Geographic Information System Project Research Articles

The Spatial Politics of Affect and Emotion in Participatory GIS

Researchers have traditionally used participatory geographic information systems (PGIS) projects to inject indigenous voices into the political sphere as they work for various legal rights. Due to their participatory nature, however, these projects can also have complex effects on the emotional and affective well-being of participating communities. This article examines how the authors' participatory research with the Maijuna people of the Peruvian Amazon resulted in many positive, affective, and emotional results outside of the final map product. Although the project was initiated as an attempt to produce a map that the Maijuna could use in pursuit of land rights, methodological choices made by the authors also produced positive emotions in participants, political bonding, and community-wide education. While their importance to the political momentum of marginalized communities cannot be overstated, geographers have yet to fully problematize the relationship between these affective and emotional results and their own methodological choices. This article argues that researchers should begin engaging in more affective and emotional thinking when constructing their research methodologies, to both improve the results of their project and to mitigate potential problems.

Fiscal Demarcations and Financial Power in Castile during a Transition Century (1450-1550): Analysis with GIS Technologies

This project, funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (HA R2010-15168), focuses on the Castilian fiscal system during the formation of the modern state. The project members seek to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies to construct a financial map of the kingdom and to demarcate its fiscal jurisdictions. We will then analyze quantitatively the growth of taxes in different regions, the methods used to collect them, and the financial networks undergirded by them.The fiscal data will be tagged to the Atlas de El Escorial, one of the most detailed sixteenth-century Castilian maps, to approximate the perception of space that people had in the sixteenth century and to ascertain if any relationship existed between, on the one hand, royal officials' knowledge of space and, on the other hand, the way that tax collection was carried out in early modern Castile. That is, was there a correlation between tax collection from various locales and geographical knowledge of those spaces? How did royal officials understand space in relation to taxation? The Atlas, then, might offer answers to these and other questions once the towns, bridges, rivers, mountain passes, and so forth have been properly geo-referenced and tagged.Better knowledge of these fiscal jurisdictions and of tax collection will also shed new light on the nature of power in the early modern world. Kings relied on local oligarchies (town councils, gentry, and clergy) to apportion and to collect taxes on the local level. In turn, the local notables often negotiated lower payments for themselves or apportioned the lion's share of the tax allocation to others. Thus more productive lands frequently had lower tax assessments than poorer lands. The crown in each fiscal jurisdiction also used its authority to grant individuals, corporations, and lands exemptions from taxation. Identifying the spatial dimensions of these privileges and exemptions will allow us to probe more deeply the relationship between space and power.Moreover, the project seeks to delineate the financial networks that transferred these monies from localities to the royal court or to the king's bankers in Italy or Northern Europe. For instance, loan contracts often specified that bankers be repaid from tax revenues in specific fiscal jurisdictions. So GIS technology should allow us to calculate the amount of tax revenues that actually left a region and the extent to which rural areas were connected to the international banking networks of Europe.The other benefit of GIS software is its ability to layer data from overlapping fiscal jurisdictions. By layering distinct tax information, we can determine more accurately the total amount of taxes collected from various regions as well as the relative size of specific taxes in certain years. For instance, clergy in the archdiocese of Toledo regularly contributed to royal coffers by providing a subsidy. This information on an extraordinary tax can be integrated with fiscal data from ordinary taxes (e.g., alcabalas and tercias) in two ways: first, with statistical analysis where a combination of both is calculated; and second, by superimposing a map of the archdiocese and maps of fiscal demarcations (partidos fiscales) to visualize fiscal spaces. This kind of mapping could show how, where, and why church divisions have affected the development of civil demarcations before the nineteenth-century Spanish nation-state. Moreover, such layering will allow us to gain a better sense of how much money particular regions paid in a given year and to better understand the fiscal burdens placed on taxpayers throughout Castile.One challenge for all GIS projects is to select a program. After examining several options, it was decided that free and open source software best met the project's requirements. In particular, we needed a system that allows for the management of a geographic database and has the ability to visualize and to analyze the datasets both spatially and temporally. …

