348 research outputs found

    Automating Wetland Prioritization Analyses Using GIS

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    In environmental and conservation fields, managers and other decision makers need to prioritize their efforts to specific areas using multiple-criteria decision analysis, to maximize environmental protection given limitations of budget and time. However, creating these prioritization models requires a combination of both scientific and technical skills, and many of those with the expertise to create scientifically sound prioritization models have limited time to devote to the technical aspects of the analysis. There was a need to automate this analysis process to enable scientists and other decision makers to quickly repeat analyses with different criteria and compare the results. This project automated a wetland prioritization analysis in California for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) into a collection of ArcGIS ModelBuilder tools. This project then created a GIS web application to enable USFWS employees to re-do the prioritization analysis with different weights for the various ecological factors that were included in the analysis (such as endangered species habitat, important bird areas, etc.). With the analysis process thus simplified, scientists and decision makers in the USFWS can now apply current and evolving scientific knowledge and compare wetland priorities in a multiple criteria decision analysis framework

    Development of spatial density maps based on geoprocessing web services: application to tuberculosis incidence in Barcelona, Spain

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Health professionals and authorities strive to cope with heterogeneous data, services, and statistical models to support decision making on public health. Sophisticated analysis and distributed processing capabilities over geocoded epidemiological data are seen as driving factors to speed up control and decision making in these health risk situations. In this context, recent Web technologies and standards-based web services deployed on geospatial information infrastructures have rapidly become an efficient way to access, share, process, and visualize geocoded health-related information.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data used on this study is based on Tuberculosis (TB) cases registered in Barcelona city during 2009. Residential addresses are geocoded and loaded into a spatial database that acts as a backend database. The web-based application architecture and geoprocessing web services are designed according to the Representational State Transfer (REST) principles. These web processing services produce spatial density maps against the backend database.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results are focused on the use of the proposed web-based application to the analysis of TB cases in Barcelona. The application produces spatial density maps to ease the monitoring and decision making process by health professionals. We also include a discussion of how spatial density maps may be useful for health practitioners in such contexts.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In this paper, we developed web-based client application and a set of geoprocessing web services to support specific health-spatial requirements. Spatial density maps of TB incidence were generated to help health professionals in analysis and decision-making tasks. The combined use of geographic information tools, map viewers, and geoprocessing services leads to interesting possibilities in handling health data in a spatial manner. In particular, the use of spatial density maps has been effective to identify the most affected areas and its spatial impact. This study is an attempt to demonstrate how web processing services together with web-based mapping capabilities suit the needs of health practitioners in epidemiological analysis scenarios.</p

    Managing Utility Properties: Fire Risk Awareness and Mitigation

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    Southern California Edison is concerned with fire and the danger it poses to its equipment and employees, and their current strategies are becoming outdated. To help solve this problem, this project developed a web application that allows the user to identify the areas that might be influenced by a fire instance, retrieve information about assets in the danger zone, and display the assets and their risk levels. With this tool, the emergency response teams can more accurately decide what areas are most in need of assistance in a timely fashion. By increasing their efficiency of disaster management, lives and money can be saved

    Web-Based Spatial Decision Support System and Watershed Management with a Case Study

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    In order to maintain a proper balance between development pressure and water resources protection, and also to improve public participation, efficient tools and techniques for soil and water conservation projects are needed. This paper describes the development and application of a web-based watershed management spatial decision support system, WebWMPI. The WebWMPI uses the Watershed Management Priority Indices (WMPI) approach which is a prioritizing method for watershed management planning and it integrates land use/cover, hydrological data, soils, slope, roads, and other spatial data. The land is divided into three categories: Conservation Priority Index (CPI) land, Restoration Priority Index (RPI) land, and Stormwater Management Priority Index (SMPI) land. Within each category, spatial factors are rated based on their influence on water resources and critical areas can be identified for soil conservation, water quality protection and improvement. The WebWMPI has user-friendly client side graphical interfaces which enable the public to interactively run the server side Geographic Information System to evaluate different scenarios for watershed planning and management. The system was applied for Dry Run Creek watershed (Cedar Falls, Iowa, US) as a demonstration and it can be easily used in other watersheds to prioritize crucial areas and to increase public participation for soil and water conservation projects

    Annual Brome (Bromus tectorum) Wildfire Fuel Breaks: Web-Enabled GIS Wildfire Model Decision Support System

