Agata Lo Tauro
(Prof. Arch. Agata Lo Tauro, Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca, IPSIA Majorana Sabin, Viale Libertà 151,
Giarre, 95014, Italy, http://www.ipsia.giarre.ct.it, agatalotauro@istruzione.it
Fax 39 95932011 www.ipsia.giarre.ct.it, agatalotauro@istruzione.it)
Novel Open Source Geospatial analysis for Sustainable development in costal areas
Abstract
The use and diffusion of Geodatabases for land use analysis and sustainability cannot neglect
innovative educational programmes. Furthermore, the principal problem of the use of Geodatabases
is the cost of Geospatial analysis. In order to solve this problem, the research provide
methodologies for the elaboration of 2D /3D thematic cartography and listing technologies using
Open Source Geospatial analysis and novel in situ geospatial mobile applications. The Educational
Programmes are structures in different phases: the analysis of Open Source Free Software GIS, the
territorial sources and case-studies.
The general framework
The project presents the use of environmental and urban models for research and decision support,
including cultural landscape visualization, viewshed creation, and watershed studies for sustainable
development (SD) under Open Source Geospatial analysis. The use of Open Source Free Software
GIS for economic evaluations and other morphological models is also covered in costal areas. It is
also possible to integrate geographic information with assess management system for streamlined
operations and cost savings (www.carthegraph.com/bettergis.html). Part of this research was laid
from 2004 to 2007, funded by the Minister of Public Instruction, under the Ph.D Course in
“Geomatics and Territorial Information Systems”, coordinated by Full. Prof. G. Manzoni (Trieste
University). The research conducted in this field has demonstrated not only the problems inherent to
the research started up, but has also research and experimental activities started under the Etna Plan
Programme 2006 and analysis of different case-studies including Marche Region and USA districts.
The aim of the research was the implementation of innovative educational programmes (such as
IFTS) with appropriate technological support in the field of technologies and community
mechanism for civil protection assistance and cultural heritage conservation. The number of data
sources, challenges and possible improvements in the project-GIS with respect to using it in land
use preparedness can serve not only as a guideline for future GIS researches for environmental
conservation, but also point to rewarding research avenues for preservation of land vulnerability.
Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer
review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, research of higher
reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in. The Open Source
Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation formed to educate about and advocate for the benefits of
open source and to build bridges among different constituencies in the open-source community.
One of our most important activities is as a standards body, maintaining the Open Source Definition
for the good of the community.
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The Open Source Initiative Approved License trademark and program creates a nexus of trust
around which developers, users, corporations and governments can organize open-source
cooperation” (http://www.opensource.org/). It is an area of research that has been used for at least
two decades as part of the Institute University of Liverpool, The University Research & Policy
Evaluation Regional Research Laboratory, Geographic Information Systems Training Courses
under GIS-Courses such as “Introduction to GIS with Arc/Info” and Utilising Ordnance Survey
Data in Arc/Info” (1995). In 1993 my idea was to implement and research open-source softwares
exploring topics ranging from map production workflows, cartographic geoprocessing, and thematic
mapping to specific techniques for producing 3D thematic maps under the COMET Programme.
Back in the 2001s, Paul Ramsey espoused the idea of working with open-source geospatial software
and experimented with PostGIS as part of his company programme. “Today PostGIS is used
globally by organisations differing in scale from graduate research project and community mapping
to DigitalGlobe and NASA. Back in the 2005th Full Prof. G. Gallo, were developing Geographic
Information Systems Training Courses at the University of Catania, Department of Mathematics
and Informatics, with the introduction to Open Source Free Software GIS, in order to meet
prerequisites for graduate programs. My idea is now to extend this educational project in the field of
Open Source Geospatial analysis with the support of innovative topographic survey and 2D/3D
mapping, in situ spectroscopy, innovative MMS combined with thermographic imaging (and laser
scanning, VRS, RS, real-time GIS, Web-GIS, novel telecommunication applications, robotics, ICT
and Earth Observing mission on reinforcing new sustainable development strategies. “In the frame
of Project MONITOR (www.monitorproject.com) of the Galileo Joint, Undertaking Second Call,
GEONETLAB, University of Trieste” the Innovative Educational Programmes may involve
“experiment on GNSS real time positioning and NMEA transmission via GPRS to a Local Control
Centre, by using various kind of almost wearable or pocket PCs and Smartphone as well as of the
DGPS/INS GEONETLAB technologies” (Manzoni, G. 2008).
