Open Geographic Information System Research Articles

Disaster management with cloud-based geographic information systems: site selection of landfill areas after Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye earthquake sequence

On February 6, 2023, the earthquakes centered on Kahramanmaraş-Pazarcık and Kahramanmaraş-Elbistan affected several provinces in the region and generated a vast amount of demolition waste. This study aims to develop a site selection model for the most suitable landfill areas after the earthquake using open-source Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software and the Best-Worst Method (BWM). First, the study identifies decision criteria with a Delphi expert panel. Next, it determines the weights using the BWM based on pairwise comparison. Spatial data of the determinants were obtained from open data portals, and proximity, overlay, and slope analyses were carried out for the disaster region. Combining the output data layer of each criterion, a suitability map of the landfills was produced. As a result, 36,2% (29,826 kms square) of the study area was classified as suitable and very suitable. In this study, a cloud GIS-based decision support platform was developed to act quickly and initiate recovery processes within the scope of disaster management of the destructive earthquake. The suitability map and potential sites were shared with the responsible teams in the disaster area so that the potential sites could be displayed on the map and the suitable areas could be navigated on appropriate routes. The findings of the study revealed that the use of open data and cloud GIS framework in the disaster management process enables quick, reliable, and cost-effective actions in the immediate aftermath of disasters.

Smart River Information Services in managing Nile River navigation system

Abstract In terms of the significance of incorporating smart techniques into large river navigation systems to increase inland navigation competitiveness, this article introduces the development of smart River Information Services (RIS) in Egypt based on smart information and communication technologies as real-time tracking systems, Open Geographic Information Systems, and Nile River Information Systems, as well as proposes measures to tackle the challenges that may be faced, compared with experiences and knowledge of RIS in large river smart navigation systems. This comparison creates new frameworks for the future development of using smart technology in inland waterways in Egypt. It could be concluded that advanced navigation technologies and infrastructures are still being developed in Egypt and are not yet available. Almost all of Egypt's Vessel Traffic Services station equipment and applications are imported from Europe. Undoubtedly, there will be at least a 5- to 10-year time lag for Egypt to develop independent RIS to its full extent. It is necessary to keep good cooperation with the European and Chinese inland sector and refer to their experience and knowledge.

A 3D simulation framework with ray-tracing propagation for LoRaWAN communication

The adoption of Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LP-WAN) for interconnecting remote wireless sensors has become a reality in smart scenarios, covering communications needs of large Internet of Things (IoT) deployments. The correct operation and expected performance of such network scenarios, which can range hundreds or thousands of nodes and tens of squared kilometres, should be assessed before carrying out the deployment to save installation and maintenance costs. Common network planning tools can help to roughly study potential coverage, but network simulation offers fine-grained information about network performance. Nevertheless, current simulation frameworks include limited propagation models based on statistical and empirical measurements that do not consider scenario particularities, such as terrain elevation, buildings or vegetation. This is critical in urban settings. In this line, this paper presents a simulation framework including a network simulator, a 3D engine and a ray-tracing tool, which models realistically the performance of Long-Range Wide-Area Network (LoRaWAN) communication technology. We have evaluated the performance of the solution taking as reference experimental campaigns in the city of Cartagena (Spain), comparing data obtained when simulating with the commonly employed propagation models such as Okumura–Hata or path loss. Results indicate that our framework, set-up with data from open geographical information systems, accurately fits experimental values, reporting improvements between 10% and 50% in the error committed when estimating signal strength in challenging urban streets with signal obstruction, as compared with the better performing classical model, Okumura–Hata.