Ensaio de operacionalização de Indicadores de Desenvolvimento Sustentável por modelação geográfica

PRACTICE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS BY GEOGRAPHIC MODELING. This article presents a proposal of how to put in practice the concept of sustainable development - that as been strictly seeing in a theoretical point of view, as well a tribune speech and with very imprecise conceptual boundaries – supported by the use of Geographic Information System (GIS). The exercise mentioned here it’s only the technical part of a more extensive project, it could be resume in three steps: 1) research – definition and enlightening of sustainable development concept, indicators definition, determination of theorist and methodological frame. 2) practice – identification and acquisition of important information, editing and validating information, creating a GIS project, definition and construction of sustainable development indicators, adaptation and conception of geographic model. 3) Analysis – collect and interpretation of geographic model results by confronting it to some theories claimed by important researchers. For the exercise setting up, as well to develop the conceptual methodology of casual model, GIS as been a fundamental instrument to acquire, integrate, manipulate, manage and visualize geographic information

A New Dynamic Form Component Oriented GIS Applications

A new dynamic form component applicable to be integrated with GIS (Geographic information system) was developed to meet the needs of the geographic information industry and the demands of GIS customers. The general framework of the dynamic form component and adopted key technologies such as dynamic compilation and reflection are studied. Practical applications in GIS projects show that the dynamic form component can effectively improve the development speed and quality of GIS applications, and can provide appropriate user interactive abilities.

Exploring the Complexities of Community Engaged GIS

Participatory GIS projects are increasingly popular in urban governance. This paper explores the complexities of a community involved pilot project that was implemented in the town of Verona, Wisconsin and critically examines their GIS (Geographic Information Systems) practices and the support structures that played an important role in facilitating GIS use. The paper first traces the evolution of the project, and the role of the various actors in shaping it and then shows that relations between key institutions and actors played a crucial role in shaping the pilot project. While inherently supportive, these actors occupied a dominant power position, setting a top down tone to the project from its onset. As such, the project simultaneously enhanced and constricted the process of participation and spatial knowledge production of the community residents.

Web-Based solution for Mapping Application using Open-Source Software Server

Web GIS is an advance technology to manage and display all geographical locations on the earth surface. This paper deals with road analysis, to find the shortest path of route etc. so that these types of information can be displayed using Geographical Information System (GIS) technique. The approach combines both spatial and non-spatial data. This paper highlight, the suitability to handle spatial and non-spatial attributes of road features and to display and publish in web based GIS platform. This also commences the suitable software server. This paper deals with Web mapping application using different free tools and Open Source Software server (FOSS) and provides the free server solutions. Open-source software has the advantages of low cost, high stability and security, so it is preferred by the small and medium-sized Web GIS project. In this paper Web based Web-GIS architecture is described and implemented using open source Web-GIS tools like GeoServer, PostGIS and OpenLayers. An area of Bhopal City, M.P. Nagar has been chosen and road network was created in Q-GIS and published in WebGIS Server solutions. This has been used for centralized visualization of geospatial data present in various spatial databases located in different locations. This may have help to developing countries which cannot afford to use such solution. Hence there was a necessity of an open source Web-GIS application that should be both powerful for visualizing and cost effective. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ij-ict.v1i2.1490 Full Text: PDF

모바일 환경에서 지도 서비스를 위한 공간 객체 변환기의 개발

Since the national standard topographic map is made by DXF format which is the results of the National Geographic Information System project and lots of CAD data and scanners can be used to acquire the data easily, the imports of existing DXF file will decrease the costs and time for data acquisition process. In addition, the spatial data such as topographic map should be able to convert to the middle file format such as PostScript in order to be exported into other systems. For this purpose, I design and implement three units of modules, which are File Manipulation Module, MVF Import Module, and MVF Export Module. Finally, I verify the actual transformation of topographic map that are DXF file format by conducting the series of tests.

