Assessing spatial information access, use and sharing for catchment management in Australia

Spatial data plays an important role in many social, environmental, economic and political decisions and is increasingly acknowledged as a national resource essential for sustainable development. One of the potential areas where spatial data can make a positive impact is for improved decision making to support catchment management. Reliable spatial data infrastructure (SDI) is needed to record the environmental, social and economic dimensions of catchment management. By building an appropriate SDI, disparate spatial data can be accessed and utilised to facilitate the exchange and sharing of spatial data between stakeholders across catchment communities. The aim of this paper is to identify the factors/variables contributing to spatial information access, sharing and use across catchment management areas and evaluate the current status of spatial information access, sharing and use among Australian states from a catchment management authority perspective. A survey method was used to collect primary data from 56 regional natural resource management (NRM) bodies responsible for catchment management in Australia. Descriptive statistics method was used to show the similarities and differences among Australian states. The key factors which influence sharing and access to spatial information are also explored. We found there is significant for spatial information access, use and sharing to contribute to SDI development

THE INFLUENCE OF SPATIAL LAND USE PATTERNS ON RURAL AMENITY VALUES AND WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR GROWTH MANAGEMENT: EVIDENCE FROM A CONTINGENT CHOICE SURVEY

This paper reports on a contingent choice study in which residents of a rural Rhode Island community were asked to express their preferences for packages of growth management outcomes, where surveys presented both spatial and non-spatial attributes of growth management outcomes. Survey results provide insight on the extent to which estimated willingness to pay (WTP) for marginal changes in specific landscape features or land uses may be influenced by spatial considerations. Results also characterize the potential impact of spatial context on public preferences and WTP for coordinated packages of growth management outcomes. Keywords: Land Use, Spatial, Contingent Choice, Growth Management, Economics, ValuationLand Use, Spatial, Contingent Choice, Growth Management, Economics, Valuation, Land Economics/Use,

Orchestrating the spatial planning process: from Business Process Management to 2nd generation Planning Support Systems

Metaplanning can be considered as a necessary step for improving collaboration, transparency and accountability in sustainable and democratic spatial decision-making process. This paper reports current findings on the operational implementation of the metaplanning concept developed by the authors relying on Business Process Management methods and techniques. Two solutions are presented which implement spatial planning process workflows thanks to the development of original spatial data and processing services connectors to a Business Process Management suite. These results can be considered as a first step towards the development of 2nd generation Planning Support Systems

Economics of Management Zone Delineation in Cotton Precision Agriculture

This paper develops a management zone delineation procedure based on a spatial statistics approach and evaluates its economic impact for the case of Texas cotton production. With the use of an optimization model that utilizes a yield response function estimated through spatial econometric methods, we found that applying variable N rates based on the management zones delineated would result in higher cotton yields and higher net returns, above Nitrogen cost, relative to uniformly applying a single N rate for the whole field. In addition, a variable rate N application using the delineated management zones produced higher net returns, above Nitrogen cost, relative to a variable N rate system where the zones are based solely on landscape position. This is indicative of the potential economic value of using a spatial statistics approach to management zone delineation.Management Zones, Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis, Site-Specific Nitrogen Management, Cotton Precision Agriculture., Crop Production/Industries, Q1, Q16,

Why Consultations? The public participation in water management and local spatial planning in two Polish cases

Despite many novelties in participation: participatory budgeting, citizens jury, deliberatice poll etc. the engagement of different stakeholders’ groups in the decision making processes concerning detailed planning issues (local spatial management plans, water management plans, the preservation management plans of the Natura 2000 sites) is usually based on the organization of open discussion meetings. The study looks at the social consultations regarding acceptance of local spatial management plans managed by Poznań City Hall and consultations concerning the preparation of water management plans managed by Regional Water Management Board in Poznań. The comparative analysis served to exhibit similarities and differences between the processes in terms of legal conditions, the organization of meetings, the length and the scale of the process and the actors engaged

Spatial uncertainty and structuration effects on preventive management of locust plagues: a multi-agent perspective