The use of GIS in renewable energy specialist’s learning

In recent years, the global trend has been to gradually shift from traditional energy sources to renewable ones, with the aim of improving the environment and preventing climate change. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are technologies that enhance the efficiency of these renewable energy resources (RER). Modern GIS provides a wide range of functionalities for the entire decision-making process. For instance, in solar power generation, GIS can address challenges such as remote monitoring of sites designated for solar power plants and evaluating their suitability. It also enables effective management of information on station operations, real-time electricity production and distribution, and planning and management of energy production resources. As GIS continues to evolve, scientists and energy professionals are discovering more applications in the RER field. However, it’s crucial to focus on training highly skilled specialists in RER to ensure GIS becomes a truly effective management tool in their professional activities. Research indicates that most student training programs in RER worldwide do not sufficiently cover GIS studies, particularly open-source software. To address this gap, the authors have developed a targeted plan for incorporating GIS into RER specialist training. The goal of this course is to familiarize future engineers with the theoretical, methodological, and technological foundations of GIS creation and operation. It also aims to help students understand the general principles of operation and acquire practical skills in using GIS to solve applied problems. The authors emphasize the importance of laboratory work, particularly using SagaGIS, to develop skills in working with raster and vector images, geospatial data analysis and decision-making, working with cartographic models and remote sensing data, and applying geoinformation methods to create structural, parametric, and thematic digital maps. The authors suggest using open GIS in training to facilitate a quality understanding for future RER specialists on the processes of creating, operating, and using GIS for real-world applications.

LAND SUITABILITY ANALYSIS FOR URBAN GARDENING USING GIS-BASED MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION-MAKING APPROACH

The application of the Geographical Information System (GIS) extends beyond mapping and includes an analysis of attribute and geographical data, identification of behavioural patterns, and visualisation of positional analysis outcomes. The system provides accurate coordinates, enabling functions such as storage and retrieval, pattern search, and model creation in GIS applications. One widely adopted approach for land-use identification involves utilising GIS operations to establish databases and conduct analyses. Thus, this study utilises ArcGIS software tools to determine the suitability of land and optimal location for the development of community gardens in Shah Alam. Decision-making was based on multiple criteria, and to ensure accurate and comprehensive data, the researchers employed a qualitative method similar to expert interviews. Related government agencies and authorities, as well as experts, provided input through three separate expert interviews. Findings from the interviews highlighted the significance of land slope, elevation, land use, proximity to settlements, road accessibility, and water access as important considerations for site selection in urban gardening or community gardens. The study demonstrates the effectiveness of GIS methods in obtaining such results and recommends that future research focus on assessing the potential for sustainable development by leveraging GIS techniques.

An ontology-based framework for semantic geographic information systems development and understanding

Geographic information systems (GIS) are a widely used approach for geodata manipulation, analysis, and geoinformation visualization. Although the issue of semantic heterogeneity for GIS applications has been widely addressed, the development of flexible semantic GIS systems can still be improved, and GIS interfaces can be further unified to enhance system understanding among users of various GIS systems. This study proposes an ontology-based semantic GIS conceptual framework that can seamlessly combine ontology models, GIS elements and user actions for semantic GIS application development. In addition, a GIS components ontology that encompasses the five fundamental components of GIS is proposed to integrate GIS elements that can perceive GIS operations and processes semantically and to support customized GIS system designs. Moreover, a semantic WebGIS implementation framework is designed on the basis of the proposed conceptual framework to facilitate semantic WebGIS development. The implementation uses two common application scenarios regarding urban change analysis and user interaction. The former performs semantic retrieval for urban change analysis with system understanding, whereas the latter conducts online thematic mapping with semantic interpretation. The study contributes in terms of innovation in the design of a unified GIS components ontology and successful implementation of a semantic GIS system using the ontology-driven approach, thereby providing a convincing demonstration of the latter and showing the potential for semantic GIS application paradigms.