Low-altitude outbreaks of human fascioliasis related with summer rainfall in Gilan province, Iran

Following human fascioliasis outbreaks in 1988 and 1999 in Gilan province, northern Iran, efforts are now made to shed light on the seasonal pattern of fascioliasis transmission in this endemic area, taking into account snail host populations, climatic conditions and human cases. Populations of the intermediate host snail (Lymnaea spp.) peak in May and November, while there is a fourfold increase in the rate of human fascioliasis in February compared to that of September. Transmission is likely to occur mainly in late autumn and sporadically in late spring. Rainfall, seasonally analysed in periods of 3 years, indicates that accumulated summer rainfall may be related with the 1988 and 1999 human fascioliasis outbreaks. Although a more detailed picture, based on the analysis of further abiotic and biotic factors influencing fascioliasis transmission in this area, is required to substantiate this hypothesis, our results serve as the first step of a geographical information system project concerning the epidemiological study of fascioliasis in Iran. This local-scale study concerning the effects of climate change and natural disasters on the spread of fascioliasis aims to facilitate the understanding of what goes on at the regional scale in this respect.

AN EVALUATION OF STUDENT SATISFACTION WITH GIS PROJECT FOR DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS AND BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE COURSES

AITP as a worldwide society of information technology business professionals has accommodated a Business Intelligence – Geographical Information Systems (GIS) contest in its annual collegiate conference in the past five years. The contest requires participants to use a commercial GIS application, Excel, and decision making knowledge to solve a ‘real-world’ business problem. It has been well received by contestants and used by some instructors attending the conference. This study reported the adoption and implementation of the GIS project in its Decision Support Systems/Business Intelligence courses by a large mid-western university. A survey was carried out to find the participants’ attitude and perception of the project. Research results show that the GIS project is appropriate for DSS/BI courses and well received by Information Systems undergraduate and graduate students.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in public library assessment

Abstract This paper details three projects utilizing geographic systems (GIS) in the assessment of public libraries. The benefits of GIS include the abilities to generate maps to convey more than through other means and to allow for spatial analysis of library services. This paper includes specific examples of uses implemented by the authors. GIS allowed the authors to display data related to library service and identify various disparities across service areas. In addition, this paper discusses practical issues of GIS for library researchers and practitioners based upon the knowledge gained through the development of the three GIS projects discussed here. Keywords: Geographic systems, Public libraries, Evaluation, Library services, Information policy Introduction Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are computer-based tool[s] for the input, storage, management, retrieval, update, analysis and output of information (United Nations, 2000, p. 121). For public libraries, GIS have been used to analyze and display data in predominantly two different ways (1) analyzing service area populations and (2) managing facilities and collections (Bishop & Mandel, 2010). For example, to analyze service area populations, user demographics may be entered into GIS and projected over street maps. Then, a public library can see where its service population lives in relation to library branches. Similar analyses may be conducted for managing facilities and collections, albeit at different granularity than viewing a countywide spread of user populations. Instead of mapping user demographics at a countywide, street, or other level outside the library, GIS can be used to analyze in-library use data and occupancy of library study space by mapping locations of users and materials within the facility at samples times in order to assess those library services. A literature review performed in 2010 of library research that uses GIS as a tool to assess and analyze library services discusses 34 articles indexed in the Library Literature and Information Full Text and LISTA Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts databases (Bishop & Mandel, 2010). One of the limitations of that literature review was the unknown numbers of library consultation projects that do not disseminate knowledge gained through the use of GIS via academic publications. Perhaps consultation projects do not publish because they might lack rigorous methodology required for peer-reviewed publications or, simply, their clients do not wish to make findings public for privacy purposes and competitive advantage. In an effort to fill this void, this paper shares knowledge gained from three previously unpublished projects utilizing GIS, in hopes of adding to the foundation of library research in the GIS area. The majority of research articles found in the literature review provided only the end result of analysis and the end products (i.e., maps) of their projects with little discussion of methods and strategies to assist future projects or duplicate studies (Bishop & Mandel, 2010). A potential reason that prior GIS research in library and science (LIS) lacks discussion of specific methodological issues and strategies within may be due to the difficulty of explaining cartographic and geographic principles to non-GIS expert readers. This paper presents a more lengthy discussion on methodological, cost, educational, and political issues for the use of GIS in LIS as well as introducing next steps, such as education and training of LIS researchers, educators, and stakeholder groups. GIS applications in LIS research are slowly developing, but as the literature review indicates (Bishop & Mandel, 2010 ), they are expanding. This paper is intended to contribute to the literature on uses of GIS in LIS research by providing overviews of three research projects in which the Information Use Management and Policy Institute (Information Institute (www. …

