A WebGIS decision-support system for slope stability based on limit-equilibrium modelling

The objective of this paper is to argue for a new model of Geographic Information System (GIS) implementation, Web-based GIS, for supporting decision-making in local government. In this paper, the GIS implementation in Ascension Parish Government, Louisiana is used as a case study to show how Web-based GIS implementation can improve the system use and maximize the value of GIS infrastructures for the community. The author first defines the concept of implementation and role of GIS in local government as a base for further discussion. Special attention is given to analyze the variables that influence the parish employees’ acceptance and use of the GIS in the work. A three-level evaluation framework is established to evaluate GIS implementation strategy and GIS impacts on decision-making in local government. Research findings will be used to direct future implementation strategy. The paper concludes that Web-based GIS, by combining GIS technology and Internet technology, can distribute GIS resources and geo-processing tools to a wider range of potential users. In addition, flexible user-oriented GIS applications can best be developed with intensive user participation and feedback. One of the arguments proposed is that the Web-based GIS can be used to help the local government employees to provide better service for the public and improve the performance of a specific local government agency in processing land development permit applications.

Comparison of different hydrological and stability assumptions for physically-based modeling of shallow landslides

Remote sensing technologies and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can assist the rapid, cost-effective identification of biodiversity and environmentally sensitive areas in offshore and onshore environments. This information, visually represented through a WebGIS (web-based GIS) as interactive maps, provides useful input to management strategies that environmentally-responsible energy companies put in place for impact prevention, and to minimise risk exposure and potential liabilities along the project lifecycle. WebGIS is effective in both simplifying complex spatial and temporal data on biodiversity (such as the presence of threatened species, protected areas, critical habitats) and on socially and ecologically important ecosystem services. The results of such analyses assist in informing decisions taken by company executives and the many professional functions involved along the project lifecycle. This ensures that project activities that depend on and may impact the natural environment are supported by good quality, up-to-date information at a resolution that is aligned to the project phase in which the mitigation action is implemented. As part of our Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (BES) management model, we apply a suite of supporting tools and guidance materials, beginning with risk screenings at early exploration phase, baseline and impact assessments during exploration and development, and the implementation of BES mitigation plans during production until decommissioning. The BES Screening Tool (BESST) is an interactive WebGIS developed in collaboration with the conservation organization Fauna and & Flora International (FFI) for the rapid screening and visualisation of BES values in the marine environment of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). It was conceived for use by Eni US personnel (including non-specialists) to streamline the best available knowledge on BES values into risk management and decision-making along the lifecycle of GoM assets. The BESST uses biodiversity and ecological and socially important ecosystem service indicators among which include threatened/protected species, marine protected areas, areas important for cetaceans, key habitats for shrimp cultivation, fisheries and recreational diving. Input datasets are from different open source databases, including the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The development of metrics was necessary to determine relative sensitivity. The final product was uploaded onto a WebGIS for widespread use and efficient data management. This paper will illustrate, through practical examples, how the BESST can meet different business needs, such as: informing asset acquisition and disinvestment strategies (by identifying those located in highly sensitive areas where regulatory requirements are more restrictive, financial/reputational risks are higher and restoration costs - for example for decommissioning or in the event of an oil spill - are also higher) and supporting the identification of priority operated and non-operated assets, facilities and associated infrastructure for resource prioritization for environmental baselines, mitigation and monitoring plans.

The development and increased use of geographic information systems (GIS) in policing has intensified the demand for public access to digital spatial information. For example, those in the academic arena require access to spatial information to augment their learning, teaching and research endeavours, while the general public need spatially related crime information related to their local area or region to inform decisions that impact upon their everyday living (for example, safety precautions, choice of residential suburb). Much of this information exists, such as the 2001 Census from Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, 2003), crime data available on the Queensland Police Service (QPS) website (http://www.police.qld.gov.au/), and the Atlas of Crime in Australia 2000 (AIC, 2000), yet often the information is not in a form that is easily accessible or comprehendable, requiring an understanding of and access to relatively complex commercial GIS packages. In recent years, police and researchers have worked closely together to develop publicly accessible web-based GIS applications for crime mapping, crime analysis, community mapping and information sharing (see, e.g., Police Foundation, 2001; Shyy et al., 2005; Chainey and Smith, 2006). Dragicevic (2004) highlights how web-based GIS has enhanced the open use of GIS in three main directions including: spatial data access and dissemination; spatial data exploration and geovisualization; and spatial data processing, analysis and modelling.

