Geographic information technology usage in developing countries – A case study in Mozambique

Geographic information technologies(GIT)have matured,have become pervasive throughout many types of organizations over recent decades and gained a wide range of attention in diverse sectors of society.The goal of this paper is to identify the main drivers and uses of GIT in organizations and to give an overview of GIT uses in developing countries with a focus on a case study developed for Mozambique by analyzing the results of a survey of 123 Mozambican organizations that are current GIT users.The results show that the main drivers behind are compatibility,complexity,competitive pressure,donor pressure,government policy,intention to adopt,innovation,relative advantage,security,and technology competence.Organizations of the public and private sectors use GIT for customer/resource/risk management,decision support,education,research,monitoring,prediction,simulation,suitability analysis,sustainability,use and access.

Application of Geographic Information Systems in Studying the Relationship between Stock Routes Changes with Water and Pasture Availability for Livestock under a Changing Climate Conditions： A Case of Ilemela and Magu Districts in Mwanza Region-Lake Victoria Basin, Tanzania

Beef cattle production is declining in the areas surrounding LVB （Lake Victoria Basin） due to many factors among which is the climate change. This study was focused on generating spatial knowledge that will be useful in designing appropriate strategies for improving beef cattle production on rangelands of the LVB, through assessing changes in stock routes in relation to water and pasture availability for livestock under a changing climate. The study used participatory mapping and focused group discussions to assess spatial changes of stock routes in relation to water availability and pasture under critical climate changes. Also, GIS （Geographic Information Systems） technologies were deployed in formalization of spatial layers for integration with other pertinent datasets to the facilitate analysis. The study revealed remarkable stock routes changes （i.e. some have been lost, some have been converted into roads, while others have been lost and others narrowed influencing conflicts between pastorists and farmers. The stock routes changes are made by the increased human population which has led to an increase of cultivated areas and subsequently the decline of water sources and grazing land for pastorists. It is recommended that there should be effective land use planning practice, real-time stock route modification concomitant with adverse climate changes and cattle farming practice. Intervention by other mitigation measures particuticularly rainwater harvesting which is a strategy for alleviation of climate change effects for improving beef cattle production in LVB areas is proposed.

Spatial and seasonal characterization of net primary productivity and climate variables in southeastern China using MODIS data

We developed a sophisticated method to depict the spatial and seasonal characterization of net primary productivity (NPP) and climate variables. The role of climate variability in the seasonal variation of NPP exerts delayed and continuous effects. This study expands on this by mapping the seasonal characterization of NPP and climate variables from space using geographic information system (GIS) technology at the pixel level. Our approach was developed in southeastern China using moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. The results showed that air temperature,precipitation and sunshine percentage contributed significantly to seasonal variation of NPP. In the northern portion of the study area,a significant positive 32-d lagged correlation was observed between seasonal variation of NPP and climate (P<0.01),and the influences of changing climate on NPP lasted for 48 d or 64 d. In central southeastern China,NPP showed 16-d,48-d,and 96-d lagged correlation with air temperature,precipitation,and sunshine percentage,respectively (P<0.01); the influences of air temperature and precipitation on NPP lasted for 48 d or 64 d,while sunshine influence on NPP only persisted for 16 d. Due to complex topography and vegetation distribution in the southern part of the study region,the spatial patterns of vegetation-climate relationship became complicated and diversiform,especially for precipitation influences on NPP. In the northern part of the study area,all vegetation NPP had an almost similar response to seasonal variation of air temperature except for broad crops. The impacts of seasonal variation of precipitation and sunshine on broad and cereal crop NPP were slightly different from other vegetation NPP.