Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

No More Hidden Secrets: Human Rights Violations And Remote Sensing, Tommy O'Connell, Stephen Young

Stephen Young

Aim: This study used both high resolution and medium resolution satellite imagery to test three semi-automated remote sensing methods, in an attempt to identify useful tools to support eye-witness testimony and reports on human rights violations. As huts are routinely burned down during attacks on a village, particularly in Sudan, the number of huts and villages burned can be used to corroborate on-the-ground reports.

Methods: Three remote sensing methods (Supervised Classification, Change Detection, and Feature Extraction) were performed on imagery from both before the attacks in February 2006 and after the attacks to examine any useful trends that could be …

Study Of Potential Risk Of Dengue Disease Outbreak In Sri Lanka Using Gis And Statistical Modelling, Sumith Pathirana, Masato Kawabata, Rohitha Goonatilake

Adjunct Associate Professor Sumith Pathirana

The increasing incidence of dengue fever has become a priority health issue for Sri Lanka. Recent dengue outbreaks in Sri Lanka show two trends: yearly increase of total number of dengue incidence and increasing dengue outbreaks outside the endemic urbanised areas in the south and the west. Identification of factors responsible for dengue outbreaks and the mapping of potential risk areas in Sri Lanka are long overdue. This study examines the association between weekly rainfall patterns and dengue outbreaks in the western province between 2000 and 2004. Methods: The study develops a model to quantitatively assess the relationship between rainfall …

An Assessment Of South China Tiger Reintroduction Potential In Hupingshan And Houhe National Nature Reserves, China, Yiyuan Qin, Philip J. Nyhus, Courtney L. Larson, Charles J.W. Carroll, Jeff Muntifering, Thomas D. Dahmer, Lu Jun, Ronald L. Tilson

Philip J. Nyhus

Human-caused biodiversity loss is a global problem, large carnivores are particularly threatened, and the tiger (Panthera tigris) is among the world’s most endangered large carnivores. The South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) is the most critically endangered tiger subspecies and is considered functionally extinct in the wild. The government of China has expressed its intent to reintroduce a small population of South China tigers into a portion of their historic range as part of a larger goal to recover wild tiger populations in China. This would be the world’s first major tiger reintroduction program. A free-ranging population of 15–20 tigers …

Use Of Geographical Information Systems To Identify Counties In Georgia With High Risk For Childhood Lead Poisoning, R. Christopher Rustin, Christy Kuriatnyk, Byron Lobsinger, Simone Charles

R. Christopher Rustin

Landfills – Territorial Issues Of Cities From North-East Region, Romania, Florin C. Mihai, Pavel Ichim

Florin C MIHAI

Landfilling prevails in waste management options in Romania like others new EU members, being contrary to the concept of waste hierarchy promoted in recent years by EC. Waste disposal is done usually in non-compliant landfills and Government established a program to close these sites. This paper aims to analyse the transition from traditional waste management systems to an integrated system at national, regional and local scale. Assessment of landfills location based on buffer analysis (using GIS techniques) is made according to the proximity of five critical factors (CF) such as: residential area, industry & commercial units, agricultural lands, rivers & …

Using Remote Sensing Data To Improve Rice Production In Kutigi, Niger State, Nigeria, Jibril Musa Phd, M B. Yunusa

Confluence Journal Environmental Studies (CJES), Kogi State University, Nigeria

This research work looked in the used of Remote Sensing to improve Agricultural production in Kutigi, Niger State. The aim of the study is to use remote sensing to improve rice farming activities in Kutigi, Niger State. It is very important to identify such methods to improve Agricultural production because experts are always interested in new researches and findings to better the standard of living in any environment. In view of this, Remotely-sensed data could be used or employed to elevate most of these agricultural problems in Kutigi through the following objectives: Using Landsat imagery to assess the present landuse …

Introduction To Geographic Science Using Arcgis V10, Bethany Bradley, Charles M. Schweik

Charles M. Schweik

This is a lab exercise manual with extra supplemental exercises for use in an introductory course in GIS for students in environmental conservation programs or studying public policy public administration. The emphasis is on environmental management/analysis-related applications. Lab exercises require the ESRI ArcGIS v10 software. Data for all labs and exercises are available on this site as supplementary material in .zip format.

Cleaning Of Rivers Through The Application Of Advanced Technologies, Praveen Jha Dr

Praveen Jha Dr

Despite immense drain on our scarce resources, rivers remain polluted. Waste disposal into rivers on top of meager to absent infrastructural facilities, including treatment facilities, are the most important drivers of pollution. Unscientific development paradigm devoid of adequate environmental safeguards and failure of forestry sector to cope up with the challenge has led to the deteriorated condition of green cover and water. Several state-of-art geo-spatial programs developed by the author would be applied for generating optimum state-of-art plan. Three state-of-art geo-spatial programs - Multi-Algorithm Automation Program (MAAP), Data Automatic Modification Program (DAMP) and Multi-Stage Simulation Program (MUSSIP) - developed primarily …

