Malaria Control Mechanisms for Effective Healthcare Delivery in Ghana: The Use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

Malaria is a major health problem facing many tropical countries, including Ghana. The use of modern mechanisms to study environmental factors in malaria occurrence is imperative in malaria control efforts. The aim of this research is to investigate how malaria occurrence is influenced by environmental factors and how Geographical Information Systems (GIS) can be used as a mechanism for improving malaria control in healthcare delivery in Ghana. Environmental factors, elevation, daily temperature and daily rainfall were plotted against prevalence of M and S forms of mosquitoes using ArcGIS 10.1. Prevalence of Anopheles gambiae M was the highest at elevations of 0 m to 200 m and that of S was the highest at elevations between 200 m and 500 m. Prevalence of M was the highest at temperatures between 26.1&degC - 27.6&degC whilst that of S was the highest at temperatures of between 24.5&degC and 26.0&degC. Prevalence of M was the highest at rainfall between 10 mm and 35 mm and S was the highest at rainfall between 26 mm and 36 mm and beyond. M form was positively correlated with temperature and negatively with elevation and humidity. The S form was negatively associated with temperature and positively with elevation and rainfall. GIS models can combine with environmental data to estimate vector prevalence under environmental conditions and therefore its use is recommended in Ghana.

Remote sensing and geographic information systems techniques in studies on treeline ecotone dynamics

We performed a meta-analysis on over 100 studies applying remote sensing(RS)and geographic information systems(GIS)to understand treeline dynamics.A literature search was performed in multiple online databases,including Web of Knowledge(Thomson Reuters),Scopus(Elsevier),BASE(Bielefeld Academic Search Engine),CAB Direct,and Google Scholar using treeline-related queries.We found that RS and GIS use has steadily increased in treeline studies since 2000.Spatialresolution RS and satellite imaging techniques varied from low-resolution MODIS,moderate-resolution Landsat,to high-resolution WorldView and aerial orthophotos.Most papers published in the 1990s used low to moderate resolution sensors such as Landsat Multispectral Scanner and Thematic Mapper,or SPOT PAN(Panchromatic)and MX(Multispectral)RS images.Subsequently,we observed a rise in high-resolution satellite sensors such as ALOS,GeoEye,IKONOS,and WorldView for mapping current and potential treelines.Furthermore,we noticed a shift in emphasis of treeline studies over time:earlier reports focused on mapping treeline positions,whereas RS and GIS are now used to determine the factors that control treeline variation.

The Demographic Impact on Credit Scores＂ Evidence From Statistical Methods and Geographic Information Systems （GIS） Mapping

Average credit scores for people in the United States （US） differ from state to state. Some states have high, and some states have low average credit scores. Since lenders and employers use credit scores to make loan and employment decisions, people living in states where average credit scores are high should experience the benefits of living where credit scores tend to allow more favorable loan and employment decisions. Although credit scores are the direct result of credit histories, credit histories may be impacted by demographic factors. If the demographic factors that impact credit histories are identified, ways to improve credit scores are likely to be discovered and available to people and state government policymakers. This study looks for demographic factors to indirectly explain the average credit scores for people living in each state of the US. The methodology includes statistical analyses and geographic information systems （GIS） mapping. Statistical analyses provide evidence to suggest that state average credit scores are explained by the demographic factors of education, family, income, and health. GIS mapping reveals clusters of states with similar demographics and credit scores.

Geographical Information System-Based Assessment of Ecological Security in Changbai Mountain Region

Ecological security defined as the creation of a condition where the physical surroundings of a community provide for the needs of its inhabitants without diminishing its natural stock,which is important for regional security and social stability.In recent years,land use patterns in the Changbai Mountain region have changed significantly with intensive human activities,and consequently led to increasing problems in regional ecological security.Based on the Pressure-State-Impact-Response(PSIR) model and the mathematical method of catastrophe progression supported by geographical information system(GIS),the ecological security situation of the study area under land use and cover change(LUCC) was evaluated.The results indicated that the ecological security in Changbai Mountain region varied nonlinearly,which got better from 1990 to 2000 but became worse from 2000 to 2007,the ecological security levels in Changbai Mountain region were mainly medium and medium to low during the past 17 years,with higher values of Ecological Security Index(ESI) in the central region and lower values in the east and west,the ecological security situation was more serious in the settlements and river valleys,where the LUCC was most remarkable.

