ESRI Geodatabase Research Articles

Geodatabase of Publicly Available Information about Czech Municipalities’ Local Administration

In this data description, we introduce a unique (geo)dataset with publicly available information about the municipalities focused on (geo)participatory aspects of local administration. The dataset comprises 6258 Czech municipalities linked with their respective administrative boundaries. In total, 55 attributes were prepared for each municipality. We also describe the process of data collection, processing, verification, and publication as open data. The uniqueness of the dataset is that such a complex dataset regarding geographical coverage with a high level of detail (municipalities) has never been collected in Czechia before. Besides, it could be applied in various research agendas in public participation and local administration and used thematically using selected indicators from various participation domains. The dataset is available freely in the Esri geodatabase, geospatial services using API (REST, GeoJSON), and other common non-spatial formats (MS Excel and CSV).

Utilizing fossilized charcoal to augment the Everglades National Park Fire History Geodatabase

Everglades National Park (ENP) has been documenting fire events since 1948, and these data have been incorporated into an ESRI geodatabase. According to this geodatabase, 757,078 ha of wetlands burned from 1948 to 2011. The main type of vegetation that has burned is comprised of palustrine and estuarine wetlands. However, there are areas in ENP that are comprised of these wetlands that have no documented fire events. We examined fossil charcoal in soil cores and found evidence that fires did indeed occur in some of these areas. Sites of known fires were used to validate the fossil charcoal method. The abundance of fossil charcoal in soil cores from six locations in ENP was measured. Two of the cores were taken from areas with well-documented fire events and four cores where taken from areas with no documented fire events. Three of the cores were dated using 210Pb geochronology. The initial goal was to determine if fires had gone undetected or undocumented in the geodatabase with the ultimate goal being to demonstrate the usefulness of this approach to augment the geodatabase and therefore enhance our understanding of fire ecology in ENP.

Animals positive for Yersinia pestis in Armenia

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the species composition of mammals and parasites involved in the epizootic process of plague in Armenia and their geographic distribution.Introduction: Plague was first identified in Armenia in 1958 when Y. pestiswas isolated and cultured from the flea species Ct. teres collected from the burrows of common voles in the northwestern part of the country. In the process of digitalizing archived data, a statistical and spatial analysis of the species composition of mammals and parasites involved in the epizootic process of plague between 1958 and 2016 was performed.Methods: The plague archives of the NCDCP were exploited. The geographic addresses from which strains of Y. pestis were isolated from mammals and their parasite species were analyzed and grouped into 38 administrative regions (Fig.1). For geostatistical analysis, databases were created using Microsoft Excel and converted into a ESRI Geodatabase (Fig.2).Results: Data from the especially dangerous pathogen laboratories indicate that 9329 Y. pestis strains were isolated in 27 of the 38 regions of the country with 7022 (75%) of the strains found in just four regions: Abovyan 2597 (28%), Sisian 1953 (21%), Martuni 1416 (15%) and Ashotsk 1056 (11%) (Fig.3). During this period, plague bacteria were isolated from 17 mammal species including 15 rodents, Mustela nivalis (weasel), and Neomys fodiens (shrew) (Fig.4). Y. pestis was isolated from 22 species of fleas belonging to 11 genera along with two families of ticks. Of the 9329 bacterial isolates, 6540 (70.2%) came from fleas, 2646 (28.3%) came from mammals and 143 (1.5%) were from ticks (Fig.5).Conclusions: In Armenia, the primary mammalian host for Y. pestis is the common vole Microtus arvalis from which 2600 isolates (27.9%) were taken. Flea species from which large numbers of plague bacteria have been isolated include Ct. teres-3758 (40.3%), Ct. wladimiri-1262 (13.5%) and C. caspia-667 (7.1%).

An explicit GIS-based river basin framework for aquatic ecosystem conservation in the Amazon

Abstract. Despite large-scale infrastructure development, deforestation, mining and petroleum exploration in the Amazon Basin, relatively little attention has been paid to the management scale required for the protection of wetlands, fisheries and other aspects of aquatic ecosystems. This is due, in part, to the enormous size, multinational composition and interconnected nature of the Amazon River system, as well as to the absence of an adequate spatial model for integrating data across the entire Amazon Basin. In this data article we present a spatially uniform multi-scale GIS framework that was developed especially for the analysis, management and monitoring of various aspects of aquatic systems in the Amazon Basin. The Amazon GIS-Based River Basin Framework is accessible as an ESRI geodatabase at doi:10.5063/F1BG2KX8.

