scholarly journals (A162) Preparing Plans! Helping First Responders Prepare the Population

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S1) ◽  
pp. s46-s46
Author(s):  
K.M. Simon-Agolory ◽  
K.Z. Watkins
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
First Responders ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Disaster Plan ◽  
Preparedness Plan ◽  
Wilberforce University ◽  
Daunting Task ◽  
Wide Range

It is common knowledge that having an individual or family disaster plan is vital for saving lives and property before, during and after a disaster. First responders have the daunting task of helping many people during a disaster. It would make their jobs easier if people had disaster plans before a disaster. However, for a variety of reasons, few people have a disaster plan. People often do not develop disaster plans due to the time required to devise a plan, a lack of knowledge of the benefits of having a plan, or the effort required for the primarily manual process of developing a disaster plan. Wilberforce University has designed a solution called Wilberforce's Information Library Boosting Emergency Recovery (WILBER) which is a customized, online tool to quickly and automatically generate disaster plans to help save lives and property as well as mitigate the impacts of a potential disaster. WILBER utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to automatically generate a basic disaster preparedness plan. The system addresses a wide range of disasters but focuses on floods, earthquakes and technological disasters such as terrorism and nuclear disasters. WILBER automatically processes locally relevant data intelligently and combines mathematical analysis; distributed computing; individual and business risk management; current and historical information from a comprehensive Geographical Information Systems (GIS) that includes imagery, infrastructure, demographic, and environmental data; and wireless sensors for real time condition assessment. Not planning for a disaster only increases the potential magnitude of a disaster. WILBER allows citizens to quickly establish immediate procedures in the event of an emergency which in turn can lessen the burden on first responders and reduces the likelihood of loss of life. This research is funded by the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration and conducted by the Wilberforce University Disaster Recovery Center in Wilberforce, Ohio, USA.

Managing The Environmental Data of a Spill Event

1999 ◽  
Vol 1999 (1) ◽  
pp. 971-973
Author(s):  
David J. Turton ◽  
Paul D. Boehm ◽  
Dean A. Gouveia ◽  
Michael Amman ◽  
Patrick O'Brien ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Graphical Interface ◽  
Efficient Manner ◽  
Digital Format ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Information Module

ABSTRACT Data is critical to decision making during any spill event. This data can include information on spill movement, weather and other environmental influences, chemical and physical characterization of the released materials, resources at risk, and sampling and analysis information. To assemble this data for on-site decision making, and for post-spill analysis, the authors have developed a Spill Response Database Application (SRDA). SRDA integrates inventory and imaging, database, and geographical information systems (GIS) capabilities. Database capabilities provide for the storage, retrieval, and manipulation of information. The Sample Information module provides a means for tracking samples and the results. The GIS capabilities provide a graphical interface for integrating data and communicating issues in a quick and efficient manner. Users can build and view a map of the evolving event along with information from the database such as sample locations, analytical results, documents, and photos. Centralizing and organizing the data provides the team with quick access to a wide range of data on environmental-related issues that facilitates better communication and decision making. In addition, at the conclusion of the event the team returns with a comprehensive record of the event in digital format that can be utilized for post-spill reporting or analysis.

Three Frontiers of the Southern Yucatán Peninsular Region and SYPR Project

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. L. Turner II ◽  
D. R. Foster
Keyword(s):  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Emergent Properties ◽  
Land Change ◽  
Ecosystem Integrity ◽  
Change Models ◽  
Wide Range

