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  • The developement of red mud flood environmental information system and the methodology for the spatial analysis of the degraded area
    1-11
    Views:
    184

    The red mud disaster occurred on 4th October 2010 in Hungary has raised the necessity of rapid intervention and drew attention to the long-term monitoring of such threat. Both the condition assessment and the change monitoring indispensably required the prompt and detailed spatial survey of the impact area. It was conducted by several research groups - independently - with different recent surveying methods. The high spatial resolution multispectral aerial photogrammetry is the spatially detailed (high resolution) and accurate type of remote sensing. The hyperspectral remote sensing provides more information about material quality of pollutants, with less spatial details and lower spatial accuracy, while LIDAR ensures the three-dimensional shape and terrain models. The article focuses on the high spatial resolution, multispectral electrooptical method and the evaluation methodology of the deriving high spatial resolution ortho image map, presenting the derived environmental information database.

  • Spatial Statistical Analysis of the relation in between population density and Human Modification of terrestrial lands at Tabia level in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia
    1-9
    Views:
    185

    In this study first spatial pattern of the level of human modification of terrestrial lands and second its relation with population density was studied at Taiba level in the Tigray regional state of Ethiopia.      For the level of human modification of terrestrial lands global Human Modification dataset (gHM) was used and for population density Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4.11) dataset was used. Both the data set were preprocessed before geostatistical analysis. To measure the distribution pattern Global Moran's I statistics, Cluster and Outlier Analysis (Anselin Local Morans I) statistics was used. To measure the relation between population density and human modification of terrestrial lands geographically weighted regression was used. In the case of first objective the resulting z-score of 50.50, confirm the tabias with high Human Modification of terrestrial lands are highly clustered. In case of second objective the results shows 214 Tabias containing high value and are surrounded by Tabias with high values (HH), 10 Tabias containing high value and is surrounded by Tabias with low values (HL). The relation between population density and human modification of terrestrial lands was found positive with R2= 0.506. This research will help the government and planners for proactive spatial planning to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem function before important environmental values are lost in tabias containing high value and is surrounded by Tabias with high values.

  • Analysis of multitemporal aerial images for fenyőfő Forest change detection
    89-100
    Views:
    224

    This study evaluated the use of 40 cm spatial resolution aerial images for individual tree crown delineation, forest type classification, health estimation and clear-cut area detection in Fenyőfő forest reserves in 2012 and 2015 years. Region growing algorithm was used for segmentation of individual tree crowns. Forest type (coniferous/deciduous trees) were distinguished based on the orthomosaic images and segments. Research also investigated the height of individual trees, clear-cut areas and cut crowns between 2012 and 2015 years using Canopy Height Models. Results of the research were examined based on the field measurement data. According to our results, we achieved 75.2% accuracy in individual tree crown delineation. Heights of tree crowns have been calculated with 88.5% accuracy. This study had promising result in clear cut area and individual cut crown detection. Overall accuracy of classification was 77.2%, analysis showed that coniferous tree type classification was very accurate, but deciduous tree classification had a lot of omission errors. Based on the results and analysis, general information about forest health conditions has been presented. Finally, strengths and limitations of the research were discussed and recommendations were given for further research.

  • Regional Development in the Age of Big Data
    1-9
    Views:
    150

    Our paper presents a forward looking analytical approach to the territorial development in a region of the Transylvanian Plain situated in the vicinity of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. We outlined the development of this region with the means of landscape architecture supported by a comparable assessment. In the age of Big Data we settled at creative usage of traditional analysis. We extracted yet undetected information from a limited amount of available as yet loosely related data. The key feature of the employed model is the ontological traceability of cause and effect. Although technology is available to collect enormous data, expert knowledge gained by education and professional practice cannot be overlooked. We demonstrate that this method of location based analysis is capable of delivering value added to established principles of spatial planning in the age of trustworthy, large volume, heterogeneous data.

