Geo-referenced Information System Research Articles

Reconfigurando Trujillo: Un estudio de la sintaxis espacial y su influencia para la articulación territorial y optimización urbana

This study analyzes the influence of spatial syntax on articulation in 36 urban sectors of Trujillo, with the objective of identifying strategies to optimize the planning and urban design of the city. Through a detailed analysis of the spatial conFiguration, we seek to understand how the relationships between different urban components affect territorial and social cohesion. Likewise, this knowledge can be applied to improve the integration and functionality of urban spaces, using geo-referenced information systems applied in the analysis of spatial syntax and its four dimensions, patterns of connectivity, accessibility and spatial segregation were identified. The findings reveal that the nine sectors with high spatial integration promote greater social interaction and accessibility, while the nine sectors with low connectivity present challenges in terms of segregation and isolation. These results underscore the importance of incorporating principles of spatial syntax into urban planning and management to foster more cohesive and equitable performance-based environments. The study concludes with specific recommendations addressed to urban planners and designers, highlighting the need for integrated approaches that consider spatial complexity for effective territorial articulation in Trujillo.

Industrial Waste Heat District-Heating Design Based on Geographic Information System: Case Study in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain)

The use of georeferenced information system and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data in combination with traditional data analytics tools is very promising in urban scale engineering and especially in energy urban planning. This paper explores the use of new DH networks for industrial waste heat exploitation and for that purpose, a case-study in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain) is proposed. The methodology explained in this paper explores the incorporation of data from industrial emplacements, buildings and road network in order to identify optimal areas in the city for the construction of a new district-heating network. An area of influence of a buffer of radius 1.5km from the industry location is defined and the proposed algorithm divides this area into grids of different sizes. The path for the network is calculated by optimizing the economic performance of the network. The results show that the district-heating may be built in the south-west direction from the industry and among the 40 configurations studied, payback periods from 6 to 8.5 years are obtained.

A internacionalização da Sociologia brasileira

The article deals with the theme of internationalization in the Brazilian postgraduate scenario, while analyzing the area of Sociology through the academic exchange flows designed by master and doctoral students. The main objective of the text is to apprehend one of the angles of internationalization underway in Brazilian Sociology through two analytical categories, namely: the longitudinal increase of CAPES scholarships abroad and the destinations of students with a full doctorate, sandwich doctorate, full master and sandwich master from the graduate programs in the area. For this, we combine quantitative and qualitative approaches and stages of literature review, working with secondary data from the CAPES Georeferenced Information System and statistical and longitudinal analysis of the data. The study demonstrated important movements towards the consolidation of the international experience of graduate students as a crucial element for the establishment of: international research networks, dissemination of research carried out in Brazil, circulation in different continents and the recognition of Brazilian Sociology in the global scientific field.

Georeferenced Information System as a Tool in the Quantification of Protection Areas

The use of georeferenced systems has been widely used to obtain data on the quality of the environment, aiming to quantify how areas are being occupied, and how natural reserves are being affected as a result of human action. The Sanga Mineira microbasin belongs to the Paraná basin 3 and is considered one of the main water reservoirs in the municipality of Mercedes, with 120 properties in its territory, whose main source of income is agriculture and livestock. For the expansion of monoculture areas, many areas of Legal Reserve and Permanent Preservation are being destroyed by farmers, causing a series of environmental imbalances. Thus, through the above, the research aimed to quantify the areas of Legal Reserve (RL) and Permanent Preservation Area (PPA) in the Sanga Mineira microbasin, using the Georeferenced Information System (GIS), in addition to detecting the main changes that occurred as a result of the change in the Forest Code, to assess whether the new laws have helped to improve the sustainability of the environment. Methodological technical procedures the SPRING program was used to evaluate 97 properties, of which the three main land use classes were verified: Permanent Preservation Area, Legal Reserve Area and Total Consolidated Area. It was concluded that there was a decrease in the Legal Reserve areas and an increase in the areas of APP’s and Total Consolidated Area.

Flood risk management in the Souss watershed

Flooding is the most devasting natural hazards that causes more damage throughout the world. In 2016, for the fourth year in a row, it was the most costly natural disaster, in terms of global economic losses: $ 62 billion, according to a Benfield’s 2016 annual report on climate and natural disasters [1]. The semi-arid to arid Souss watershed is vulnerable to floods, whose the intensity is becoming increasingly alarming and this area does not escape to the effects of this extreme event.. Indeed, the susceptibility of this region to this type of hazard is accentuated by its rapid evolution in terms of demography, uncontrolled land use, anthropogenic actions (uncontrolled urbanization, encroachment of the hydraulic public domain, overgrazing, clearing and deforestation).), and physical behavior of the environment (higher slope, impermeable rocks, etc.). It is in this context, that we have developed a strategic plan of action to manage this risk in the Souss basin in order to reduce the human, economic and environmental losses, after the modeling of the flood hazard in the study area, using georeferenced information systems (GIS), satellite remote sensing space and multi-criteria analysis techniques, as well as the history of major floods. This study, which generated the high resolution 30m flood hazard spatial distribution map of with accuracy of 85%, represents a decision tool to identify and prioririze area with high probability of hazard occurrence. It can also serve as a basis for urban evacuation plans for anticipating and preventing flood risk in the region, in order to ovoid any dramatic disaster.

