Geographic Information System Model Research Articles

Technological Hazard Vulnerability: A GIS-Based Approach for Supporting Environmental Zoning.

Technological hazard assessments are extremely rare in Brazil, despite their importance for planning. Aquatic systems are of particular concern, since they are the endpoint of every process occurring in the watershed, including technological disasters. Thus, our goal is to map the technological hazard vulnerability in lagoon systems though a geographic information systems (GIS) model. The technological hazard vulnerability model consists of the spatial overlapping of technological pressure and fragility, having environmental systems as spatial units. The methodology was applied to the lagoon systems of the Rio Grande do Sul State, Southern Brazil, as a case study. The very high vulnerability of the Northern Guaíba Lake is due to the high concentration of technological infrastructures combined with high fragilities of wetland systems. In the Patos Lagoon Estuary, highly vulnerable systems consist mostly in shallow waters. The Mirim Lagoon was less vulnerable compared to other systems, due to a much smaller occurrence of elements of technological pressure. The proposed methodology allowed for the identification of environmental systems particularly vulnerable to technological hazards, where management efforts must be more intense. The results were used for the Ecological-Economic Zoning of the Rio Grande do Sul, as well as to revise the water quality framework of the Patos Lagoon estuary, currently underway. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:445-454. © 2020 SETAC.

Effect of particulate matter exposure on patients with COPD and risk reduction through behavioural interventions: the protocol of a prospective panel study

IntroductionPatients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are vulnerable to particulate matter (PM) exposure which can increase acute exacerbations and hospitalisation. Interventions to avoid PM exposure are important but evidence-based...

Assessment of constructing canopy urban heat island temperatures from thermal images: An integrated multi-scale approach

Weather stations and field observation provide imperfect near-surface air temperature (NSAT) to study canopy urban heat island (UHI), whereas thermal images offer a high spatial resolution of land surface temperature (LST) to investigate surface UHI. Because NSAT is widely recognized as robustly dependent on LST, we suggest a method to construct continuous, high spatial resolution NSAT in Qlyub City, Egypt, derived from LST and other urban variables, such as albedo, thermal inertia, and climatic conditions. The proposed method integrates thermal and optical imageries, field observation, statistical analysis, and geographical information systems (GIS) modeling to perform a multi-scale analysis of NSAT and LST relationships. Linear regression revealed a moderately strong connection between NSAT and LST. Standardized regression embedding multiple times, land uses, and environmental variables suggested an interesting finding of near-perfect correlation. The nighttime connection was stronger than the daytime. Relative importance analysis showed that LST is the most important predictor of NSAT, followed by observation time, thermal inertia, humidity, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). All results were statistically significant, and uncertainties were minimal (mostly <±0.5C). GIS modeling was utilized to extract NSAT from LST. The findings were validated using in-situ observations. It is concluded that the methodology is reliable to provide continuous, high spatial resolution NSAT for dependable canopy UHI detection and thermal structure analysis.

Radiotherapy service need in the Pacific Island countries.

Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) have experienced an increase in cancer burden in the recent years. There is need for major investments in the cancer treatment facilities including radiotherapy (RT). This study aimed to provide a quantitative estimation of the effect of establishing new RT facilities on patient access through Geographic Information System (GIS) modelling of population density and service availability to assess the best location for a new RT centre when there are multiple competing locations. Methods involved cancer epidemiological data collection and assessing RT demand (proportion needing RT) in 2040, assessment of current RT facilities meeting the demand, GIS-based assessment of minimal travel distance in relation to RT demand and scenario-based location planning with adoption of the principles of efficiency, availability and equity for establishment of suitability of new RT facilities. In 2040, three highest new cancer case projections are for Papua New Guinea (PNG) (22662), Fiji (2058) and New Caledonia (2037). Twenty-nine megavoltage machines (MVMs) are needed to meet adequate RT demand with three existing in New Caledonia, Guam and French Polynesia meeting 2-6% demand. PNG with highest RT demand of 68% and Fiji with second highest (6%) demand are found as the choice venues for maximum accessibility of cancer population within the PICTs. The travel distance-based GIS modelling estimation of establishment of new RT facilities will provide useful information for planning of RT services in the PICTS with improved patient outcome.