Web-based geographic information system (GIS) technology, or web-based GIS, offers many opportunities for public planners and Extension educators who have limited GIS backgrounds or resources. However, investigation of its use in planning has been limited. The study described here examined the use of web-based GIS by public planning agencies. A 2013 web-based survey of 274 public planning agency staff throughout Wisconsin revealed that use of web-based GIS for planning tasks lags behind use of software-based GIS and that agency use is hampered by a number of barriers. The findings suggest that Extension professionals can help practitioners become more familiar and proficient with web-based GIS applications.

Advocates for geographic information system (GIS) education contend that learning about GIS promotes students’ spatial thinking. Empirical studies are still needed to elucidate the potential of GIS as an instructional tool to support spatial thinking in other geography courses. Using a non-equivalent control group research design, this study examines the effect of using Web-based GIS in a world geography course on the development of students’ spatial thinking abilities. The findings indicate that Web-based GIS activities implemented in this study significantly enhanced students’ spatial thinking skills.

Geoscience is one of the most prominent research areas today, involved in modelling and analysing the evolvement of Earth systems for the betterment of mankind. Geoscientists engaged in geoscience research and experiments often use sophisticated software tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Nevertheless, as computational geoscience is an emerging field, effective management and utilization of available geoscience data remains a major challenge. Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Processing Service (WPS) standard provides extensive support and contribution towards the field of computational geoscience. WPS standard offers an interface for distributed geoprocessing and as a result it enables integration of various geoprocessing libraries and processes into WPS implementations. Furthermore, it facilitates sharing common geoprocessing services among different communities and eliminates the need of redeveloping. OGC WPS is a widely adopted standard among geoscientists.

The management system which is based on handling GIS database files and remotely sensed imageries on Geographical Information System (GIS) environment is an essential tool to guide and regulate the production systems and marketing activities of product chains. In the case of guava, the management system has to be fed with a specific and structured field database and its metadata to verify the phenotypic status of guava trees and to characterize the production system applied by the producer in agronomic terms (coordinate data, planting frame, vigor, health etc). This data is useful to determine agronomic conditions to be incorporated as a field test in a supervised classification process on SPOT satellite images (PAN and MS) which is used as a mean to scale the punctual field observation data. As a numerical value, the raster structure of satellite images and the numeric value for each cell represents guava photosynthetic activity rate. Along with this, the isolation of guava's phenotypic signature in DN units will feed the supervised classification procedure allowing the user to generate thematic maps per class. On GIS environment, a multi-assessment analysis is applied in order to assign a weight to each component on the project. The analysis is based on spatial analysis vicinity functions applied to guava orchard locations, proximity to collecting centers, roads, and highways. The visual immediacy on thematic maps will allow the decision makers to implement their own criteria analysis to plan the market destination of guava production volume weeks after harvest (fresh market or industry) in Calvillo County.

This study proposes a probabilistic analysis method for modeling rainfall-induced shallow landslide susceptibility by combining a transient infiltration flow model and Monte Carlo simulations. The spatiotemporal change in pore water pressure over time caused by rainfall infiltration is one of the most important factors causing landslides. Therefore, the transient infiltration hydrogeological model was adopted to estimate the pore water pressure within the hill slope and to analyze landslide susceptibility. In addition, because of the inherent uncertainty and variability caused by complex geological conditions and the limited number of available soil samples over a large area, this study utilized probabilistic analysis based on Monte Carlo simulations to account for the variability in the input parameters. The analysis was performed in a geographic information system (GIS) environment because GIS can deal efficiently with a large volume of spatial data. To evaluate its effectiveness, the proposed analysis method was applied to a study area that had experienced a large number of landslides in July 2006. For the susceptibility analysis, a spatial database of input parameters and a landslide inventory map were constructed in a GIS environment. The results of the landslide susceptibility assessment were compared with the landslide inventory, and the proposed approach demonstrated good predictive performance. In addition, the probabilistic method exhibited better performance than the deterministic alternative. Thus, analysis methods that account for uncertainties in input parameters are more appropriate for analysis of an extensive area, for which uncertainties may significantly affect the predictions because of the large area and limited data.

Scientists often use mathematical analysis to describe the condition of farmlands. However, the application of the mathematical model in farmland management and condition assessment is quite limited because of the difficulty of preparing input data and interpreting model output. This paper presents a study that links GSM short message, ArcIMS, a Web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) to create a www-GIS-based farmland information management system called GIS-FIMS. GIS-FIMS is used to get the farmland information (e.g. GPS, PH, electronic conductivity (EC), Temperature and Moisture content) from the soil with the GSM short message technology. With these data and the ArcIMS Internet map service, several modules were built and linked through a graphic user interface (GUI) to achieve the statistical analysis, data management and spatial analysis online. The integration of spatial data, GIS, the WWW, and modeling in GIS-FIMS makes it possible to organize and analyze data spatially, and view results on interactive maps as well as tables and distribution charts. The integration allows scientists and managers in different locations to coordinate and share their estimations for farmland information assessments and management.

