Geographic Information Tools Research Articles

Analysis and Improvement of Geographic Information Systems for Problem Solving and Decision Making

The complexity of our way of life has increased due to the numerous parts of life developing quickly, which results in ongoing issues. To address these issues and respond to these rapid changes in the environment, solutions that were practical, quick, and easy to implement were needed. The use of geographic information tools, a contemporary innovation, allows for the implementation of difficult issues by enhancing users' abilities to comprehend problems thoroughly through the analysis of spatial data and the creation of digital maps. This allows decision-makers to save time, effort, and money by making informed choices that will result in the best possible solution to the issue at hand. In addition to a significant urban expansion, an increase in the number of people using vehicles, and a significant emigration of people from rural and small towns, the traffic jams that have recently engulfed much of the world, particularly in the major capitals and cities, are a result of these factors for transportation, have contributed to a complex problem in modern times. The goal of this study is to examine proposed elements and gauge their impact on the issue of traffic bottlenecks. It then suggests both long- and short-term remedies for this issue based on the study's findings, which are generally not found in the pertinent departments. In order to create a unique surface for these components and provide a comprehensive picture of the research region, it also makes satellite photos of the area available. geographical database for each of them, evaluate each layer's influence on the traffic jam independently by analyzing it, and then merge these levels to create full map that shows their location and the extent to which they affect the study problems. This process was done in order to arrive at the aforementioned solution.

Geomatic tools used in the management of agricultural activities: a systematic review

AbstractManaging agricultural activity encompasses technology, geographic information, spatial data and geomatic tools as support techniques. In this framework, agricultural mapping is an essential geomatic application due to its importance in managing food systems. This research aims to analyze the state of knowledge of geomatics tools and their applications in agriculture through a systematic review of scientific documents and methodological approaches, highlighting the use of geomatics in agricultural mapping to evaluate trends in agriculture management. The study methodology consists of a scientific base of publications on geomatics and its applications in sustainable agriculture, with a quantitative analysis of production and its approaches. Subsequently, PRISMA establishes a systematic review in search of the subject’s methods, applications and trends. The results show that of the total data analyzed, 60% corresponds to general agricultural mapping for crop/water/soil mapping using satellite images. Twenty percent for land use and coverage, considering the georeferencing that contributes to agricultural territorial planning. Nine percent consider geomatic key for agricultural cadastre (plot management). In addition, 6% corresponds to precision agriculture and 5% to watershed management. The most predominant geomatics tools are: Geographic Information System (GIS), Global Positioning System (GPS), unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and remote sensing (RS). Also, among the most used geomatic techniques in agricultural cartography, photogrammetry in crop phenology and multispectral analysis in the optimisation and monitoring of agricultural production stand out. Studies show that the geomatic application promotes sustainability practices such as crop rotation, seeds dispersed and germinated by animals, agricultural irrigation through rivers/basins/streams, family gardens and generation of employment sources. The geomatics use is of great utility/potential for the acquisition and generation of geospatial data accurately, with time and cost savings that contribute to the decision-making of city councils, public cadastral administrations, enterprises, educational institutions and agricultural foundations.

The Symbiotic Role of GIS in Economics: The Spatial Economic Approach

The object of this paper is what is termed the spatial economic approach (SEA), which is considered to be based on the fundamental principle that economic systems they have never been developed, cannot exist and seldom are applied (e.g., administering businesses) independent of Geographic Space. As a result, the conjunction of data science and spatial data science represents the spatial economic approach, which however require techniques to achieve its goals. The most successful of the new techniques are the Geographic information Science software and tools that can be used to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, and visualize both spatial and nonspatial data. The important aspects of the role and contribution of GIS is a fundamental factor of SEA and is presented to justify the position of this paper that the spatial economic approach by utilizing GIS should become the principal approach in economic studies.

