ArcView Geographic Information System Research Articles

AHP-DRASTIC: software for specific aquifer vulnerability assessment using DRASTIC model and GIS

A software package AHP-DRASTIC has been developed to derive ratings and weights of modified DRASTIC model parameters for use in specific aquifer vulnerability assessment studies. The software is integrated with ArcView Geographical Information System (GIS) software for modelling aquifer vulnerability, to predict areas which are more likely than others to become contaminated as a result of activities at or near the land surface. The ranges of a few of the DRASTIC model parameters have been modified to adapt to local hydrogeologic settings. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been used to compute the ratings and weights of the criteria and sub-criteria of all parameters used in the DRASTIC model. The output from AHP generates a MS Access database for these parameters, which is then interfaced with ArcView using Avenue Scripts. AHP-DRASTIC is aimed at providing user-friendly GUI interfaced with GIS for the estimation of weights and ranks of the thematic layers used for aquifer vulnerability assessment. Contingency table analysis indicates that all wells in low and high vulnerability category have concentrations less than 10 ppm and more than 10 ppm, respectively. The model is validated with groundwater quality data and the results have shown strong relationship between DRASTIC Specific Vulnerability Index and nitrate-as-nitrogen concentrations with a correlation co-efficient of 0.84 at 0.01 level.

UPlan: A Versatile Urban Growth Model for Transportation Planning

Urban models useful in transportation planning are reviewed, focusing especially on ones that are based on geographic information system (GIS) software. Then UPlan, a simple model written by the authors in the ArcView GIS, is described. Several different applications of UPlan are outlined, involving transportation planning and analysis of the growthinducing effects of new facilities, to demonstrate its use. Such models are coming into use for National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 assessments and for joint land use and transportation planning.

Initiating informatics and GIS support for a field investigation of Bioterrorism: The New Jersey anthrax experience

BackgroundThe investigation of potential exposure to anthrax spores in a Trenton, New Jersey, mail-processing facility required rapid assessment of informatics needs and adaptation of existing informatics tools to new physical and information-processing environments. Because the affected building and its computers were closed down, data to list potentially exposed persons and map building floor plans were unavailable from the primary source.ResultsControlling the effects of anthrax contamination required identification and follow-up of potentially exposed persons. Risk of exposure had to be estimated from the geographic relationship between work history and environmental sample sites within the contaminated facility. To assist in establishing geographic relationships, floor plan maps of the postal facility were constructed in ArcView Geographic Information System (GIS) software and linked to a database of personnel and visitors using Epi Info and Epi Map 2000. A repository for maintaining the latest versions of various documents was set up using Web page hyperlinks.ConclusionsDuring public health emergencies, such as bioterrorist attacks and disease epidemics, computerized information systems for data management, analysis, and communication may be needed within hours of beginning the investigation. Available sources of data and output requirements of the system may be changed frequently during the course of the investigation. Integrating data from a variety of sources may require entering or importing data from a variety of digital and paper formats. Spatial representation of data is particularly valuable for assessing environmental exposure. Written documents, guidelines, and memos important to the epidemic were frequently revised. In this investigation, a database was operational on the second day and the GIS component during the second week of the investigation.

Challenges in using geographic information systems (GIS) to understand and control malaria in Indonesia

Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease of global concern with 1.5 to 2.7 million people dying each year and many more suffering from it. In Indonesia, malaria is a major public health issue with around six million clinical cases and 700 deaths each year. Malaria is most prevalent in the developing countries of the world. Aid agencies have provided financial and technical assistance to malaria-prone countries in an effort to battle the disease. Over the past decade, the focus of some of this assistance has been in the provision of geographic information systems (GIS) hardware, software and training. In theory, GIS can be a very effective tool in combating malaria, however, in practice there have been a host of challenges to its successful use.This review is based, in part, on the literature but also on our experience working with the Indonesian Ministry of Health. The review identifies three broad problem areas. The first of these relates to data concerns. Without adequate data, GIS is not very useful. Specific problem areas include: accurate data on the disease and how it is reported; basic environmental data on vegetation, land uses, topography, rainfall, etc.; and demographic data on the movement of people. The second problem area involves technology – specifically computer hardware, GIS software and training. The third problem area concerns methods – assuming the previous data and technological problems have been resolved – how can GIS be used to improve our understanding of malaria? One of the main methodological tools is spatial statistical analysis, however, this is a newly developing field, is not easy to understand and suffers from the fact that there is no agreement on standard methods of analysis.The paper concludes with a discussion of strategies that can be used to overcome some of these problems. One of these strategies involves using ArcView GIS software in combination with ArcExplorer (a public domain program that can read ArcView files) to deal with the problem of needing multiple copies of GIS software. Another strategy involves the development of a self-paced training package that can be used to train individuals