GIS and remote-sensing-based urban-information system design and development: A case study for Kozlu, Zonguldak

Urban growth is inevitable over the next two decades. The bulk of this growth will take place in less developed countries. This growth presents a formidable challenge for urban planners and managers. In this context, we consider some of the ways urban planners can make use of the recent developments in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote-Sensing (RS) technology to respond to this challenge. GIS projects were initiated in late 1980s in Turkey by both the public and private sectors. Currently, GIS and RS technology play very important roles for urban managers. At the present time, RS technologies are being continually improved; new satellites have been launched with imaging abilities enhanced by new techniques, allowing images to be obtained faster and at higher quality. Current applications use these imagery data for many purposes, among them automatic feature extraction from high-resolution satellite imagery. In this context, automatic and manual object extraction and GIS are the most important issues. In this study, the primary issue was the design and development of Urban Information Systems (UISs); another, more specific, goal was to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of OrbView-3 and IKONOS imagery for their use in UIS. A test case, consisting of a UIS design, development and application, was executed for the Kozlu, Turkey area. Automatic and manual extraction methods were employed using pan-sharpened IKONOS and OrbView-3 images of the Kozlu urban test area. The NetCAD v5.0, eCognition v4.0.6 and MapInfo v9.0 software packages were used for automatic and manual extraction analyses. Digital reference-vector data were obtained from large-scale digital maps. The extracted results were then compared with a database of reference digital building and road information created from large-scale digital maps in a GIS software package. Thus, utilizing GIS-based analyses, the availability of UIS updating was tested with high-resolution imagery. Key words: Urban information systems, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote-Sensing (RS), high-resolution imagery.

Ways of seeing environmental change: Participatory research engagement in Yunnan, China, with ethnic minority Hani participants

AbstractIn this article, I reflect on a participatory learning and action (PLA) and participatory geographic information system (PGIS) project undertaken in two adjacent Hani villages in southern Yunnan, China. After a lengthy process to gain research authorisations, Hani villagers worked with a group of visiting researchers (Hani, Han Chinese and New Zealanders) to articulate local visions of land‐use change and environmental challenges. PLA exercises produced a diverse range of hand‐made and PGIS products over a 10‐week period. As villagers became more accustomed to the ‘outsider team’, methods – both designed and spontaneous – diversified. Afterwards, based on the results and acting on their own initiative, local leaders backed by popular support moved quickly to reassert traditional and ritually prescribed Hani conservation measures. Nevertheless, these endogenously driven solutions were not necessarily universally beneficial. In describing the complexities encountered in implementing a participatory framework and the ambiguities of the outcomes engendered, I argue that privileging local coherence and celebrating such participatory approaches should not be done at the expense of ignoring the intricacies of on‐going contradictory behaviours in a rapidly changing arena. Yet, in China, where authorities often remain suspicious of those seeking to undertake long‐term fieldwork, especially among ethnic minorities, PLA offers a potential route forward.