Frontiers advance and retreat, both figuratively and literally. At this moment they are advancing in three ways relevant to the subject of this book and the ongoing project on which it is based. First, after more than a century of reductionist hegemony, various science communities worldwide increasingly recognize the need to improve complementary, synthesis understanding—a way of putting the reductionist pieces of the problem back together again in order to understand how the ‘whole’ system works and to identify the emergent properties that follow from the complex interactions of the pieces. Synthesis understanding is not, of course, new. In the late eighteenth century, Immanuel Kant argued for it as one of the pillars of science in the reorganization of knowledge in the European academy (Turner 2002a) and designated geography as one of the ‘synthesis sciences’. Its contemporary rediscovery, however, rests in the science of global environmental change (Lawton 2001; Steffen et al. 2002), especially efforts to model complex systems, such as those in ocean–atmosphere–land interactions, and has been expanded by emerging research agendas seeking to couple human and environment systems, often registered under the label of ‘sustainability science’ (e.g. Kates et al. 2001; NRC 1999). Second, within these developments landuse and land-cover change (or, simply, land change) is singled out because of its centrality to a wide range of environmental concerns, including global climate change, regional–local hydrological impacts, biodiversity, and, of course, human development and ecosystem integrity (e.g. Brookfield 1995; NRC 2000; Watson et al. 2001). The need to advance an integrated land-change science is also increasingly recognized, one in which human, ecological, and remote sensing and geographical information systems (GIS) sciences are intertwined in problem-solving (Liverman et al. 1998; Klepeis and Turner 2001; Turner 2002b). And central to this effort is the need to advance geographically (spatially) explicit land-change models that can explain and project coupled human-ecological systems, and thus serve a wide range of research and assessment constituencies, from carbon to biodiversity to human vulnerability (IGBP 1999; Irwin and Geoghegan 2001; Kates et al. 2001; Liverman et al. 1998; Veldkamp and Lambin 2001). These two developments—synthesis science and integrated land science directed towards geographically explicit land-change models—constitute the broader intellectual and research frontiers to which this work contributes.

Spatial Monitoring and Routing System for the Transportation of Hazardous Materials

2001 ◽  
pp. 227-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azedine Boulmakoul ◽  
Robert Laurini ◽  
Karine Zeitouni
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Data Access ◽  
Environmental Information ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Data Interoperability ◽  
Processing Technologies ◽  
Environmental Information Systems ◽  
Effective Use

The concept of Environmental Information Systems (EIS) emerged from the concerns and the efforts carried on by world wide private and official organisations in order to promote an effective use of environmental data. These data are of various natures such as statistics, thematic maps, or documents describing the identification and the quantification of the environmental resources. The Environmental Information Systems became institutional tools providing pragmatic solutions for sustainable development in various fields. The objective of an EIS is to increase the quality and the efficiency in the decision-making process. To achieve this goal, the EIS requires the integration of various information processing technologies: Geographical Information Systems (GIS); Database Management Systems (DBMS); Space Imagery; Decision Support Systems (DSS); etc. However, the implementation of such an integration generates new requirements, namely data interoperability, data description by metadata, reverse engineering from existing applications and remote data access and data processing. This leads to the reconsideration of the analysis and design methodology.

scholarly journals Open computational landscape genetics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane Joost ◽  
Solange Duruz ◽  
Estelle Rochat ◽  
Ivo Widmer
Keyword(s):  
Population Genetics ◽  
Landscape Genetics ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Molecular Data ◽  
Geographic Information ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Geographical Information

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are considered to be applications-led technology. Consequently, geographic information scientists commonly find themselves as guest in host disciplines in order to best exploit spatial analysis tools and methods, appropriately guided by experts in the field. An example is population genetics in evolutionary biology. Genetic information being linked to living organisms can be partially characterized by geographic coordinates. A research field named landscape genetics emerged at the intersection of genetics, environmental and geographic information science. Geocomputation and programming efforts carried out with the help of open sources technologies and dedicated to the analysis of genetic data gather together a key scientific community whose goal is to extract new knowledge from the present data tsunami caused by the advent of high throughput molecular data and of new sources of high resolution environmental data. While the level of sophistication of the population genetics functions included in the analytical frameworks developed until now are cutting-edge, advanced geo-competences are also required to reinforce the spatial side of this discipline. They will be particularly useful in conservation programmes for wildlife preservation, but also in farm animal genetic resources conservation.

scholarly journals Open computational landscape genetics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane Joost ◽  
Solange Duruz ◽  
Estelle Rochat ◽  
Ivo Widmer
Keyword(s):  
Population Genetics ◽  
Landscape Genetics ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Molecular Data ◽  
Geographic Information ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Geographical Information