A GIS for irrigation management

This work describes the development, operational functionalities and spatial modeling applications of a Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based irrigation management system, to be used by irrigation consortia and local governmental institutions. The system provides tools for the exploration of spatially-referenced databases relevant for irrigation and the evaluation of irrigation scenarios under different soil, climatic and management conditions. The irrigation water management system makes use of ArcView GIS and the Avenue programming language for customization of GIS applications and design of new tools for modeling irrigation water requirements and identifying of areas with water deficit. Irrigation requirements can be estimated taking into account different scenarios of cropping pattern, climatic conditions (from dry to wet year), applied irrigation method, volume of water available for irrigation and hydraulic characteristics of the water distribution system. The irrigation water management system runs on different scales of both irrigation (from irrigation field to irrigation consortia) and administrative (from municipality to region) units. The integration of spatial climatic and soil data is based on the “false-raster” format, a vector layer composed of regular square grid cells. The size of simulation units is a function of the surface area under consideration which means that the exploration of GIS database and development of irrigation scenarios provide more detailed data at field and municipality scale and less number of information at consortia and regional scales. An example of operational functionality of the GIS-based irrigation water management system is given for the Apulia region, in Southern Italy.

Flood risk mapping for Pari River incorporating sediment transport

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are an efficient and interactive spatial decision support tool for flood risk analysis. This paper describes the development of ArcView GIS extension — namely AVHEC-6.avx — to integrate the HEC-6 hydraulic model within GIS environment. The extension was written in an Avenue Script language and Dialog Designer with a series of ‘ point and click’ options. It has the capability of analyzing the computed water surface profiles generated from HEC-6 model and producing a related flood map for the Pari River in the ArcView GIS. The user-friendly menu interface guides the user to understand, visualize, build query, conduct repetitious and multiple analytical tasks with HEC-6 outputs. The flood risk model was tested using the hydraulic and hydrological data from the Pari River catchment area. The required sediment input parameters were obtained from field sampling. The results of this study clearly show that GIS provides an effective environment for flood risk analysis and mapping. The present study only concentrates on the flood risk within the boundary of the bunds.

Effects on local emergency departments of large-scale urban chemical fire with hazardous materials spill.

On 18 July 2001, a train hauling hazardous materials, including hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, and acetic acid, derailed in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, resulting in a fire that burned under a downtown street for five days. Firefighters were stymied in their efforts to extinguish the fire, and the city was subjected to thick smoke for several days. To determine whether an urban chemical fire with a hazardous materials spill resulted in a detectable public health impact, and to demographically describe the at-risk population for potential smoke and chemical exposure. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was consulted about possible side effects from chemical exposure. Total numbers of emergency department (ED) patients and admissions from 15:00 hours (h), 15 July 2001 to 15:00 h, 21 July 2001 were collected from five local hospitals. Patient encounters citing specified chief complaints from 15:00 h, 15 July to 15:00 h, 18 July (pre-accident) were compared with the period from 15:00 h, July 18 to 15:00 h, 21 July (post-accident). Data were analyzed using Fisher's exact test. The United States Census Bureau's Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER) digital database of geographic features and ArcView Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were used to create maps of Baltimore and to identify populations at-risk using attribute census data. There were 62,808 people residing in the immediate, affected area. The mean of the values for age was 33.7 +/- 3.2 years (standard deviation; range = 16 yrs) with 49% (30,927) males and 51% (31,881) females. A total of 2,922 ED patient encounters were screened. Chief complaints included shortness of breath, pre-event = 109 vs. post-event = 148; chest complaints = 90 vs. 113; burns and/or skin irritation = 45 vs. 42; eye irritation 26 vs. 34; throat irritation = 33 vs. 27; and smoke exposure = 0 vs. 15. There was a statistically significant increase (p < 0.05) for shortness of breath and smoke exposure-related complaints. No statistically significant increase in numbers of admitted patients with these complaints was found. In the setting of a large-scale urban chemical fire, local EDs can expect a significant increase in the number of patients presenting to EDs with shortness of breath and/or smoke inhalation. Most do not require in-patient hospitalization. Careful assessment of impact on local EDs should be considered in future city-accident planning. Some official warnings were widely misinterpreted or ignored. Public education on potential hazards and disaster preparedness targeted to populations at-risk should receive a high priority. Geographic information systems (GIS) may serve as useful tools for identifying demographics of populations at-risk for disaster planning and responses.

