The case of Ferbritas Cadastre Information System

The processes of mobilization of land for infrastructures of public and private domain are developed according to proper legal frameworks and systematically confronted with the impoverished national situation as regards the cadastral identification and regularization, which leads to big inefficiencies, sometimes with very negative impact to the overall effectiveness. This project report describes Ferbritas Cadastre Information System (FBSIC) project and tools, which in conjunction with other applications, allow managing the entire life-cycle of Land Acquisition and Cadastre, including support to field activities with the integration of information collected in the field, the development of multi-criteria analysis information, monitoring all information in the exploration stage, and the automated generation of outputs. The benefits are evident at the level of operational efficiency, including tools that enable process integration and standardization of procedures, facilitate analysis and quality control and maximize performance in the acquisition, maintenance and management of registration information and expropriation (expropriation projects). Therefore, the implemented system achieves levels of robustness, comprehensiveness, openness, scalability and reliability suitable for a structural platform. The resultant solution, FBSIC, is a fit-for-purpose cadastre information system rooted in the field of railway infrastructures. FBSIC integrating nature of allows: to accomplish present needs and scale to meet future services; to collect, maintain, manage and share all information in one common platform, and transform it into knowledge; to relate with other platforms; to increase accuracy and productivity of business processes related with land property management

Protection and maintenance of permanent pastures

peer reviewedAll farmers receiving direct payments are subject to compulsory cross-compliance which includes standards related to the maintenance and protection of permanent pastures. Questionnaire techniques and spatio-temporal analyses demonstrated that the ratio of permanent pasture area to agricultural land provides a simple tool for monitoring and controlling the protection of permanent pastures at the regional to Member State level. Huge variations in the ratio across Europe were related to the importance of permanent pastures, the interpretation of definitions, sources of information used, differences in calculation, and the presence of protective and/or sensitive zones. Precautionary or complementary measures are in place in most Member States in order to prevent decreases in the ratio. The implementation of GAEC standards related to permanent pastures overlaps with the standard management requirements, national legislation and current agri-environmental programmes. The study advocates the establishment of a comprehensive geo-information platform consisting of a topologically correct inventory of all permanent pasture parcels in a 1:1 geo-referenced relation between IACS and LPIS; ancillary spatially explicit data such as orthophotos, remote sensing images and other thematic geo-databases; and, geodatabases with parcel information compiled for other monitoring purposes such as those within the framework of the Nitrates Directive or 2nd pillar support

3D City Models and urban information: Current issues and perspectives

Considering sustainable development of cities implies investigating cities in a holistic way taking into account many interrelations between various urban or environmental issues. 3D city models are increasingly used in different cities and countries for an intended wide range of applications beyond mere visualization. Could these 3D City models be used to integrate urban and environmental knowledge? How could they be improved to fulfill such role? We believe that enriching the semantics of current 3D city models, would extend their functionality and usability; therefore, they could serve as integration platforms of the knowledge related to urban and environmental issues allowing a huge and significant improvement of city sustainable management and development. But which elements need to be added to 3D city models? What are the most efficient ways to realize such improvement / enrichment? How to evaluate the usability of these improved 3D city models? These were the questions tackled by the COST Action TU0801 “Semantic enrichment of 3D city models for sustainable urban development”. This book gathers various materials developed all along the four year of the Action and the significant breakthroughs

Accurate low-water line determination: the influence of Malaysia’s legislation and coastal policies on maritime baseline integrity