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are considered to be applications-led technology. Consequently, geographic information scientists commonly find themselves as guest in host disciplines in order to best exploit spatial analysis tools and methods, appropriately guided by experts in the field. An example is population genetics in evolutionary biology. Genetic information being linked to living organisms can be partially characterized by geographic coordinates. A research field named landscape genetics emerged at the intersection of genetics, environmental and geographic information science. Geocomputation and programming efforts carried out with the help of open sources technologies and dedicated to the analysis of genetic data gather together a key scientific community whose goal is to extract new knowledge from the present data tsunami caused by the advent of high throughput molecular data and of new sources of high resolution environmental data. While the level of sophistication of the population genetics functions included in the analytical frameworks developed until now are cutting-edge, advanced geo-competences are also required to reinforce the spatial side of this discipline. They will be particularly useful in conservation programmes for wildlife preservation, but also in farm animal genetic resources conservation.

The Use of GIS and Remote Sensed Data as an Aid to Pipeline Integrity

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Glen
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Image Data ◽  
Radar Data ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Soil Conditions ◽  
Growth Data ◽  
Synthetic Aperture Radar Data

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have been in use in some industries for over two decades. Some large scale database or GIS implementations have failed to deliver their full benefits because their scope has often been too wide. Such systems are generally multimillion dollar projects which in turn need ongoing support to maintain the database and administer the system. Where the general needs of a pipeline company are given precedence the specific needs of the integrity department can often be overlooked. As a result the company wide GIS is often of little value for the analysis and management of pipeline integrity data. Recent advances in computing power, software, communications and database design aided by new sources of geographical image data mean that the time is now right for a pipeline integrity specific Geographical Information System. GIS allows the condition of a pipeline to be viewed in a geographical context and maximises the value of existing data sets. Specific pipeline anomalies can be related to geographical or environmental data such as soil conditions, hydrology, land slip or subsidence. A GIS system used in this way provides a valuable tool to help understand, explain, predict and avoid degradation of a pipeline asset. New sources of geographical image data such as sub meter, multi spectral optical satellite imagery, synthetic aperture radar data from satellites and thermal data from aircraft systems, can be used to identify ground characteristics or leakage and provide frequent updates to enable change detection and surveillance to be performed. The GIS can be used as a risk assessment and data management tool, which will enable the full benefit to be extracted from each individual data source, ranging from ILI data to CP and corrosion growth data. This new source of information will be an essential aid to pipeline integrity in the new century. Once implemented the system can be used to perform spatial queries to provide rapid access to the analysis results, confirm code compliance and prioritise corrective action and maximise the efficient use of the resources available.

scholarly journals Map Whiteboard Cloud Solution for Collaborative Editing of Geographic Information

2021 ◽  
pp. 36-55
Author(s):  
Karel Charvat ◽  
Runar Bergheim ◽  
Raitis Bērziņš ◽  
František Zadražil ◽  
Dailis Langovskis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Word Processing ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Web Gis ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Functional Requirements ◽  
Web Mapping ◽  
Collaborative Editing ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Government

For the purpose of exploiting the potential of cloud connectivity in geographical information systems, the Map Whiteboard technology introduced in this article does for web mapping what Google Docs does for word processing; create a shared user interface where multiple parties collaboratively can develop maps and map data while seeing each other work in realtime. To develop the Map Whiteboard concept, we have applied a methodology whereby we have collected technical and functional requirements through a series of hackathons, implemented a prototype in several stages, and subjected this to rigorous testing in a lab environment and with selected users from relevant environments at intermediate scale. The work has resulted in a fully functional prototype that exploits WebSockets via a cloud service to reflect map and data changes between multiple connected clients. The technology has a demonstrated potential for use in a wide range of web GIS applications, something that is facilitated by the interfaces already implemented towards mainstream mapping frameworks like OpenLayers and QGIS-two of the most popular frameworks for Web GIS solutions. Further development and testing are required before operationalization in mission-critical environments. In conclusion, the Map Whiteboard concept offers a starting point for exploiting cloud connectivity within GIS to facilitate the digitalization of common processes within the government and private sector. The technology is ready for early adopters and welcomes the contribution of interested parties.

