Technical assessment of GeoSUR and comparison with INSPIRE experience in the context of an environmental vulnerability analysis

The use of spatial information has become an important resource for decision support making at national and regional levels. In this respect, several private and public organizations are continuously collecting and producing geospatial data. However, there are still problems that affect the usage of spatial information. As a response to these problems, several spatial data sharing initiatives have been implemented at national, regional and global level. This is also the case of the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) and the Integrated Geospatial Information Network for South America (GeoSUR), both created in 2007. GeoSUR works together with the PAIGH, the Geocentric Reference System for the Americas (SIRGAS) and the Permanent Committee on Geospatial Data Infrastructure for the Americas (PC-IDEA) to consolidate the Spatial Data Infrastructure of the Americas. In this context, the role of GeoSUR is to provide the distribution platform for the SDI and develop geoservices and applications based on institutional spatial databases. This research performs a technical assessment of GeoSUR to identify the extent to which the spatial resources provided by the network area accessible, applicable and usable for decision making processes at regional (multinational) level. In order to do so, this study is conducted in the context of a real case study that implements Spatial Multicriteria Evaluation to assess the environmental vulnerability of the Amazon IIRSA region. Results show strengths at finding spatial resources, and regarding the accessibility to regional datasets in GeoSUR. However several obstacles still limit accessibility, applicability and usability of spatial data to perform regional analysis. In this respect, elements considered by INSPIRE such as common implementing rules and technical guidelines are identified as useful to tackle these obstacles and make the spatial services and datasets of the participant institutions compatible to perform regional analysis.The use of spatial information has become an important resource for decision making. In this respect, several private and public organizations are continuously collecting and producing geospatial data. However, there are still problems that limit the access and usage of spatial information for all people requiring it. As a response to these problems, several initiatives to share and reuse spatial data have been created. The Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) and the Integrated Geospatial Information Network for South America (GeoSUR) -both created in 2007- are examples of such initiatives. This study aims to identify to which extent the technical characteristics of the spatial resources available in GeoSUR website allow to support decisions at multinational level in Latin America. In order to do so, an evaluation of how sensitive is the natural environment to degradation is conducted as a case study to select the resources to be assessed. Results show that is relatively easy to discover spatial resources in GeoSUR, but is difficult to download them. Considering INSPIRE as a model in spatial data sharing, it is concluded that some elements from INSPIRE can be gathered and adapted by GeoSUR to improve the characteristics of the spatial data offered

Identification of Agroclimatic risk areas for dairy livestock systems in Valle de Ubaté y Chiquinquirá and Alto Chicamocha

Páginas 170-183En este estudio se determinó la aptitud agroclimática para el sistema ganadero de leche mediante la formulación del “Índice de Aptitud Agroclimática (IAC)”. El índice se construyó a partir del análisis territorial de variables limitantes como la pendiente, la exposición a heladas, el índice de humedad y temperatura para Bos taurus, la frecuencia de ocurrencia de condiciones de déficit hídrico en el suelo calculado mediante balances hídricos, el número de días sin lluvia y la precipitación media acumulada. El índice agroclimático permitió identificar áreas críticas para el sistema de ganadería en los periodos secos de diciembre a febrero, como primer trimestre seco y de junio a agosto como segundo trimestre seco. Los resultados mostraron que en el primer trimestre seco hay una mayor área con limitaciones agroclimáticas en comparación con el segundo trimestre seco; cerca de 192.369 ha ubicadas en la región del Alto Chicamocha presentaron los valores más bajos del IAC, indicando una menor aptitud agroclimática: Sogamoso, Corrales, Tutazá, Belén, Santa Rosa de Viterbo, Floresta, Nobsa, Sotaquirá, Cerinza, Pesca, Chíquiza, Tausa, Samacá, Cucaita, Sogamoso y Firavitoba fueron los municipios con más baja aptitud agroclimática para los dos periodos secos, tanto en términos de las limitantes evaluadas como del IAC. Las áreas con menores limitaciones (con valores más altos del IAC) se observaron en el 12% del área estudiada y correspondieron principalmente a los municipios de Oicatá y Cuitiva en la región del Alto Chicamocha, y Cucunubá en el valle de Ubaté y Chiquinquirá.ABSTRACT: In this study, the agroclimatic suitability for dairy livestock systems was determined with an “Agroclimatic suitability index (ASI)”. The index was constructed from the territorial analysis of restrictive variables such as slope, frost exposure, Bos taurus temperature and humidity index. The soil water deficit frequency was calculated with water balances, days without rain and accumulated average precipitation. The agroclimatic index identified critical areas for dairy livestock systems in the main dry periods (December to February and June to August). The results showed that in the first dry quarter, there was a larger area with agroclimatic limitations as compared to the second dry quarter. About 192,369 ha, located mainly in the Alto Chicamocha, had the lowest IAC values, indicating a lower agroclimatic suitability. Sogamoso, Corrales, Tutaza, Belen, Santa Rosa de Viterbo, Floresta, Nobsa, Sotaquira, Cerinza, Pesca, Chiquiza, Tausa, Samaca, Cucaita, Sogamoso and Firavitoba were the municipalities with the lowest agroclimatic suitability index for the two dry periods. The areas with the lowest limitations (with higher IAC values) were observed in 12% of the studied area and corresponded mainly to the municipalities of Oicata and Cuitiva in the Alto Chicamocha and Cucunuba in the Valle de Ubate and Chiquinquira.Bibliografía: páginas 181-183.Artículo revisado por pares