Landslide susceptibility analysis of Karakoram highway using analytical hierarchy process and scoops 3D

Landslides are prevalent,regular,and expensive hazards in the Karakoram Highway(KKH)region.The KKH connects Pakistan with China in the present China-Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC)context.This region has not only immense economic importance but also ecological significance.The purpose of the study was to map the landslide-prone areas along KKH using two different techniquesAnalytical Hierarchy Process(AHP)and Scoops 3 D model.The causative parameters for running AHP include the lithology,presence of thrust,land use land cover,precipitation,and Digital Elevation Model(DEM)derived variables(slope,curvature,aspect,and elevation).The AHP derived final landslide susceptibility map was classified into four zones,i.e.,low,moderate,high,and extremely high.Over 80%of the study area falls under the moderate(43%)and high(40%)landslide susceptible zones.To assess the slope stability of the study area,the Scoops 3 D model was used by integrating with the earthquake loading data.The results of the limit equilibrium analysis categorized the area into four groups(low,moderate,high,and extremely high mass)of slope failure.The areas around Main Mantle Thrust(MMT)including Dubair,Jijal,and Kohistan regions,had high volumes of potential slope failures.The results from AHP and Scoops 3 D techniques were validated with the landslides inventory record of the Geological Survey of Pakistan and Google Earth.The results from both the techniques showed similar output that coincides with the known landslides areas.However,Scoops 3 D provides not only susceptible zones but also the range of volume of the potential slope failures.Further,these techniques could be used in other mountainous areas,which could help in the landslide mitigation measures.

Application of Remote Sensing and GIS in Forest Cover Change in Tehsil Barawal, District Dir, Pakistan

The forests of Pakistan replicate plentiful climatic, physiographic and edaphic differences in the country and these forests face a serious problem of deforestation. Geographic information system (GIS) techniques and remote sensing (RS) from satellite platforms offer a best way to identify those areas of deforestation, and thus a GIS and RS based study was conducted in tehsil Barawal, district Dir (U) to analyze forest cover change. The main objectives of the study were to: 1) identify different classes of land use and land cover, and its spatial distribution in the study area;2) determine the trend, nature, location and magnitude of forest cover change;and 3) prepare maps of forest-cover change in different time periods in the study area. To assess the objectives remote sensing and GIS techniques were utilized. A supervised image classification technique was applied on Landsat 5 satellite images of 2000 and 2012. Five main classes such as agriculture, forest, barren land, snow and water were identified. The results showed that the area of forest, barren land, agriculture, water and snow in year 2000 was 49.54%, 43.38%, 5.19%, 1.40% and 0.49% and the area in 2012 was 37.17%, 41.36%, 12.69%, 5.05% and 3.72% respectively. Furthermore 2.02% decrease in barren land, 12.37% decrease in forest and 7.5% increase in agriculture land were identified. Due to high deforestation rate and increased agricultural activities, it is recommended that awareness campaign should be launched in the study area to protect and conserve this forest from further deforestation.

Research on Ubiquitous Map Information Organization Oriented to Location-Based Aggregation

In the era of information and communication technology (ICT) and big data, the map gradually shows a new qualitative feature of “spatiotemporal ubiquitous” due to the extension of its object space and the geographic information it contains, which brings new challenges to map information organization. This paper analyzes the concept and information characteristics of the ubiquitous map. Based on that, it proposes a ubiquitous map information organization model oriented to location-based aggregation. This new model includes three parts as “ubiquitous map instance”, “location-based aggregation mode” and “map scene”. This paper focuses on the “map scene” part which is the core of the model and contains two mutually mapped aspects as “content scene” and “representation scene”. And both aspects are divided into three levels as “features” ←→ “elements” ←→ “scenes” according to ubiquitous map information characteristics and location-based aggregation mode. With cases of map decomposition, the application of the model is explained to illustrate its effectiveness. The model is expected to provide powerful data organization and management capabilities for ubiquitous map production and use.

Progress and performance evaluation of Bei Dou global navigation satellite system： Data analysis based on BDS-3 demonstration system

The first two Medium Earth Orbit(MEO) satellites of the third generation of Bei Dou satellite navigation System(BDS-3) were successfully launched on November 5, 2017. This historical launch starts the new era of the global navigation satellite system of Bei Dou. Before the first two satellites of BDS-3, a demonstration system for BDS-3 with five satellites,including two Inclined Geosynchronous Orbit satellites(IGSO) and three MEO satellites, was established between 2015 and2016 for testing the new payloads, new designed signals and new techniques. In the demonstration system, the new S frequency signal and satellite hydrogen clock as well as inter-satellite link(ISL) based on Ka-band signals with time-division multiple addresses(TDMA) were tested. This paper mainly analyzes the performances of the demonstration system, including the signalto-noise ratios, pseudorange errors and the multipath errors of the civilian signals of BDS-3. The qualities of signals in space,time synchronization and timing precision were tested as well. Most of the performances were compared with those of the regional Bei Dou satellite navigation system(BDS-2). At last, the performances of positioning, navigation and timing(PNT) of the future Bei Dou global system(BDS-3) were evaluated based on the signal quality of the present demonstration satellite system.