Effect of Slope and Runoff Trends on the Hydrological Response of River Kaduna

A monotonic upward/downward trends of hydrological variables was used to test the null hypothesis that slope and runoff trends have a significant impact on land use and land. The Mann-Kendall (M-K) and P- values statistical measurement were used to validate the null hypothesis against the observed data Relationships between gradients and climatic parameters for the hydrological response of Kaduna River was developed using geographic information tools (GIS). GIS maps of runoff, Digital Elevation Model (DEM), Land Use and Land were established Mann-Kendall (M-K) trend analysis was used to identify trends in climate parameters. The data used are precipitation, evapotranspiration, runoff, and temperature over a 30-year period from 1992 to 2021 obtained from the Kaduna State Water Authority and the Nigerian Meteorological Service. Results of the trend analysis of annual runoff and rainfall indicates the same M-K and P-values of 0.094 and 0.475which are all greeter than 0.05 significant level but the magnitude of Seen slope for rainfall and runoff are 5.130 and 0.016 demonstrating that rainfall is the major driving variable foe runoff generation. The annual evapotranspiration has M-K and P-values of 0.126 and 0.335 while the values for average annual temperature are 0.138 and 0.292. Land use in parts of the study area exhibits unstable ecosystems and vulnerable hilly terrain, suggesting that seasonal runoff and corresponding hydrological responses of rivers are dominated by changes in precipitation.

Spatial Analysis of the Suitability of Hass Avocado Cultivation in the Cauca Department, Colombia, Using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis and Geographic Information Systems

Avocado is an important export and consumption product in Colombia, and its economic importance is expected to increase in the coming years. With its vast potential territory for avocado cultivation, the department of Cauca is a crucial area for producing this variety. However, small producers in the region often need more knowledge of the most suitable locations for planting. This study seeks to determine the ideal areas for Hass avocado cultivation in Cauca using geographic information tools and multi-criteria decision analysis, using a set of official data from different governmental entities and the hierarchical analytical process that allows determining the intensity of the interrelation of factors in the cultivation of Hass avocado. The results indicate that the municipalities near the Popayán plateau have the most significant potential for Hass avocado production, using the analytical hierarchy process. Approximately 9.2% of the administrative territory of the region is classified as highly suitable for Hass avocado cultivation, and an additional 14.2% is considered moderately suitable, constituting about 700,000 hectares of arable land. This research provides decision-makers and producers with valuable knowledge to support and improve Hass avocado agriculture in the region by implementing agricultural engineering practices.

Soil Loss Estimation Using Remote Sensing and RUSLE Model in Koromi-Federe Catchment Area of Jos-East LGA, Plateau State, Nigeria

Soil loss caused by erosion has destroyed landscapes, as well as depositing sterile material on fertile lands and rivers, clogged waterways and accelerated flash floods, declined the populations of fish and other species, and diminish soil fertility. In some places, erosion has also destroyed buildings, caused mudflow, create new landforms, displaced people, and slowed down the economy of the affected community by destroying roads and homes. Erosion is aggravated by climate change and anthropogenic factors such as deforestation, overgrazing, inappropriate methods of tillage, and unsustainable agricultural practices. In this study, remote sensing (RS) and geographic information (GIS) data and tools were used to model erosion and estimate soil loss in the catchment area of Koromi-Federe in Jos East, Plateau State Nigeria which is our study area. Soil loss estimation was performed using the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) model and was computed by substituting the corresponding values of each factor inherent in the equation (rainfall erosivity, soil erodibility, slope steepness and slope length, cover management, and conservation practices) using RS and GIS tools. Soil data was obtained from the study area and analyzed in the laboratory, rainfall data, land cover, digital elevation model (DEM), as well as the management practice of the study area were the parameters computed in spatial analyst tool using map algebra based on RUSLE. The soil loss generated was classified into four classes and the results revealed 95.27% of the catchment with a tolerable loss of less than 10 t/h−1/y−1. At 3.6%, a low or minimal loss of 10–20 t/h−1/y−1, at 1.03% there exists a moderate loss of 20–50 t/h−1/y−1, while there was and critical or high loss of >50 t/h−1/y−1 at 0.12% of the catchment. The result showed that critical soil loss in the catchment area is exacerbated by the influence of the slope length and steepness, and the amount of rainfall received. This poses great concern with annual rainfall projected to increase up to 12% in West Africa. However, our sensitivity analysis revealed that it can be reduced with the effect of vegetated cover and management practices. This is an important finding as it can guide sustainability practices to control erosion and the loss of valuable lands in the region, especially now under climate change.

