Methodology for creating historical land use databases : a case study for ICOS-station Hyltemossa, Sweden

This thesis studies how modern spatio temporal databases of land use changes can be created based on historical maps. The entire study was conducted based on the available maps over the study area, in southern Sweden. The research was conducted in such a manner that it presents to what extent can land use changes affect biodiversity and climate change. The thesis is not focused on what are the drivers for land use conversions, but rather how could changes in land use be easier identified when working with a set of (historical) maps over the same area. Based on a very first decision, in terms of what land use data can be used in further studies by different research communities, a study was conducted as to determinate what are the available historical sources. A database was created, containing land use data, classified accordingly to modern international land cover classification, extracted from historical maps, during the time frame 1812 - 2006. Considering the needs in terms of land use conversion for the biodiversity and carbon modeling communities, analyzing tools were developed to provide a fast and efficient way to easily identify in which time frame drastic land use conversions occurred and how much the study area was affected. The tools were created as to ease the preliminary analysis on land use maps, to quickly identify changes based on statistics, rather than visual analysis. The historical land-use database was tested over a study area in southern Sweden. The tool developed is able to extract statistics from at least 2 maps simultaneous and express how much of land class there is on each map. The users can quickly retrieve statistics when the surfaces for each land class are available.According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2017), both land use conversions and use of fossil fuels are the sources of the increase of GHG, leading to global warming. Due to the high demand of land use conversions (such as increased areas of cultivated soil, forest clearance, urban areas development etc.), the land use suffers changes, some of them irreversible, whose effects can be measured in the amounts of greenhouse gas emissions released in the atmosphere. Furthermore, the land use and land cover change highly affect the local biodiversity, in terms of biodiversity loss or biodiversity alterations. Many of these changes were captured either in historical maps, in cadastral dossiers or written texts, by the authorized representatives in charge at that time. The GIS communities aim to process historical datasets in order to provide modern databases to other research communities, such the present study case. The methodology was structured into five processing steps. The first step was to identify the need for historical land use data, analyzed both from a carbon modeling and biodiversity perspective. The second part focused on checking the availability of historical land-use map resources, for the study area (Hyltemossa, Sweden), between the time frame 1812-2006. Once the needs and available map resources for such a database were known, the next step was to decide what land-use/land cover classification to use. It was chosen the modern Corine Land Cover Classification (Corine CLC). An important part was the actual creation of the historical land use database and the tools for analyzing the database, processing step number four. The historical maps were georeferenced and digitized, and stored as raster images into a database, using the GIS software ArcMap. To interpret changes over time, an analyzing tool was developed, with the capacity to detect changes from several overlaid maps of the same area (the fifth processing step). The function was developed from detecting pixel level changes to larger areas and the results are presented a table with statistics of a number of pixels that changed their values from one map to the other. The results and discussion focused on the resources used in this project, the digitized historical maps and the feasibility of the analyzing tool

Remote Sensing for Land Administration 2.0

The reprint “Land Administration 2.0” is an extension of the previous reprint “Remote Sensing for Land Administration”, another Special Issue in Remote Sensing. This reprint unpacks the responsible use and integration of emerging remote sensing techniques into the domain of land administration, including land registration, cadastre, land use planning, land valuation, land taxation, and land development. The title was chosen as “Land Administration 2.0” in reference to both this Special Issue being the second volume on the topic “Land Administration” and the next-generation requirements of land administration including demands for 3D, indoor, underground, real-time, high-accuracy, lower-cost, and interoperable land data and information

CARETS: A prototype regional environmental information system. Volume 12: User evaluation of experimental land use maps and related products from the central Atlantic test site

The author has identified the following significant results. Recommendations resulting from the CARETS evaluation reflect the need to establish a flexible and reliable system for providing more detailed raw and processed land resource information as well as the need to improve the methods of making information available to users

Spatial data infrastructure (SDI) for inventory rockfalls with fragmentation information

The version of record of this article, first published in Natural Hazards is available online at Publisher's webside: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-022-05282-2The fragmentation phenomenon has a significant effect on rockfall risk assessment. This information is difficult to obtain, but it is key to improving rockfall modelling. For this reason, the RockModels team has gathered data on the fragmentation of several natural events since 2014 that nowadays wants to share them with professionals, academics and stakeholders. The best way for the dissemination of this information is the use of standard or data specifications in order to be interoperable. A fragmentation rockfall database has been created using all the gathered information, according to the INSPIRE Natural Hazard Area Data Specification currently in force. However, new tables have had to be added, since this specification does not consider fragmentation data. There are currently 6000 records of geometries of source areas, envelopes, deposits and mostly individual blocks. A web mapping application, with an automatic function for coordinate reference system transformation, has been created to facilitate access to the spatial database information. All that was developed on open-source software such as OpenLayers JavaScript library, database (PostGre-PostGIS) and the map generating Web Map Service (GeoServer). As more data are collected, the database can be easily updated and the new information will be published. Moreover, to improve data interpretation, a future task is to incorporate 3D models on the web application. The existence of this public database will facilitate research and advance in knowledge of this kind of natural hazards.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Application of remote sensing to selected problems within the state of California