Application of Geomatics Techniques for Cultural Heritage Mapping and Creation of an Unsafe Buildings’ Cadastre

Mapping of Cultural Heritage is a crucial process aiming at safeguarding and promoting the unique identity, history, and traditions of a particular community or region. This practice involves the documentation, conservation, and interpretation of various aspects of Cultural Heritage, which can be conducted through Geomatics techniques including the use of various tools and methods to collect, analyze, and visualize spatial data related to heritage sites. The same techniques can be used for the identification and subsequent cataloging of unsafe buildings thus creating a cadastre useful for authorities, urban planners, and building management organizations to identify, monitor and address unsafe structures. In this context, this paper presents an automatic, innovative, and experimental system through which it has been possible to map the Cultural Heritage in a fraction of the province of Reggio Calabria and, at the same time, to build a cadastre of unsafe structures. A prototype drone was programmed to acquire the images, subsequently pre-processed using commercial software and analyzed using Machine Learning techniques and dedicated software. An Open GIS (Geographic Information System), then, made it possible to view the archaeological heritage sites and the dangerous and damaged buildings, with identified and cataloged cracks. In relation to the monitoring of Cultural Heritage and old, unsafe buildings, several different technologies including Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and high-resolution satellite imagery are being successfully used, which involve, however, data processing complexity and the need for specialized expertise. By overcoming the challenges of these traditional methods, this proposed approach holds promise in facilitating comprehensive Cultural Heritage monitoring and management even in smaller and less resource-rich areas. The use of drones for data acquisition and integration into a well-implemented GIS, in fact, could offer a potential solution to monitor Cultural Heritage and assess the condition of existing buildings, while saving time and costs in the process.

Remote sensing methods for estimating tree species of forests in the Volyn region, Ukraine

Forest classification is needed to solve a wide range of environmental issues related to of forest classes and succession processes, the extent of afforestation and deforestation and global environmental change. These applications require a very accurate mapping and monitoring of forest types. This article investigates the combination of modern open geographic information systems and remote sensing data in forest management tasks for a specific part of the Ukrainian state area. Based on the existing afforestation plans, the results of the unsupervised classification of Sentinel-2 images and the selection of forest species fragments with closed crowns as training data for supervised classification, classifiers of forest species of the study object were developed with and without taking into account age groups. A supervised classification of research objects is realized and the accuracy of the obtained results is evaluated. It is established that the accuracy of determining forest species on the basis of the proposed method is 90.3 and 91.4%, taking into account age groups and without taking them into account, respectively. Thus, it is found that the modeling of the age groups does not improve the classification result for the test area.

To the question of creating an open ecological geographic information system

Access to information about the state of the environment is an inalienable right of Ukrainian citizens, so the development and improvement of ways to provide information to the population with environmental data is of high social importance. A valuable source of reliable environmental data that can be used to inform the public are the results of scientific research on the state of the environment, which are produced by the activities of higher education institutions. This article considers the possibilities of using web-GIS services by higher education institutions as a means of communicating environmental information to the general public. Purpose. To create an open geographic information system that should represent the database of environmental geodata obtained in the process of educational and scientific work of students and staff of the Karazin Institute of Environmental Sciences. Methods. Analysis of the stock materials of the Institute of Ecology for the needs of forming a geodatabase, development of the structure of the attributive web-GIS database and testing the functionality of the ArcGIS Online cloud mapping platform service for exporting, updating, storing, searching and visualizing data presentation in web-GIS. Results. A methodical algorithm for the development and creation of web-GIS is proposed and tested, consisting of the following stages: 1) selection of the technological base of development; 2) analysis of materials providing input information; 3) development of the structure of the attributive database of the project; 4) preparation of geodata sets and their publication on the Internet. As a result of the analysis 144 scientific papers were selected, which will form the information basis for the formation of the web-GIS "EcoSpace". The structure of the attributive database of the web-GIS project was developed, consisting of 4 content blocks and 11 types of descriptive data. 3 sets of test data were prepared, which showed successful results of export and visualization of geodata represented by different types of geometric vector primitives (linear, point and polygonal objects). Conclusions. A prototype of the web-GIS "EcoSpace" (https://institute-of-environmental-sciences-data-portal-carto-lab.hub.arcgis.com/) was developed in the environment of the ArcGIS Online Internet service, which can be used to publish information about the state of the environment contained in the results of scientific research of students and staff of the Karazin Institute of Environmental Sciences. The information content of the web-GIS "EcoSpace" has been started, in particular, the results of three scientific projects concerning the state of soil resources of Kharkiv district of Kharkiv region have been entered.