NURC, a NATO research centre with a focus on the military maritime environment and the Centro
Santa Teresa (CNR and ENEA), involved on marine environmental studies, are implementing
research on ‘Rapid Environmental Assessment’. Co-sponsors of this cultural hevent include the
Istituto Idrografico della Marina, Genova, Italy, Andrija Mohorovicic Geophysical Institute,
Zagreb, Croatia, the Office of Naval Research Global, USA, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
CNR-ISMAR, La Spezia, Italy, the Ente per le Nuove Tecnologie, l’Energia e l’Ambiente ENEACentro Ricerche Ambiente Marino, La Spezia, Italy and Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio, La Spezia,
Italy. A wealth of new RS applications has been developed over the last three years using data from
ALOS’ three onboard instruments under ESA Research Programmes. Based on a cooperative
agreement, ESA has been delivering data from ALOS – Japan's four-tonne Earth Observation
satellite – to users across Europe and Africa since its launch three years ago. ESA’s efforts have
been recognised by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency with an award of appreciation. The
agreement between the two space agencies puts ESA in charge of the ALOS European Data Node
(ADEN), delivering the satellite’s data to scientific and operational users across Europe and Africa.
Within the ADEN network, ESA, JAXA and other partners cooperate to produce a wide range of
environmental datasets. Applications include the domains of forestry, global carbon monitoring,
oceanography, sea-ice monitoring, agriculture and vegetation monitoring, topography and disaster
mitigation (www.esa.int). The didactic activities for high schools, SMEs and post graduate courses
(such as International Master Courses) are planned to be structured in different phases: the analysis of
the project GIS, the analysis of OS technologies with RS analysis and the case-study with the support of
internet search. The e.learning technologies for didactic activities will guarantee to all researchers,
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experts, professors and students the accurate dissemination of information with internet and intranet
systems without missing data. Distance Education Programmes are especially interested in applicants
with the expertise to teach undergraduate and graduate classes online using proprietary Web-based
educational delivery software (such as the WebTycho and INDIRE).
This project also marks a milestone in the effort to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal
enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedom of persons with disabilities, and to promote
respect for their inherent dignity (ONU Convention and National Law - NL 5/2/1992, n. 104, NL
28/1/1999, n. 17, NL 21/5/1998, n. 162, NL 12/3/1999, n. 68, DL 10/11/1993, n. 276, Stanca Law, n. 4
9/1/2004, L 6/9/2004) and students who are in very poor conditions. In particular WebTycho is a
customized program developed by University of Maryland University College Europe (UMUC) to
facilitate course delivery via the World Wide Web. WebTycho works in conjunction with a web
browser to provide an interactive classroom experience to more than 88,000 concurrent UMUC
students and faculty around the United States and the world. Uses for WebTycho range from
complete course delivery at a distance to supplemental enhancement of face-to-face classrooms
(http://www.umuc.edu/index.shtml).
Data collection and OS Project-GIS
At the beginning of my research project I began researching RS raw data and GPS softwares,
receivers and programmes needed to elaborate and convert the data for the project-GIS into
shapefiles for the use in Open Source Free Software GIS. I also prepared the existing conditions
base maps with the support of GIS-Platform of Different Italian Local Institutions. The project team
needed to research and include the usual existing condition boundaries, basements, and topographic
and cultural end environmental features. Different receivers and PDA were tested, able to access as
many as separate signals and collect data with submeter accuracy. Further research of novel
algorithms should be implemented in order to improve the geo-referencing system’s performance
during GPS outages.
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 1 MapQuest 4 Mobile uses phone's GPS chip (www.mapquest.com) to locate brownfields and anthropogenic
changes, keep track of progress along a route, or simply detect land use changes in order to design effective land and
costal management strategies.
Fig.2 Interactive Maps for Mobile Screens - MapQuest 4 Mobile uses smaller map images for mobile screens
(www.mapquest.com). This allows to plan real time mobile-GIS without waiting for long downloads.
Land features date were entered by scan digitizing, manual digitizing, manual keyboard data entry,
and by using procedures available with softwares used with the global positioning satellite system
(hereinafter GPS). Data conversion, coordinate system reprojection, and drawing cleanup made this
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task a bit laborious. The combined impacts of change in land use, modifications of topography and
implementation of conservation measures are being investigated using Landsat TM (Tematic
Mapper) Imagery, photogrammetric data, DEMs and thematic maps combined with thermographic
imaging and process-based models for simulation of Regional Landscape Plan analysis. Despite the
advances, the processes involved in data fusion are still currently under development as much as at
any point in the past decade. This situation is somewhat complicated by the constant introduction of
new and different satellite remote sensors. Moreover, many types of different formats and structures
continue to hamper this integration. The simulations used different classification methodologies and
a stochastic computational approach based on the duality between particles and fields for solving
the governing continuity equations by a path sampling method (Mitasova et al., 2002).
