Soaring spaces : the development of an integrated terrestrial and bathymetric information system for the Maltese Islands

In a rapidly developing world where the introduction of massive online information systems has enabled both the scientist and the general public to interact with remotely- located data from across the globe, the reality of access to data and eventually to information is slowly bringing forth the realisation that decades-old barriers to access to data still need to be overcome. Data availability suffers from a plethora of scourges that have left entire countries with a dearth of reliable baseline information, particularly small states which have limited human capacity to manage the whole datacycle in the physical, social and environmental domains. The main limitations include the fact that there are few homogeneous structures in operation, which governance situation has rendered data gathering agencies as a series of independent hoarding kingdoms, where data ‘ownership’ is seen as a private not as a corporate or a national affair thus the main users instead of being custodians transform themselves as the private owners of such data. Other more technical issues include the fact that there are too many standards to follow, data is not dynamic (gathered ad hoc as a one-off and not real-time), data is not quality assured/controlled, queries are not organised and recorded, data is not secured – (‘illegal’ use of storage on personal storage devices and other digital media) and that versioning is not practiced. In addition, even where the data is available, there is an upsurge in requests for access to such data which has increased drastically since TIM BERNERS-LEE’S (1989) world wide web (WWW) proposal changed society as never before. The WWW changed a medium that was at best techno-centric to one that is now essentially socio-technic. Increasing requirements for bandwidth has resulted in a need for a reanalysis of DAHRENDORFF’s (1990) access issue in contemporary worlds, both real and virtual, where not all society has access to the information through on-line services.peer-reviewe

Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)

This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio

Seafloor characterization using airborne hyperspectral co-registration procedures independent from attitude and positioning sensors

The advance of remote-sensing technology and data-storage capabilities has progressed in the last decade to commercial multi-sensor data collection. There is a constant need to characterize, quantify and monitor the coastal areas for habitat research and coastal management. In this paper, we present work on seafloor characterization that uses hyperspectral imagery (HSI). The HSI data allows the operator to extend seafloor characterization from multibeam backscatter towards land and thus creates a seamless ocean-to-land characterization of the littoral zone

Developing an interoperable cloud-based visualization workflow for 3D archaeological heritage data. The Palenque 3D Archaeological Atlas

In archaeology, 3D data has become ubiquitous, as researchers routinely capture high resolution photogrammetry and LiDAR models and engage in laborious 3D analysis and reconstruction projects at every scale: artifacts, buildings, and entire sites. The raw data and processed 3D models are rarely shared as their computational dependencies leave them unusable by other scholars. In this paper we outline a novel approach for cloud-based collaboration, visualization, analysis, contextualization, and archiving of multi-modal giga-resolution archaeological heritage 3D data. The Palenque 3D Archaeological Atlas builds on an open source WebGL systems that efficiently interlink, merge, present, and contextualize the Big Data collected at the ancient Maya city of Palenque, Mexico, allowing researchers and stakeholders to visualize, access, share, measure, compare, annotate, and repurpose massive complex archaeological datasets from their web-browsers

3D and 4D Simulations for Landscape Reconstruction and Damage Scenarios. GIS Pilot Applications

The project 3D and 4D Simulations for Landscape Reconstruction and Damage Scenarios: GIS Pilot Applications has been devised with the intention to deal with the demand for research, innovation and applicative methodology on the part of the international programme, requiring concrete results to increase the capacity to know, anticipate and respond to a natural disaster. This project therefore sets out to develop an experimental methodology, a wide geodatabase, a connected performant GIS platform and multifunctional scenarios able to profitably relate the added values deriving from different geotechnologies, aimed at a series of crucial steps regarding landscape reconstruction, event simulation, damage evaluation, emergency management, multi-temporal analysis. The Vesuvius area has been chosen for the pilot application owing to such an impressive number of people and buildings subject to volcanic risk that one could speak in terms of a possible national disaster. The steps of the project move around the following core elements: creation of models that reproduce the territorial and anthropic structure of the past periods, and reconstruction of the urbanized area, with temporal distinctions; three-dimensional representation of the Vesuvius area in terms of infrastructuralresidential aspects; GIS simulation of the expected event; first examination of the healthcareepidemiological consequences; educational proposals. This paper represents a proactive contribution which describes the aims of the project, the steps which constitute a set of specific procedures for the methodology which we are experimenting, and some thoughts regarding the geodatabase useful to “package” illustrative elaborations. Since the involvement of the population and adequate hazard preparedness are very important aspects, some educational and communicational considerations are presented in connection with the use of geotechnologies to promote the knowledge of risk