A GIS Tool That Provides Intelligent Solutions in Emergency Departments during COVID-19

The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a revolution in open geographic information system (GIS) sources and Web GIS, which have grown considerably. Patient handover and crowding are critical issues to address during the COVID-19 pandemic. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 aims to optimise quality and resource utilisation in emergency departments (EDs). GIS technology has been used to clarify the state of COVID-19 at the country level, however, the potential of GIS technology requires ongoing investigation to support Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. During a pandemic, great pressure is placed on EDs, with patients waiting long periods for treatment, which can lead to great health risks. This paper aims to illustrate the rule of GIS in providing intelligent solutions in emergency services during the COVID-19 pandemic. A satisfaction questionnaire was distributed to over 180 patients who were selected randomly from the nine emergency rooms of Jeddah governorate hospitals from different priority levels. Fifteen factors are determined and grouped into five domains to reflect patients’ satisfaction: emergency department environment, emergency department staff, physician care satisfaction, and wait time satisfaction. The critical values reveal in wait time were 84% of patients from the second to the fourth level of priority had waited a long or extremely. Most of the respondents (87%) wanted to know ER wait times before arrival hospital. The website was the most preferred choice for publishing wait times outside the ER for 56.7% of them. An online ArcGIS dashboard was developed to monitor hospital wait times in Jeddah City. This dashboard can be useful to the public to guide them in determining which hospital is the most suitable regarding a minimum waiting time and can also help in considering the travel distance.

Geospatial assessment of vegetation condition pre-wildfire and post-wildfire on Luštica (Montenegro) using differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) index

Wildfire is one of the most dangerous environmental stressors in most vegetation zones worldwide. Determining and monitoring this stressor is important because of the disturbances that occur during the burning of biomass in ecosystems, as well as because of the damage or suffering of organisms. In the last decade, a greater number of wildfires and burnt areas were recorded in Southern Europe and Montenegro. Therefore, it is important to develop optimal methodology and models to help in better management of forest protection against wildfire. The spatial component in firefighting plays a significant role in management. In this context, Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) come to the fore, which analyze spatial data and turn it into useful information - models applied in practice. The study aims to geospatial assess condition of vegetation pre-wildfire and post-wildfire in study area of the Luštica peninsula in Montenegro during the summer of 2017. Open and publicly available Sentinel 2 satellite was used. The scaled index differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) of burned vegetation was applied as an indicator for assessing the state of vegetation after a wildfire in the open source software Quantum GIS (QGIS). The results of the damage assessment of the burned area based on the applied scaled index reveal that the category of low severity occupies an area of 335.86 ha (7%), moderately-low severity 250.13 ha (5%), moderately-high severity 406.22 ha (8%), high severity 238.03 ha (5%). The unburned areas occupy an area of 3624.95 ha (75%). This study contributes to assessing vegetation conditions and other accompanying activities pre-wildfire and post-wildfire using modern open-source geospatial tools.

COVID-19 Flow-Maps an open geographic information system on COVID-19 and human mobility for Spain

COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has spread all over the world leading to a global pandemic. The fast progression of COVID-19 has been mainly related to the high contagion rate of the virus and the worldwide mobility of humans. In the absence of pharmacological therapies, governments from different countries have introduced several non-pharmaceutical interventions to reduce human mobility and social contact. Several studies based on Anonymized Mobile Phone Data have been published analysing the relationship between human mobility and the spread of coronavirus. However, to our knowledge, none of these data-sets integrates cross-referenced geo-localised data on human mobility and COVID-19 cases into one all-inclusive open resource. Herein we present COVID-19 Flow-Maps, a cross-referenced Geographic Information System that integrates regularly updated time-series accounting for population mobility and daily reports of COVID-19 cases in Spain at different scales of time spatial resolution. This integrated and up-to-date data-set can be used to analyse the human dynamics to guide and support the design of more effective non-pharmaceutical interventions.