Applying Multi-Temporal Landsat Satellite Data and Markov-Cellular Automata to Predict Forest Cover Change and Forest Degradation of Sundarban Reserve Forest, Bangladesh

Overdependence on and exploitation of forest resources have significantly transformed the natural reserve forest of Sundarban, which shares the largest mangrove territory in the world, into a great degradation status. By observing these, a most pressing concern is how much degradation occurred in the past, and what will be the scenarios in the future if they continue? To confirm the degradation status in the past decades and reveal the future trend, we took Sundarban Reserve Forest (SRF) as an example, and used satellite Earth observation historical Landsat imagery between 1989 and 2019 as existing data and primary data. Moreover, a geographic information system model was considered to estimate land cover (LC) change and spatial health quality of the SRF from 1989 to 2029 based on the large and small tree categories. The maximum likelihood classifier (MLC) technique was employed to classify the historical images with five different LC types, which were further considered for future projection (2029) including trends based on 2019 simulation results from 1989 and 2019 LC maps using the Markov-cellular automata model. The overall accuracy achieved was 82.30%~90.49% with a kappa value of 0.75~0.87. The historical result showed forest degradation in the past (1989–2019) of 4773.02 ha yr−1, considered as great forest degradation (GFD) and showed a declining status when moving with the projection (2019–2029) of 1508.53 ha yr−1 and overall there was a decline of 3956.90 ha yr−1 in the 1989–2029 time period. Moreover, the study also observed that dense forest was gradually degraded (good to bad) but, conversely, light forest was enhanced, which will continue in the future even to 2029 if no effective management is carried out. Therefore, by observing the GFD, through spatial forest health quality and forest degradation mapping and assessment, the study suggests a few policies that require the immediate attention of forest policy-makers to implement them immediately and ensure sustainable development in the SRF.

Assessment and Spatial Analysis of Sensitivity to Desertification in Wadi El Natrun, Northwestern Egypt using MEDLAUS model

Land degradation is a global environmental issue, given the various negative impact on socio-economic and ecological implications. It leads to reduced production capacity in addition to soil erosion, physical /chemical /biological /economic land deterioration, and long-term loss (or degradation) of vegetation. When a severe deterioration in drought areas called the process of desertification i.e. arid, dry sub-humid and semi-arid areas. Desertification processes reduces the productivity of the soil and as a result effect on food stocks. The main objective of this study is integrating remote sensing data and a geographic information system (GIS) to evaluate the environmental sensitivity for desertification in Wadi El Natrun, Egypt based on the Mediterranean Desertification and Land Use (MEDALUS) approach. The collected soil data; from description of represented soil profiles and analysis of soil samples, in addition to climate, plant cover, and management data were considered for assessing the sensitivity of desertification. The obtained results showed that 10.4 % of Wadi El Natrun area is considered severe sensitivity to desertification as a result of alkalinity and salinity, while the moderately sensitive area occupies approximately 10.93 % of the study area. The low sensitive one exhibits 76.3 %. This area is described by high soil quality because of the study area is one of the new development areas which were not affected by the factors of desertification. It can be concluded that the desert extension of El-Beheira Governorate (i.e. Wadi El Rayan) is one of the areas that possess valuable land resources which should be considered for future land reclamation projects. Similar international studies are recommended to be achieved with the use of multi-criteria GIS modeling (i.e. MEDALUS) which considered all relevant factors in the form of thematic layers for easier implementation and assessments. Present study represents one of the initial attempts to use the MEDALUS model for desertification assessment in the desert extension of El-Beheira Governorate.