A Robust Gaussian Mixture Model for Mobile Robots’ Vision-based Pose Estimation

In dynamic environments, the moving landmarks can make the accuracy of traditional vision-based pose estimation worse or even failure. To solve this problem, a robust Gaussian mixture model for vision-based pose estimation is proposed. The motion index is added to the traditional graph-based vision-based pose estimation model to describe landmarks’ moving probability, transforming the classic Gaussian model to Gaussian mixture model, which can reduce the influence of moving landmarks for optimization results. To improve the algorithm’s robustness to noise, the covariance inflation model is employed in residual equations. The expectation maximization method for solving the Gaussian mixture problem is derived in detail, transforming the problem into classic iterative least square problem. Experimental results demonstrate that in dynamic environments, the proposed method outperforms the traditional method both in absolute accuracy and relative accuracy, while maintains high accuracy in static environments. The proposed method can effectively reduce the influence of the moving landmarks in dynamic environments, which is more suitable for the autonomous localization of mobile robots.

Research on Ubiquitous Map Visualization for Ternary Space

In the era of information and communication technology (ICT) and big data, the map gradually shows a new qualitative feature of “spatiotemporal ubiquitous” with the extension of its object space, expression space and information source, which challenges the theory of cartographic visualization. This paper discusses the ubiquitous map visualization from the object content and expression form. Oriented to the ternary space, it divides the object dimension of ubiquitous map visualization and analyzes the expression characteristics of ubiquitous map visualization. Based on that, it constructs the variable system, symbol system and method system of ubiquitous map visualization. With three cases of the metro roadmap, the tag map, and the three-dimensional (3D) city map, the application of the proposed content is explained to illustrate its effectiveness. The research in this paper is expected to further enrich the theoretical basis of cartographic visualization and provide theoretical support for the expression and application of ubiquitous map visualization.

Structural Investigation for Locating Petroleum Reservoirs Using Geoinformatics in Meyal, Potwar Region, Pakistan

Reflection Seismology technique (Seismic Survey) is widely used around the world to produce a detailed analogue image of subsurface geological structures. This information is used by petroleum experts to accurately plan the location of oil wells. Seismic survey sections and corresponding well logs exhibit different variables like acoustic impedance of rock, seismic velocity, rock density, porosity, time and depth that can be manipulated in GIS to infer a subsurface model for stratigraphic as well as structural interpretations. In recent years, GIS has emerged as a powerful analytical tool for subsurface mapping and analysis. Petroleum exploration is a map intensive process that requires the powerful capabilities of GIS. Purpose of this research is integration of Geographical Information System with Seismic Surveys for Structural and Stratigraphic Interpretation of subsurface Geology and locating Petroleum Prospects. In this research work, GIS has been used to investigate subsurface geological structures and stratigraphy to carefully analyze the capabilities of GIS for finding new petroleum prospects in active thrust belt of Meyal, Potwar region, Pakistan. Acquisition of two-dip and three-strike seismic lines is along with well log data, followed by spatial seismic data processing, development of geophysical data management interface, interpolation of shot point data, trend surface analysis and Geostatistical analysis using GIS. Subsurface zones of high, low or null probability of petroleum accumulation were then, mapped. Finally, GIS based maps were developed. Geospatial tomography GIS model inferred that study area is structurally deformed and exhibits excessive geological faults, and structural traps. With GIS-tomography interpretation of section 97-MYL-08, a potential oil bearing zone (popup anticline), bounded by two thrust faults was observed at almost 3.6 Km depth in Meyal area with average density of about 2.6 gm/cm3. Thrust fault recognized from sharp discontinuity in GIS based survey raster was encountered at 2.9 Km depth. Structure contour map was developed. It depicted that Chorgali formation (dolomitic limestone) at 3.68 Km depth was proven to be reservoir rock in study area. GIS has proved to be a powerful and efficient subsurface modeling and analytical tool and it should be integrated with survey based studies for exploration of oil and gas and investigation of subsurface geological structures.

Interpreting map usage patterns using geovisual analytics and spatiotemporal clustering

Extracting meaningful information from the growing quantity of spatial data is a challenge.The issues are particularly evident with spatio-temporal data describing movement.Such data typically corresponds to movement of humans,animals and machines in the physical environment.This article considers a special form of movement data generated through human–computer interactions with online web maps.As a user interacts with a web map using a mouse as a pointing tool,invisible trajectories are generated.By examining the spatial features on the map where the mouse cursor visits,a user’s interests and experience can be detected.To analyse this valuable information,we have developed a geovisual analysis tool which provides a rich insight into such user behaviour.The focus of this paper is on a clustering technique which we apply to mouse trajectories to group trajectories with similar behavioural properties.Our experiments reveal that it is possible to identify experienced and novice users of web mapping environments using an incremental clustering approach.The results can be used to provide personalised map interfaces to users and provide appropriate interventions for completing spatial tasks.