Decision Making in the 4th Dimension—Exploring Use Cases and Technical Options for the Integration of 4D BIM and GIS during Construction

In both the Geospatial (Geo) and Building Information Modelling (BIM) domains, it is widely acknowledged that the integration of geo-data and BIM-data is beneficial and a crucial step towards solving the multi-disciplinary challenges of our built environment. The result of this integration—broadly termed GeoBIM—has the potential to be particularly beneficial in the context of the construction of large infrastructure projects, which could make use of data relating to the larger spatial extents typically handled in geographical information systems (GIS) as well as the detailed models generated by BIM. To date, GeoBIM integration has mainly been explored for buildings, in a 3D context and for small projects. This paper demonstrates the results of the next level of integration, exploring the addition of the fourth dimension by linking project schedule information to create 4D GeoBIM, examining interoperability challenges and benefits in the context of a number of use cases relating to the enabling works for a major commercial infrastructure project. The integrating power of location and time—knowing where and when data relate to—allows us to explore data interoperability challenges relating to linking real world construction data, created using commercial software, with other data sources; we are then able to demonstrate the benefits of 4D GeoBIM in the context of three decision making scenarios: examining the potential for prioritisation of noise mitigation interventions by identifying apartments closest to the noisiest construction process; development of a 4D location-enabled risk register allowing, for example, work to continue underground if a risk is specific to the top of a building; ensuring construction safety by using 3D buffering to ensure that the required distances between moving construction equipment and surrounding infrastructure are not breached. Additionally, once integrated, we are able to ‘democratize’ the data—make it accessible beyond the BIM and GIS expert group—by embedding it into a 3D/4D open source Web GIS tool.

A WebGIS for Visualizing Historical Activities Based on Photos: The Project of Yunnan–Vietnam Railway Web Map

Historical photos have significance for historical and social studies. Especially, the introduction of Geographic Information System (GIS) and digitalized historical photos have brought more opportunities and possibilities for interdisciplinary studies and the convenience for normal citizens to participate in the landscape observation. To this aim, this paper first reviews the research related to historical photos and Open GIS, and points out the meaning of historical photos for the Yunnan–Vietnam Railway (YVR). Based on the collected data of original historical photos from archives and the fieldwork data that recorded the landscape along the railway from 2018 to 2019, a WebGIS of Yunnan–Vietnam Railway is designed and implemented with open GIS tools. All the data are processed in the QGIS as vector and raster layers and loaded in PostgreSQL as relational tables. Then, heatmaps are created indicating the density of historical activities of the railway company, the other historical photographers, and current touristic activities. Connected with the PostgreSQL database, the data are uploaded to GeoServer for more GIS functionalities. Finally, the whole system lives in a webpage, implemented in HTML and JavaScript with Leaflet, and the improved functionalities of the Yunnan–Vietnam Railway WebGIS include distance measuring, search engine, and historical information browsing. In the future, further research can be done focusing on the landscape changes along the railway and public participation during the landscape observation.

