that show promise for managing geoscientific ontologies and databases are also briefly discussed

Os sistemas de informação geográfica aplicados à análise espacial para o mapeamento dos espaços verdes do Bairro do Cabula na cidade do Salvador – Bahia – Brasil

Dissertação apresentada para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Gestão do Território, área de especialização Detecção Remota e Sistemas de Informação GeográficaOs espaços verdes são fundamentais para as cidades, devido ao exercício de suas funções e a geração de seus benefícios. A vegetação presente no espaço urbano é promotora da qualidade ambiental na urbe, melhorando a vida dos habitantes, seja no âmbito social, ecológico ou paisagístico. Os espaços citadinos são ambientes modificados que possuem remanescentes da vegetação original, os quais se apresentam em diferentes formas e lugares. O presente trabalho trata de uma análise dos espaços verdes do bairro do Cabula, na cidade do Salvador, capital do estado da Bahia, Brasil. A aplicação dos Sistemas de Informação Geográfica a um modelo de análise espacial é indispensável para o mapeamento arbóreo no bairro. O uso dos SIG pode contribuir na tomada de decisões no tocante à gestão urbano-regional e às pesquisas multidisciplinares e interdisciplinares, possibilitando um melhor entendimento do problema apresentado e gerando mecanismos para a criação de medidas condizentes