Drinking Water Optimum Supply System (Dwoss) Through The Application Of Advanced Technologies, Praveen Jha Dr

Praveen Jha Dr

Paradigm shift in the approach for planning regarding supply of drinking water is mandatory since the current DPRs are unscientific and expensive. Planning for an optimum Drinking Water Supply System (ODWSS) that includes - optimization of Water Source Point (WSP), Water Treatment System (WTS), Water Storage Systems (WSSs), Water Distribution Points (WDP) and Water Supply Network (WSN); scientific estimation of long term demand of drinking water; minimization of physical and financial resources required for the plan implementation; water conservation and sanitation – could be done by applying several state-of-art geo-spatial programs developed by the author. Three programs - Multi-Algorithm Automation …

An Evaluation Of The Effect Of Land Use/Cover Change On The Surface Temperature Of Lokoja Town, Nigeria, Fanan Ujoh Mr, Olarewaju O. Ifatimehin Mr, John Y. Magaji Dr

Dr. Fanan Ujoh

This research integrated remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to identified land use/cover types in Lokoja, including their temporal transformation and association with surface temperatures from the LandSat TM and LandSat ETM imageries of 1987 and 2001 respectively. As the built-up area increased in size (2667.6%) so was the surface temperature (6.48oC), vacant land (872%: 9.65oC), cultivated land (104.4%: 1.2oC) and water bodies (64.3%:0.94oC) while vegetation cover increased by 2.44oC while its area extent decreased (316.7%). These changes were responsible for the rise in the mean surface temperature from 38.39oC in 1987 to 42.61oC in 2001, indicating a 4.22oC …

Fundamentals For Using Geographic Information Science To Measure The Effectiveness Of Land Conservation Projects, Robert G. Pontius Jr., Shaily Menon, Joseph Duncan, Shalini Gupta

Shaily Menon

Some humans spend a tremendous amount of effort to change landscapes from a “natural” state to a “developed” state for a variety of desirable economic uses, such as urban, agriculture, transportation, and mining. Others spend a tremendous amount of effort to prevent such development in order to conserve the landscapes for a variety of important environmental uses, such as biodiversity maintenance, carbon storage, water filtration, and landslide prevention. It would be efficient in theory if a society were to focus its development efforts at locations that give the largest economic utility per area developed, and to focus its conservation efforts …

Optimization Of Check Dams Through The Application Of Advanced Technologies, Praveen Jha Dr

Praveen Jha Dr

Scientific planning for conserving water and while minimizing the financial resources requirement for its implementation could be done through application of advanced technological programs developed by the author. Three state-of-art geo-spatial programs - Multi-Algorithm Automation Program (MAAP), Water Analysis Program (WAP) and Check Dam Optimization Program (CDOP) - would be used. MAAP produces land use land cover (lulc) map primarily by undertaking Digital Image Processing (DIP) of satellite data in an automated fashion using Artificial Intelligence (AI). WAP, a hydrology modeling program, would be used to generate information related to watershed, water flow, water accumulation etc. CDOP, coupled with MAAP …

Management Of Forests Through The Application Of Advanced Technologies, Praveen Jha Dr

Praveen Jha Dr

Several state-of-art geo-spatial programs developed by the author could be applied to generate technological pathways for providing an integrated solution to the loads of problems in the forests in the most scientific, objective and effective manner so that the management prescriptions incorporating policy interventions may prove to be highly successful. Three state-of-art geo-spatial programs - Multi-Algorithm Automation Program (MAAP), Data Automatic Modification Program (DAMP) and Multi-Stage Simulation Program (MUSSIP) – developed to address the pertinent issues of conservation and sustainability could be used extensively. Based on satellite data, MAAP produces land use land cover (lulc) map of the present period, …

A Vegetation Based Approach To Biodiversity Gap Analysis In The Agastyamalai Region, Western Ghats, India, B. R. Ramesh, Shaily Menon, Kamaljit S. Bawa

Shaily Menon

Protected areas in India have historically been established on an ad hoc basis with little attention to the conservation value of an area. This study focuses on a set of protected areas in the Agastyamalai region of the Western Ghats (WG), India. We examine forest loss and land-use changes in the study area from the early 1900s to 1960 and from 1960 to 1990. We use GIS to perform a biodiversity gap analysis of the protected areas in the study site. We produce a detailed map of existing floristic types and use it to generate layers corresponding to floristic species …

Applications Of Geographic Information Systems, Remote-Sensing, And A Landscape Ecology Approach To Biodiversity Conservation In The Western Ghats, Shaily Menon, Kamaljit S. Bawa

Shaily Menon

The mountains along the west coast of peninsular India, the Western Ghats, constitute one of the unique biological regions of the world. Rapidly occurring land-cover and land-use change in the Western Ghats has serious implications for the biodiversity of the region. Both landscape changes as well as the distribution of biodiversity are phenomena with strong spatial correlates. Recent developments in remote-sensing technology and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) allow the use of a landscape ecology and spatial analysis approach to the problem of deforestation and biodiversity conservation in the Western Ghats. Applications of this approach include analyses of land-cover and land-use …