Site Suitability Analysis for Landfill in an Industrial Area in Nigeria

This study was set against the background of identifying management strategies to combat the menace associated with poor solid waste management in urban areas of Nigeria. Therefore, it becomes highly necessary to determine suitable sites for landfill. Using remote sensing and geographic information tools and technologies the study identified the scenes of present dump sites; evaluated the conditions for selecting landfill sites; and determined suitable landfills in Ajaokuta, Nigeria. Data for the study were sourced from Sentinel-2A, 2021. Integrated GIS-based analysis using multi-criteria evaluation method was employed to scrutinise the appropriateness of the existing dumpsites for siting landfills. However, with reference to Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA) guidelines, results of buffering and proximity analyses indicated that none of the existing dumpsites could be converted to landfill sites. Moreover, a fuzzy overlay of all the criteria considered was employed to identify and propose the most suitable areas for solid waste disposal sites in the study area. Based on the official stipulated distance, new sites were proposed for landfills. The study emphasised the increasing mounds and improper disposal of municipal solid wastes in Nigerian urban centres which have become too agonising and repulsive to sights. Nevertheless, if the recommendations of this study are taken with utmost seriousness, any unexpected outbreak of epidemic and environmental pollution will be greatly avoided in the study area.

Identification of contributing factors and hotspots of pedestrian-vehicle collisions in urban areas: An alternative hybrid method for small cities

Objective Traffic safety numbers in developing countries show a serious global problem that requires studies and actions to promote safety for the most vulnerable users, such as pedestrians, as a way of contributing to sustainable urban mobility. Therefore, this research proposes a hybrid method to identify contributing factors and critical points according to the profile of crashes involving pedestrians being run over by motor vehicles in small cities. Methods The proposed method uses multivariate data analysis, specifically Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Cluster Analysis (CA), combined with geospatial tools. The study scenario corresponds to pedestrian-vehicle collisions that occurred in the urban area of Cachoeira do Sul, a small city in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, recorded in police reports between 2015 and 2018. Additionally, Geographic Information Tools (GIS) were used to collect characteristics of the road environment. Results According to EFA, a set of attributes configured as contributing factors are discussed according to the components of the traffic system: user, road, vehicle, and environment. Subsequently, a CA was applied with the road-environmental factors, and three pedestrian-vehicle collision profiles were extracted, with clustering according to road segments with homogeneous characteristics. Moreover, a Kernel Density Estimate (KDE) was used to obtain heat maps of the pedestrian collisions profiles. The results allowed interventions to be proposed according to the contributing factors of each profile. Conclusions The multivariate statistical analysis supported the discussion of the factors contributing to the occurrence of pedestrian-vehicle collisions in small cities in developing countries. The spatial visualization of the results showed urban corridors with a high risk for pedestrians and the identification of hotspots in the city. In addition, the study demonstrated that the hybrid method tested is an alternative for the government of cities with few resources to promote safety mobility.