Optimal Routing Design of Feeder Transit With Stop Selection Using Aggregated Cell Phone Data and Open Source GIS Tool

A novel bilevel programming model for designing feeder bus routes to simultaneously consider bus stop selection, bus routing, and passenger route/trip choice behavior is developed in this work. The objective of the upper-level model is to minimize the total in-vehicle travel time of passengers. The objective of the lower-level model is to determine bus stop locations and assign passenger demand to stops by minimizing the total passenger walking time. An ant colony optimization-based two-stage heuristic algorithm is developed to solve the bilevel programming model within an acceptance computation time. Different from conventional methods, the proposed methodology benefits from using real temporal and spatial characteristic datasets of travel demand aggregated from cellular data and traveling time and distance matrices under actual traffic conditions resulted from an open geographic information system (GIS) tool. Results of a real-life case study in Chongqing municipality, China, show that the proposed methodology could achieve a significant reduction of 2.9% total passenger travel time compared with a traditional method. Finally, sensitivity analyses are conducted to further understand the performance of the model. It is anticipated that the proposed methodology could be very useful in designing attractive and cost-effective feeder transit service in practice.

Pазработка картографического веб-сервиса природного парка «Кондинские озера»

Currently, many protected natural areas (PNA) implement geographic information systems (GIS) and technologies for structuring and managing collected spatial data to support of monitoring and scientific research. GIS of protected areas may be developed based on various software products and characterized by different level of functionality. Also, online web map services on this topic are being developed, which provide access to data not for employees only, but also for users. This paper focuses on the development of a web-GIS of the Kondinsky Lakes natural park located in the Tyumen region of Russian Federation and ensuring the preservation of unique river systems, landscapes, cultural and historical natural monuments. The web service includes cartographic layers and attribute data to characterize the main activities of the natural park. GIS layers are divided into thematic groups and contain information about flora and fauna, forest fires, logged areas, resting places and objects of the oil and gas mining in the park. The project is implemented using Leaflet, a popular open source web application development library. The code was written using the markup language HTML 5, CSS 3 and JavaScript. Data management is implemented using PostgreSQL DBMS. The publication is created based on the open GIS server Geoserver. The data structure and functionality of the developed web service is also presented. The developed web service can be used by both employees of the natural park (to develop the content of the databases) and its visitors, as well as organizations working in the field of environmental education and tourism.

Analysis of the development of open GIS software and QGIS system

Abstract. Open source software could emerge thanks to the development of the Internet, development tools, and computer literacy in general. The most attractive parameter of open source GIS software is a free license. The rapid pace of development, attracting developers from all over the world and high modularity stimulate the innovative nature of open source software. Here, the introduction of new technologies does not meet with opposition, but rather welcomes. These circumstances, as well as elucidation of the functional capabilities of such GIS, become very important in the search for means of providing the educational process with modern GIS software, which is traditionally an expensive proprietary software. Goal: Analysis of up-to-date GIS software protection and visual accessibility of the QGIS system in the first place with studying geoinformation systems.Quantum GIS (QGIS) is an open source software (GIS) geographic information system (GIS). Open software is one of the most interesting technological phenomena of the present, owing to its rapid growth in the development of the Internet, development tools and computer literacy in general. The key role in the creation, development and support of open source software is played, as a rule, by the community of developers forming around individual software products: commercial companies, groups of enthusiasts or research organizations. The term open source was proposed by Bruce Perens, one of the key leaders in the Open Source and Free Software movement, cofounder with Eric Raymind in 1998 of the Open Source Initiative (OSI), an open source software development organization that promotes and provides technical open source support. This open source term is used by OSI to determine whether a software license complies with open source standards. The main features of open source software as defined include free distribution, accessible source code, permission to modify this source code. At the same time, even successful open source software products require companies on the market ready to provide technical support and advice on issues related to the selected products. However, the number of companies providing support services for open source GIS software is still relatively small.