The spatial structure of locust outbreaks is a major item of planning and success of locust preventive management strategies. Indeed, preventive management relies on where and when survey teams have to be sent to explore and report the biotope situation and the potential locust population development in order to react in time to any upsurge. The spatial concentration of areas favourable to outbreak has been documented in many species. Other spatial limits are the areas where the preventive management fails to collect information, either because of insecurity or remoteness. We explored these spatial specificities with the help of ALMMAS, a spatially explicit multi-agent system representing a typical preventive management system with 4 levels of agents: locusts moving randomly and causing intermittently outbreaks spatially localized, field teams conducting surveys and controlling locusts, a management centre hiring and funding the field teams, and a budget holder funding the management centre depending on its own perception of the risk. We simulated 1) some areas where field teams have a low access (only through a corridor), 2) some areas where field teams have no access at all and 3) some areas where the probability to observe initial outbreaks is concentrated in hotspots. We explored the effects of number and size of these areas on the proportion of plague times through series of 100-year simulations. We observed that a strong effort of the budget holder to keep its funding through time might be annihilated with only 5% of a spatial territory with a restricted access. Logically, we obtained also that the largest the areas without access are, the worse the proportion of plague years is. But interestingly, if these inaccessible areas are divided in several small spots, the plagues are more numerous than with only one equivalent inaccessible area. This is explainable through a border-effect, i.e. more kilometres of frontiers to control when there are several inaccessible areas instead of one. The concentration of outbreaks in hotspots also increased the probability to observe plagues. Here too, the spatial distribution of only one hotspot was easier to control for the field teams than of several hotspots of identical size. But particularly, an interesting finding was that with only one hotspot, the period of cyclic behaviour of the budget holder between awareness and the reduction of funding was longer than with several smaller hotspots. These results highlight the need to consider the spatial specificity and accessibility of each locust species when planning the sustainability of anti-locust management systems. The cyclic outbreaks of some locust species, despite the significant budgets in order to establish a preventive management system, may be related to these spatial specificities. Further studies should also focus on the effects of concentrating the attention of surveys in outbreak hotspots

Spatial Aggregation and Weather Risk Management

Previous studies identify limited potential efficacy of weather derivatives in hedging agricultural exposures. In contrast to earlier studies which investigate the problem at low levels of aggregation, we find using straight forward temperature contracts that better weather hedging opportunities exist at higher levels of spatial aggregation. Aggregating production exposures reduces idiosyncratic (i.e. localized or region specific) risk, leaving a greater proportion of the total risk in the form of systemic weather risk which can be effectively hedged using weather derivatives. The aggregation effect suggests that the potential for weather derivatives in agriculture may be greater than previously thought, particularly for aggregators of risk such as re/insurers.weather derivatives, spatial aggregation, corn, yield risk, crop insurance, hedging, Risk and Uncertainty,

Mesoscale mapping of sediment source hotspots for dam sediment management in data-sparse semi-arid catchments

Land degradation and water availability in semi-arid regions are interdependent challenges for management that are influenced by climatic and anthropogenic changes. Erosion and high sediment loads in rivers cause reservoir siltation and decrease storage capacity, which pose risk on water security for citizens, agriculture, and industry. In regions where resources for management are limited, identifying spatial-temporal variability of sediment sources is crucial to decrease siltation. Despite widespread availability of rigorous methods, approaches simplifying spatial and temporal variability of erosion are often inappropriately applied to very data sparse semi-arid regions. In this work, we review existing approaches for mapping erosional hotspots, and provide an example of spatial-temporal mapping approach in two case study regions. The barriers limiting data availability and their effects on erosion mapping methods, their validation, and resulting prioritization of leverage management areas are discussed.BMBF, 02WGR1421A-I, GROW - Verbundprojekt SaWaM: Saisonales Wasserressourcen-Management in Trockenregionen: Praxistransfer regionalisierter globaler Informationen, Teilprojekt 1DFG, 414044773, Open Access Publizieren 2019 - 2020 / Technische Universität Berli