48,052 research outputs found
Modeling structural change in spatial system dynamics: A Daisyworld example
System dynamics (SD) is an effective approach for helping reveal the temporal
behavior of complex systems. Although there have been recent developments in
expanding SD to include systems' spatial dependencies, most applications have
been restricted to the simulation of diffusion processes; this is especially
true for models on structural change (e.g. LULC modeling). To address this
shortcoming, a Python program is proposed to tightly couple SD software to a
Geographic Information System (GIS). The approach provides the required
capacities for handling bidirectional and synchronized interactions of
operations between SD and GIS. In order to illustrate the concept and the
techniques proposed for simulating structural changes, a fictitious environment
called Daisyworld has been recreated in a spatial system dynamics (SSD)
environment. The comparison of spatial and non-spatial simulations emphasizes
the importance of considering spatio-temporal feedbacks. Finally, practical
applications of structural change models in agriculture and disaster management
are proposed
Spatio-Temporal Analysis of the Effects of Air Pollution Hazards on Cardiovascular Health Outcomes in Bangalore, India
Recent research has established a link between exposure to certain pollutants and exacerbation or onset of cardiac diseases. Diseases have a spatial context and the evolution of computer applications, such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS), has
favoured the studies of environment and their effects on health and populations. To aid in understanding the extent of air pollution and
cardiac diseases in the city of Bangalore (India), this research explores the data requirements and GIS analysis tools that could be used to undertake a spatio-temporal analysis by developing a web based GIS application. The ultimate goal is to identify hotspots of air pollution, explore the relationships between environmental pollution hazards and cardiovascular diseases, integrate the available data to enable sharing among decision makers and disseminate information
Development of Distributed Research Center for analysis of regional climatic and environmental changes
We present an approach and first results of a collaborative project being carried out by a joint team of researchers from the Institute of Monitoring of Climatic and Ecological Systems, Russia and Earth Systems Research Center UNH, USA. Its main objective is development of a hardware and software platform prototype of a Distributed Research Center (DRC) for monitoring and projecting of regional climatic and environmental changes in the Northern extratropical areas. The DRC should provide the specialists working in climate related sciences and decision-makers with accurate and detailed climatic characteristics for the selected area and reliable and affordable tools for their in-depth statistical analysis and studies of the effects of climate change. Within the framework of the project, new approaches to cloud processing and analysis of large geospatial datasets (big geospatial data) inherent to climate change studies are developed and deployed on technical platforms of both institutions. We discuss here the state of the art in this domain, describe web based information-computational systems developed by the partners, justify the methods chosen to reach the project goal, and briefly list the results obtained so far
Potential applications of geospatial information systems for planning and managing aged care services in Australia
[Abstract]: This paper discusses the potential applications of Geospatial Information Technology (GITs) to assist in planning and managing aged care programs in Australia. Aged care is complex due to the numbers of participants at all levels of including planning of services, investing in capacity, funding, providing services, auditing, monitoring quality, and in accessing and using facilities and services. There is a vast array of data spread across the entities that are joined to aged care. The decision-making process for investment in capacity and service provision might be aided by technology including GIT. This is also expected to assist in managing and analysing the vast amount of demographic, geographic, socio-economic and behavioral data that might indicate current and future demand for services the aged and frail-aged population.
Mapping spatio-temporal changes in near real time can assist in the successful planning and management of aged care programs. Accurate information on the location of aged care services centres and mapping the special needs of clients and their service needs may assist in monitoring access to services and assist in identifying areas where there are logistic challenges for accessing services to meet needs. GIT can also identifying migrations of aged people and of the cohorts of the population who are likely to be the next wave of clients for aged care services.
GITs include remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS) technologies, which can be used to develop a user friendly digital system for monitoring, evaluating and planning aged care and community care in Australia. Whilst remote sensing data can provide current spatiotemporal inventory of features such as locations of carer services, infrastructure, on a consistent and continuous coordinate system, a GIS can assist in storing, cross analysing, modeling and mapping of spatial data pertaining to the needs of the older people. GITs can assist in the development of a single one-stop digital database which will prove a better model for managing aged care in Australia. GIT will also be a component of technologies such as activity monitors to provide tracking functionality. This will assist in tracking dementia sufferers who may be prone to wandering and be exposed to risk
Study on behavioral impedance for route planning techniques from the pedestrian's perspective: some findings and considerations
The multi-disciplinary characteristics of transportation force
a new design of geographic information systems, within which
these characteristics are considered. In this context, geographic
information systems for transportation are the result of the
integration of transportation information systems and conventional
geographic information systems. An interesting research area
in geographic information systems for transportation is constraint
management in route planning algorithms from the pedestrian s
perspective. Constraint management becomes more complex when
route planning takes into account an integrated public transportation
network (i.e. a multimodal network). A study on the theoretical
contextualization and taxonomy of a pedestrian s behavioral
impedance has been developed in order to improve the constraint
management from the pedestrian s perspective. This study entails
strategies of travel reduction by private transport (e.g. travel
by car) through switching to or substitution by alternative
public transport (e.g. travel by walk, bus or rail). The
grounded theory method has been used to develop the proposed
taxonomy. Using the partial results of a questionnaire applied
to a reduced group of people from Barcelona as a starting
point, important data are being collected to define the mathematical
model of the behavioral impedance domain. The goal of this
paper is to provide some considerations about theoretical contextualization
on identification and management of constraints regarding the
behavioral impedance domain from the pedestrian s perspective
within the urban public transportation context. The research
project where this work is included is composed of six major
phases. The first phase represents a continuous bibliographic
review. The second phase was a study on sidewalks in the university
zone of Barcelona. In this phase, an experimental application
has been proposed and the management, map and route modules
have been implemented on the ArcInfo GIS package and C++. This
paper reports the partial work of the third phase, which is
composed of two parts. The first part was a theoretical study on
behavioral impedance for route planning techniques, in which
taxonomy was proposed. The results of the second part are partially
presented in this paper. The fourth (i.e. design and implementation),
fifth (i.e. calibration and validation) and sixth (i.e. generalization
of the results) phases are characterized by the application
of the prototype regarding the multimodal network model for
urban public transportation from the pedestrian s perspective.
The main contribution of this article is the behavioral impedance
taxonomy review from the pedestrian s perspective, which will allow
designing a mathematical model and be used to implement a constraint
management algorithm. Within this context, the proposed taxonomy
could be used to model cost functions more precisely.Postprint (published version
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