The application of spatial data processing to land use conflict resolution in the lal lal water catchment of the Ballarat growth corridor: a case study from chapter one of the Buninyong planning scheme

Land use conflict within the Lal Lal Water Catchment is between landowners, the Shire, the Water Board and those directing regional pressures for development. It is exacerbated by inconsistency in building permit appraisal outcomes. The deliberations involved would clearly have benefited from access to spatial data sets through use of a Geographical Information System (GIS) during applications appraisal, in that inconsistencies are most obvious when mapped in relation to the criteria applied. GIS methodologies would ensure that information of a high standard was produced. Three strategic points are identified for the implementation of GIS: at the planning scheme formulation stage; the permit application stage; and the formal conflict resolution stage. Reference to GIS at the first two stages presupposes the existence of a local government area (LGA) spatial data base and a GIS/LIS that can output overlay maps. Application of GIS at the third stage is somewhat ‘after the event’. This study suggests that without such a regional review of the spatial patterns of permit appraisal criteria (including overland flow modelling) each appeal or negotiation is likely to yield an outcome that is inconsistent in relation to other cases. An LGA planning office maintaining a GIS with all layers relating to these criteria will have assembled its spatial data according to the requirements of its planning scheme and will make most use of it in a GIS at the permit appraisal stage.     

Reflections and speculations on the progress in Geographic Information Systems (GIS): a geographic perspective

Great strides have been made in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) research over the past half-century. However, this progress has created both opportunities and challenges. From a geographic perspective, certain challenges remain, including the modelling of geographic-featured environments with GIS data model, the enhancement of GIS’s analysis functions for comprehensive geographic analysis and achieving human-oriented geographic information presentation. Several basic theoretical and technical ideas that follow the workflow and processes of geographic information induction, geographic scenario modelling, geographic process analysis and geographic environment representation are proposed to fill the gaps between GIS and geography. We also call for designing methods for big geographic data-oriented analysis, making best use of videos and developing virtual geographic scenario-based GIS for further evolution.     

A population based assessment of the geographical accessibility of outdoor recreation opportunities in New Zealand

Active participation in the outdoors not only provides enjoyment and adventure, but it is also important for health and promoting conservation values. The latter is particularly important for young people as they are at an impressionable stage in their lives. Geographical accessibly of recreation opportunities can be a major barrier to utlization of the New Zealand outdoors. While it would be ideal to have a variety of opportunities available to everyone regardless of residence, the distribution of opportunities is constrained by the extent of suitable lands. This research provides a population based assessment of the geographical accessibility of recreational opportunities. Accessibility has many dimensions and includes cultural, financial, and geographical barriers; therefore this research is only addressing one dimension of accessibility. Geographical Information Systems is used for the analysis, which involves a function called least-cost path analysis. This identified the travel time (using a private vehicle) via the quickest route from where people live (represented by census enumeration points) to the entry point of the recreation sites. The outputs of this research are maps and spatial statistics on the travel times to a range of recreation opportunities for different parts of New Zealand. This information is important for recreation planning. In addition, the information also provides research opportunities for modelling recreation use, especially when accessibility information is combined with landscape experience information and recreation usage statistics.     

Application of GIS Processing Techniques for Producing Mineral Prospectivity Maps—A Case Study: Mesothermal Au in the Swayze Greenstone Belt,Ontario, Canada

A Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to prepare and process digital geoscience data in a variety of ways for producing gold prospectivity maps of the Swayze greenstone belt, Ontario, Canada. Data used to produce these maps include geologic, geochemical, geophysical, and remotely sensed (Landsat). A number of modeling methods are used and are grouped into data-driven (weights of evidence, logistic regression) and knowledge-driven (index and Boolean overlay) methods. The weights of evidence (WofE) technique compares the spatial association of known gold prospects with various indicators (evidence maps) of gold mineralization, to derive a set of weights used to produce the final gold prospectivity map. Logistic regression derives statistical information from evidence maps over each known gold prospect and the coefficients derived from regression analysis are used to weight each evidence map. The gold prospectivity map produced from the index overlay process uses a weighting scheme that is derived from input by the geologist, whereas the Boolean method uses equally weighted binary evidence maps.The resultant gold prospectivity maps are somewhat different in this study as the data comprising the evidence maps were processed purposely differently for each modeling method. Several areas of high gold potential, some of which are coincident with known gold prospects, are evident on the gold prospectivity maps produced using all modeling methods. The majority of these occur in mafic rocks within high strain zones, which is typical of many Archean greenstone belts.     