  • Interferences between the ecological network and urbanized areas in Poland
    65-77
    Views:
    35

    This paper presents spatial relations between Polish urban areas and valuable habitats and links between them composing the country’s ecological network. The quantitative analysis for 891 towns and cities was conducted using GIS techniques based on cartographic vector data and statistical data. Valuable habitats and links between them, such as national parks, landscape parks, CORINE biotopes sites, wildlife corridors linking NATURA 2000 sites and ECONET areas, can be found in 72% of Polish towns and cities. The proportion of artificial surfaces in those areas is different depending on the size of a town or city and its location. Urban areas with the highest index of presence of valuable habitats and links between them are concentrated in the south of Poland, where settlement network is most dense. However, in the case of those areas the proportion of artificial surfaces interfering with the ecological network is lower than Poland’s average, being 16%. The pressure of anthropogenic land cover extending onto the country’s ecological network is most conspicuous in urban areas with a population of at least several dozen thousand residents where the average developed area is 20.8% of their total area. The danger for the continuity of the nature system is best seen in the north western Poland, where artificial surfaces interference in towns and cities is largest. The analysis performed identified 82 towns and cities, in which the preservation of the continuity of the ecological network should be a priority in spatial management because of a higher than average index of the presence of valuable habitats and links between them and large proportion of artificial surfaces in those areas.

  • Periphery Dichotomy and its Investigation by GIS Methods
    131-136
    Views:
    164

    Centre-periphery dichotomy can be regarded as one of the crucial issues in human geography and regional science. The definition of periphery is far from unambiguous due to its relative expression and its content. This is the reason why can significant number of studies be found focusing on the delimitation of central and peripheral areas. The revolution of computer technology and the rapid development of GIS cause the more and more extended usage of these techniques in the human geography as well. These related studies were categorised by their approaches – namely the locational or developmental centreperiphery concepts – and their GIS tools. Application of spatial parameters with extended datasets and complex GIS based calculations mean the most precise and complicated use of GIS and computer tools in the delimitation of peripheral (and central) areas.

  • Development of MSW collection service on regional scale: spatial analysis and urban disparities in North-Easr Region, Romania
    13-18
    Views:
    35

    The cities are facing illegal dumping of municipal solid waste (MSW) because the waste collection facilities do not cover the entire population. Furthermore, this sector is poorly developed in small towns or villages annexed to administrative territory units (ATU) of cities , MSW are disposed in open dumps polluting the local environment. This paper analyzes on the one hand the urban disparities on public access to waste collection services (WCS) in the North-East Region on the other hand, it performs a comparative analysis between 2003 and 2010 outlining the changes made in the context of Romania’s accession to EU. Also, it performs a quantitative assessment method of uncollected waste at urban level and correlated to demographic features of each city. Spatial-temporal analysis of waste indicators using thematic cartography or GIS techniques should be a basic tool for environmental monitoring or assessment of projects from this field in every development region (NUTS 2). The EU acquis requires the closure of noncompliant landfills, the extension of waste collection services, the development of facilities for separate collection, recycling and reuse according to waste hierarchy concept. Full coverage of urban population to waste collection services is necessary to provide a proper management of this sector. Urban disparities between counties and within counties highlights that current traditional waste management system is an environmental threat at local and regional scale.

  • Geomorphologic analysis of drainage networks on Mars
    15-30
    Views:
    57

    Altogether 327 valleys and their 314 cross-sectional profiles were analyzed on Mars, including width, depth, length, eroded volume, drainage and spatial density, as well as the network structure. According to this systematic analysis, five possible drainage network types were identified such as (a) small valleys, (b) integrated small valleys, (c) individual, medium-sized valleys, (d) unconfined, anastomosing outflow valleys, and (e) confined outflow valleys. Measuring their various morphometric parameters, these five networks differ from each other in terms of parameters of the eroded volume, drainage density and depth values. This classification is more detailed than those described in the literature previously and correlated to several numerical parameters for the first time. These different types were probably formed during different periods of the evolution of Mars, and sprung from differently localized water sources, and they could be correlated to similar fluvial network types from the Earth.