ГЕОІНФОРМАЦІЙНА ПІДСИСТЕМИ АСУ ЗБРОЙНИХ СИЛ УКРАЇНИ ЯК ІНСТРУМЕНТ ІНТЕРОПЕРАБЕЛЬНОСТІ ІНФОРМАЦІЙНО-АНАЛІТИЧНИХ СИСТЕМ ВІЙСЬКОВОГО ПРИЗНАЧЕННЯ

To solve the multi-vector tasks of military management it is necessary to use technologies that effectively combine space and time with significant accompanying data in the form of attributive information about operational facilities, background information about the theater (area) of hostilities, climatic conditions, intelligence and etc. It is for this purpose that the armies of many countries around the world use geographic information technology. To date, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have implemented a number of information and analytical systems that solve the problems of automation of mobilization deployment, defense planning, logistics, personnel, financial support, and all of them should be integrated into the Unified Automated Command and Control System (UACCS). Information in such information-analytical systems is processed at all levels of management according to the rules and algorithms developed in these systems. In the process of planning the use of troops (forces) involved a number of people responsible for certain areas of support. It is clear that the requirements for the submission of information to perform the tasks of a particular activity are different. In this situation, geographic information support is required to be able to create the necessary information environment for each individual official, without losing the properties of the management system for consistency and synchronization of all its elements. The implementation of this requirement is achieved by using a single core of geographic information software, which provides software developers and users with basic geographic information services and tools for their joint use in performing specialized tasks. In this case, the specified core should operate in a spatially distributed environment, be protected from external interference and be as accessible as possible to internal users in accordance with the established distribution of powers. The article considers the geo-information subsystem of the UACCS of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a tool to ensure interoperability with existing information and analytical systems in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and new ones planned for deployment, using other hardware and software. The service-oriented architecture of the geoinformation support subsystem of the military management system, which should consist of separate subject-oriented modules within the general system, uses functional components that are built into an open, extensible software and hardware platform to achieve interoperability using spatially distributed information. rules within the framework of basic services that support the exchange of messages, conversion of data for further dissemination (distribution) by publishing and subscribing to standard and specially designed design templates.

Spatial Analysis and Comparison of the Economic Burden of Common Diseases: An Investigation of 5.7 Million Rural Elderly Inpatients in Southeast China, 2010-2016.

Background: As China embraced an aging society, the burden of age-related diseases had increased dramatically. Knowledge about spatial distribution characteristics of disease burden and the influencing factors of medical expenditure is of great significance to the formulation of health policies. However, related research in rural China is still insufficient.Methods: A total of 5,744,717 records of hospitalized rural elderly in southeast China were collected from 2010 to 2016. We described the temporal trends of hospitalization medical expenditure and the prevalence of catastrophic health expenses (CHE) in the rural elderly by common diseases. Then, geographical information tools were used for visualization of geographic distribution patterns of CHE, the ordinary least squares methods (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) were employed to examine the influencing factors of medical expenditure.Results: The number of CHE hospitalizations and the total number of hospitalizations for the rural elderly people increased by 2.1 times and 2.2 times, respectively, from 2010 to 2016. Counties with a high prevalence of CHE were clustered in the eastern coastal area (Moran's I = 0.620, P < 0.001, General G < 0.001, P < 0.001). Unspecified transport accidents, cardiovascular disease, and essential hypertension were the top causes of CHE in the rural elderly. Adequate hospital beds (P < 0.05) and reasonable utilization and distribution of town-level (P < 0.001) and county-level hospitals (P < 0.001) may help reduce medical expenditures.Conclusions: In the context of an aging society, the disease burden for the elderly in rural areas should arouse more attention. These findings highlight the importance of age-related disease prevention and the rational allocation of medical resources in rural areas.