THE MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH OF GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES USING GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM

Based on the combination of Geographical information system(GIS)with the research ofToponymy,some foundational problems of the Geographical Name Information System(GINS)are discussed in this paper.The present situation of Toponymical research is anal-ysed and the necessity of introducing the GIS tools to the research of Toponymy is demon-strated.The conceptual model of the GNIS and the structure of Geographical name Database(GND)are discussed.The basic functions of the GNIS software for management and re-search of geographical name are suggested.Some issues are stated such as the applicationand potential of the combination of GIS with CAD in the management and research of To-ponymy,the combination of GNIS with other spatial information system and sharing the in-formation with each other,the research and development of GNIS, etc.

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.

Integration technology research on marine geographical information system

It is urgent and necessary to integrate a marine geographical information system （MGIS） with marine remote sensing detection modules. On the basis of the current technology and features of applications, an open three-layer integration framework is designed. At the data layer, a two-level three-base integration mechanism based on the plug-in technology is applied; At the function layer, an integration mode based on API, DLL, EXE and COM is discussed; and at the application layer, a sharing mechanism based on the clients/service is adopted. As an example, the remote sensing integrated application information system of China＇s coastal zone and offshore （MaXplorer1. 0） with muhiecology remote sensing fusion and assimilation module, surge detection module as well as eight other thematic application modules is integrated, and the key technology of integration is discussed at different layers and in different modules. The result shows that it is possible to realize the conformity of technology and resources and to provide the incorporate technology platform for marine information operational functioning after applying the integration framework.

Application of Geographic Information Systems to Analyses and Modeling of Hydrocarbons Anomaly in Yakla,North Tarim Basin,Xinjiang,China

Yakla area is a very important and typical region in North Tarim, because it is the region that leads to a breakthrough in North Tarim oil/gas exploring. Therefore, a lot of exploration work has been already carried out in the area aiming at assessing the hydrocarbon anomaly and some techniques for anomaly delineation are being suggested. Yakla covers about 312 km 2 and lies 20 km south to Luntai Kuche road and displays as a long rectangular, with the length of 24 km in ENE and the width of 13 km in WSW. The surface is desert covered with saline akali, sand ribbon and sand dune. Samples collected from Yakla were analyzed for their hydrocarbon mass fractions and the spatial distribution of the concentrations of selected hydrocarbons C 1, C 2, C 3, i C 4, n C 4, i C 5, n C 5 and UF365 were estimated from these data sets. Multivariate statistical techniques including Kriging, moving average, factor analyses, cluster analyses and furrier filtering are used. The statistical techniques, spatial data analysis and transformation capabilities of geographic information systems, combined with geophysical and geological data, helped the authors to identify the hydrocarbon anomaly in Yakla.

Application of Geographic Information Systems in Groundwater Prospecting: A Case Study of Garissa County, Kenya

Groundwater prospecting in Kenya has been haphazard and expensive due to lack of information on the appropriate areas for hydrogeological exploration and drilling of boreholes. Drilling in areas without prior knowledge about their groundwater potential has been leading to the drilling of numerous dry boreholes. In this study, we explored the use of Geographic Information System as a pre-analysis tool to identify zones with groundwater potential for Garissa Country. Factors that contributed to groundwater occurrence were identified as landcover, soil type and rock formation. The groundwater potential zones were generated by analysing thematic data of the three factors and integrating the musing Weighted Index Overlay Analysis (WIOA) method. The groundwater potential zones were validated by comparing the predicted potentials with actual yields of existing boreholes drilled within those areas. Results indicate that, whereas the model correctly predicted areas with low or no groundwater potential, it performed sparingly well when predicting areas with good groundwater potential. The study conclusively identified areas where groundwater prospecting should not be attempted and other alternative methods of surface water provision should be explored.

Contribution of Geographic Information Systems for the Management of Water Resources： Case of Groundwater Resources of the Plain of Mascara （Algeria）

The plain of Mascara includes groundwater resources, heavily exploited for the needs of the population, industry and agriculture. However, this resource is under threat from the point of view of quality and quantity. The degradation of water quality comes from water discharges untreated （domestic and/or industrial） and from the irrational use of fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture. The decrease in reserves is due to the effects of intensive exploitation. Several studies on the water resources of the plain generated a mass of very important data. In most cases, these data are disparate at different institutions managers （water resources, environment, etc.）, and are found recorded in paper documents, difficult to exploit. For this reason, it would be essential to use reliable new techniques, namely the GIS （geographic information systems）. The implementation of the GIS of the plain of Mascara （with extension to all the sub-basin of Wadi Fekan） must permit to organize the data and transform it into information. Integration, crossing and superposition of the data with other variables may contribute to spatial analysis and generate very important thematic maps. The GIS constitutes a very effective decision aid tool for the management, exploitation, preservation and protection of water resources. The exploitation possibilities of GIS are multiple, direct or indirect. We give an example as the coupling with a groundwater flow model that may be the subject of additional work.

Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Targeted National Recruitment of Community-Dwelling Caregivers Managing Dementia-Related Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms: A Recruitment Approach for a Randomized Clinical Trial

Over 16 million caregivers of people living with dementia require support in a range of issues, including self-care, disease education, and guidance for how to manage behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). Non-pharmacological interventions are needed to address these areas, and online applications have been shown to be safe and effective. To ensure the efficacy of such interventions, racially, ethnically, geographically, and socioeconomically diverse participants must be recruited to increase the generalizability of study outcomes. This protocol paper describes a recruitment plan using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to reach a representative sample of caregivers across the United States for a national Phase III clinical study. Using publicly available census data from the American Community Survey (ACS), combined with location data for local aging resources such as Area Agencies on Aging (AAA), recruitment will be derived from data analysis conducted in ESRI ArcGIS v10.7.1. Datasets including age, gender, income, and education will be assessed nationally at the county and census tract spatial scale in a nine-step process to develop recruitment priority areas containing high concentrations of eligible participants living in the community. Overall, the current protocol will demonstrate the value of GIS in tailoring targeted outreach strategies to recruit community-dwelling populations through local resource institutions. This novel approach may have far-reaching implications in future recruitment initiatives and help to secure racially/ethnically diverse samples.

Safety Evaluation Method of Evacuation Routes in Areas in Case of Earthquake Disasters Using Ant Optimization Algorithm and Geographic Information Systems

The present study aims to propose the method for the quantitative evaluation of safety concerning evacuation routes in case of earthquake disasters in urban areas using ACO （Ant Colony Optimization） algorithm and GIS （Geographic Information Systems）. Regarding the safety evaluation method, firstly, the similarity in safety was focused on while taking into consideration road blockage probability, and after classifying roads by means of the hierarchical cluster analysis, the congestion rates of evacuation routes using ACO simulations were estimated. Based on these results, the multiple evacuation routes extracted were visualized on digital maps by means of GIS, and its safety was evaluated. Furthermore, the selection of safe evacuation routes between evacuation sites, for cases when the possibility of large-scale evacuation after an earthquake disaster is high, is made possible. As the safety evaluation method is based on public information, by obtaining the same geographic information as the present study, it is effective in other areas regardless of whether the information is of the past and future. Therefore, in addition to spatial reproducibility, the safety evaluation method also has high temporal reproducibility. Because safety evaluations are conducted on evacuation routes based on quantified data, highly safe evacuation routes that are selected have been quantitatively evaluated, and thus serve as an effective indicator when selecting evacuation routes.

Governance of Marine Protected Areas： An Approach Using Public Participation Geographic Information Systems--The MARGov Project

The MARGov Project consisted in strengthening the interaction among the Professor Luiz Saldanha Marine Park stakeholders, and to collaboratively construct, with social and institutional actors, a governance model for the Marine Park, located in the municipality of Sesimbra （Portugal）. To pursue this goal, a PPGIS （public participation geographic information system） was developed, allowing the interaction, discussion and public participation of the stakeholders and actors involved. This PPGIS emerged as a crowdsourcing tool, with the purpose of assisting the georeferenced contributes from the local users of the Marine Park, regarding several relevant subjects, such as pollution, economic activities, opportunities and threats to the Marine Park, providing visual, analytical, and demonstrative qualities.

Water Runoff Estimation Using Geographical Information System (GIS) for Alrakhmah Basin Valley Northeast of Iraq

The lack of water resources in many regions is the main challenge for the human being and to extended investigations. Water resources controlling and management is essential in the areas depending on the seasonal rainfall. This research aims to estimate the surface water runoff for Basin of Alrakhmah Valley located in the southwestern part of Kirkuk Province in northeastern of Iraq. Analyzing of Spatial data and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data has been conducted using Geographic Information System (GIS) to estimate the hydrological properties for the watershed valley with 158.5 km2 surface area. The results showed that watershed valley type is from the fifth rank with a longitudinal shape and topography percentage of 0.568. The watershed textures found to be 3.24 and the drain density 1.5 at 3.49 river branching. Finally, the annual estimated surface water retreat according to the morpho-hydro climatic elements found to be 0.01286233 milliard cubic meter.