Use of geospatially-referenced disease and weather data to improve site-specific forecasts for Stewart's disease of corn in the US corn belt

Stewart's disease of corn, caused by the bacterium Pantoea stewartii (syn. Erwinia stewartii), is important because its presence within seed corn fields can prevent the export of seed corn due to quarantine (phytosanitary) restrictions. Phytosanitary field inspection reports for 1972–1999 (500 to over 1300 fields/year), and mean monthly temperatures for December, January, and February preceding each inspection year, were geospatially referenced by county using ArcView geographic information systems (GIS) software. Warmer winter temperatures during December, January, and February generally allow greater numbers of the insect vector (corn flea beetles, Chaetocnema pulicaria) to survive, thereby increasing the risk of Stewart's disease epidemics due to higher levels of initial inoculum (infested beetles) that will be present during the ensuring growing season. Weather-based models to accurately predict the risk of Stewart's disease in the U.S. Corn Belt, however, have been developed. Using GIS software, risk maps were created to graphically depict seasonal, regional, and county risks for Stewart's disease. Using this approach, we found that counties with mean monthly temperatures <−4.4 °C (24 F) for at least 2 of the 3 winter months had zero to low risk of Stewart's disease (<2% prevalence), while counties with mean monthly temperatures ⩾−4.4 °C for at least 2 or 3 winter months had a moderate to high risk, respectively. Using individual monthly mean temperatures for December, January, and February (Iowa State Method), we accurately predicted that 1998 and 1999 would be high risk years for Stewart's disease in Iowa. This study provides the basis to more accurately assess the seasonal and site-specific risks associated with the occurrence of Stewart's disease several months prior to planting. This advance warning will help seed corn producers to make more informed disease management decisions, such as the choice of (low risk) planting sites (which will minimize or eliminate the use of insecticides). Just as importantly, advanced warnings for high risk planting sites would alert seed corn producers that insecticides will be required to minimize the risk of Stewart's disease for high risk seasons and sites.

INTEGRATION OF WATERSHED TOOLS AND SWAT MODEL INTO BASINS1

ABSTRACT: BASINS (Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources) version 3.0, is the updated software system developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water in order to meet the requirements of developing Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) programs. BASINS provides an enhanced set of nation‐wide databases, several new and interchangeable tools and models integrated in a new modular architecture, operating within ArcView Geographical Information System (GIS) for desktop PCs. This paper describes the integration of three new key components: (1) a tool that optimizes the automatic definition and segmentation of the watershed and stream network based on topography (Digital Elevation Models), NHD (National Hydrography Dataset) or other ancillary stream data; (2) a tool to define the Hydrologic Response Units (HRUs) over the watershed and subwatersheds; and (3) SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model and a respective integrated user‐friendly interface. The first two components, based on raster functionality, improve the previously adopted simplistic methods for the hydrologic definition, segmentation and basic geomorphic assessment of the watershed and open to the usage of external datasets besides those distributed with the whole BASINS package. In addition, these components share generating datasets, hereby promoting the usage by other tools and models as well as other models that in the future could be introduced in BASINS. The third component introduces the SWAT model into BASINS. SWAT is a hydrologic distributed model with proven success in watershed assessment of both agricultural and urban scenario management effects on water quality and is based on over 30 years of USDA modeling experience. The description of these integrated components is followed by a simple, yet promising, application to the Upper North Bosque River watershed in Texas, using the default data distributed with BASINS.

Implementing spatial segregation measures in GIS

Segregation can be regarded as the spatial separation of different population groups. Most studies of segregation so far have relied on aspatial measures that are not effective to differentiate different spatial distribution patterns among population groups. Spatial measures have been introduced but have not been adopted widely because they are difficult to compute even with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). However, it is still logical to employ GIS technology to compute spatial segregation measures. A previous implementation attempt was successful, but inefficient and suffered from several short comings. This paper describes a recent effort to implement a set of spatial segregation measures in a GIS environment. An integrative approach is adopted to take advantage of various recent advances in GIS technology. Algorithms designed to implement spatial segregation measures consist of the general procedures to extract spatial information from feature data and to combine spatial information with attribute (population) data to derive the indices. Different types of spatial information include geometric characteristics and spatial relationship of the areal units, and the location information of the population. Using ArcView GIS and its Avenue programming tool as an application example, computations of various spatial segregation indices were implemented as additional functions in an ArcView user interface.

