Modern Geographic Information Systems Research Articles

Exploring Vegetation Patterns Along an Undefined Boundary

Combining historical land survey field notes and modern Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technique, this essay explores the vegetation pattern in eastern Harrison County in Texas along the Texas—Louisiana border in 1838, the year that marked the beginning of major influx of Anglos into this region. The analysis confirms that the vegetation cover prior to the influx was significantly different from what is there today. This article also demonstrates how GIS can be used to assist in historical research.

Spatial Epidemiology and GIS in Marine Mammal Conservation Medicine and Disease Research

The use of spatial epidemiology and geographical information systems (GIS) facilitates the incorporation of spatial relationships into epidemiological investigations of marine mammal diseases and conservation medicine. Spatial epidemiology is the study of the spatial variation in disease risk or incidence and explicitly addresses spatial structures and functions that factor into disease. The GIS consists of input, management, analysis, and presentation of spatial disease data and can act as an integrative tool so that a range of varied data sources can be combined to describe different environmental aspects of wild animals and their diseases. The use of modern spatial analyses and GIS is becoming well developed in the field of marine mammal ecology and biology, but has just recently started to gain more use in disease research. The use of GIS methodology and spatial analysis in nondisease marine mammal studies is briefly discussed, while examples of the specific uses of these tools in mapping, surveillance and monitoring, disease cluster detection, identification of environmental predictors of disease in wildlife populations, risk assessment, and modeling of diseases, is presented. Marine mammal disease investigations present challenges, such as less consistent access to animals for sampling, fewer baseline data on diseases in wild populations, and less robust epidemiologic study designs, but several recommendations for future research are suggested. Since location is an integral part of investigating disease, spatial epidemiology and GIS should be incorporated as a data management and analysis tool in the study of marine mammal diseases and conservation medicine.

The Ribble Valley: A Methodological Study in Landscape Development

Using modern geographic information systems, it is possible to reconstruct landscapes, not only throughout human history, but also back to the time of the last glaciation. A multi-disciplinary project by Oxford Archaeology North and the University of Liverpool, funded by the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF), implemented by English Heritage, reconstructed the landscapes of the Ribble Valley and Kirkham Moraine in Lancashire, and provided an opportunity for an assessment of different methodological approaches. Many diverse datasets were used in the project, including geological and palaeoecological data, LiDAR, cartographic sources, aerial photography and data from the County's Historic Environment Record. Statistical techniques were then used on the data to highlight patterns in human occupation of the landscape. This resulted in a detailed chronological history, showing the effect of human interaction on fluvial development, and highlighting areas of potential where further archaeology may be discovered. Some methodological techniques such as LiDAR proved very useful for detailed visualisation of landscape and the identification of archaeological sites, whereas statistical analysis was useful in some cases but not in others, demonstrating that qualitative analysis can never be entirely replaced.

A GIS/PSS planning tool for the initial grid connection assessment of renewable generation

A fully integrated planning tool capable of undertaking an initial grid connection assessment for prospective renewable energy generators (REG) has been developed to support the Scottish Executive achieve their targets for renewable energy utilisation, and to assist the Scottish electric utility companies to optimise and expedite the significant volume of applications for new connections. This paper presents the conceptual design of the novel integrated planning tool intended to automate the preliminary grid connection assessments. The computer-based (PC) framework combines the analytical capabilities of modern Geographic Information Systems and existing industry-standard Power Systems Simulators. The tool allows the prompt, automated determination of the preferred grid connection route, coupling points and undertakes a capacity and voltage limit analysis of the technical feasibility analysis of the proposed REG. Simple adjustments are also permitted to investigate constraining the REG development or upgrading (re-conducturing) the existing grid connection lines.

Landscape Analysis as a Tool for Surface Mining Design

Surface mining operations constitute one of the most visible and significant landscape offenders because of their geomorphologic and aesthetic effects. In recent years, the disturbance of the landscape owing to surface mining activities seems to be one of the most significant issues to deal with, as it raises serious conflicts between the public and the extractive industry. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt an environmentally friendly design for an excavation of any possible degree. Thus far, existing visual-impact assessment methodologies provide little support towards this direction as a consequence of their, mainly, qualitative character. In this paper we describe a new, more quantitative, methodological approach which is based on the measurement of topographic relief alteration caused by mining and quarrying works, and which makes use of modern mining software and geographic information systems tools. The methodology provides the means to adjust the excavation design in a way that minimizes visual impacts caused by the landform reprofiling. It can be applied in every stage of the life of a mine project. Moreover, if modified, it can also be used for the estimation of topographic relief alteration in projects within the construction sector that involve significant earthmoving works.