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Utilizing GIS technology for brownfields redevelopment

Typically, when developers, banks and other organizations have an interest in a piece of property they perform an extensive information search to determine if the site is worth purchasing. This search could consist of tax and title information, the location of utilities and major roadways in the area, information on population demographics and environmental contaminant data. An information search of this type could take days, weeks or even months to compile. With a geographic information system (GIS), this search could take a matter of minutes and is displayed in an easy to understand graphic or map form along with a report. GIS technology is consequently changing the way economic development organizations, states and municipalities communicate with potential purchasers of properties. With GIS technology these organizations can select brownfields or other properties based on ownership, demographics and/or predetermined zoning criteria and market the properties based on the needs of the developer. This thesis will propose development blueprints for Brownfield Pilots to consider when implementing a GIS. These blueprints or recommended strategies will be based on accepted GIS development phases, case studies that involved developing GISs for economic development and environmental applications and on responses to a questionnaire sent to Brownfield Pilots to determine their GIS development techniques and implementation status

Solid waste management in urban fringe settlements : the case of Winterveld, Pretoria

Governments and municipalities in the developing world face the challenge of rapid environmental deterioration in the growing informal settlements along the urban fringes. Waste management, its efficiency, or lack thereof, is becoming an increasingly urgent issue. In this thesis, Winterveld, located approx. 50 km north of Pretoria, is studied as a typical example of the problems and bottlenecks related to solid domestic waste management in a mixed urban fringe settlement. While the formal parts of Winterveld receive waste removal services, the – much larger - informal parts are not being provided with such services. A wide range of methodologies was employed to assess the current status of waste management and related environmental problems. Policies and actual service delivery by the City of Tshwane, responsible for providing waste removal service to the area, were investigated; surveys were conducted among waste removal contractors in and around Winterveld, and the residents from both formal and informal settlements. Field surveys were conducted to identify environmental problems on site, dumping sites and their change over time were mapped and digitized on orthophotos. Vegetation surveys complemented the fieldwork, as illegal dumping sites often are masked by vegetation. The following aspects were investigated: 1) the efficiency of governmental and municipal efforts regarding waste removal in informal Winterveld; 2) environmental and health problems caused by improper handling of waste; 3) the residents' attitudes towards waste management; 4) possible solutions to the problems. The findings revealed that Winterveld is not an exception from other informal settlements with regards to waste management. People are of the opinion that waste management is the sole responsibility of the government thus the residents are doing little to improve their own area. Government initiatives which include provision of facilities for waste management are misused and vandalised by the residents. Dumping along the roads, according to some residents is used as a call to the government to attract attention that the residents need removal services. The initiatives by the municipality should ensure that solid waste management facilities are socially acceptable and environmentally and economically sound. It is therefore very important to involve the community when investigate technologies that will benefit the economy and the environment maximally. Informing people may encourage them to change their negative attitudes by making them feel as an important part of waste management, this will eventually compel them to cooperate and play a positive role in waste management. Until such time that they change their attitudes, there is little hope that they will appreciate and protect the facilities provided.Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2007.Geography, Geoinformatics and MeteorologyMScUnrestricte

The role of volunteered geographic information in land administration systems in developing countries

PhD ThesisDeveloping countries, especially in Africa are faced with a lack of formally registered land. Available limited records are outdated, inaccurate and unreliable, which makes it a challenge to properly administer and manage land and its resources. Moreover, limited maintenance budgets prevalent in these countries make it difficult for organizations to conduct regular systematic updates of geographic information. Despite these challenges, geographic information still forms a major component for effective land administration. For a land administration system (LAS) to remain useful, it must reflect realities on the ground, and this can only be achieved if land information is reported regularly. However, if changes in land are not captured in properly administered land registers, LAS lose societal relevance and are eventually replaced by informal systems. Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) can address these LAS challenges by providing timely, affordable, up-to-date, flexible, and fit for purpose (FFP) land information to support the limited current systems. Nonetheless, the involvement of volunteers, who in most cases are untrained or non-experts in handling geographic information, implies that VGI can be of varying quality. Thus, VGI is characterised by unstructured, heterogeneous, unreliable data which makes data integration for value-added purposes difficult to effect. These quality challenges can make land authorities reluctant to incorporate the contributed datasets into their official databases. This research has developed an innovative approach for establishing the quality and credibility of VGI such that it can be considered in LAS on an FFP basis. However, verifying volunteer efforts can be difficult without reference to ground truth, which is prevalent in many developing countries. Therefore, a novel Trust and Reputation Modelling (TRM) methodology is proposed as a suitable technique to effect such VGI validation. TRM relies on a view that the public can police themselves in establishing ‘proxy’ measures of VGI quality and credibility of volunteers, thus facilitating VGI to be used on an FFP basis in LAS. The output of this research is a conceptual participatory framework for an FFP land administration based on VGI. The framework outlines major aspects (social, legal, technical, and institutional) necessary for establishing a participatory FFP LAS in developing countries.University of Botswan