A harmonised GI model for urban governance

Geographic information is a prerequisite for good governance. There are various urban geographic information system projects that have been produced by local governments all over the world. However, there are technical difficulties, a lack of spatial data standards and specific policies governing geographic information system projects. The result of the current situation is that the process of data collection is sometimes inefficient and the quality of the data may be inadequate. Furthermore, there are problems with managing projects and sharing data. The key to resolving these problems is to develop a harmonised geographic information model for the urban governance of Turkey. The model should fulfill the application-driven geographic data needs of local governments and support decision-making processes at regional and national levels. The domain model is an object-relational model and the starting point for creating sector models. The generic conceptual model components were defined to harmonise geographic data and to produce data specifications. In order to enable semantic interoperability unified modelling language has produced the application schemas for data themes such as administrative unit, address, cadastre/building, hydrographic, topography, geodesy, transportation, and land cover/use. The model has been tested and revised with local applications such as economic and demographic spatial analysis cases.

Geography Network for Sharing Geospatial Information in Disaster Management

The Chuetsu earthquake restoration and revival support geographic information system (GIS) project was launched after the 2004 Chuetsu earthquake. It was the first project to gather disaster GIS data at one place, and provide them by Web GIS from off–site of the disaster site in Japan. To facilitate sharing disaster geospatial information, we introduced a framework of Geography Network as GIS portal. The GIS portal was based on loosely–coupled system architecture. Therefore, it was able to change the system structure by system requirement of the project. The GIS portal was used continuously and commonly for the 2005 Fukuoka Earthquake and 2005–2006 Heavy Snow Disaster and the 2007 Chuetsu-Oki Earthquake. In this paper, we define the system requirement to share disaster geospatial information by knowledge from case studies, and describe a practical method to build the framework, demonstrate the benefit from the framework.

Accuracy and cost comparison of spatial data-acquisition methods for the development of geographical information systems

One of the main components of a Geographic Information System (GIS) is the formation of the database. More than 70% of the time and cost is spent on developing this database. The success of a GIS project depends on the accuracy and currentness of the obtained spatial data required for development of the GIS project. This study presents analyses of the accuracy and costs of several methods of obtaining spatial data for a GIS project in a test area selected at the Campus of Konya Selcuk University. The conventional and Real Time Kinematic Global Positioning System methods were found to be appropriate for GIS projects requiring high accuracy (e.g. cadastral, public work, or infrastructure projects). On the other hand, photogrammetric methods, digitising and scanning, and high resolution satellite images (remote sensing) were determined to be the most suitable methods for GIS projects requiring lower accuracy over large areas (e.g. in environmental management, highways, railways, forestry, disaster management, land consolidation). Key words: Geographic Information System (GIS), Global Positioning System (GPS), detail measurements, remote sensing, digital orthophotograph.

A Customization of the Arc Marine Data Model to Support Whale Tracking via Satellite Telemetry

AbstractThe Arc Marine data model is a generalized template to guide the implementation of geographic information systems (GIS) projects in the marine environment. It developed out of a collaborative process involving research and industry shareholders in coastal and marine research. This template models and attempts to standardize common ocean and coastal data types to facilitate data sharing and analytical tool development. In this study, Arc Marine is extended from its core model to fit the research goals of the whale satellite‐telemetry‐tagging program of the Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute (MMI). The study sought the best customization of the generic Arc Marine data model to enhance the key advantages of satellite telemetry for mapping the distribution and movement of endangered marine mammal species. It was found that three new groups of object classes were needed (Animal, Telemetry, and Operations). Further customization involved the development of a comprehensive framework for animal tracking with Argos satellite telemetry data. A new multidimensional data cube model was also devised, showing how this extension of Arc Marine serves as an appropriate target schema for the application of on‐line analytical processing (OLAP) tools and spatial data mining of satellite telemetry tracking datasets.

O SIG na gestão pública: análise crítica de um caso bem-sucedido – desafios e perspectivas

No Brasil, a partir da década de 1990, diversas tecnologias, entre as quais os Sistemas de Informações Geográficas – SIG, adquiriram importância como ferramentas e instrumentos capazes de auxiliar as organizações públicas, prefeituras e municípios nos processos de tomada de decisão e enfrentamento de questões essenciais como o direcionamento apropriado dos investimentos públicos, o monitoramento dos impactos das políticas públicas e a disponibilização de informações atualizadas sobre o território para diferentes usuários, possibilitando análises estratégicas da cidade e da administração municipal. Neste artigo, são introduzidos, na seção 1, os conceitos utilizados no ambiente SIG. Na seção 2, aborda-se a importância da especificação técnica para obtenção dos dados e informações geográficos. Na seqüência, na seção 3, expõem-se as etapas estratégicas de implantação de um projeto SIG. Na seção 4, são apresentados exemplos práticos de aplicações em diferentes áreas da administração pública e sua integração e, em seguida, as considerações finais.