Sewer-system analysis with the aid of a geographical information system

Geographical information system (GIS)-supported sewer-system analysis has major advantages over the use of traditional standalone sewer programs, especially with regard to establishing network topology, input of sewage contribution data, querying, displaying and mapping of results. This paper reports on the development of a GIS-supported sewer analysis software package using ArcView GIS. It supports all the stages of sewer-system analysis, viz. defining the topology of a sewer network, the specification of sewage flow contribution parameters, the allocation of sewage-contributing areas to sewer manholes, hydraulic analysis and displaying the analysis results. A sewer program has been developed for hydraulic analysis and written in Avenue, the internal programming language of ArcView. The sewer program is therefore fully integrated with ArcView, and all the functionality of ArcView is available during the sewer-system analysis. Such an integrated software package where the input data, sewer program, GIS and program results are all dynamically linked is the perfect environment for scenario management. The software package has already been successfully applied to the main sewer system of the Inner Cape Metropolitan Region (Inner CMR), as part of an M.Sc. thesis in Geography and Environmental Studies. WaterSA Vol.28(3) 2002: 243-248

The oriented lakes of Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula, Western Arctic Coast, Canada: a GIS‐based analysis

AbstractThe orientation, size and shape of 578 lakes on Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula were obtained from 1 : 250 000 Canadian National Topographic Survey map sheets, using ArcView geographic information system. These lakes are outside the glacial limits in a tundra plain with &lt;15m relief. The lakes range from 20 to 1900 ha, and have mean orientation N07 °E, with standard error 1.6°. The maps show 145 former lake basins, with lakes inset in 130 of these. The mean orientations of the basins and inset lakes are not statistically different from each other or the general population. Several theories have been proposed for the origin of the oriented lakes, and one theory attributes the orientation to cross winds establishing currents that preferentially erode the ends of the lakes. Data from Tuktoyaktuk and Nicholson for 1970–95 indicate a consistent wind regime within the region, with prevailing winds from the east and west. Using data from Nicholson, a geometric model generates resultant lake orientations of N if all winds are considered, and N08 °E if winds above 30km h−1 are used. The coincidence of the modelled orientation and lake statistics supports the efficacy of cross wind‐induced effects in orienting the lakes. The similar orientation of existing lakes and former basins suggests that these processes have been effective for at least several centuries. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Using GIS to Analyze Complaints against Police: A Research Note

Police departments across the country have turned to geographic information systems (GIS) to identify crime patterns within their jurisdictions, design responses, and evaluate their performance. In addition, many agencies have adopted a geography-based, COMPSTAT-like process to hold police managers accountable for activity within their commands. However, a purely external and descriptive focus fails to take full advantage of all that a true GIS has to offer. This is particularly true when trying to understand complex police-citizen interactions. In this article, we demonstrate how police agencies can use GIS to shift some of their focus to more “internal” matters and take advantage of the inferential capabilities of the geography-based approach. We concentrate on citizen complaints against police in the city of Philadelphia over a two-and-a-half-year period (1998–2000). Data include the type of complaint, the location of the incident, the home address of the complainant, and a variety of census measures. Analytic tools used include ArcView GIS (Environmental Systems Research Institute, 1999) and CrimeStat (Levine, 1999). Future directions for police research and practice are discussed.

AnnGIS: Integration of GIS and a Continuous Simulation Model for Non‐Point Source Pollution Assessment

Non‐Point Source (NPS) models and monitoring data are often used to evaluate management practices and develop NPS pollution control plans. Application of a dynamic NPS model requires efficient input data acquisition, storage, organization, reduction, and analysis accompanied by manipulation, interpretation, reporting, and display of model outputs. A Geographic Information System (GIS) helps extract, store, and organize input data as well as manipulate and display model outputs. This paper illustrates the development of an integrated GIS system for a continuous simulation, pollutant‐loading model, AnnAGNPS (Annualized AGricultural Non‐Point Source Pollution). The integrated system, called AnnGIS, was developed using the ArcView GIS and related program extensions. Using AnnGIS, modeling studies and management plans can be efficiently and easily developed. AnnGIS helps store, organize, and manipulate spatial and tabular data, extract spatial input parameters, develop analysis scenarios, and visualize input and output data in spatial, tabular, and graphical forms. AnnGIS is generic in nature (not limited to a particular geographic location) and can be successfully used in regions for which AnnAGNPS is designed. AnnGIS's powerful graphical user interface and reference data sets facilitate efficient and informed decision‐making concerning agricultural non‐point pollution control and management.