CREATION OF A WEB MAP AND MOBILE APPLICATION BASED ON A PRINTED BOOK

The project describes a process of conversion of printed books into a web map and mobile application. The goal of the project is to make spatial data in the book accessible to wide public using GIS especially on web in order to spread the information about this topic. Moreover, as a result of the analysis and of the new perspectives gained from the data context, historians will be able to find new connections. <br><br> The books that serve as sources of the project (two books with the scope of about 1400 pages featuring hundreds of locations where each location is associated with more events of different types) refer to places with many addresses in Prague and some villages in the Czech Republic which are related to events that took place during the World War II. <br><br> The paper describes the steps of conversion, the design of the data model in Esri geodatabase and examples of outputs. The historical data are connected to actual addresses and thanks to such a combination of historical and actual locations, the project will help to discover a part of the history of the Czech Republic and it will show new context in data via GIS capabilities. This project is a continuation of a project which recorded a march of death on a map. <br><br> This is a unique project created in cooperation with Academia Publishing. The outputs of the project will serve as a core resource for a multimedia history portal. The author of the book is currently writing sequels from the post-war period and at least two other books are envisioned, so the future of the project is ensured.

CREATION OF A WEB MAP AND MOBILE APPLICATION BASED ON A PRINTED BOOK

Abstract. The project describes a process of conversion of printed books into a web map and mobile application. The goal of the project is to make spatial data in the book accessible to wide public using GIS especially on web in order to spread the information about this topic. Moreover, as a result of the analysis and of the new perspectives gained from the data context, historians will be able to find new connections. The books that serve as sources of the project (two books with the scope of about 1400 pages featuring hundreds of locations where each location is associated with more events of different types) refer to places with many addresses in Prague and some villages in the Czech Republic which are related to events that took place during the World War II. The paper describes the steps of conversion, the design of the data model in Esri geodatabase and examples of outputs. The historical data are connected to actual addresses and thanks to such a combination of historical and actual locations, the project will help to discover a part of the history of the Czech Republic and it will show new context in data via GIS capabilities. This project is a continuation of a project which recorded a march of death on a map. This is a unique project created in cooperation with Academia Publishing. The outputs of the project will serve as a core resource for a multimedia history portal. The author of the book is currently writing sequels from the post-war period and at least two other books are envisioned, so the future of the project is ensured.

Disclosure of historical spatial and statistical data of districts in Czechia in a GIS environment

This article presents a methodology for the creation and reconstruction of historical borders of chosen spatial units, especially political and judicial districts in Czechia for the specific years of population censuses within a GIS environment. Since an ethnic, language, demographic, social and cultural composition of a population is one of the main features of national and regional identity, the main objective of the article is to introduce new method for the creation of spatial-statistical databases which will make these historical data sources accessible to both experts and the public for general use. For this purpose, district borders from 1921, 1930, (1947), 1950, 1961, 1970, 1991, 2001 and 2011, which represent the years of the population censuses in Czechia, were digitized. Our method is based mainly on historical maps, which correspond with the censuses’ statistical datasets. The proposed methodology for the creation of GIS layers (digitalization, geo-referencing, vectorization, accuracy assessment, and spatial identification), their connection with censuses statistical data (creation of spatial codes), metadata creation, and web publication is described in this article along with examples of some of the difficulties encountered during the process. We also bring attention to several case studies of problematic areas where the reconstruction of borders was particularly complicated. Finally, spatial and statistical data in the format of ESRI shapefile and ESRI Geodatabase offer possibilities for a retrospective analyses of quantitative data to current researchers from a range of scientific disciplines. Files in both formats are publicly available at webpage www.historickygis.cz.

A GIS-Based DRASTIC Model for Assessing Phreatic Aquifere of Bekalta (Tunisian Sahel)

The phreatic aquifer of Bekalta experienced a progressive degradation of water resources over time: using increasingly important waters for irrigation and drinking water, nitrate pollution, salinization... This aquifer is of great economic importance because it is used for irrigation and domestic consumption. Vulnerability map to nitrate pollution is a necessary tool to developing management to preserve the quality of groundwater. This study utilized the Geographic Information System technique and the DRASTIC model to assess the vulnerability of groundwater resources to contamination. The Geographic Information System (GIS) technology represents the best method to solve the main problems in the vulnerability survey. Indeed is allowed for swift organisation, quantification, and interpretation of large volumes of hydrological data with computer accuracy and minimal risk of human errors. The Visio model was exported and loaded into an ESRI Geodatabase in ArcCatalog as defined by the UML model. The purpose of this geodatabase is data harmonization process within modeling groundwater vulnerability to pollution. The resulting map shows evidence for three categories of vulnerability (low, middle and high). The resultant vulnerability map showed the predominant of moderately vulnerability class on the most of the Bekalta region which occupying an area of 68%. The low and high groundwater vulnerability classes occupy respectively an area of 30% and 2% of the total surface of the study area.

