Acacia mearnsii management in a South African National Parks：SWOT analysis using hot topics in biological invasion as a guide

The assessment of the policy framework governing Invasive Alien Species(IAS) control is of critical importance in conservation. The undertaking of a SWOT analysis of such a framework is necessary because it enhances the efficacy of IAS control. The aim of this study is to carry out a SWOT analysis of the policy framework guiding the control of the spreading of Acacia mearnsii and other IAS in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park in South Africa,as well as the implementation of restorative measures in the park and adjacent communities in line with the recommendations of the Convention on Biodiversity. A comparative analysis of this framework and the hierarchical framework that was developed during the European Union Conference on Freshwater Invasives- Networking for Strategy in 2013 is undertaken. The results indicate the need to strengthen parkcommunity relations,upgrade existing legislation,and boost the technical capacity of South African national parks to identify,detect,monitor and predict IAS invasions,both within the parks and their surroundings. This knowledge is important for developing future policies on IAS control in South Africa.

DPSIR Model-Based Evaluation Index System for Geographic National Conditions

Establishing a reasonable evaluation index system is the basis and premise for the scientific evaluation of geographic national conditions. By analyzing the DPSIR model and its correlation and relation with the evaluation index system, the indexes for geographic national conditions were selected from the aspects of resources, ecology, environment, economy, society, etc to build an evaluation index system for geographic national conditions that consists of three hierarchies： index, criterion, and target levels. Furthermore, the index system was analyzed in terms of index integrity, low overlapping of elements, non-existence of isolated indexes, hierarchy of index system, etc., for the purpose of demonstrating that the DPSIR model-based evaluation index system for geographic national conditions meets the principles of index system establishment.

Adopting cloud computing to optimize spatial web portals for better performance to support Digital Earth and other global geospatial initiatives

A spatial web portal(SWP)provides a web-based gateway to discover,access,manage,and integrate worldwide geospatial resources through the Internet and has the access characteristics of regional to global interest and spiking.Although various technologies have been adopted to improve SWP performance,enabling high-speed resource access for global users to better support Digital Earth remains challenging because of the computing and communication intensities in the SWP operation and the dynamic distribution of end users.This paper proposes a cloud-enabled framework for high-speed SWP access by leveraging elastic resource pooling,dynamic workload balancing,and global deployment.Experimental results demonstrate that the new SWP framework outperforms the traditional computing infrastructure and better supports users of a global system such as Digital Earth.Reported methodologies and framework can be adopted to support operational geospatial systems,such as monitoring national geographic state and spanning across regional and global geographic extent.