  • Monitoring the changes of a suburban settlement by remote sensing
    76-83
    Views:
    73

    Satellite images and aerial photos support settlement surveys and provide valuable information of their physical environment. Aerial photos are excellent tools to overview large areas and simultaneously provide high-resolution images making them efficient tools to monitor built-up areas and their surroundings. Aerial photos can also be used to collect complex spatial data as well as to detect various temporal changes on the land surface, such as construction of illegal edifices and waste dumps. The 10 to 30-meter resolution SPOT and Landsat images are usually insufficient for site specific data collection and analysis. However, the recently available 0.5-meter resolution satellite images have broadened the scope of monitoring and data collection projects. Beyond environmental and urban monitoring, the new available high-resolution satellite images simplify the everyday work of local authorities and will facilitate the development of governmental databases that include spatial information for public utilities and other communal facilities.

  • Analysis of the connection between urban land cover and census districts using geoinformatical methods
    52-67
    Views:
    50

    Remote sensing resources are usually used in research to better understand urban built-up density, spatial structure and the processes of change. Based on results of image segmentation, landscape metrics indexes, texture and pattern may be analyzed beside the spatial changes in urban reflectance. Social processes within the settlement can be analyzed efficiently, although the census data may also be connected to the urban land cover data through geoinformation systems. On the research project different parameters of urban segments, i.e. patch number, mean patch area, total patch area, total patch perimeter, patch density and edge density, formations that make up the urban pattern were analyzed. Urban functional districts of different built-up density were separated using appropriate indexes, and extending the database with spectral content made it possible to review district boundaries and to mark new boundaries due to these changes.

  • Integrating applied lake ecology into spatial planning: towards a socially acceptable lakeshore restoration at Lake Velence (Hungary)
    27-41
    Views:
    202

    A good chance of a socially accepted shore-restoration that is sustainable for the long run stands only, if all those, concerned in lake use, are also interested in the ecological interventions, if shore-restoration serves social and economic purposes, as well. In the previous phase of our research, assessments were made to find the sections of the shore zone that are suitable for restoration: to detect the sites where the existing artificial shoreline stabilization works could be removed. So that social demands should be involved in the assessment process, to begin with, structured interviews were made. According to the results, the share of the plots, being suitable or partially suitable for shore-restoration, slightly exceeded 7%. The analysis of restoration’s limiting factors has shown that the type of shoreline stabilization, the width of zone covered by emergent macrophytes, the extent of human pressures, and the relevant regulations on zoning (fixed in urban plans) together set limits to restoration. The interviews have made it clear that as a result of the changed demands on recreation-tourism, also the natural and landscape values have become more significant.

  • Mapping of river waterquality using inverse distance weighted interpolation in Ogun-Osun river basin, Nigeria
    48-62
    Views:
    744

    Sustainable management of water resources involves inventory, conservation, efficient utilization, and quality management. Although, activities relating to quantity assessment and management in terms of river discharge and water resources planning are given attention at the basin level, water quality assessment are still being done at specific locations of major concern. The use of Geographical Information System (GIS) based water quality information system and spatial analysis with Inverse Distance Weighted interpolation enabled the mapping of water quality indicators in Ogun and Ona catchment of Ogun-Osun River Basin, Nigeria. Using 27 established gauging stations as sampling locations, water quality indicators were monitored over 12 months covering full hydrological season. Maps of seasonal variations in 10 water quality indicators as impacted by land-use types were produced. This ensured that trends of specific water quality indicator and diffuse pollution characteristics across the basin were better presented with the variations shown along the river courses than the traditional line graphs. The production of water quality maps will improve monitoring, enforcement of standards and regulations towards better pollution management and control. This strategy holds great potential for real time monitoring of water quality in the basin with adequate instrumentation.

