Geoinformation Sharing System for East and Southeast Asia Using SDI, OGC Web Services and FOSS

This paper presents an innovative, cost-effective and efficient web-based sharing system for geoscience information among the countries in East and Southeast Asia. The information system’s main components are organized following the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) model. It also uses the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Service (WMS) and Web Processing Service (WPS) for online spatial data rendition and processing, respectively. Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) are also used for other important spatial data processing functions. The geospatial contents of the information system are stored and managed using the open source software PostgreSQL and its PostGIS extension. The information system makes spatial data sharing more efficient and organized by formulating a hierarchical information content classification scheme and the option for the users to put up their own customized WebGIS portals. These give users the option to show their chosen geospatial contents on their own web-based platform. The information system also makes spatial data sharing more flexible by providing data owners the choice to determine the data access privileges for each user or group of users. It also provides module for processing, rendering and sharing Japan’s ASTER satellite images. The information system is called GSi for Geoinformation Sharing Infrastructure for East and Southeast Asia. The URL of the web-based information system is https://ccop-gsi.org/main/index.html.

An ethics assessment list for geoinformation ecosystems: revisiting the integrated geospatial information framework of the United Nations

To achieve sustainable development goals,georeferenced data and geographic information systems play a crucial role.Yet,the way in which these data and systems are summoned upon rests on positivist assumptions which overlook both epistemological and ethical concerns.This is epitomized by the integrated geospatial information framework(IGIF)of the United Nations,which,from the perspective of sustainable development,aims to provide guidance for the management of geoinformation and related tools,considering these as mirrors of the physical world.In this respect,the article has three main goals.First,it delivers an epistemological and ethical critique of the IGIF,by highlighting its internal tensions.Second,it suggests how the IGIF and similar geoinformation initiatives can benefit from an ethical reflection that allows to conduct georeferenced practices in a fair(er)way.Third,it designs an ethics assessment list for self-evaluating the ethical robustness of geoinformation initiatives as ecosystems.

Grid System Analysis of Urban Flora of Bukhara City (Uzbekistan)

This article presents information on the study of the flora of Uzbekistan based on grid system mapping. The urban flora of the city of Bukhara was researched in it. As a result of research, the territory of Bukhara city was divided into 85 indexes based on 1 × 1 km2 grid mapping system. The diversity and density of species in the indexes are determined. The influence of anthropogenic factors on the diversity of species in the indexes is determined.

Drought mapping using Geoinformation technology for some sites in the Iraqi Kurdistan region

Iraq has suffered severely from drought in recent years and the year 2008 was the driest,particularly in the Iraqi Kurdistan region.This study incorporated Geoinformation technology into mapping the drought that severely affected the Kurdistan region in the years 2007
2008.Geoinformation technology provides support in the theories,methods and techniques for building,and development of Digital Earth aspect.Five vegetation,soil,water,and land surface temperature(LST)indices were applied to two Landsat 7 ETMimageries of June 2007 and June 2008,to assess the drought impacts in Erbil governorate Kurdistan during the study period.The indices that were employed in this study were Normalized Difference Vegetation Index,Bare Soil Index,Normalized Differential Water Index,Tasseled Cap Transformation Wetness,and LST.The results revealed a significant decrease in the vegetative cover(56.7%)and a decline in soil/vegetation wetness(29.9%)of the total study area.Likewise,there was a significant reduction in the water bodies surface area in the region such as Dokan Lake,which lost 32.5%of its surface area in comparison with the previous year,2007.The study results showed that the soil moisture content was the most effective actor on the vegetative cover,LST,and drought status in the study area.

GiT-based structural geologic feature analysis of the southern segment of Longmenshan fault zone for earthquake evidence

The Longmenshan fault is a thrust fault which runs along the base of the Longmen Mountains in Siehuan province, southwestern China. The southern segment of the fault had two distinct responses to the Ms 8 Wenehuan and Ms 7 Lushan earthquakes. This study determines characteristics of the structural geology of the Longmenshan fault to evaluate how it influenced the two aforementioned earthquakes. This research was done within a Geo- information Technologies （GiT） environment based on multi-source remote sensing and crustal movement data extracted from the Global Positioning System （GPS）. The spatial distribution of the southern segment of the Longmenshan fault zone was comprehensively analyzed to study both earthquakes. The study revealed that the Wenehuan and Lushan earthquakes occurred on two relatively independent faults. In addition, there was a nearly constant-velocity crustal movement zone between the two epicenters that probably had a compressive stress with slow motion. Furthermore, the central fault and a mountain back fault gradually merged from north to south. The Lushan earthquake of the Wenchuan earthquake. was not an affershock The research showed that fault zones within 30-50 km of State Highway 318 are intensive and complex. In addition, crustal movement velocity decreased rapidly, with a strong multi-directional shear zone. Thus, activity in that zone was likely stronger than in the northern part over the medium to long term.