Maltese technological steps towards integrative cities

Understanding how urban ecologies operate and how one can relate to the changes required for social change, entails a deep understanding of the structures that make up that society. This scenario is evident when one tries to understand how policy makers present their studies for decision-takers to act upon. In an ideal world the decision taker would have acquired knowledge of what planning entails, the situation at hand, the acquisition of a mental image of the area under study and would theoretically be able to decide on an outcome as based on such knowledge. Reality shows otherwise, since this process entails the full knowledge of how the data process is handled, how that data delivers meaningful information, which results in knowledge and eventually an informed decision is taken. However, the entire enterprise is based on access to information or the lack of same, to acquisition of information on the urban/rural structures and the environment in its wider aspects. Dealing with advocacy groups, non-governmental organisations and interested parties requires that the planner has a solid understanding of the physical, natural and social parameters that society is permeated with. A planner debating a decision on how to mitigate on urban sprawl would be required to understand how such urban ecologies morph from small hamlets to town and cities and eventually to metropolis, in addition to an understanding of the interactivities that occur between the players as based on the sociological pillars: politics, religion, education, family and economy. Each part plays a crucial role in its attempts to sway a decision one way or another. Without basic information across the fields planners may find barriers being set up that may thwart informed decision-making.peer-reviewe

Geovisualization

Geovisualization involves the depiction of spatial data in an attempt to facilitate the interpretation of observational and simulated datasets through which Earth's surface and solid Earth processes may be understood. Numerous techniques can be applied to imagery, digital elevation models, and other geographic information system data layers to explore for patterns and depict landscape characteristics. Given the rapid proliferation of remotely sensed data and high-resolution digital elevation models, the focus is on the visualization of satellite imagery and terrain morphology, where manual human interpretation plays a fundamental role in the study of geomorphic processes and the mapping of landforms. A treatment of some techniques is provided that can be used to enhance satellite imagery and the visualization of the topography to improve landform identification as part of geomorphological mapping. Visual interaction with spatial data is an important part of exploring and understanding geomorphological datasets, and a variety of methods exist ranging across simple overlay, panning and zooming, 2.5D, 3D, and temporal analyses. Specific visualization outputs are also covered that focus on static and interactive methods of dissemination. Geomorphological mapping legends and the cartographic principles for map design are discussed, followed by details of dynamic web-based mapping systems that allow for greater immersive use by end users and the effective dissemination of data

One small state's preparation for climate change : building an integrated socio-technic informational infrastructure

Very few countries can afford to ignore the potential repercussions emanating from climate change. However, few afford to take the steps to ensure the laying of full-coverage groundwork structures that ensure future analytical studies. This paper deals with the stepped-approach taken by a Mediterranean island state, to ensure the creation of a baseline structure that covers all the territory in terms of physical, natural and social environments. Malta has taken on the task to implement a series of measures aimed at integrating environmental, spatial planning and social data in line with the implementation of the Aarhus Convention, the INSPIRE Directive and the SEIS initiative. The implementation of a project entitled "Developing national environmental infrastructure and capacity" co-financed under the 2007-2013 European Regional Development Funds (Structural Funds) Programme for Malta, is targeted to take national environmental monitoring capacity from a semi-analogue state to a fully interactive online system. This initiative has resulted in the creation of tools that scientists and the general public can access for their respective studies. The resultant hardware, software, innovative scans of the terrestrial and bathymetric domains, as well as the freely disseminated SEIS-based systems have created the right scenario for the analysis of climate change.peer-reviewe