Integration of forest fire management with SDI: user requirements.

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.Forest fires management is not only an emergency task, the preventive task could be even more important, being better avoid the possibility of a forest fire ignition before it start or reduce its hazard, that latter try to extinct it. To implement a useful forest fire management into a SDI is crucial to know the user requirements, which is the spatial information they manage, which are the GIS applications they manage in their work, which are the alerts send a receive in the forest fires context. A Survey has been done to have a better compression of the reality and user requirements. A review of Spanish and European works in forest fires and emergency management has been done to identify which are the actual challenges in emergency management

Spatial point process modeling applied to the assessment of risk factors associated to forest wildfires incidence in Castellón, Spain

During the last decades the Mediterranean zone in Europe has experienced an increment in the incidence of forest wildfires. This increase is partly explained by higher mean temperature and lower relative humidity, while socioeconomic change has lead to the abandonment of farms, resulting in an increase in an unusual accumulation of forest fuels, increasing the risk of wildfires. Mapping wildfire risk is highly important because wildfires are known to potentially lead to landscape changes and to modify fire regime by inducing potential changes in vegetation composition. Also, they pose a hazard to human property and life. Maps of wildfire risk based on statistical models provide a measure of uncertainty for the inferences derived from such risk maps, leaving a quantitative error margin for managers and decision takers. Further, some of the model parameters often have a physical or a biological interpretation which can give ecologists and forest engineers answers about scientific questions of interest. In this paper, we analyze the incidence of wildfires in the province of Castellón in Spain in order to identify risk factors associated with wildfire incidences during the years 2001–2006. We used the discrete nature of wildfire events to build such models using point process theory and methods and included information about elevation, slope, aspect, land use and distance to nearest road as covariates in our modeling process. Our results show that wildfire risk in Castellón is associated with all the covariates considered and that three land-use categories have the highest risk of wildfire incidence. Also, wildfire incidences are not independent and some degree of interaction exists, which indicates that the commonly used Poisson point process models are not applicable in this case, but instead area-interaction models should be considered

Evaluación del uso y necesidades de información geoespacial de los profesionales en prevención y extinción de incendios forestales

La información geoespacial necesaria para la gestión de los incendios forestales es muy amplia y diversa. Cada profesional que interviene en un incendio forestal actúa en diferentes fases (prevención, extinción), contexto (centro control, primera línea de fuego, vigilancia). Cada profesional tiene diferentes grados de dependencia tecnológica, por lo que la información geoespacial necesaria para cada perfil es distinta y valorada por su utilidad. El estudio cuantitativo presentado en este artículo está basado en las técnicas de encuestas. La finalidad del estudio es la evaluación del estado actual en el uso y conocimiento de las tecnologías geoespaciales durante la prevención y extinción de incendios forestales. En este artículo se describe la metodología seguida para la confección de la encuesta, la definición de los criterios de evaluación y el análisis de los resultados obtenidos. Los resultados reflejan una tendencia positiva en cuanto que las infraestructuras de datos espaciales (IDE) y otras tecnologías geoespaciales son conocidas e incluso utilizadas por los encuestados, aunque con diferente grado de penetración por perfil profesional y sujeto últimamente al conocimiento y experiencia de cada individuo.The geospatial information needed to manage forest fires is very extensive and diverse. Professional who intervene in a forest fire act in different phases (prevention, extinction), context (center control, where the fire began, surveillance); each professional requires a different level of technical dependence, therefore the geospatial information needed for each profile is distinct and thus valued based on its purpose. The quantitative study presented in this article, is based on survey techniques. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use and knowledge of geospatial technologies during the prevention and extinction of forest fires. In this article the methodologies employed to create this survey are described, the definition of the evaluation criteria and the analysis of the results obtained. The results reflect a positive tendency regarding spatial data infrastructures (SDI); other geospatial technologies are known and even used by the respondents, although with a different level per profile and subject, as well as based on the knowledge and experience of each individual

Integration of Environmental Models in Spatial Data Infrastructures: A Use Case in Wildfire Risk Prediction

Achieving sustainable growth in our society implies monitoring our environment in order to measure human impact and detect relevant changes and detrimental driving factors such as wildfires and desertification. In order for experts to perform environmental modelling they need to be able to access data and models in an efficient and interoperable manner as well as share their findings to assist other professionals in decision making. In the current information society, distributed information systems are essential for sharing digital resources such as data and tools. Advances in Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) allow for the distribution and accessibility of on-line resources such as data and tools, which served through standards-based services improve the sharing of data, models and models results. This research presents a service-oriented application that addresses the issues of interoperable access to environmental modelling capabilities as well as the mechanisms to share their results an efficiently throughout interoperable components. The aim is twofold, first we present different models for multi-scale forest fire risk prediction based on spatial point processes, and second we provide this functionality as a distributed application, that, based on international standards, such as those offered by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), improves interoperable access to these models as well as the publication of the results to be shared with other interested stakeholders

gvSIG education for Disaster Risk Management within an international cooperation project

