Case Studies

FOSS Tools for Geospatial and Agent Based Modelling to Evaluate Climate Change in an Agricultural Watershed

Session Type: 
Poster
Presenter(s): 
Dr Alireza Ghaffari, York University
Dr Martin Bunch
Dr Rod MacRae
Joseph Zhao

Land-use changes are typically modeled using geographic information systems because of the spatial nature of the data. But the complexity of coupled human and natural systems and the fourth dimension involved with change over time and time-series data expose some limitations of GIS tools when used on their own. In this paper we present the application of REPAST, a free and open source geospatial Multi-agent Model (a.k.a. Agent-based Model or ABM) to the dynamic simulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) changes in a sub-watershed in Ontario, Canada with predominantly agricultural land use. The combination of Geospatial analysis and use of an Agent Based Model is a new way to solve complex problems involving multiple decision makers on the landscape. The combination of these modeling approaches helps to address the time dimension in geospatial modeling problems. ABM can model dynamic systems, their evolutionary changes and importantly, can predict options for sustainable system configurations. As a part of this research project, open source tools were developed to integrate ABM and GIS environments, specifically with respect to data transport and coupling of GIS and REPAST tools. In this paper we present scenarios to estimate the GHG emissions in an agricultural watershed, and the FOSS tools we both adopted and have been developing to undertake this project.

 

Speaker Bio: 

I received my PH.D. in Physical Geography from Nottingham University, England (2006).Since January 2007, I have been working as a researcher and post doc fellow with the Department of Earth Space Science, Emergency Management Program, and most recently at the Faculty Environmental Studies. During this period, I have been involved with various research projects funded by GEOIDE and NSERC. In my current position as a post doc fellow at the Faculty of Environmental Studies, I work on a project that aims to evaluate the effects of organic farming on greenhouse gas using a GIS based agent based model.

At the same time, I have been working as a part time instructor for Wilfred Laurier University and Lakehead University (Orillia Campus), teaching various courses including Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Arial Photo Interpretation. My research interest is Spatial Analysis/Modeling and GIS implementation in natural and technological hazards.

 

geo-spatial.org: The Reference Point for the Romanian FOSS4G Community

Session Type: 
Poster
Presenter(s): 
Mr Vasile Crăciunescu, Romanian National Meteorological Administration
Mr Ștefan Constantinescu
Ionuț Ovejanu

geo-spatial.org is a collaborative effort by and for the Romanian community to facilitate the sharing of geospatial knowledge and the discovery and publishing of free geographic datasets and maps. It was created by a small team of young scientists as an attempt to overcome the Romanian specific geospatial dysfunctions.

Anyone can make a contribution by submitting articles or datasets for publication, adding comments to the existing articles, join the discussion on the mailing list or users forum. The content is managed by Textpattern, a powerful and flexible, open source content management application. For supplementary, specific functionality, custom modules were built. Other free applications are providing server-side functionality: MySQL, PHP, Python, Java, Apache, Tomcat, phpMyAdmin, phpPgAdmin. For geospatial data processing and management, top open source applications were also integrated in the website: PostGIS, GeoNetwork Opensource, GeoServer, OpenLayers, GeoWebCache, Mapnik, GDAL/OGR. The website is divided in several functional sections. In each section, the information is placed in predefined categories and sub-categories.

 

Speaker Bio: 

Vasile is a researcher at Romanian National Meteorological Administration, working in the Remote Sensing & GIS Laboratory since 2001. He received his diploma in cartography and physical geography in 2001. Currently is in charge of the scientific and operational activities in Meteo Romania related to rapid mapping, air quality data integration, spatial data infrastructure and web mapping. Vasile is a FOSS4G (free and open source software for geospatial) promoter and use his free time to further develop geo-spatial.org (http://earth.unibuc.ro/), a collaborative effort by and for the Romanian community to facilitate the sharing of geospatial knowledge and the discovery and publishing of free geographic datasets and maps.