Coarse‐to‐fine 3D road model registration for traffic video augmentation

This study addresses the problem of non-perspective pose estimation from line correspondences in the traffic scenarios. A coarse-to-fine 3D road registration method is proposed for this problem in two stages. Firstly, the iterative closest point algorithm is exploited to estimate the pose coarsely. An objective function is then established to incorporate the feature correspondences for refining the coarse pose. Besides, the framework including road registration is employed for traffic video augmentation. The framework begins with the inputs of traffic videos, road information from Geographic Information Systems and 3D models of traffic elements (e.g. vehicles, pedestrians). Subsequently, 3D road model generation and point-to-line correspondence establishment are achieved in the preprossessing stage. After road and viewpoint registration, the 3D graphic engine is employed to simulate the traffic scene with the road, viewpoints and traffic elements. The augmented videos are generated by fusing the original frames and newly projected traffic elements. The authors demonstrate the superiority of the proposed registration method by the comparison to state-of-the-arts in both quantitative and qualitative experiments. In addition, the frames of the augmented videos validate the proposed method in the application.

Ecological Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals at Township Scale in the High Background of Heavy Metals, Southwestern, China

Heavy metals (HMs) are naturally occurring elements that have high natural background levels in the environment. Therefore, it is important to conduct ecological risk assessment and identify potential sources of HMs. In the past, studies were conducted at the regional scale. The accuracy of those studies could not meet the needs of spatial planning and natural resource management. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct ecological risk assessment at the township scale. In this study, 1092 soil samples (from 0-20 cm depth) were collected in the town of Reshui, an area with high background levels of soil HMs with the parent material of carbonatite, which is commonly found in Southwest China. The town of Reshui is a multi-ecological risk superimposed area where the ecological risk is high. In this study, concentrations of HMs (Cd, Cr, As, Hg, Pb, Cu, Zn, and Ni) in the topsoil were analyzed, and statistical analysis (SA), geographic information system (GIS) modeling, and positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis were performed. The geoaccumulation index (Igeo) and potential ecological risk index (PERI) were applied for the ecological risk assessment and quantification of the sources of the soil HMs. The mean values of HM concentrations in the topsoil were 18.1, 1.18, 174.1, 202.2, 0.09, 71.1, 34.9, and 167.2 mg ·kg-1for As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn, respectively, which were considerably higher than the average background value (ABV) in soils in Yunnan Province except for As and Pb. The average concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, and Ni exceeded the screening values specified in the soil contamination risk in agricultural land (GB 15618-2018) by 5.82, 1.16, 4.04, and 1.02 times, respectively. The Igeo value shows that the major pollutant is Cu in the surface soil of the study area, followed by Cr, and Cd. Speciation analysis of HMs indicates that HMs (Cr, As, Pb, Cu, Zn, and Ni) mainly exist in the residual form, mostly from the geological background with low bioavailability. The potential effective components of Hg have higher levels, but the total amount of Hg and its pollution risk are lower. Cd has a high bioavailability ratio, is easy to enter the soil solution and be absorbed by crops, and is the HM with the highest pollution risk in the study area. The PERI shows that the proportions of low ecological risk, moderate risk, and high risk soil samples are 44.23%, 54.40%, and 1.37% of the total number of samples, respectively. Hg and Cd were the major sources of risk because of their high toxicity coefficient. The PMF analysis indicates that there are four major sources of HMs in the study area: human activity, natural sources, coal mining and traffic emissions, and agricultural sources with the risk contribution ratios of 9.29%, 53.67%, 11.23%, and 25.81%, respectively. The PMF analysis effectively quantified the ecological risk from these sources, providing a reference for further pollution control and prevention measures.

Tourism, transport, and land use: a dynamic impact assessment for Kaohsiung’s Asia New Bay Area

ABSTRACT This paper proposes a hybrid methodology for analysing the causal relations between public transportation development, tourism and land use by combining System Dynamics (SD) with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and agent-based modelling (ABM). It is applied to illustrate the quantitative and spatial effect of the two phases Light Rail Transit (LRT) development in Asia New Bay Area, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. This paper also furthers the application of the ABM spatial information as interactive variables in the stocks-flow model. The simulation results support that development policies of LRT are significant to the future tourism in Asia New Bay Area, while the under debate second phase of LRT is estimated to raise the number of visitors in long term by alleviating the deteriorating road traffic congestion. This policy-oriented simulation can serve as a reference to the decision-makers towards the future management of LRT.