Aplicación de una metodología simplificada para estimar las curvas de capacidad de embalses

&lt;p&gt;In the management of the regulation volumes of the water resource projected for a variety of benefits (hydroelectric uses, irrigation, drinking water, among others), it is essential to calculate the morphometric variables of the reservoirs to anticipate changes in their morphology and predict how these changes could affect projected achievement. In this document, taking into consideration the fundamental concepts of Integral Calculus, the development of an innovative methodology is presented to obtain the Cota-Volume and Cota-Area curves in reservoirs; the methodology was formulated in R programming language with the help of geographic information tools. A computational optimization was achieved for the processing of the variables of level, area and volume of a regulation body respect to the use of traditional methodologies. To validate the developed tool, the capacity curves of regulation volume of the Minas - San Francisco reservoir located in the south of the Republic of Ecuador were obtained. This reservoir was designed to dislodge its sediments with washing processes. This fact has motivated the continuous monitoring of the morphological conditions of the reservoir to plan maintenance processes due to the loss of volume and to the deposit of particles from its tributaries. In addition, an analysis based on wavelets curves was applied to the digital elevation models obtained from LiDAR techniques and bathymetric echo sounder to demonstrate the sedimentation processes that occur in this body of regulation.&lt;/p&gt;

Rural Electrification Pathways: An Implementation of LEAP and GIS Tools in Mali

Remote rural populations do not often have the luxury of viable multisource electricity generation systems. Considering fossil fuels for remote populated areas is not often a viable option due to the fuel transportation costs and the population’s socioeconomic status. Extending the grid is often economically prohibitive. This paper proposes possible ways in which Mali could increase the rate of population with access to electricity by 2050 using Low Emission Analysis Platform (LEAP) and geographical information tools. The current energy situation is assessed, and multiple demand and supply scenarios are created to find the most viable option in environmental and economic dimensions. A minimum of 50% reduction of biomass consumption in the residential sector and a maximum of 71% was achieved through the combination of grid extension and decentralized solar PV. Solar PV becomes the preferable option when enough time for the effects of electricity on income is given. When these effects are not present, solar PV is still a better option, as the amount of biomass replaced with electricity is reduced.

Precision Agriculture Workflow, from Data Collection to Data Management Using FOSS Tools: An Application in Northern Italy Vineyard

In the past decades, technology-based agriculture, also known as Precision Agriculture (PA) or smart farming, has grown, developing new technologies and innovative tools to manage data for the whole agricultural processes. In this framework, geographic information, and spatial data and tools such as UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and multispectral optical sensors play a crucial role in the geomatics as support techniques. PA needs software to store and process spatial data and the Free and Open Software System (FOSS) community kept pace with PA’s needs: several FOSS software tools have been developed for data gathering, analysis, and restitution. The adoption of FOSS solutions, WebGIS platforms, open databases, and spatial data infrastructure to process and store spatial and nonspatial acquired data helps to share information among different actors with user-friendly solutions. Nevertheless, a comprehensive open-source platform that, besides processing UAV data, allows directly storing, visualising, sharing, and querying the final results and the related information does not exist. Indeed, today, the PA’s data elaboration and management with a FOSS approach still require several different software tools. Moreover, although some commercial solutions presented platforms to support management in PA activities, none of these present a complete workflow including data from acquisition phase to processed and stored information. In this scenario, the paper aims to provide UAV and PA users with a FOSS-replicable methodology that can fit farming activities’ operational and management needs. Therefore, this work focuses on developing a totally FOSS workflow to visualise, process, analyse, and manage PA data. In detail, a multidisciplinary approach is adopted for creating an operative web-sharing tool able to manage Very High Resolution (VHR) agricultural multispectral-derived information gathered by UAV systems. A vineyard in Northern Italy is used as an example to show the workflow of data generation and the data structure of the web tool. A UAV survey was carried out using a six-band multispectral camera and the data were elaborated through the Structure from Motion (SfM) technique, resulting in 3 cm resolution orthophoto. A supervised classifier identified the phenological stage of under-row weeds and the rows with a 95% overall accuracy. Then, a set of GIS-developed algorithms allowed Individual Tree Detection (ITD) and spectral indices for monitoring the plant-based phytosanitary conditions. A spatial data structure was implemented to gather the data at canopy scale. The last step of the workflow concerned publishing data in an interactive 3D webGIS, allowing users to update the spatial database. The webGIS can be operated from web browsers and desktop GIS. The final result is a shared open platform obtained with nonproprietary software that can store data of different sources and scales.