 

The Provincial Information System Using Free and Open Source Software in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Session Type: 
Poster
Presenter(s): 
Dr Gatot Haryo Pramono, Bakosurtanal
Mr Edwin Hendrayana
Mr Sajatmiko Wibowo

The province of East Kalimantan located in Borneo island is one of the largest province in Indonesia. With an area and population approximately similar to the State of Oregon, the provincial government tries to manage effectively the natural and human resources. A web-based information system is an option to display and share the potency of East Kalimantan province. The purpose of such application is to provide a complete spatial information of East Kalimantan in a web GIS. The users are not only the local government but also prospective investors who are interested in developing the province. Due to the budget limitation, the government decided to choose free and open source software to implement the system. The application is built using PostgreSQL and PostGIS to store the data in the spatial database. The web GIS interface is developed using OpenLayers with the base map from Google Maps. The natural resource and statistical data are displayed as thematic maps and charts. Such data can be downloaded in a spreadsheet format to allow furhther use. As a conclusion, the provincial information system is found to be a useful and effective approach to manage and share spatial information in East Kalimantan.

Speaker Bio: 

I am the head of topographic database division and system designer for web GIS application using free and open source software.

 

An Open Source Mapping Application for Hatchery Release Data in the Columbia River Basin

Session Type: 
Poster
Presenter(s): 
Lynnae Sutton, Fish Passage Center

The Fish Passage Center (FPC) maintains a hatchery database of anadromous salmonid species released from State, Federal, and Tribal hatcheries in the Columbia River Basin. This database is updated routinely throughout the fish passage season. Over the past year, the location of the hatcheries and the release sites were mapped and an online mapping application was developed to allow the users of this database a spatial view of where hatcheries have released anadromous salmonids throughout the Columbia River Basin since 1979. Additionally, it allows users to map and download real-time release data for the current year. Application users spatially query for and select a specific hatchery and all of the locations where the selected salmonid species have been released by that hatchery. The map zooms to the spatial extent of the selected sites and a table containing the release data is opened and the data are made available for download in several formats. There are other spatial queries available in the application including: selecting release sites and data by watershed, major river or by major river zone. The release data provide regional Salmon Managers with the information needed to assess the current year’s migration of juvenile hatchery fish through the hydrosystem. In addition, the release data have been used to access present and historical production releases, timing and magnitude of salmon runs, population estimates and the proportion of hatchery fish that are tagged or clipped. This presentation / poster describes the development of the hatchery mapping application. The open source software stack used for the FPC Hatchery Mapping Application includes: MapServer, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, and p.mapper.

Speaker Bio: 

Lynnae Sutton has a BS in Biology with a certificate in Computer Programming and an MS in Geography from PSU. She currently works as an IT Database Management Specialist/Web Developer for the Fish Passage Center.

Advancing Geospatially-enabled Scientific Workflow Environments with FOSS4G

Session Type: 
Poster
Presenter(s): 
Mr Graeme McFerren, CSIR
Dr Terence van Zyl
Dr Anwar Vahed
Mr Bheki Cwele
Mr Derek Hohls
Ms Bolelang Sibolla

This paper discusses advances in the development of a software environment with capabilities for accessing, utilising and incorporating geospatial data and processes into the scientific workflows of researchers interested in incorporating earth observation and geospatial analysis into their work. In previous work [McFerren et. al. 2010], we introduced the concept of geospatially-enabled scientific workflows; this paper shares progress made, insights gained and future research avenues exposed in the process of implementing EO4Vistrails (http://code.google.com/p/eo4vistrails/), a geospatial extension to the open-source VisTrails scientific workflow, provenance management, data exploration and visualization system (http://www.vistrails.org). FOSS4G software and toolsets are heavily used in EO4Vistrails to provide spatial database, OGC Web Service, geospatial analysis, data transformation and visualization capabilites. We identify the reasons for the suitability and usefulness of spatial databases in scientific workflows, in the context of wildfire research, noting, for example, that (spatial) SQL provides a clear provenance mechanism and a means to distribute processing tasks. Regarding OGC Web Services, we report that certain services are readily implemented into scientific workflows, notably the WFS and WCS, since the kinds of data they work with are well supported by many tools and applications. Other services are more difficult to incorporate: the SOS outputs data that are difficult to translate into formats acceptable to most scientific software; the WPS is very generic, increasing the challenge of developing workflow modules that can handle dynamically the variability of inputs and outputs that can be expected for a WPS.

Speaker Bio: 

Graeme McFerren is a Senior GIS Researcher working in particular on wildfire based applications in southern Africa, heavily utilising FOSS4G tools to accomplish this

Syndicate content