Impact of rail transit station proximity to commercial property prices: utilizing big data in urban real estate

Urban transport investments have contributed to the exponential increase of value from land and properties around the built infrastructure. Although literature had shown evidence of value uplift from the residential property due to transit development, little is known about the impact on commercial property values. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of rail transit proximity to the commercial property market by taking into account the pre-operation of the LRT project in Jakarta, Indonesia. This study utilizes a big data approach to accelerate research data processing by employing data mining method, as well as geographical information system (GIS) and hedonic price modeling (HPM) to investigate the property prices to formulate empirical evidence for the research. The results show opposite evidence compared to previous studies which argued that accessibility may contribute to the property price when closer to the transit station. The findings indicate that proximity to rail transit has an insignificant impact on the commercial property price compared to other variables such as building size, number of rooms, location, and hospitals. A comparison of the findings between this research with other studies was discussed and recommendation for further research development was proposed.

Yoga training reduces maternal stress during pregnancy

As an effort of prevention of Dengue Fever Occurence, it must be applied an information system which is able to give fast, exact, complete, and easy understood information. Because of that, it needs to be developed a Geographical Information System {Sistem Informasi Geografis (SIG)} in society health service, that is related to the distribution and risking factors of Dengue Fever Occurence. The Geographical Information System model can show the description of spacial distribution of Dengue Fever cases in a district, the tendency of illness spreading, and whether there is clustering of the illness or not, so it can identify unsafe/susceptible level in a district to Dengue Fever Occurrence.The design of this research is observational analytic with Cross Sectional approach, using Geographical Information System in spacial analysis. The samples of the research are all dengue fever victims recorded at public health centre in Ngemplak Subdistrict, Boyolali Regency from 2016 to 2017, which are 93 respondents. The data analysis is done by univariate, bivariate with Contingency Coefficient test and spacial analysis in Geographical Information System approach.The result of the recearch shows risking factors that is proved significantly related to dengue fever occurence. Those are population density percentage (p = 0.003) and the number of free mosquito larva percentage (p = 0.001). Spacialy, districts in Ngemplak Subdistrict, Boyolali, that have highest susceptible level to dengue fever are Sindon and Gagak Sipat village.

Restoration and Development of Urban Heritage Sites (Rehabilitation of Middle cities and Heritage towns)

There are various restoration methods and techniques that would help specialists whether planners, designers and archeologists to study historical sites and their valued heritage buildings in various cities at Egypt as Alexandria governorate which is considered as one of heritage towns. One of these techniques is Virtual Reality (VR) that could be used to improve the field of Virtual Heritage (VH) which is directed towards accurate representation of historic structures in urban heritage sites, objects or artefacts. Beside, using Geographical Information System (GIS) and Google earth model to define these urban heritage sites accurately with all database related to the specific area under study. Digital models of historical buildings and its urban spaces only give a sense of precision for their historical values. Yet, human attitude and cultural traditions remain a gap in current research and advanced technology in heritage visualization. So, Virtual Heritage Environments (VHE) suffers from the lack of ‘thematic interactivity’ due to the limited cultural heritage content and engaging modules largely used in photorealistic systems. So, this paper focuses in using various digital restoration techniques and methods to investigate and incorporate a cultural-feed into digital platforms of VH especially at Alexandria in Egypt as Qaitbay castle plaza. This site discusses a conceptual and practical workflow for the development of virtual heritage platforms as a research area, educational purpose. The study includes engagement tool of historic conservation in Alexandria, brings historic spaces and buildings to users in detailed studies whether researchers or students. The results of the research would be used for the renewal of the current plaza of Qaitbay castle by making it more attractive. Also, this plaza is considered as a tourist and historical area as well as the organization for paths of movement and transforming the work places for sale from street vendors to organized markets. The scenario was realized by integrating low-cost Virtual Reality (VR) techniques, as the Kolor Panotour Pro software, some tools as Oculus Rift DK2 and the Leap Motion controller. Further, the 3D virtual model was implemented by integrated steps through Virtual Tours and Informational Modeling (VT/IM) to improve real urban data of heritage sites. The paper describes the process for optimizing the 3D virtual model, the implementation of the interactive scenario and the results of a proposed 3D VT/IM of redesigning model for the Qaitbay Castle Plaza. Finally, the paper predicts future research directions for virtual reality, with a particular focus on interaction interfaces and explores the implications for the cultural heritage domain.