Temporal Three-Dimensional Ontology for Geographical Information Science (GIS)—A Review

While the use of three-dimensional (3D) geographical information system (GIS) is becoming in rapid development and being used in various fields such as urban and regional planning, disaster management and planning, mobile navigation and etc., commercial and open source GIS software packages tend to offer 3D-GIS functionalities for their products. On the basis, GIS analysis functions are to provide information with respect to geographical location and by having 3D spatial data as an input, it will give advantages in providing horizontal position information. However, to analyze moving objects (temporal) in 3D seems not an easy task and not fully supported by current GIS platform packages. Previously in two-dimensional (2D) GIS practice, main issue addressed by researchers in managing temporal spatial objects is GIS packages were designed based on hardware and software constraints whereby it should be based on the temporal spatial objects ontology. Nowadays, the trend of managing temporal 3D data is via 3D spatial simulation or animation. This approach will not in assistance for GIS users in conducting spatial queries. Without having a suitable ontology and valid topological data structure for temporal 3D data, it will cause repetitive of temporal data (redundancy) and complications in executing spatial analysis in 3D environment. Therefore this paper focuses on the ontology for managing moving 3D spatial objects (i.e. air pollution, flood). The characteristics of moving objects were reviewed thoroughly by categorizing it based on its different appearances. Moreover, existing methods in managing temporal database were addressed and discussed for its practicalities. Another important aspect in managing temporal 3D objects is the implementation of topological data structures for 3D spatial objects were reviewed. In the last section of this paper it summarized the issues and further ideas towards implementing and managing temporal 3D spatial objects in GIS based on the Geoinformation Ontology (GeO).

Identification of landing sites for rescue helicopters in mountains with use of Geographic Information Systems

Helicopters are often used in mountain rescue both for rescuers moving in the area of accidents and for evacuating victims, but in steep or forested terrain finding a landing place can be problematic. The main aim of this research is to use Digital Elevation Model(DEM) and cartographic database analysis to select locations that can be used as landing site for the rescue helicopters. Methods were based on GIS analysis;both raster and vector data were used for identifying touchdown points for rescue helicopters. Based on DEM data, locations with a low slope gradient were identified;topographic vector data were used for identifying unforested sites. Then buffer zones for buildings and power lines were excluded, and it was checked whether the areas had any topographic features that prevented helicopter landings. The findings were verified on an orthophotomap. In result, GIS analyses have selected 1232 polygons that fulfilled initial criteria. Their verification on orthophotomap has shown that only 55% of them could be potentially used as landing site. Landing sites can be found mainly on side ridges of mountain ranges and in valley beds, when those on ridges are most important in this research. The greatest difficulties and methodological challenges are posed by: identification of sites having a shape which prevents landing, the obsolescence of data due to environment dynamics, the presence of features that are not shown on maps but prevent helicopter landings. A map of landing sites is a very useful tool to conduct rescue operations, but each use of a given landing site requires both in-field and numerical verification. The analysis demonstrated that GIS toolsare useful in pre-planning of rescue missions, and also showed that such data must be kept up-to-date and in-field verification is needed continuously, the more so as it plays an important role in ensuring the safety of rescuers and victims.

Harmonisation requirements and capabilities towards a European spatial data infrastructure (ESDI): the HUMBOLDT protected areas scenario

The HUMBOLDT project has the aim of implementing a Framework for harmonisation of data and services in the geoinformation domain,under the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe(INSPIRE)Directive and in the context of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security(GMES)Initiative.The two-pronged approach of HUM BOLDT comprises a technical side of software framework development and an application side of scenario testing and validation.Among the HUMBOLDT Application Scenarios designed to demonstrate the capabilities of the Framework there is the one covering Protected Areas themes and use cases It aims to transform geoinformation,managed by park authorities,into a seamless flow that com bines multiple information sources from different governance levels(European,national,regional),and exploits this newly combined information for the purposes of planning,management and tourism promotion.The Scenario constitutes a step further towards the integration of monitoring systems envisaged in the view of Digital Earth.Protected Areas Scenario creates an examples of the use of the HUMBOLDT tools in Desktop and Web GIS environment,together with setting up a server environment exploiting HUMBOLDT harmonisation framework as taking into account user require-ments and needs and providing benefits for making the road to ESDI establish-ment easier.

Digital earth applications in the twenty-first century

In these early years of the twenty-first century,we must look at how the truly cross-cutting information technology supports other innovations,and how it will funda-mentally change the information positions of government,private sector and the scientific domain as well as the citizen.In those positions,location will be a prominent linking pin.The classical top-down system architectures of information exchange will be diluted by peer-to-peer and bottom-up channels,forcing us to rethink their designs.We should not only focus on better architectures,but need to attend to a different economy of information exchange,in which the‘client’is not only the information sink,but has become an important source as well.The laws of this rising‘infoconomy’have yet to be settled on.This special issue on‘Digital Earth Applications:Technological design and organizational strategies’brings together a number of papers that shed light on this future information ecosystem in which location-specific information will be exchanged between stakeholders.The introduction presents a framework that combines geoinformation streams and organisations brokering between government,science,private sector and citizens.This novel framework helps us improve the appreciation of those papers.