A fully integrated GIS-based model of particulate waste distribution from marine fish-cage sites

Modern Geographical Information System (GIS) offers a powerful modelling environment capable of handling large databases. It is a very suitable environment in which to develop a suite of tools designed for environmental management of aquaculture sites, including carrying capacity prediction, land–water interactions and multi-site effects. One such tool, presented here, is a fully integrated and validated particulate fish waste dispersion module which uses mass balance to estimate waste input and takes account of variable bathymetry and variable settling velocity for feed and faecal components. The model also incorporates the effect of cage movement on waste dispersion, the first such model to do so. When tidal range was low (1.67 m), the maximum movement of a 22 m diameter circular cage was 10.1 m and 7.7 m easting and northing, respectively. Highest deposition from particulate fish waste is under the cage and incorporation of cage movement increased the effective area under a cage by 72%. This reduced peak deposition measurements by up to 32% and reduced the average modelled feed and faecal settlement at the cage centre by 23% and 11%, respectively. The model was validated by comparing model predictions with observed deposition measured using sediment traps during three 2-week field trips at a fish farm on the west coast of Scotland. The mean ratio of observed to predicted waste deposition at 5–25 m from the cage centre ranged from 0.9 to 1.06, whilst under the cage the model over-predicts deposition (observed/predicted = 2.21). Although far-field data was seen to be comparable the near-field discrepancies resulted in variable overall accuracy in the model. The overall accuracy based on August 2001 data was ± 50.9%, on February 2002, ± 72.8% and on April 2002, ± 50.6%. Summarizing the data resulted in an overall average predictive accuracy of ± 58.1%.

Reservoirs' siltation measurments and sediment transport assessment in the Czech Republic, the Vrchlice catchment study

Sediment transport from agricultural land into rivers and reservoirs is a problem within the Czech Republic. This problem was highly accelerated almost 50 years ago during the communist period. At that time strong collectivization was undertaken leading to destruction of traditional landscape patterns, surface outflow, erosion processes intensification and surface water quality deterioration. Thirteen years after political changes erosion problems remain. At the Department of Irrigation, Drainage and Landscape Engineering at the CTU Prague there has been continuous research undertaken in the field of erosion and sediment transport assessment. There are several modelling tools available for this purpose. One of them—USLE (Universal Soil Loss Equation) is commonly used in the Czech Republic for many years at a plot-scale but modern GIS (geographical information systems) tools in computer science allow using it at larger scales. Very important is the validation of this model for two-dimensional topography and GIS routines. Moreover USLE produces only local erosion amount values and has to be completed by another tool to get sediment amounts. For this purpose SDR (sediment delivery ratio) is usually used, applying a lumped approach—total erosion of every watershed is reduced by SDR and by pond’s trapping efficiency. Another available approach is using the Watem/SEDEM model that puts together RUSLE (Revised USLE) and a distributive approach to sediment transport modelling. This has already been used for estimating sediment amount in several catchments of the Czech Republic, but has to be validated as well. At the Dept. of Drainage, Irrigation and Landscape Engineering there are datasets of sediment amount from different reservoirs available and other reservoirs are to be measured soon. As the dataset of various watersheds is expanded, a methodology for sediment amount measurements is needed. The main objective of this paper is to propose a simple methodology to measure the sediment amount within reservoirs as well as to present a review of available methods. The application of the methodology at Vrchlice Catchments (97 km 2) case study is presented. Total sediment amounts between 125 000∼140 000 m 3 were measured in Vrchlice reservoir and values of 110 976 m 3 (using USLE), resp. 105833 m 3 (using Watem/SEDEM) were predicted by the erosion models. For catchments of this scale it is a sufficient validation.

A Method to Identify the Optimal Areal Unit for NLDN Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Flash Data Analysis

Abstract Currently, no uniform method exists for determining the optimal areal unit to analyze National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) data. To address this problem, this paper utilizes the capabilities of modern geographic information systems (GIS) software to develop a consistent method for identifying areal analysis units while considering the location accuracy of the NLDN. Five grid cells were created at spatial resolutions of 0.1°, 0.2°, 0.3°, 0.4°, and 0.5°. To create cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning strikes, random points were generated at nine densities ranging from 1 to 9 strikes per square kilometer. A buffer of 500 m was placed around each random point to account for the margin of error in NLDN location accuracy. Random points that, when buffered to 500 m, still remained completely within the study region were evaluated as a percentage of all of the strikes to determine accuracy. The greatest accuracy of 95.88% was observed in the 0.5° grid cell at a density of 9 strikes per square kilometer. The lowest accuracy of 80.59% occurred in the 0.1° grid cell at a density of 4 strikes per square kilometer. There was little variation between the accuracies in similar grid cells regardless of their density, suggesting that CG flash density will have little effect on accuracy when selecting spatial resolution. Gains in accuracy diminished as spatial resolution increased. Gains in accuracy between the 0.1° and the 0.2° grid cells are approximately 9%. Gains in accuracy between the 0.4° and the 0.5° grid cells are less than 1%. To achieve 95% accuracy, a spatial resolution of no less than 0.4° is required.