A 2D hydrodynamic/pollutant transport GIS model

A computer program idor 2d GIS was developed to simulate the currents and pollutant transport in lakes and coastal areas. The model is a closely-coupled two-dimensional, hydrodynamic/pollutant transport geographic information systems (GIS) model that operates within arc-view GIS. The use of this GIS based interface module facilitates the improved communication of the basic patterns and relationships associated with hydrodynamic/pollutant transport simulation and the application of this information to water resources, planning and management. Model functionality for data capture, data editing, pre-processing, embedded artificial intelligence, and result interpretation is described. The functionality of this model is illustrated through a case study on Suda Bay located in Crete, Greece.

Geographic Information System–Based Accident Data Management for Mexican Federal Roads

A description is given of the efforts of the Mexican Transportation Institute (IMT) to develop a geographic information system (GIS)-based data management system for accidents on federal roads in the various states of Mexico with the purpose of achieving efficiency, reliability, and automation for handling and processing of such data. A description is also given of the use of the developed system for generating some relevant results. Some conclusions are derived. Although the former is shown only for the case of the state of Oaxaca, the procedure presented has been completed for the other states of Mexico. For development of this work, the Arc View GIS was selected after evaluating its characteristics of capacity versus price, because the resulting system will be delivered to each of the Centers of the Ministry of Communications and Transports in the states of Mexico. The system is developed by integrating into Arc View a series of data for the state considered, including cartographic representation, classification and naming of roads, traffic volume and composition, and information on accidents. The information referred to in the work corresponds to 1997.

An ArcView GIS tool for SWMM

An ArcView GIS (geographic information system) interface has been created for viewing and facilitating development of USEPA SWMM RUNOFF and EXTRAN models. The …

Urban analysis with GIS

This paper discusses how GIS (Geographic Information System) can contribute to the research field of urban analysis. The purpose of urban analysis is to explain the processes of spatial distributions in urban areas. For this purpose, urban analysts often need to manipulate large amounts of spatial data. This is the reason why urban analysis cannot advance without GIS. Analysts can visualize urban affairs using GIS and find the processes of spatial distributions. For example, in this paper, land use distributions in Nagoya City, Japan are visually analyzed with ArcView GIS. This analysis demonstrates that GIS can contribute to urban analysis. After this analysis, future work is discussed based on the reviews of recent studies on urban analysis using GIS.

Seedwhere: a computer tool to support seed transfer and ecological restoration decisions

It is generally recognized that plants are genetically adapted to prevailing climate. However, there are very few genecological studies that quantify these relationships. Planting stock is often moved across environmental gradients with little knowledge of the ecological risks. For long-lived species (e.g. forest trees) this introduces risks of increased mortality, lowered potential growth rates, and increased susceptibility to insects and diseases. Seedwhere is a computer-based tool to support decisions on moving plant material across environmental gradients. The Gower similarity metric has been invoked as an Avenue extension in the ARCVIEW Geographic Information System. The program can be used to map the similarity of potential seed collection sites across large regions. Considerable effort has gone into developing the required GIS database for the Great Lakes region of North America. Such data are becoming increasingly available in many parts of the world. Some example applications of Seedwhere are provided for the Great Lakes region. While no panacea for this complex and large problem, the seedwhere tool provides a quantitative approach to visualizing the issue that should help resource managers.

Calibration of Phosphorus Export Coefficients for Total Maximum Daily Loads of Massachusetts Lakes

ABSTRACT In an effort to develop Total Maximum Daily Loads of total phosphorus for hundreds of Massachusetts lakes we reanalyzed the land use export coefficients of previously published diagnostic/feasibility studies. Typically, literature values for phosphorus loading per unit area of land use overestimate total phosphorus loading to Massachusetts lakes. We used a stagewise regression technique to screen a variety of models and to select export coefficients that were reasonable, based on the literature, and which offered a good fit to the data. The final model was verified by predicting phosphorus loadings to an independent set of Massachusetts lakes with an average error of 36 percent. The process has been automated with the use of the Arcview Geographic Information System computer system and digital maps of land use. With additional data, the model can also be used to predict lake total phosphorus concentrations under a variety of proposed land use management plans.