Practical Implications of Policy Guidelines: A GIS Model of the Deployment of Community Health Volunteers in Madagascar.

With increasing interest in strengthening community health programs nationally comes a need for operationalizing them in a realistic and achievable way. Limited information is available to help program managers establish appropriate parameters for their context. We examined aspects of program implementation related to deployment patterns of community health workers, called agents communautaires or ACs, in 2 districts of Madagascar. By analyzing program data and publicly available datasets in a geographic information system (GIS), we estimated the population and surface area coverage expected of ACs in 445 fokontany (communities). Additional modeling on travel time demands examined 1-way pedestrian travel time for ACs to receive routine support from their assigned health facilities and from socially marketed supply points under dry season conditions, as well as the impact on travel time based on ACs being reassigned to other facilities or supply points. With the current distribution, ACs in 90% of fokontany have a catchment population of 1,000 or fewer people (2020 estimates) and ACs in 84% of fokontany have a catchment area of 25 km2 or less. We estimated that ACs in 58% of fokontany were located more than 2 hours from their supporting health facility, and the proportion of fokontany with ACs more than 2 hours away from their assigned supply point was 61%. Reassigning ACs to the closest facility or supply point led to modest improvements in those figures (7 and 4 percentage points, respectively). Findings allow visualizing the practical implications of coverage ratios for ACs to assess whether current demands are realistic. The physical access between ACs and the health system warrants significant attention due to challenges in transport and logistics. Analyses are timely to inform the Ministry of Public Health's strategic thinking in the context of the development of the National Strategic Plan on Strengthening Community Health.

An Overland Flood Model for Geographical Information Systems

A variety of flood models and commercial flood simulation software are provided in the literature, with different accuracies and precisions changing from coarse to fine, depending on model structure and detailed descriptions of basin and hydrologic properties. These models generally focus on river processes, taking overland processes as inputs of 1D or 2D hydrodynamic or hydrologic river flow models. Due to the discrete structure of overland flow and unknown-dynamic boundary conditions, such classical approaches are not cable of fast and reliable spatio–temporal estimations for overland flows, and require detailed and well-organized spatial data that cannot be immediately obtained during an emergency. A spatially-distributed Geographical Information Systems (GIS) based flood model is developed in this study to simulate overland floods, using cellular automata principles. GIS raster cells are considered hydrologic homogeneous areas throughout which hydrologic properties remain constant. Hydrodynamic flow principles, conservations of mass, momentum and energy are applied at pixel level to simulate floodwaters. The proposed GIS model is capable of directly manipulating spatio–temporal pixel level data (e.g., topography, precipitation, infiltration, surface roughness etc.) for modeling of rainfall-induced overland floods; therefore, it can provide fast, temporal and spatial flood depth estimations as well as maximum flood depths and times of concentration for all pixels throughout a study area. The model is quite simple and easy to apply via easily creatable GIS input layers, and is thus very convenient for preliminary engineering applications that need quick and fast response. Its main advantage is that it does not need a predefined flood boundary and boundary conditions. This advantage is especially valuable for coastal plains where delineation of a basin is generally too difficult. Floodwaters of Cyclone Nargis/Myanmar were simulated to test the model. Sensitivity analyses were applied to evaluate the effects of the model parameters (i.e., surface roughness and infiltration rates) on simulation results. The study shows that the proposed GIS model can be readily applied for the fast and inexpensive modeling of rainfall caused floods in areas where flood boundaries and boundary conditions cannot be clearly identified.