Is open source GIS feasible in military operations? Evaluation by applying a USE case

The study of terrain and all its related elements and facets are of crucial importance to the military. Lodi, Smit, and Ayirebi agreed with this statement and added that the importance of terrain was recognised by military leaders more than two thousand years ago.[i] Military operations can occur at any of the three levels of war: tactical, operational and strategic and can be a combat operation or a military operation other than war (MOOTW). Information about the geography empowers a military commander to plan and execute a mission successfully. As technology developed and evolved, geographic information systems (GIS) have come to play a major role in this. Today, a military operation without the use of GIS is unthinkable. In a developing country like the South Africa, however, licenses for proprietary GIS software, vendor-exclusive training and the bureaucracy of the procurement cycle add to the time and costs of a mission. The question arises whether open source software is a feasible alternative. Since the South African National Defence Force was initially trained in the use of proprietary software and it therefore became a strong habit, the perception now exits that FOSSGIS products are neither mature enough nor user-friendly enough to be used in military operations. This study evaluates the use of an open source desktop GIS product, QGIS, in a use case for a military operation “other than war” (MOOTW). QGIS outputs were compared to those produced in ArcGIS, a proprietary desktop GIS product widely used in military operations. The user-friendliness of the two products as well as pricing was also compared. Results show that the QGIS outputs provide the operational commander with equivalent information to successfully plan and execute a mission. This implies that open source GIS is suitable for military operations, especially those with limited budgets and at short notice, such as in the case of disaster relief. [i]    Lodi, K., Smit, H. & Ayirebi, G. (2014). Terrain analysis in the course curricula of the South African Army Engineer Corps. Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies, 42, 102-121.

Modeling arsenic content in Brazilian soils: What is relevant?

Arsenic accumulation in the environment poses ecological and human health risks. A greater knowledge about soil total As content variability and its main drivers is strategic for maintaining soil security, helping public policies and environmental surveys. Considering the poor history of As studies in Brazil at the country's geographical scale, this work aimed to generate predictive models of topsoil As content using machine learning (ML) algorithms based on several environmental covariables representing soil forming factors, ranking their importance as explanatory covariables and for feeding group analysis. An unprecedented databank based on laboratory analyses (including rare earth elements), proximal and remote sensing, geographical information system operations, and pedological information were surveyed. The median soil As content ranged from 0.14 to 41.1 mg kg−1 in reference soils, and 0.28 to 58.3 mg kg−1 in agricultural soils. Recursive Feature Elimination Random Forest outperformed other ML algorithms, ranking as most important environmental covariables: temperature, soil organic carbon (SOC), clay, sand, and TiO2. Four natural groups were statistically suggested (As content ± standard error in mg kg−1): G1) with coarser texture, lower SOC, higher temperatures, and the lowest TiO2 contents, has the lowest As content (2.24 ± 0.50), accomplishing different environmental conditions; G2) organic soils located in floodplains, medium TiO2 and temperature, whose As content (3.78 ± 2.05) is slightly higher than G1, but lower than G3 and G4; G3) medium contents of As (7.14 ± 1.30), texture, SOC, TiO2, and temperature, representing the largest number of points widespread throughout Brazil; G4) the largest contents of As (11.97 ± 1.62), SOC, and TiO2, and the lowest sand content, with points located mainly across Southeastern Brazil with milder temperature. In the absence of soil As content, a common scenario in Brazil and in many Latin American countries, such natural groups could work as environmental indicators.

FEATURES OF CONTENT AND EXPLOITATION OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM “MUSEUM NETWORK OF ALTAI KRAI” (ALTAI KRAI, RUSSIA)

The article outlines key results of a two-year (2018–2020) project supported by Russian Fund of Basic Research (Moscow, Russia), aimed at creation of open geographical information system (web-GIS) that reflects key characteristics of institutions included in the museum network of Altai Krai (Russia). The author of the article (head of the project) express her own view on synthesis of the newest GIS-technologies, multimedia system, and technologies of Internet-mapping that will open a brand new stage in practice of visualizing data converted into subject maps and web-GIS free for simple Internet users. Widening the Internet audience who can get an access to detailed data on museum network of Altai Krai within the frame of the project will stimulate the growth of research activities in museology, will give a boost to touristic interest to reach collections of Altai Museums, will join a number of sources that meet the professional information needs of museum Russian community.