A fundamental component of any marine cadastre is the accurate positioning of the baseline since this defines the landward limit of marine parcels. Typically the maritime baseline is based on some form of Low Water Mark (LWM). However, it is notoriously difficult to determine the location of the baseline since within the highly dynamic coastal environment, the LWM is continually shifting. The primary aim of this research is to develop a methodology to efficiently determine the baseline by acquiring an integrated terrestrial Digital Terrain Model (DTM) using DGPS and a marine DTM based on near-shore bathymetry and tidal data, in order to derive the location of the baseline at a particular time. Fieldwork was carried out at Millport, Scotland using DGPS and marine radio-echo sounding to generate DTMs, which were then compared with external elevation measurements from SRTM, ASTER GDEM and NEXTMAP datasets. This method produced more robust results than those derived from existing datasets. Low-water lines (e.g. MLWS, LAT) were generated and compared to their locations shown on the current Ordnance Survey and Admiralty maps and charts. Results show highly accurate low-water lines (LAT) were produced using this method and that LAT has moved inland, likely due to a combination of sediment loss and sea level rise. A second objective was to review maritime baseline policy of other coastal countries, especially those neighbouring Malaysia. It was found that most coastal countries have a multitude of coastal management policies and initiatives to manage their coastal environment sustainably but policy design to sustain the integrity and position of the maritime baseline is almost non-existent. Such a finding also applies to Malaysia’s land and marine related legislation and coastal zone management initiatives. The principal conclusion is that the approach demonstrated here is an efficient and repeatable way to derive the low-water line along small segments of coastline for the needs of a marine cadastre but that there is an overriding need for an integrated and sustained policy to establish and regularly update the maritime baseline in Malaysia

Evaluation von Mangroven Ökosystemen entlang der Küste des Mekong Deltas in Vietnam: ein Verfahren zur Kombination sozioökonomischer und fernerkundlicher Methoden