Tight-coupling of groundwater flow and transport modelling engines with spatial databases and GIS technology: a new approach integrating Feflow and ArcGIS

Implementation of groundwater flow and transport numerical models is generally a challenge, time-consuming and financially-demanding task, in charge to specialized modelers and consulting firms. At a later stage, within clearly stated limits of applicability, these models are often expected to be made available to less knowledgeable personnel to support/design and running of predictive simulations within more familiar environments than specialized simulation systems. GIS systems coupled with spatial databases appear to be ideal candidates to address problem above, due to their much wider diffusion and expertise availability. Current paper discusses the issue from a tight-coupling architecture perspective, aimed at integration of spatial databases, GIS and numerical simulation engines, addressing both observed and computed data management, retrieval and spatio-temporal analysis issues. Observed data can be migrated to the central database repository and then used to set up transient simulation conditions in the background, at run time, while limiting additional complexity and integrity failure risks as data duplication during data transfer through proprietary file formats. Similarly, simulation scenarios can be set up in a familiar GIS system and stored to spatial database for later reference. As numerical engine is tightly coupled with the GIS, simulations can be run within the environment and results themselves saved to the database. Further tasks, as spatio-temporal analysis (i.e. for postcalibration auditing scopes), cartography production and geovisualization, can then be addressed using traditional GIS tools. Benefits of such an approach include more effective data management practices, integration and availability of modeling facilities in a familiar environment, streamlining spatial analysis processes and geovisualization requirements for the non-modelers community. Major drawbacks include limited 3D and time-dependent support in traditional GIS, and lack of dedicated calibration, analysis and visualization tools. A system implementation based upon ESRI geodatabase, ArcGIS and state-of-the-art finite element 3D flow and transport numerical code Feflow is presented and critically assessed.

GIS-Based Decision Support System for Improved Operations and Efficiency Conservation in Large-Scale Irrigation Systems

AbstractThe long-term sustainability of irrigated agriculture is contingent on application of cost-effective water conservation measures and improved management in the face of intense competition for limited freshwater resources from municipal, industrial, and environmental/ecological interests. A geographic information system (GIS)–based decision support system (GeoDSS) is presented for maximizing water savings from efficiency improvements and conservation measures through integrated management of large-scale irrigation systems. The GeoDSS incorporates the GeoMODSIM network flow optimization model as implemented within ArcGIS Desktop (ESRI, Inc.) and is applied to the large-scale, complex Imperial Irrigation District (IID) water delivery system in California in support of the IID/San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) Water Transfer Agreement. IID GeoDSS automatically constructs a GeoMODSIM flow network within an ESRI geodatabase composed of feature classes for IID canals, drains, reservoirs, farm gate...

Spatial data modeling for coalfield geological environment

Presented a study on the design and implementation of spatial data modeling and application in the spatial data organization and management of a coalfield geological environment database. Based on analysis of a number of existing data models and taking into account the unique data structure and characteristic, methodology and key techniques in the object-oriented spatial data modeling were proposed for the coalfield geological environment. The model building process was developed using object-oriented technology and the Unified Modeling Language (UML) on the platform of ESRI geodatabase data models. A case study of spatial data modeling in UML was presented with successful implementation in the spatial database of the coalfield geological environment. The model building and implementation provided an effective way of representing the complexity and specificity of coalfield geological environment spatial data and an integrated management of spatial and property data.

New geomorphological mapping system used at different scales in a Swedish glaciated area

A new, detailed geomorphological mapping system is tested at different scales for presentation of landscape configuration and interpretation of landscape development of a formerly glaciated area near Mora in central Sweden. The geomorphological maps are based on fieldwork supported by aerial photographs. The area contains landforms created by mass movement, glacial, glaciofluvial, fluvial, lacustrine, aeolian and anthropogenic processes. In addition, geomorphological effects of isostatic uplift, which has caused a c. 220 m rise of the former Ancylus lake shoreline in the area since the deglaciation, can be seen. The new system is tested at scales 1:5000, 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 using the same legend. At the largest scale information on morphography/morphometry, lithology, and hydrography are included in the map as are details on polygenetic origins of landforms. With each step from the 1:5000 to the 1:50,000 scale some generalisation is needed at the cost of descriptive detail. In turn, with smaller scale, the general overview of the area increases and the impression from the map gradually becomes more dominated by genesis. The emphasis of the map thus changes from a presentation with a high level of descriptive information at the largest scale to a more interpretative overview at smaller scales. The scale transformation shows that the geomorphological presentation of the landscape is a function of both the landscape hierarchy and the geomorphological context within an area. The use of the new geomorphological mapping system at the three scales shows that the tested mapping legend can be used without modification from one scale to another. This is mainly because the geomorphological information parameters are separated in the legend, and that explanatory information is gained from combinations of them. The possibility to apply the same legend at different scales for an area facilitates the choice of an appropriate mapping scale for specific purposes and applications. The new mapping system also has the advantage that the data can be easily transformed into a GIS ESRI geodatabase containing the same “raw-data” as the original map. The differences of information at the different scales illustrate problems that are also relevant for use and presentation of geomorphological data in a GIS and three examples of scale problems in relation to GIS data handling are outlined.