University jaume I (UJI) and University of Bahir Dar (BDU) are involved in a cooperation project sponsored by “Agencia Española de Cooperación al Desarrollo” (AECID). The project called "Strengthening the research center and community service on disaster risk management to improve food security and agricultural productivity in the Amhara Regional State (Ethiopia)". One of the activities of this project was GIS capacity building for the Disaster Risk Management Department at BDU. The BDU Disaster Risk Management Department is working on identifying vulnerabilities that have an influence in food insecurity. In order to achieve the goals of this research a GIS capacity building is a key factor. GvSIG was chosen as the tool for GIS capacity building within the scope of Disaster Risk Management. This article explains our experiences in International Cooperation for GIS capacity building.The cooperation project between UJI and BDU "Strengthening the research center and community service on disaster risk management to improve food security and agricultural productivity in the Amhara Regional State (Ethiopia)" and the actions taken under this project has been sponsored by Agencia Española de Cooperación al Desarrollo (AECID)

Interoperable Search Mechanisms for Web 2.0 Resources

We are currently witnessing ordinary citizens willing to share geospatial information using friendly and easy-to use tools provided by Web 2.0 platforms. These platforms act as social networks describing events with large social impacts. Social networks are filled with volunteered information before, during, and after events that occur near human settlements and urban areas. The amount of this geolocated information is increasing due to the increase of location-aware devices that allow users in the field to share knowledge about an event’s evolution and impact. In order to retrieve this information one interacts with the different search mechanisms provided by various Web 2.0 services. This paper explores how to improve the interoperability of these various Web 2.0 platforms by providing a single service as a unique entry. This paper demonstrates the utility of the Open Geospatial Consortium’s Open Search Geospatial and Time specification as an interface for a service that searches, retrieves and aggregates information available in different Web 2.0 services. We present how this information is useful in complementing other official and scientific information sources by providing an alternative, contemporary source of information. We demonstrate this with a proof of concept presented in a forest fire scenario. The intrinsic interoperability of the system is reflected in the collaborations shown with different information systems such as those at the biodiversity and forestry units in the Institute of Environment and Sustainability at the Joint Research Centre

Aplicación de modelos de procesos puntuales para la caracterización espacio-temporal del régimen de incendios en el este de España

Ponència presentada al VI Congreso Forestal Español, celebrat a Vitoria-Gasteiz, els dies 10-14 de juny de 2013Las incidencias de los modelos espacio-temporal de los incendios forestales y sus relaciones con las variables meteorológicas, geográficas y usos del suelo son analizadas en este trabajo. Estas relaciones pueden ser tratadas en un incendio forestal como componentes en los modelos de procesos puntuales es decir como actividades separadas. En este trabajo se muestran algunas técnicas para el análisis de modelos espaciales puntuales que están disponibles gracias a los recientes desarrollos de aplicaciones informáticas en los modelos de procesos puntuales. Estos avances permiten realizar un análisis exploratorio de los datos de forma conveniente, ajuste de los datos a un modelo y evaluación del modelo. La discusión de estas técnicas se realiza conjuntamente dentro del contexto de algunos análisis preliminares de una colección de datos que son de un considerable interés por ellos mismos. Este conjunto de datos consiste en los registros de incendios forestales en la provincia de Castellón (años del 2001 al 2006) y Cataluña (2001 al 2008). Los resultados de estos trabajos apuntan a la posibilidad de zonificar las áreas forestales en zonas de mayor o menor riesgo e intensidad de incendio forestal, con lo que se podría planificar las actuaciones preventivas de una forma mas efectiva y acotada

Enhance the value of participative geospatial data, modelling using point pattern processes

Esta tesi tracta sobre la participació de les persones en la creació de dades espacials de forma més o menys voluntària i en l'anàlisi d'aquestes dades utilitzant patrons de processos puntuals i geoestadística. Les dades geogràfiques creades per voluntaris suposen un canvi radical en la forma com aquestes han segut creades tradicionalment. Fins fa uns anys, les dades geogràfiques han estat creades tan sols per experts i grans institucions, una aproximació des de dalt cap a baix. La revolució 2.0 a internet ha permés que la tecnologia estiga a l'abast de tothom. Per a les dades geogràfiques ha suposat que qualsevol puga contribuir a projectes voluntaris com OspenStreetMap aportant el seu coneixemnet de l'entorn. Una aportació des de baix cap a dalt. Aquest canvi deixa preguntes sobre si es poden emprar les dades, quina qualitat tenen, són creïbles els usuaris quan fan aportacions, hi ha errors... Aquesta tesi tracta de donar resposta a com fer mesures de la qualitat, la credibilitat i l'anàlisi de les dades així com facilitar la recol·lecció de dades geogràfiques provinents de les xarxes socials