Mangrove ecosystem is among the most productive and valuable eosystems in the world.The services provided by mangrove ecosystems to human well-being are well acknowledged in literature. Mangrove forests provide not only direct use values such as timber materials and fisheries resources but also indirect use values, for instance coastal protection, carbon sequestration as well as biodiversity. Although mangrove forests play an important role in providing goods and services to humans in both direct and indirect ways, they are declining at alarming rates. Overexploitation of mangrove for timber, urban development, increase population in coastal areas, and especially conversion to aquaculture are the major threats to mangrove forests worldwide. Over the last two decades, many studies on the valuation of mangrove ecosystems using different valuation approaches have been carried out in order to increase the awareness of decision makers to mangrove ecosystems. This dissertation investigates a new approach for quantifying the value of mangrove ecosystem services using remote sensing and household socio-economic data. Specifically, the method differentiates mangrove cover fractions in a mangrove-aquaculture integrated farming system in Ca Mau Province, Mekong Delta using an object-based approach. Ca Mau Province serves as an interesting case study as it has special conditions. First, it is the Province that hosts one of the largest mangrove forest areas in the Mekong Delta. Second, mangrove forests in this Province have been declining rapidly due to expansion of shrimp farming. Last, it is the Province that has special characteristics of the integrated mangrove-quaculture farming system, where mangroves are planted in a shrimp pond with different mangroves densities. This dissertation reviews a comprehensive overview of methods applied for the valuation of mangrove ecosystem services undertaken for the last decades. The main findings of this research include the following: 1) a need for site/landscape-specific valuation of mangrove ecosystem due to the socio-economic context as well as inconsistency in the value-transfer approach; monetary valuation should be used to increase awareness of the importance of mangrove ecosystems to decision akers/local communities. 2) developed an object-based approach for estimating the percentage of mangroves in mixed mangrove-aquaculture farming systems. This approach is a first attempt to quantitatively estimate mangrove percentages within the special mangrove-aquaculture farming system in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. The method comprises multi-resolution segmentation and classification of SPOT5 data using a decision tree approach as well as local knowledge from the region of interest. The results demonstrate that the predominantly mono-cultivation areas, i.e., above 70% or below 30% mangrove forests, were detected with high accuracies compared with existing approaches, 3) the valuation of mangrove ecosystem services using combined approach of remote sensing and socio-economic household survey data. The total estimated value was US$600 million/year for 187,533 ha with the mean value was US$3,000/ha/year, which significantly greater than gross domestic product (GDP) of the Province (US$1.25 million in 2010). The results demonstrate advancements in remote sensing techniques in combination with household survey data in quantifying the value of mangrove ecosystems. However, future challenges remain before this approach can be applied in monitoring the extent of mangrove and estimating the total economic value of the mangrove ecosystem. Based on these results, future research should focus on the integration of additional geodata, such as cadastral maps in the segmentation process, or emerging remote sensing technologies such as LiDAR or hyper-spectral data to characterize mangrove species and structure. Primary research on the valuation of recreation, water filtration or biodiversity needs to be done in order to estimate the total economic value of mangrove ecosystems.Mangroven-Ökosysteme gehören zu den produktivsten und wertvollsten Ökosystemen der Welt. Die zahlreichen kosystemfunktionen, die von Mangrovenwäldern bereitgestellt werden und zum Wohlbefinden des Menschen beitragen, sind in der Fachliteratur wissenschaftlich anerkannt. Mangrovenwälder liefern nicht nur direkte Nutzungsgüter wie Holzwerkstoffe und Fischbestände, sondern auch indirekte Ökosystemfunktionen, wie zum Beispiel ihr Beitrag zum Küstenschutz, zur Kohlenstoffbindung sowie zur Biodiversität. Obwohl Mangrovenwälder bei der Bereitstellung von direkten und indirekten Gütern und Funktionen für den Menschen eine wichtige Rolle spielen, ist der Rückgang der Bestände alarmierend. Zu den größten Bedrohungen für Mangrovenwälder weltweit gehören der Ababu der Bestände im Rahmen der Holzproduktion, städtische Entwicklung, ein erhöhter Bevölkerungsdruck in den Küstengebieten und vor allem die zunehmende Landnutzungsveränderung hin zur Aquakultur. In den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten wurden zahlreiche Studien über die Bewertung von Mangroven Ökosystemen mit unterschiedlichen Ansätzen durchgeführt. Dies hat zum Ziel das Bewusstsein der Entscheidungsträger zu schärfen und über den Wert von Mangroven Ökosystemen verstärkt zu informieren. In der vorliegenden Dissertation wird ein neues Verfahren zur wirtschaftlichen Bewertung von Mangroven-kosystemfunktionen vorgestellt welches auf der Kombination fernerkundlicher Methoden mit empirisch erhobenen sozioökonomischen Daten basiert. Im Detail differenziert das Verfahren verschiedene Mangroven-Bewuchs-Dichten mittels eines objektorientierten Klassifikationsansatzes, welches auf sogenannte integrierte Mangroven-Aquakultur-Anbausysteme in der Provinz Ca Mau im Mekong Delta angewendet wurde. Die Provinz Ca Mau dient als interessante Fallstudie, da sie sehr spezielle Rahmenbedingungen aufweist. Erstens, beherbergt die Provinz eine der größten Mangrovengebiete im gesamten Mekong Delta. Zweitens, sind die Mangrovenbestände in dieser Provinz aufgrund des zunehmenden Ausbaus der Garnelenzucht stark rückläufig. Außerdem weist die Provinz besondere Merkmale des integrierten Mangroven-Aquakultur-Landwirtschaftssystems auf, in dem Garnelen in Teichen mit unterschiedlichen Mangrovendichten gehalten werden. Die Dissertation gibt einen umfassenden Überblick über Methoden zur Bewertung der Ökosystemfunktionen von Mangrovenwäldern, welche in den letzten Jahrzehnten durchgeführt wurden. Die wichtigsten Ergebnisse dieser Untersuchung sind: 1) Die Notwendigkeit von orts-spezifischen Bewertungsansätzen für Mangroven-Ökosysteme aufgrund variierender sozio-ökonomischen Rahmenbedingungen sowie Inkonsistenzen bei Wert-Transfer-Ansätzen; monetäre Bewertungsansätze sollten verwendet werden, um die Bedeutung von Mangroven-Ökosystemen für Entscheidungsträger/Gemeinden zu erhöhen. 2) Ein objekt-basierter Ansatz zur Abschätzung von Mangrovenanteilen in gemischten Mangroven-Aquakultur-Anbausystemen wurde entwickelt. Dieser Ansatz ist ein erster Versuch, quantitativ Mangrovenanteile innerhalb des speziellen integrierten Mangroven-Aquakultur-Systems im vietnamesischen Mekong-Delta abzuschätzen. Das Verfahren umfasst einen multi-skaligen Segmentierungsansatz, die Klassifizierung von SPOT5 Satellitendaten mit Hilfe eines Entscheidungsbaums sowie die Integration von lokalem Wissen über die Testregion. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass, im Vergleich zu bestehenden Ansätzen, homogene Flächen, nämlich Gebiete mit über 70Gesamtwert beläuft sich auf ca. 600 Mio. US$ / Jahr für eine Gesamtfläche von 187,5 ha. Der durchschnittliche Wert pro Hektar wird auf ca. 3.000 US $/ Jahr geschätzt, welcher wesentlich höher liegt als das Bruttoinlandsprodukt (BIP) der Provinz (1,25 Mio. US$ in 2010). Das Ergebnis des verwendeten Ansatzes stellt einen wesentlichen Fortschritt dar in der Kombination von Fernerkundung und sozioökonomischen Daten aus Haushaltsbefragungen zur wirtschaftlichen Bewertung von Mangroven Ökosystemen. Allerdings bleiben noch Herausforderungen zu bewältigen, damit dieser Ansatz zur Überwachung von Mangrovenbeständen und zur Schätzung ihres wirtschaftlichen Gesamtwertes umgehend angewendet werden kann. Basierend auf den erzielten Ergebnissen, sollten sich zukünftige Forschungstätigkeiten darauf konzentrieren, zusätzliche Geodaten, wie z.B. Katasterkarten, in den Segmentierungsablauf zu integrieren, oder auf neue Fernerkundungstechnologien wie die Nutzung von LiDAR oder hyper-spektralen Daten zur Charakterisieren von Mangrovenarten und deren Strukturen fokussieren. Nicht zuletzt ist es notwendig weitere Forschungstätigkeiten in die wirtschaftliche Bewertung weiterer Ökosystemfunktionen zu investieren, wie z.B. der Freizeitfunktion, der Wasser-Filtration oder der Biodiversität, um letztendlich den gesamt-wirtschaftlichen Wert von Mangroven-Ökosystemen abschätzen zu können