Prototype Geographic Information Systems Mapping of Crop Products Featured Local

Local featured program in Indonesia cannot be separated entirely from commodity strategic bases. Until in 2006, agricultural development formulation showed indicative targets for featured crops commodity production. The problem of food security is forming of farmer’s independence to protect local resources in efficiently and optimally, so these resources can be more utilized. It can be achieved by assist of information technologies and communication in forming of Geographic Information System (GIS) to support consistency of food security in Indonesia. This research designs prototype geographic information system in order to conduct the accurate mapping and to know the local featured crops production in Indonesia. This level is conducted for documentation and mapping of agricultural products which is the local featured production. This documentation requires the usage of potential physical, economic, social and cultural environment by the utilization of information technology and communication, which have the ability of relevancy and accessibility of reliable information.

Combining Geographic Information Systems for Transportation and Mixed Integer Linear Programming in Facility Location-Allocation Problems

In this study, we aimed to assess the solution quality for location-allocation problems from facilities generated by the software TransCAD®?, a Geographic Information System for Transportation (GIS-T). Such facilities were obtained after using two routines together: Facility Location and Transportation Problem, when compared with optimal solutions from exact mathematical models, based on Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP), developed externally for the GIS. The models were applied to three simulations: the first one proposes opening factories and customer allocation in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil;the second involves a wholesaler and a study of location and allocation of distribution centres for retail customers;and the third one involves the location of day-care centers and allocation of demand (0 - 3 years old children). The results showed that when considering facility capacity, the MILP optimising model presents results up to 37% better than the GIS and proposes different locations to open new facilities.

Contribution of a Geographical Information System to the Study of Soil Loss Dynamics in the Lobo Catchment (Côte d’Ivoire)

The Lobo watershed is highly anthropogenic since it has become the main production area for cocoa and coffee in C?te d’Ivoire. It therefore seems important to quantify soil loss by water erosion in this region. The Wischmeier modeling was used to model the main factors involved in erosive phenomena. Crosscutting of thematic maps and the application of the USLE formulas made possible to evaluate the erosion rate at the watershed scale in 1986 and 2014. Although soil is susceptible to erosion and erosivity is increased, the results indicate a growth in soil loss estimated at 90.12%. Some agroforestry efforts are still possible to help reducing those soil losses.

Mapping of Soil Properties Using Geographical Information System (GIS): A Case Study of Hassan Usman Katsina Polytechnic

GIS relates and integrates spatial data from various sources, for storage, retrieval, analyses and display. This paper presents the analysis and mapping of Geotechnical data using natural neighbour interpolation tool of GIS. The Campus of Hassan Usman Katsina Polytechnic Nigeria was as the study area, and Arc GIS 10.2.1 was used to perform the analyses. The study used soils samples from ten trial pit distributed within the study area and subjected to various laboratory tests. Index and engineering properties of the samples were determined. Map database developed in a GIS environment and the result of the laboratory tests stored, were analysed and displayed using GIS. The research results show maps of various soil properties. The research result provides estimated data for preliminary designing of engineering infrastructures in the area.

基于DDYGISS平台的政务信息资源空间化的实现与应用

“数字化东营”地理信息共享系统(DDYGISS)是集“3S”技术(GIS、GPS、RS)、对象关系数据库技术、Internet技术、分布式组件技术等为一体的WebGIS服务平台,是面向资源集合、共享、应用服务的开发平台和运行平台。本文提出了在DDYGISS平台上进行了二次开发实现了GIS和政务资源系统的高度集成,从而使单调的政务资源信息(如经济指标、人才、招投标信息等)可视化与空间化,效果很好。

Review of state-of-the-art decision support systems (DSSs) for prevention and suppression of forest fires

Forest ecosystems are our priceless natural resource and are a key component of the global carbon budget. Forest fires can be a hazard to the viability and sustainable management of forests with consequences for natural and cultural environments, economies, and the life quality of local and regional populations. Thus, the selection of strategies to manage forest fires, while considering both functional and economic efficiency, is of primary importance. The use of decision support systems(DSSs) by managers of forest fires has rapidly increased. This has strengthened capacity to prevent and suppress forest fires while protecting human lives and property. DSSs are a tool that can benefit incident management and decision making and policy, especially for emergencies such as natural disasters. In this study we reviewed state-of-the-art DSSs that use: database management systems and mathematical/economic algorithms for spatial optimization of firefighting forces; forest fire simulators and satellite technology for immediate detection and prediction of evolution of forest fires; GIS platforms that incorporate several tools to manipulate, process and analyze geographic data and develop strategic and operational plans.