Economic feasibility of residential and commercial PV technology: The Chilean case

This study presents an economic analysis of residential and commercial Photovoltaic (PV) systems in Chile. Continental Chile presents good solar resource and is also an interesting country for developing PV projects of all sizes (large-scale, commercial and residential). The analysis was performed on the two largest electric power systems, specifically on the 314 districts of 13 regions of Chile, taking into account the actual Chilean regulatory framework. Economic performance results of the residential and commercial PV systems were obtained and presented in geo referenced information systems (GIS) maps. The results show that almost all the country exhibits a great potential, obtaining in several locations an IRR higher than the reference value (5%/yr.) for both schemes (residential and commercial), highlighting that the central-north region reaches the highest IRR values. It was found that districts can be characterized by the electricity tariffs in clusters that increase the IRR linearly with the specific yield [kWh/kWp]. This study is of primordial importance for the development of renewable energies in the region, giving further understanding on the economic feasibility of the photovoltaic technology throughout the country.

Market and Potential of Small Hydro Power Plant’s Certified Emission Reductions in Brazil

The Kyoto Protocol proposes the use of market instruments to meet the goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the countries that signed it. One such instrument introducing carbon trading is the clean development mechanism (CDM). Transactions based on certified emission reduction units (CERs) tend to increase the attractiveness of a project because they increase the internal rate of return. This paper aims to survey projects and determine the potential for CDM as it relates to small hydro power (SHP) in Brazil, analyzing the economic growth in these endeavors if they sold CERs. Data for CDM projects were found in the database of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the projects used were obtained from the National Agency of Electric Energy and a geo-referenced information system of the power sector. The CERs were calculated for a period of 21 years based on UNFCCC methodologies. The theoretical potential of CERs for SHPs in Brazil that have not started construction exceeds 340 million tonne carbon dioxide equivalent over the next 21 years.

Water availability and crop growth at the crop plot level in South Africa modelled from satellite imagery

SUMMARYAlthough the effect of weather on crop growth has been studied widely, the contribution of other water sources has been less well studied, mainly due to data limitation. To address this gap, the current analysis considers the importance of water availability on crop growth by taking advantage of crop field boundaries and information on South Africa's four major grain producing provinces (Northwest, Mpumalanga, Free State and Gauteng) provided by the Agricultural Geo-referenced Information System dataset. To capture crop growth along the crop growing cycle at the plot level, the MODIS's MOD13Q1 dataset of 16-day normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was used. To estimate the determinants of crop growth, weather effects were considered and represented by rainfall and reference evapotranspiration satellite derived data provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's RFE and GDAS dataset, respectively. Hydrologic and irrigation determinants were estimated based on the HYDRO1K river network dataset produced by the US Geological Survey. The results show that although weather is an important explanatory factor, other sources of water, such as irrigation, proximity to perennial and ephemeral rivers, and stream flow are also influential. Taking into account the interaction effects between weather and water availability related factors is also important to determine the effect of water availability on crop growth.

La geología, geomorfología, pedología y uso de la tierra en las municipalidades de Puerto López (Colombia) y Uberlândia (Brasil)

Debido a la preocupación en elevar la calidad de vida de los habitantes en Brasil y en Colombia, se desarrollaron estudios aislados para conocer los principales recursos físicos y humanos y así, establecer normas para una adecuada administración y aprovechamiento del territorio. El objetivo de este trabajo fue mapear y comparar la geología, la geomorfología, los suelos y el uso de la tierra y cobertura vegetal natural, de las altillanuras en los municipios de Uberlândia (Brasil) y Puerto López (Colombia). Fue utilizado el Sistema de Procesamiento de Informaciones Georreferenciadas (SPRING) para el almacenamiento, manipulación y procesamiento de informaciones colectadas en el campo y en las imágenes de satélite. Los resultados muestran que existen variadas e importantes diferencias entre los municipios de Puerto López y Uberlândia, lo que hace que sea reconsiderada la idea de hacer transferencias de paquetes tecnológicos no modificables, en relación a las condiciones propias de cada lugar, donde serán implementados. No es recomendable usar deliberadamente los mismos métodos o tecnologías para la producción agrícola en los dos municipios.

Decision support–oriented selection of remediation technologies to rehabilitate contaminated sites

AbstractA methodology for selecting remediation technologies is presented as part of a decision support system for the rehabilitation of contaminated sites. It includes 2 steps: In the 1st step, a pool of suitable technologies is selected within a technologies database according to their applicability to site‐specific conditions; in the 2nd step, the selected technologies are ranked according to a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach. The MCDA was applied to allow for a transparent procedure and for the integration of expert analyses. The methodology was implemented in a previously developed georeferenced information system–based decision support system for the rehabilitation of contaminated sites and then applied to a case study (Porto Marghera, Venice, Italy). On the basis of the obtained results, the proposed methodology appeared suitable to select remediation technologies according to both technical features and requirements of available technologies, as well as site‐specific environmental conditions of the site of concern, such as chemical contamination levels and remediation objectives.

Integrated Toposequence Analyses to combine local and scientific knowledge systems

Integrated Toposequence Analysis (ITA) was used to integrate scientific and local knowledge on land resources and land use systems and to identify factors determining land use and land resource management. The application of ITA at different toposequence types resulted in a nested, geo-referenced information system relevant to different decision-making levels, and demonstrated the variation in soils, land cover/use and cropping systems between landform complexes (macro), unit landforms (meso) and facets (micro) at the Nsukka Agricultural Zone (southeastern Nigeria). The local soil classification was coupled to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources using the results of three toposequences and eight soil profile pits. Despite the overall low soil fertility, distinct differences in cropping systems and cultivation techniques were practised. Local land use and management decisions were guided by the local soil classification and depended on the position in the landscape, the soil texture, occurrence of ironstone and soil colour to tillage depth. The local knowledge provided insights in present management strategies, whereas the scientific information demonstrated the constraints on present land use systems.