Use of Land Surface Temperature Estimation with Geographical Information Tools for Validation of Numerical Microclimate Studies at Urban Scale

For this study, different approaches found in the literature to obtain the Land Surface Temperature (LST) were evaluated through Geographic Information tools, to validate the temperature results obtained from dynamic simulations at urban scale with the Envi-met software. Here, the case study is an urban section of the Historic center of Panama City named Casco Antiguo. From the dynamic simulation results, the surface temperature was analyzed for March at 15:00. Concerning the results obtained for March, the Online Global Land Surface Temperature Estimation tool provided the best characteristics when validating the data obtained with Envi-met. It was found that the Landsat 7 images, applying the emissivity method ASTER and NDVI, provided data more stable and closer to the ones we wanted to validate.

Compositional Data Analysis Approach in the Measurement of Social-Spatial Segregation: Towards a Sustainable and Inclusive City

The location and context in which people live influences and conditions their opportunities in life. This becomes relevant in a world subject to rapid urban and demographic growth, in which different economic, social, and political forces generate and accentuate disparities in cities. The foregoing generates an unequal distribution of the different social groups in the territory known as socio-spatial segregation. The study of this phenomenon incorporates a large number of variables belonging to different dimensions. Nonetheless, few studies have addressed socio-spatial segregation with a multivariate analysis approach. In addition, the existing studies may have obtained misleading outcomes by not acknowledging the inherent compositional nature of their variables. The objective of the present study is twofold: (i) To assess whether the phenomenon of socio-spatial segregation in Guadalajara, Mexico exists; and (ii) to introduce and stress the use of compositional techniques for the study of socio-spatial segregation. The study applied principal component analysis and cluster analysis considering the compositional nature of census variables, particularly from economic and educative indicators. In addition, the study used geographical information tools to depict and interpret the results. The results are intended to serve in the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals towards inclusive and sustainable cities.

TERRITORIAL DEVELOPMENT OF LAND USE IN THE REGION: EXPERIENCE OF COASTAL REGIONS OF CHINA

The necessity of ensuring the territorial development of land use is proved. The relevance of substantiating the experience of ensuring the territorial development of land use in the regions of China is determined. The purpose of the study is to determine the theoretical base and research experience in ensuring the territorial development of land use in coastal regions of China. The objectives of the study in the context of achieving the goal are: substantiation of theoretical and methodological approaches to the determination of the territorial development of regional land; identification of the peculiarities of ensuring the territorial development of the territory of land, taking into account the experience of coastal regions of China Given the theoretical basis for determining the territorial development of the use of land in the regions, taking into account the features of the functioning of coastal cities, the territorial development model, where spatial, urban, investment and environmental factors are determined, forms the appropriate quantitative basis and applies modern information systems. The necessity of developing a high-quality innovative technology to ensure the territorial development of the use of land in the regions is explained, it connects system spatial, urban planning, investment and environmental factors, modern methods and models, geographic information tools, which is a geofactorial analysis. The analysis has identified spatial, urban, investment and environmental factors, established criteria for their selection. The model of territorial development is proposed, given the experience of land use in coastal regions of China.

Creation of Methods for Automated Determination of Forest Parameters Based on Data from UAVS

The article presents a scientific study on the use of aerial photographs obtained by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), for the automated collection of data on forest resources in the taiga forests of the European North of Russia. On the example of the trial plot, a technique is described for automated allocation of crown contours, calculation of the trunk diameter and timber stock in the forest area. The methodology used morphological methods for processing digital images, geographic information tools for representing and processing spatial information, as well as the results of statistical observations of leading scientists in the field of forestry. The results have been verified in the field in several plots. The technique is applicable to automate the process of thematic interpretation of orthorectified aerial photographs with a spatial resolution of five to ten centimeters per pixel. The experiments presented in the article were carried out on images of forests in the north of the European part of Russia. The research results are used for regular automated updating of information on forest resources.