The Spatial Historian: Creating a Spatially Aware Historical Research System

The intent of this study is to design a geospatial information system capable of facilitating the extraction and analysis of the fragmentary snapshots of history contained in hand-written historical documents. This customized system necessarily bypasses off-the-shelf GIS in order to support these unstructured primary historical research materials and bring long dormant spatial stories previously hidden in archives, libraries, and other documentary storage locations to life. The software platform discussed here integrates the tasks of information extraction, data management, and analysis while simultaneously giving primary emphasis to supporting the spatial and humanistic analysis and interpretation of the data contents. The premise of this research study is that by integrating the collection of data, the extraction of content, and the analysis of information from what has traditionally been post-data collection analysis and research process, more efficient processing and more effective historical research can be achieved

Business Models for Prosumers in Europe

This report explores the different business models being adopted to enable renewable energy generation and self-consumption in the European Union. Individuals, businesses and energy communities that install renewable energy generation and self-consume some of that generation are called ‘prosumers’. Prosumers may be householders, businesses or communities whose primary business is not energy generation. The price of installing on-site renewables is falling, which means homes and businesses can increasingly afford the up-front cost of installing a system. At the same time, governments are removing the subsidies formerly paid to prosumers for feeding renewable energy into the grid. In parallel, energy systems are getting smarter, so it is becoming easier to account for smaller and smaller amounts of energy and to trade them between smaller players in the energy market; even down to household to household trades. The recent Clean Energy Package (CEP) for All Europeans enshrines the rights of European citizens to become individual and/or collective prosumers. Collective prosumers are defined in the Clean Energy Package by two new types of organisation; Renewable Energy Communities and Citizen Energy Communities who are empowered to generate, use and to sell energy collectively, between themselves. How these Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) and Citizen Energy Communities (CECs) are established in each Member State (MS) is a matter for each MS’s energy policy and regulation. This report explores why these RECs and CECs are necessary, what kinds of value they might be trying to capture in the energy transition, and how they can be empowered through MS’ energy policy and regulation. To do this we investigated the business models being adopted by individual and collective prosumers