Method for Generation of Indoor GIS Models Based on BIM Models to Support Adjacent Analysis of Indoor Spaces

Methods for the generation of indoor geographic information system (GIS) models based on building information modelling (BIM) models can promote the analysis and application of indoor GIS, avoiding the complexity of traditional indoor space collection. The indoor adjacency relations (i.e., the attribute of IndoorGML) play a vital role in the adjacent query and analysis in indoor GIS applications (i.e., obtaining the neighbors or affected spaces of a cellular space in a building). However, current methods ignore the important feature, which considerably limits the spatial analysis ability of indoor GIS. Therefore, we developed a method for the generation of indoor GIS models based on BIM models to support adjacent analysis of indoor spaces. The method first devised an indoor GIS model (IGSM) by integrating spatial features (mainly adjacency relations) and the BIM model. Then, we proposed rapid modeling algorithms to mainly establish indoor adjacency relations based on the IGSM. Moreover, in the potential application of indoor GIS (e.g., indoor emergency response), we proposed a K-adjacent analysis algorithm to improve the application ability of the adjacent analysis of indoor GIS. Finally, experimental results suggest its validity and efficiency, which has substantial practical significance for the subsequent analysis and application of 3D GIS.

Mapping of GIS-Flood Hazard Using the Geomorphometric-Hazard Model: Case Study of the Al-Shamal Train Pathway in the City of Qurayyat, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Drainage basins in dry and semiarid environments are exposed to sudden, irregular flooding that poses a threat to urban areas and infrastructure. The associated risk is exacerbated by land use changes. Geomorphometric analyses of drainage basins based on geographic information systems (GIS) are essential tools for assessing conceptual flood hazards. Geomorphological data extracted from high-precision digital elevation models (DEMs) provide valuable information for modeling the geomorphic, surface classifications of the earth, and for flood hazard mapping. This study aimed to develop an integrative approach to the mapping of flood hazards along the Al-Shamal train pathway in the city of Qurayyat in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) using GIS and hazard modeling for geomorphological ranking. Furthermore, we propose strategic solutions to provide mitigation and protection from negative impacts with the aim of improving the level of awareness of flood geomorphology. The hazard model of geomorphological ranking was used in mapping and calculating the degree of hazards using 24 geomorphometric criteria. These criteria were divided into formal criteria, terrain criteria, and criteria related to the drainage network. The results of the study revealed that the drainage sub-basins are exposed to flood hazards along the Al-Shamal train pathway in the city of Qurayyat. The very high flood hazard constituted 4228.3 km2, accounting for 70.3% and 65.7%, respectively, of the drainage basins of the wadis of Makhrouq and Bayer. The high flood hazard represented 61% (4712.4 km2) of the basin of the wadis of Sarmadaa. The medium flood hazard was concentrated in the drainage basin of the wadi of Hasidah, accounting for nearly 57.7% (1271.3 km2). The very low flood hazard was present in 46.5% of the drainage basin of the wadis of Hasidah Umm Nakhla, accounting for an area of 799.4 km2. The methodology applied in this study can be used in the estimation of flood hazards in different drainage basins throughout Saudi Arabia and in similar arid regions.

Bibliometric Analysis of Methods and Tools for Drought Monitoring and Prediction in Africa

The African continent has a long history of rainfall fluctuations of varying duration and intensities. This has led to varying degrees of drought conditions, triggering research interest across the continent. The research presented here is a bibliometric analysis of scientific articles on drought monitoring and prediction published in Africa. Scientific data analysis was carried out based on bibliometric mapping techniques applied to 332 scientific publications (1980 to 2020) retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases. In addition, time series of Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index for the previous 6 months (SPEI-6) over six regions in the continent was analysed giving the relative comparison of drought occurrences to the annual distribution of the scientific publications. The results revealed that agricultural and hydrological drought studies contributed about 75% of the total publications, while the remaining 25% was shared among socioeconomic and meteorological studies. Countries in the southern, western, and eastern regions of Africa led in terms of scientific publications during the period under review. The results further indicated that the continent experienced drought conditions in the years 1984, 1989, 1992, and 1997, thereby inducing an increase in the number of scientific publications on drought studies. The results show that the tools of analysis have also changed from simple statistics to the use of geospatial tools such as Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) models, and recently Machine Learning (ML). The ML, particularly, contributed about 11% of the total scientific publications, while RS and GIS models, and basic statistical analysis account for about 44%, 20%, and 25% respectively. The integration of spatial technologies and ML are pivotal to the development of robust drought monitoring and drought prediction systems, especially in Africa, which is considered as a drought-prone continent. The research gaps presented in this study can help prospective researchers to respond to the continental and regional drought research needs.