scholarly journals Grounded Design and GIScience - A framework for informing the design of geographical information systems and spatial data infrastructures

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Kmoch ◽  
Evelyn Uuemaa ◽  
Hermann Klug
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Design Science ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Data Infrastructure ◽  
Development Framework ◽  
Grounded Design

Geographical Information Science (GIScience), also Geographical Information Science and Systems, is a multi-faceted research discipline and comprises a wide variety of topics. Investigation into data management and interoperability of geographical data and environmental data sets for scientific analysis, visualisation and modelling is an important driver of the Information Science aspect of GIScience, that underpins comprehensive Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) research and development. In this article we present the 'Grounded Design' method, a fusion of Design Science Research (DSR) and Grounded Theory (GT), and how they can act as guiding principles to link GIScience, Computer Science and Earth Sciences into a converging GI systems development framework. We explain how this bottom-up research framework can yield holistic and integrated perspectives when designing GIS and SDI systems and software. This would allow GIScience academics, GIS and SDI practitioners alike to reliably draw from interdisciplinary knowledge to consistently design and innovate GI systems.

Development and Evolution of a Site Survey System: Groundhog

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Davies ◽  
Robert Murley ◽  
Ian Adsley
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Site Investigation ◽  
Database Systems ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Nuclear Facilities ◽  
Quality Assurance Programme ◽  
Contaminated Land ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Survey System ◽  
A Site

Traditional techniques for the assessment of pollutants in contaminated land, notably brown-field sites, may not yield the speed and accuracy now required for estimates of risk and remediation cost. Detailed site investigation is often limited by the time and cost of laboratory-based analysis techniques and time-consuming data collation phases. Thus, relatively straightforward technical issues, such as the mapping of priority areas of a site, can be unnecessarily delayed and expensive. The GROUNDHOG system was developed to address these problems and to provide a platform for the development of a range of techniques for the radiological survey of potentially contaminated land. The system brings together the best of well-established and recent technologies. Visualisation of the survey results is improved by the use of Geographical Information Systems and Database systems allow an audit trail to be maintained as part of a Quality Assurance programme. Development of the Groundhog system has continued, increasing the sensitivity of the system for some applications, using gamma radiation spectrometry systems to provide qualitative measurements and constructing ruggedised systems for surveys of areas where the risks associated with manual surveys are deemed unacceptable. In recent years, ‘conventional’ Groundhog surveys have been performed on many nuclear and non-nuclear sites, for a wide range of reasons: de-licensing nuclear facilities; pre- and post-remediation surveys of contaminated land; during the remediation of contaminated land, to reduce waste volume. Specialised versions of the system have been developed and used for the location of discrete nuclear fuel ‘particles’ on beaches, sub-surface measurements have been made for estimating waste volume and a submarine survey has been conducted. This paper describes some of the projects completed and the technologies used to perform the work.

scholarly journals An assessment of the potential of drylands in eight sub-Saharan African countries to produce bioenergy feedstocks

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. K. Watson ◽  
R. A. Diaz-Chavez
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Bioenergy Feedstock ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Sustainability Concept ◽  
Bioenergy Feedstocks ◽  
Sub Saharan

This paper synthesizes lessons learnt from research that aimed to identify land in the dryland regions of eight sub-Saharan African study countries where bioenergy feedstocks production has a low risk of detrimental environmental and socio-economic effects. The methodology involved using geographical information systems (GISs) to interrogate a wide range of datasets, aerial photograph and field verification, an extensive literature review, and obtaining information from a wide range of stakeholders. The GIS work revealed that Africa's drylands potentially have substantial areas available and agriculturally suitable for bioenergy feedstocks production. The other work showed that land-use and biomass dynamics in Africa's drylands are greatly influenced by the inherent ‘disequilibrium’ behaviour of these environments. This behaviour challenges the sustainability concept and perceptions regarding the drivers, nature and consequences of deforestation, land degradation and other factors. An assessment of the implications of this behaviour formed the basis for the practical guidance suggested for bioenergy feedstock producers and bioenergy policy makers.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document