Information sovereignty and GIS: the evolution of “communities of interest” in political redistricting

Abstract Geographic information systems (GIS) first gained a prominent role in US political redistricting following the 1990 Census. Yet, this new technology—combined with a series of political and legal developments—raised a host of difficult questions about the nature of representation, identity, and community. In litigation, courts often referred to “communities of interest” (rather than racial groups) as appropriate political units to use in redistricting, but seldom defined these entities or described their characteristics explicitly. During the late 1990s, GIS practitioners responded to these qualitative judicial guidelines by attempting to identify, quantify and incorporate different measures of “communities of interest” in GIS redistricting databases. The evolution of this technology reflects such legal requirements and, more generally, the social and political systems in which GIS are embedded. Drawing on a set of in-depth interviews with legislative staff members in Texas, I argue that the state practices associated with the development of redistricting GIS created a system that reproduced a limited, conventional, geographically bounded conception of communities of interest. The case illustrates how “political representation” is both enabled and constrained by the kinds of graphical and conceptual representations that are possible with modern GIS. More broadly, the article uses Foucault’s principle of “governmentality” and James Scott’s idea of “legibility” to develop the concept of information sovereignty. The state filters out certain kinds of knowledge in order to maintain its legitimacy as a rational, unbiased observer, and thus helps create a GIS that offers only “thin” representations of community.

Landscape analysis of risk factors for white pine blister rust in the Mixed Forest Province of Minnesota, U.S.A.

The abundance of eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.) has been significantly reduced in northeastern Minnesota over the past 120 years. White pine blister rust (WPBR), a commonly lethal fungal disease of white pine, was introduced in Minnesota in approximately 1914 and now, along with other factors such as herbivore browsing, poses a major challenge to attempts to reestablish white pines in the region. A map delineating broad WPBR hazard zones for the Lake States region was prepared in 1964. We created a higher resolution map that estimates the spatial variability of WPBR hazard in the Laurentian Mixed Forest Province of Minnesota using modern geographic information system techniques and readily available spatial databases. The new map has significantly higher resolution than the old and demonstrates that even within areas previously classified as "high hazard", there are significant acreages of "low-hazard" areas where white pine regeneration may be possible. Our analyses are consistent with previous work in the Lake States region, showing that climate, topographic characteristics, and distance from water bodies and wetlands have a strong influence on WPBR infection hazard. We also present methods for analyzing forest conditions at regional scales using commonly available spatial data sets.

Advanced procedures for risk assessment and management in Russia

The Russian Federation has developed a comprehensive, high-technology strategy for coping with natural and technological emergencies, risk reduction, and disaster management. The strategy is implemented under special Russian Federal Programs. One of the main goals of these Programs is the creation of the State Unified System of Monitoring and Forecast of Emergency Situations. The Agency of Monitoring and Forecast of Emergency Situations was organised at the beginning of 1997. It combines the efforts of more than 25 organisations belonging to the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Hydrometeorological and Environmental Monitoring Centre, Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, Russian Space Agency, Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Nuclear Power Engineering of the Russian Federation and others. Due to the combined efforts of the Agency members, the new technologies and procedures for natural and technological disasters monitoring and forecasts of their consequences are elaborated and implemented. All the technologies and procedures are implemented using a modern Geographical Information System. This system holds promise for the formation of an International Agency on Monitoring and Forecast of Emergency Situations which would benefit all nations.

Developing the tools for geological shape analysis, with regional‐ to local‐scale examples from the Kalgoorlie Terrane of Western Australia