Model sistem informasi geografis pariwisata menggunakan reuse method

Information about tourism sites in Tangerang Regency is inadequate. Tourists have difficulty in obtaining information about tourist attractions. This study propose a model of tourism geographic information system (GIS) to make help tourists to find and obtain information about tourism in Tangerang Regency easier. In this research, activities consist of two stages, namely: data collection and system design. Data collection activities carried out by observation, interviews, and literature study. While the GIS model is designed with Unified Modeling Language, reuse method, and prototype. The final result of this research is a model of tourism geographic information system in the form of use case diagrams, activity diagrams, class diagrams and prototype user interfaces. The test results showing that the model produced has a score of 72.1 with a good predicate. This shows that the resulting model is in accordance with needs and can be used as a basis in building a tourist geographic information system.

An Investigation into the Impacts of Climate Change on Anthropogenic Polluted Coastal Lagoons in Ghana

This paper discusses the impacts of Climate Change and anthropogenic activities on coastal lagoons in Ghana. Ghana’s coastal lagoons provide unique ecosystem services. However, they are highly fragile and vulnerable to natural processes and anthropogenic activities. Climate Change impacts, such as increased temperatures, sea-level rise, storm surge and increased precipitation are likely to have ecological damage to lagoon ecosystems as a result of erosion, submergence of lagoon barriers, flooding and drying of the surrounding wetlands. Field observation, Geographic Information System modeling were among the methodology applied. The paper identified that anthropogenic activities and Climate Change would combine to have a serious future impact on lagoon ecosystems. Particularly, increased rainfall-induced flooding from the hinterland may be very injurious to the lagoon ecosystem, since the flood water may carry not only nutrients but also various contaminants and solid plastic waste generated by human activities around lagoons catchment into the lagoon channels. Besides, due to the barriers across most lagoon inlets, such polluted runoff water may not be able to flush out to sea, thus impacting negatively on the water quality of the lagoons. The paper proposes some adaptation strategies and recommends the early implementation of Climate Change adaptation strategies, coastal lagoon management measures to prevent potential future destructive impacts.

Impact of land use changes on forest catchment area in Pergau Lake, Kelantan

The Pergau lake basin is a man-made water catchment area comprise of 460 hectares due to the construction of hydroelectric dams in Pergau. It is located about 125 km southwest of Kota Bharu in the Jeli district in Kelantan and managed by Tenaga Nasional Berhad. The lake is rich in natural resources and the forest in the basin acts as a reservoir through water absorption and storage. Forests within the area catchments and basins can control soil erosion and erosion of river banks as well slope collapse is one of the sources of risk floods in terms of damage to property and infrastructure such as bridges and road. However, rapid population growth and urbanisation induced the pressure from human activities have been expanded into the forest catchment area. Therefore this study was conducted in the Pergau Lake (Dam) to safeguard their importance for socio-economic, well-being, ecotourism potential and sustaining its biodiversity. This study aims to predict the land use changes in the study area for 2035, parameterised with satellite images in 1988, 2003 and 2018 and the physical parameter such as slope, road, elevation, distance from built up area, green space edge and waterbody. The integrated approach of remote sensing, Geographical Information System (GIS) and Land Change Modeler-Markov Change Model were used to analyze the changes and their spatial pattern. The results showed that between 1994 and 2004, and between 2004 and 2014 the forest landscape in the Pergau Lake were decreased due to the development of the built-up area. Thus, the results will hopefully take into consideration for land use planning and forest protection for sustainable management planning of the forest catchment area. It is indicated that the spatial effect of green space is influenced by the historical spatial changes, implementation of the previous master planning efforts and uncontrolled land use expansion. This study is designed to provide the novel integrated approach for predicting landscape changes for the forest catchment area to provide the initial guideline for sustainable planning and management of forest catchment area.