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    Annual brome (Bromus tectorum), also known as Cheatgrass, is a non-native invasive plant that has degraded rangeland, and wildlife habitat, and has increased the frequency and severity of wildfires in the Western United States. An ArcGIS Server web-enabled GIS decision support system has been developed to empower landowners and land managers to identify critical areas for placing wildfire suppression annual brome fuel break on their land in order to protect their lives and property. The model identifies the critical predictive annual brome habitat and wildfire threat parameters, and uses web services to input the relevant GIS data that represent the model parameters. The GIS analysis is geoprocessed remotely and the potential fire break locations are distributed as a map web service accessible by a web browser with a graphical user interface, on a thinclient computer, along with technical information about the installation of wildfire fuel breaks

    A Web-Based Atlas of Environmental Justice for Coachella Valley, Southern California

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    The US Environmental Protection Agency (2014) defines environmental justice as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.” Environmental issues caused by human practices affect human life in numerous ways. As a result, different regions exhibit varying interactions between the environment and the corresponding human practices. The lack of an adequate communication medium for the existing environmental justice issues has left the residents of Coachella Valley with unattended and overlooked environmental hazards. Although the victims are aware of the problems, other members of the society and government agencies need to realize the effects of the deadly hazards on the Valley residents. This project examined the vulnerability of different communities to environmental hazards based on their linguistic, ethnic, and racial diversities. To target a broader audience, GIS and Web technologies have proven to be effective in exploring the spatial interactions between residents and geographic contexts. Thus, the project adapted an interactive Web-based solution to enable visualization of the spatial patterns between environmental and social factors. Considering the environmental factors, including pesticide use, water distribution, housing, green spaces, and waste facilities and dumpsites, an interactive Web application was developed using ArcGIS API for JavaScript

    Siting feasible water catchments for small irrigation projects in Western Honduras

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    Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Geospatial TechnologiesIn Western Honduras, most of people live in rural areas under extreme conditions of poverty. This area is part of the Centro American dry corridor which is affected by droughts and, therefore, water scarcity. Access to water is limited; which affects human welfare and agricultural production. As a plausible solution, this thesis work provides a tool to identify feasible water catchments for small irrigation projects in Western Honduras based on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and surface features. This tool can support decision makers to address water catchments in the study area. Two versions of this tool were developed. Both desktop and online versions allow the user to find potential sites to take water from streams through hosepipes. The suggested paths, over which these hosepipes can be installed, are modeled by using the Least-Cost Path (LCP) approach. We contrasted the results provided by the tool with two actual cases. The results showed the potential of this tool to find possible water intakes different from the current cases. In both cases, the tool was capable of finding water intakes very close to the current sites. This thesis proves that the use of GIS technologies in combination with decision rules and surface features can provide a novel solution to the real problem of water scarcity in Western Honduras

    StudMap 3.0 : an interoperable web-based platform for geospatial data offers in academic life

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    Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial TechnologiesGeographic Information Systems has now entered the realm of web and yields for feasible solutions to balance the technology offers with the users’ needs to share, access and explore the massive amounts of geodata available. Challenges occur when moving forward from old 2D platforms towards innovative and integrated webGIS systems that align functionality with the necessity to grant a complete understanding of the surrounding reality. 3D space responds to this but, however, stands only at the beginning of its era and cannot yet reach the development of 2D web integration. Research is now aiming at possible webGIS solutions to adapt to the special structure imposed by 3D data. In this context, this thesis focuses on designing an architecture for 2D and 3D geospatial data integration on a student-oriented web platform. This concept was further delivered and validated through a real case scenario – Studmap 3.0, a webGIS platform to serve the students of the University of Muenster in their academical life. The portal currently grants availability of geospatial data and web services of regional interest in a smart GIS environment that allows access and comparison of official services with own data. The implementation of Studmap 3.0 aided in the continuous improvement of the proposed architecture model and developed under a design science research cycle that reached its end once the final approval of its users was attained via a usability evaluation. Final strengths and drawbacks of the proposed architecture were ultimately identified together with an expert usability evaluation and a lab-based usability test of the resulting portal interface suitability for academic use. The results fall under the acceptable range with an 83.75 score for the System Usability Scale standardized questions when addressed to experts and a score of 83.87 when addressed to students. For the open-ended questions, the interface received an overall positive critique. A summary of future participants’ opinion on the benefits, drawbacks and proposed improvements was also delivered. Peers interested in similar concepts can use both this model and its final remarks as a reference for their work
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