The study indicates that changes in topography compensate, to certain extent, the negative impacts
of land cover change and that the greatest impact of construction will be on the streams outside the
disturbed site, in spite of their protection by vegetative buffers. The fact that the spatial range of
land use change impacts extends well beyond the affected site requires that the models capture not
only the specific processes at the disturbed locations or for given control structures, but that they
can simulate the combined effects of spatially distributed landscape changes and control measures
at a larger spatial scale. Novel geospatial mobile applications designed specifically for OS GIS
users deliver interactive, intelligent maps and images in geo-enabled different format directly to
personnel in the field, enabling them to collect and collaborate with geospatial data to respond
faster, make better decisions and be more productive. Initiated as a research and development
project GIS for innovative technology solutions the research programme support the mission of
GNSS applications. The evolution of Real-time Location System (such as microdrome MDA 200)
and Location based Service introduce a profound change to the way critical safety application
within the field of sustainable land management will be produced and shared.
Conclusion
Topographic change in the coastal study areas and preserved areas are driven by interaction
between human intervention and natural forces. The case-studies uses a temporal sequence of
digital elevation data obtained by RS data, real time kinematic GPS, VRS to monitor the changes in
morphology. Comparison of land use changes in morphology show complex evolution pattern that
includes shoreline rotation, accelerated short term erosion rates and rapid anthropogenic changes.
Contrary to the general perception, the highest morphological changes were observed during years
with relatively calm deposition activities compared to the years with direct eruption impacts that
bears evidence of lava deposition and catastrophic floods in the Etna Park. Also the spatial pattern
of long term rates used for coastal management is quite different from the most recent short term
rates, indicating a need for continuous monitoring.
Both case studies demonstrate that the higher spatial and temporal resolution of terrain data can
provide better understanding of some unexpected consequences of development and creates
opportunities for adopting more sustainable approaches to natural and urban landscape
management. They also illustrate the current capabilities of open source geospatial technology for
topographic data processing, analysis, modelling and visualization for SD strategies. The current
capacity to acquire such geospatial data currently by far exceeds the capability to analyze and apply
the data for improving understanding of dynamic landscapes or for a wide range of decision making
tasks. It also highlighted the need for more training and interoperability and the need to improve
Telegeomatics, as highlighted by Manzoni, G, (2006) and The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
indications and standards for novel geospatial and location based services
(http://www.opengeospatial.org/.). With today's safety, environmental, and sustainable design
requirements, I will also have a wealth of other robust data that must also be included, as
highlighted by Marcia Carrillo and Lucy Kuhns (2009). Researchers in NOAA’s National Geodetic
Survey (NGS) have discovered several open source tools and techniques that may be appropriate for
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the community of scientists, engineers, and other professionals, including: Researchers who require
the ability to add or modify processing and analysis algorithms. Small organizations or individuals
who would like to utilize RS data, but cannot afford and/or do not need large, commercial software
packages. “Nontraditional” RS data users e.g., those with unique processing/analysis needs or who
work in other fields with vastly different requirements (www. www.asprs.org).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to specialists including Full Prof. Giorgio Manzoni (Trieste University) and Full Prof. G.
Gallo (Catania University). Thanks to Fabrizia Buongiorno, INGV (Centre for Research on
Remote Sensing at Rome) for providing RS data. A special thanks goes to Leonardo Alestra,
TRIMBLE Sicilian Region for his useful input in terms of imagery data and survey. Significant
contributions to this paper, in the form of data collection and valuable discussions, were also
provided by Roberto Rinaldi (www.flirthermography.com) and CGT Staff (www.cgtsrl.it). The
support by “Soprintendenza per i beni culturali e Ambientali”, Sicilian Region (Dott. Geol. S.
Fazzina, Dott. Geol. Franco La Fico) is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks to Monika Denburg
Director, DE Program UMUC Europe and Dott Geol N. Costa.
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Integrating Technology for Manufacturing, AEC and GIS, Jan 7, 2009, www.cadalyst.com
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