Geological map data are often underused in mineral‐exploration programs, which rely increasingly on regolith geochemistry and geophysical and other remotely sensed data to generate exploration targets. However, solid geology maps, which are progressively being upgraded due to improved interpretations of superior, remotely sensed images and airborne geophysical data, can be useful in targeting specific types of mineral deposits, which formed late in the evolutionary history of the host terrane. In such terranes, the present map geometry is essentially the same as that at the time of deposit formation. This is the case for orogenic lode‐gold deposits, which commonly show predictable structural controls and/or structural geometry. Thus, the shape of a rock body, or combinations of structures and rock bodies, may provide an important guide to the exploration potential for orogenic lode‐gold deposits. However, until recently, there has been a dearth of techniques to quantify the various properties of shape, and hence test the potential of the two‐dimensional shape of geological bodies in map view as an exploration tool. Integrating techniques from the field of pattern recognition with a modern Geographical Information System (GIS) can provide the shape‐analysis tools required to investigate the geometries of geological shapes. Two‐dimensional shape analysis is now possible through the calculation of several shape metrics including, but not restricted to, aspect ratio, blockiness, elongation, compactness, complexity, roundness, spreadness and squareness. Methods are developed for describing the geometries of rock units about mineral deposits, or any geological features, at any scale, which for the first time makes it possible to compare shapes. These shape‐analysis techniques are tested using orogenic lode‐gold deposits, particularly those in the Kalgoorlie Terrane of the highly auriferous Late Archaean Norseman‐Wiluna Belt of Western Australia. On a global scale, shape analysis indicates that those greenstone belts whose volcanic rock sequences have high elongation and relative low roundness, complexity and aspect ratio (e.g. Kalgoorlie Terrane) are likely to be the most richly endowed in gold. On a more local scale, characteristics of the shape of geological features around the Golden Mile deposit are calculated and used to test the likelihood of occurrence of gold deposits with similar geometry elsewhere in the Kalgoorlie Terrane. The area with the most closely matching shape, on the basis of a 2 km clipping‐circle radius, chosen on the basis of available proximity‐analysis data, corresponds to the recently discovered Ghost Crab deposit, illustrating the potential of the shape analysis methodology in mineral exploration. Shape analysis is, at least in part, scale dependent, due to the inherent problem of being able to define rock boundaries more precisely in units that have strong geophysical signatures than those with weak signatures in poorly exposed terranes. Overcoming this problem is a challenge to the application of this methodology.

Sorites paradox and vague geographies

The sorites paradox is ranked among the top five paradoxes of philosophy (Sainsbury, Paradoxes, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995). It is simply stated as ‘what is a heap’. Deriving from the paradox is a definition of vagueness, which is contrary to the Boolean concept of the world implicit in much geographical teaching and thought, and the representation of geographical information in modern geographical information system. The argument of Sorites Paradox is suggested as a test of whether a concept is vague. If that concept is sorites susceptible, then it should be modelled as a vague concept, otherwise a Boolean model may be appropriate. The recognition of whether or not a particular concept is sorites susceptible does not have to influence the methods of analysis. It should merely inform the interpretation, and the investigator and reader should be aware that the outcome of the analysis is only one of a set of possible outcomes, which depends on how the vague concept is crispened. Furthermore, it is argued here that very many geographical phenomena (relations, objects and processes) can be shown to be sorites susceptible, and so vague, both generically and genetically. Vagueness can be addressed by multi-valued logic and applications of fuzzy set theory (the most common method of implementing multi-valued logic) to geography are reviewed. A formal recognition of vagueness in geographical phenomena is long overdue, and should be welcome in geographical analysis and, certainly, in geographical information systems.

Enhanced Spatial Model for Landfill Siting Analysis

A landfill siting analysis typically requires evaluating various rules, factors, constraints, and numerous spatial data. A modern geographical information system, although capable of rapidly processing a massive amount of spatial data, lacks the ability to locate an optimal site when compactness and other factors are simultaneously evaluated. A previously developed grid-based model could not be applied to resolve this inability for irregularly shaped spatial data. Therefore, an enhanced spatial siting model is proposed herein for general spatial data. A compactness index is applied to ensure the integrity of selected sites. Two case studies are presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model. The proposed model and two models developed previously are compared in the first case study based on the single factor of land cost. A single factor model is perhaps quite unacceptable with respect to other factors. The second case study is thus presented to demonstrate the flexibility of the model for considering additional factors, land slope, and road network accessibility. Moreover, results obtained from various models and siting factors are compared and discussed.

Multifactor Spatial Analysis for Landfill Siting

Siting a landfill typically requires processing a significant amount of spatial data with respect to various siting rules, regulations, factors, and constraints. Manually performing such a spatial analysis with drawing tools is generally tedious. A modern geographical information system (GIS), although capable of manipulating spatial data to facilitate the analysis, lacks the ability to locate an optimal site when compactness and other factors are simultaneously considered. An appropriate siting model was therefore explored for use with a raster-based GIS. A mixed-integer programming model was developed to obtain a site with optimal compactness. A comparison was made between the model and two other previously proposed models in terms of their applicability and simplicity for raster-based data. The compactness model was further extended to include multiple siting factors with weights determined using map layer analysis functions provided by a GIS. This multifactor model was applied to analyze the effects of varied weights and factors on making a siting decision.

An exploration of probable viewsheds in landscape planning

The viewshed operation is integral to a number of modern geographic information systems. From a digital elevation model of an area, it derives a new coverage which shows those areas which are visib...