SMARTPHONE-BASED VOLUNTEERED GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION (VGI) FOR SLUM MAPPING IN POKHARA CITY OF NEPAL

Abstract. Informal settlements in urban areas are increasing rapidly throughout the world and regularisation of these settlements is being one of the challenging issues. Various study results have shown that conventional cadastral based information system approach and government managed institutional arrangements do not appropriately address land management issues of slum settlements. The aim of this study is to explore application of smartphone based Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) and open spatial tools for slum mapping in developing countries such as in Nepal. A case of Pokhara Metropolitan city has been considered to explore the potential of utilization of smartphone based VGI and open spatial tools for slum mapping. Attribute and spatial data were collected using Smartphones and community-driven approach. Spatial and attribute data collected from 229 respondents of household’s surveys are integrated, analysed and interpreted and presented in this paper. Open Street Map (OSM) platforms and QGIS open source software have been used for slum mapping. These maps could play an important role in providing spatial information to the local government and planning authority in Nepal. This research paper concludes that smartphone based VGI and open portals such OSM have great potential to contribute to develop slum database and in providing information to plan various strategies, which aims at understanding, regularisation and upgrading slums.

Modern Epidemiological and Epizootiological Situation on Ixodic Tick-Borne Borreliosis in the South of the European Part of Russia

The aim is to analyze the current epidemiological and epizootiological situation on ixodic tick-bome borreliosis in the South of the European part of Russia. Materials and methods . The research materials were the epidemiological and epizootiological data for 2014-2018 provided by the Rospotrebnadzor Departments, the Hygiene and Epidemiology Centers of the North Caucasian and Southern Federal Districts, and regional anti-plague institutions: Stavropol, Volgograd and Rostov-on-Don research anti-plague institutes, Astrakhan, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkar, Black Sea, North Caucasus, Elista plague control stations, as well as the plague control station of the Republic of Crimea. The data of scientific publications on epizooitological monitoring, the species composition of vectors and agents of tick-borne borreliosis involved in the epizootic and epidemic process in the region were studied. In the study descriptive, analytical epidemiological methods, retrospective epidemiological and cartographic analyzes were used. Results and discussion . It has been noted that in 1999, the incidence of tick-borne borreliosis in the South of the European part of Russia, has occurred in 11 of the 15 administrative regions. The incidence of tick-borne borreliosis in the Republic of Kalmykia, has not been recorded since 2007, in the Chechen Republic - since 2014. To clarify the sources of tick-borne borreliosis infection in the territory of the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, the Volgograd and Rostov Regions, the Republic of Dagestan and the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, and also, to determine the boundaries of natural and natural-anthropurgic foci of ixodic tick-borne borreliosis constant epizootiological monitoring is required. In addition, it is necessary to create a unified algorithm for monitoring natural foci, to analyze data using modern geographic information and statistical tools.

Decoding of Place Names as Geographical Information Tools

From the perspective of geography, place names are not only identifiers on maps and in the territory. They also constitute a source of geographic information of enormous value. Place names designate and, eventually, describe the place they refer to and they provide more or less explicit information about it. But each name also codifies specific information about the place that may only be decoded in its particular context, through the individual analysis of a toponym. Each place name is tied up with a specific and unrepeatable idea of the place. Consequently, place names are valuable tools for geographers in their task of ‘reading’ and analysing places.This paper aims at achieving a better understanding of the possibilities and boundaries of place names as geographical information tools. Thus, information derived from place names is analysed by the way it is collected, interpreted and transmitted by the residents of the place through fieldwork, ethnographic surveys and documentary archive analysis as well as mental maps. Also, the ability of place names to influence the discourse about a certain place is highlighted. Finally, a categorisation of the relationships local residents establish with the place names they use is proposed.