Spatial Approach to Medium-term Coastal Evolution in South Sicily (Italy): Implications for Coastal Erosion Management

Four sets of maps and aerial photographs have been integrated into a Geographic Information System (GIS) project to investigate coastal changes along a 60-km-long littoral sector in south Sicily, Italy. The beaches studied recorded significant morphological changes essentially related to the presence of human structures that interrupted littoral drift. Most of the investigated beaches experienced progressive erosion because of sediments being trapped by human structures resulting in the formation of wide beaches on the updrift side and erosion downdrift. The latter has often been counteracted by the construction of breakwaters. However, local planning authorities did not carry out an assessment of the impacts related to the construction of harbours and ports and their successive enlargement. This article proposes alternative actions concerning the possible future erosion management of the studied littoral.

Equations for estimating global solar radiation in data sparse regions

The knowledge of the amount of solar radiation in an area/region is very essential in the field of Solar Energy Physics. In this work two equations are put forward for estimating global solar radiation from common climate variables in data sparse regions. The first is the Hargreaves equation, R s=0.16 R a T d 0.5 where R a is the extraterrestrial solar radiation and T d is the temperature difference (maximum minus minimum), while the second is the Angstrom equation, R s= R a(0.28+0.39n/N) where n and N are the measured sunshine hours and the maximum daylight duration respectively. The global solar radiation estimated by the two equations for three sites, Owerri (5°28′N, 7°2′E), Umudike (5°29′N, 7°33′E) and Ilorin (8°32′N, 4°46′E), located in different climate zones of in Nigeria, West Africa, are in agreement with those of earlier workers and that from Photovoltaic Geographic Information System (PVGIS) project. The implication of this in solar photovoltaic applications has been stressed.

Remote sensing and climate data as a key for understanding fasciolosis transmission in the Andes: review and update of an ongoing interdisciplinary project

Fasciolosis caused by Fasciola hepatica in various South American countries located on the slopes of the Andes has been recognized as an important public health problem. However, the importance of this zoonotic hepatic parasite was neglected until the last decade. Countries such as Peru and Bolivia are considered to be hyperendemic areas for human and animal fasciolosis, and other countries such as Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela are also affected. At the beginning of the 1990s a multidisciplinary project was launched with the aim to shed light on the problems related to this parasitic disease in the Northern Bolivian Altiplano. A few years later, a geographic information system (GIS) was incorporated into this multidisciplinary project analysing the epidemiology of human and animal fasciolosis in this South American Andean region. Various GIS projects were developed in some Andean regions using climatic data, climatic forecast indices and remote sensing data. Step by step, all these GIS projects concerning the forecast of the fasciolosis transmission risk in the Andean mountain range were revised and in some cases updated taking into account new data. The first of these projects was developed on a regional scale for the central Chilean regions and the proposed model was validated on a local scale in the Northern Bolivian Altiplano. This validated mixed model, based on both fasciolosis climatic forecast indices and normalized difference vegetation index values from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer satellite sensor, was extrapolated to other human and/or animal endemic areas of Peru and Ecuador. The resulting fasciolosis risk maps make it possible to show the known human endemic areas of, mainly, the Peruvian Altiplano, Cajamarca and Mantaro Peruvian valleys, and some valleys of the Ecuadorian Cotopaxi province. Nevertheless, more climate and remote sensing data, as well as more accurate epidemiological reports, have to be incorporated into these GIS projects, which should be considered the key in understanding fasciolosis transmission in the Andes.