  • GIS-integrated multi-criteria suitability anal­ysis for healthcare facilities site selection in Rajouri district, Jammu and Kashmir, India
    12-29
    Views:
    130

    The study aims to develop a Decision Support model for the selection of a suitable site to establish a new healthcare center with adequate facilities based on the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) in the Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir. This study utilized AHP and GIS to identify an appropriate location for a new healthcare center. The study employed eight criteria to evaluate potential locations and utilized pairwise comparison to assign weights to each criterion. GIS-based spatial analysis was used to create factor and suitability maps for each criterion. Suitability was evaluated on a scale of 0 to 10 and each factor map was combined using the ArcGIS weighted overlay selection tool. The final map of the study represents the suitable site for a healthcare center in the Rajouri district and it shows the sites from the highly suitable to the least suitable area. In Rajouri district, mostly the central part can be considered very suitable as the population density of this area is higher compared to other areas of the district. The southwestern parts of the district are moderately suitable or least suitable sites for a new healthcare center. The study displays the pattern of the existing location of healthcare centers, mostly, the existing locations are not proper and suitable. Therefore, in the future, the allocation of healthcare centers must be in more adequate areas. Policymakers and healthcare professionals can be benefitted from this study in selecting suitable locations for future hospitals, which could ultimately improve access to healthcare services in the region. Additionally, the study can be contemplated in developing new policies for better transportation system in the study area.

  • Sentinel-2 satellite-based analysis of bark beetle damage in Sopron Mountains, Hungary
    33-40
    Views:
    31

    Sopron mountains were affected by bark beetle (Ips typographus) damage between 2017 and 2020, which was surveyed on high-resolution ESA Sentinel-2 satellite images for the period 2017 and 2020 using Mosaic Hub, Anaconda, and Jupyter Notebook web-based computing environments. Biotic forest damage was detected based on vegetation (NDVI) and moisture (MSI, NDWI) indices derived from satellite images. The spatial and temporal change of damage was observed in the image series, resulting in information about the level of degradation and regeneration. In pursuance of GIS processing, 84 forest compartments were compared, which showed in most of the cases (97%) negative interannual change in the index mean values (MSI = - 0.14, NDWI = - 0.2, NDVI= - 0.19) when years compared to each other. The remote sensing-based survey was marked out and validated based on the forest database of the Hungarian Division of Forest of National Land Centre and forest protection damage reports of the Hungarian National Forest Damage Registration System.

  • Morphometric characteristics of a tropical river basin, central Kerala, India using geospatial techniques
    1-14
    Views:
    232

    The Thutapuzha watershed (TW) is one among the major tributaries of Bharathapuzha – the largest west flowing river in Kerala, India. Morphometric analysis was carried out to determine the spatial variations in the drainage characteristics and to understand the prevailing geologic variation, topographic information and structural setup of TW using Survey of India topographic maps and ASTER-DEM. Geoprocessing techniques has been used for the delineation and calculation of the morphometric parameters of the watershed. The TW sprawled over 1107Km2 and the study revealed that the watershed includes a sixth order stream and lower order streams mostly dominate the basin with a drianage density of 1.36 m/Km2  exhibiting highly resistant subsoil, dense vegetation, and low relief of surface nature . The study  indicate that rainfall has a significant role in the drainage development whereas the drainage pattern is controlled by structure and relief. The watershed of TW is moderate to well-drained and exhibited a geomorphic maturity in its physiographic development. The shape parameters revealed the elongated nature of TW having less prone to flood, lower erosion and sediment transport capacities and drainage network development in the watershed. This study strongly brings to light that the drainage morphometric parameters have the enormou spotentiality to unveil the hydro-morphologicalcharacteristics of the river basins. Integrating hydro-morphological characteristics with conventional watershed assessment methods would have a beneficial effect on judicious watershed management, which helped to formulate a comprehensive watershed management plan.