Purpose: geographic information system (GIS) design to monitoring and management of bridges that have geographic references, as well as a tool for planning activity programs (maintenance, rehabilitation, strengthening or replacement) of bridges.Design/methodology/approach: waterfallFindings/result: web-based geographic information system (GIS) for bridge management in Brebes RegencyOriginality/value/state of the art: this research does not only focus on site search as the main strength of GIS but maximizes bridge inspection activities as an important part of the bridge management system as a tool for planning bridge construction and maintenance activities

<p>Early Warning Systems are one of the most effective tools for reducing disaster risk, however the development of Landslide Early Warning Systems (LEWS) is complicated due to the random nature of landslide occurrence and the uncertainty in mapping the parameters that cause them. Local LEWS have been effective for known landslides, but regional scale LEWS based on rainfall thresholds have not been very effective up to now. In recent years physically-based multi-hazard models have been developed which allow to predict mass movement hazards at a local scale. However, it is still difficult to apply these in LEWS in a local scale due to the coarse resolution of rainfall estimates and the high computational modelling requirements for running such models real-time. On the other hand, machine learning approaches have been used to assess the relationship between the distribution of the landslide hazard and the catchment morphometric features.<br><br>This research applies a physically-based multi-hazard model combined with machine learning to forecast the mass movement impact, based on rainfall predictions in an area in Java, Indonesia. The landslide inventory was developed using a combination of local reporting data and machine learning techniques. The integrated physically-based multi hazard model OpenLISEM is used to create a database of hazard intensity maps under various rainfall scenarios. The resulting hazard intensity maps are subsequently used to subdivide the area in homogeneous zones for which warning levels are given. Machine learning is used to query the database and extract the most likely hazard intensity map based on the rainfall prediction. The intensity is then combined with exposure information of people, buildings, transportation infrastructure and agriculture to provide impact forecasts. The output of combining physically-based models with machine learning approaches has the potential to improve the prediction of landslide impact. The method also allows to make more specific local decisions related to the actions for various levels of warning (e.g. increased vigilance, removal of resources, evacuation of people). The method is currently under development as part of an Indonesian-Netherlands collaboration project to develop a blueprint to use tailored rainfall data, in combination with empirical and physically-based hydrological and landslide models, and historical landslide data for the development of thresholds for landslides and debris flows, as the basis for early warning at settlement level, applied to several test sites in Java.</p>

Natural disasters have a considerable effect in human, infrastructure and economy. In the case of a, e.g., catastrophic earthquake that happens and affects the urban environment, immediate and efficient actions are required that ensure the minimization of the damage and loss of human lives. Local and national authorities should respond in order to meet the above objective. Nowadays, one of the most appropriate tools for this purpose is the web-based geographic information systems (GIS). Such a system, named SyNaRMa (Information System for Natural Risk Management in the Mediterranean), has been developed in the frame of an INTERREG IIIB ArchiMED project (2006–2008). The present paper aims at addressing the role of the SyNaRMa system as a tool for facilitating disaster management. It is argued that the development of a web-based GIS can assist disaster management agencies to improve the quality of their decision making and increase efficiency and effectiveness in all levels of disaster management activities. This research is primarily based on the findings of the abovementioned project that resulted in the development of an information system for natural risk management in the Mediterranean that can facilitate sharing, access and usage of spatial data in disaster management, i.e., preparedness, response and recovery activities.

Potential of geographic information systems in building cost estimation and visualization

This chapter introduces geographical information systems (GIS) by describing some fundamental concepts important to them in more detail. It aims to help the newcomer to GIS and to provide some understanding of what GIS are and what they can be used for. The concept of GIS will be described in a number of ways: formal definition, examination of distinguishing features in regard to other information systems, the type of questions it can help answer, its ability to carry out certain specific operations and, listing the components a GIS comprises. In addition, the subject matters of this chapter are both the latest developments in the fields of hardware and software in a GIS environment and future directions and trends in these fields. As the concept of GIS not only includes hardware and software, this chapter will, in addition, briefly consider types of data and data storage and the different types of user groups and their differentiated GIS needs.