Regolith stripping and the control of shallow translational hillslope failure: application of a two-dimensional coupled soil hydrology-slope stability model, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand

Rainfall-triggered regolith landslides constitute a dominant erosional process in New Zealand hill country. Conversion of forest to pasture about 150 years ago decreased the size of event required to trigger slope failure resulting in greater landslide activity. Recent research indicates that shallow landslides then cause progressive regolith stripping with redeposition at the slope base. The exposed bedrock is less permeable than the pre-existing regolith cover and the redeposited soil has a higher unit weight. Hence, alterations in both hydrological and geotechnical conditions result, changing the triggering thresholds for further failure. In this paper three phases of regolith stripping are investigated using a process-based model, to define variations in both the triggering storms as well as the failure mechanisms under these altered hydrological and geotechnical conditions. Over time, as the regolith is stripped progressively upslope, the threshold for slope failure also changes such that the landscape becomes more stable. However, there is a varying sensitivity to storm type for each of the three phases, which adds complexity to the relationship between regolith stripping and slope failure. Model results suggest different hydrological conditions for slope instability, depending on the degree of stripping and redeposition, adding further complexity. Future advances in process-based modelling are required for detailed investigation of temporal changes in landscape susceptibility to slope failure, and uncertainty in both model parameterisation as well as process representation should be emphasised when applying such models to the long term.     

Regional assessment of environmental vulnerability in the Tibetan Plateau: Development and application of a new method

Regional environmental evaluation often requires a large amount of spatial information. Remote sensing (RS) and geographic information systems (GIS) are capable of managing large amounts of spatially related datum, and providing the ability to integrate multiple layers and to derive additional information. A methodological reference framework, using RS, GIS, and AHP (the analytic hierarchy process), is developed for environmental vulnerability assessment. Using this proposed method, we carried out a case study in the Tibetan Plateau. An environmental vulnerability index (EVI) proposed incorporates 15 factors covering natural conditions, environmental issues, and human activities. According to the EVI values, the vulnerability was classified into five levels: slight (EVI<2.2), light (2.2EVI<2.7), moderate (2.7EVI<3.0), heavy (3.0EVI3.4), and extreme vulnerability (>3.4). The case study showed that the majority of the area in the Tibetan Plateau is ecologically lightly (light level; 22% of the total area), moderately (moderate level; 27%), and heavily (heavy level; 30%) vulnerable. Except for a clearly horizontal distribution, the environmental vulnerability increased clearly with increasing elevation (vertical distribution). The case study verified the usefulness and feasibility of the methods developed, for the results gained reflect the reality of the Tibetan environment closely. Further use in other regions should pay attention to what factors seem to be important in determining the local environmental vulnerability, and how is the impact of each factor on the complex environment.     

Validation of a region-wide model of landslide susceptibility in the Manawatu–Wanganui region of New Zealand

Since European settlement 160 years ago, much of the indigenous forest in New Zealand hill country has been cleared for pastoral agriculture, resulting in increased erosion and sedimentation. To prioritise soil conservation work in the Manawatu–Wanganui region, we developed a model of landslide susceptibility. It assigns high susceptibility to steep land not protected by woody vegetation and low susceptibility everywhere else, following the commonly used approach for identifying inappropriate land use. A major storm on 15–16 February 2004 that produced many landslides was used to validate the model. The model predicted hills at risk to landsliding with moderate accuracy: 58% of erosion scars in the February storm occurred on hillsides considered to be susceptible. The model concept of slope thresholds, above which the probability of landsliding is high and below which the probability is low, is not adequate because below 30° the probability of landsliding is approximately linearly related to slope. Thus, reforestation of steep slopes will need to be combined with improved vegetation management for soil conservation on moderate slopes to significantly reduce future landsliding.     

Landslide susceptibility evaluation based on BPNN and GIS: a case of Guojiaba in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area

A landslide susceptibility evaluation is vital for disaster management and development planning in the Yangtze River Three Gorges Reservoir Area. In this study, with the support of remote sensing and Geographic Information System, 4 factor groups comprising 10 separate subfactors of landslide-related data layers were selected to establish a susceptibility evaluation model based on the back-propagation neural network including slope, aspect, plan curvature, strata and lithology, distance to faults, land use/land cover, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Water Index, distance from roads, and effect of rivers. During model development, a three-layered interconnected neural network structure of 10 (input layer) × 20 (hidden layer) × 1 (output layer) was used for evaluating the landslide susceptibility in Guojiaba. At the same time, a back-propagation algorithm was applied to calculate the weights between the input layer and the hidden layer and between the hidden layer and the output layer. The results showed that the effect of slope has the highest weight value (0.2051), which is more than two times that of the other factors, followed by strata and lithology (0.1213) and then the effect of rivers (0.1201). At the end of the susceptibility evaluation, the area was divided into four zones such as very high, high, moderate and low susceptibility. For verification, the receiver operating characteristic curve for the back-propagation neural network-derived landslide susceptibility evaluation model was drawn, and the results showed that the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.8790 and the prediction accuracy was 88%. Furthermore, the results obtained from this article were then verified by comparing with the existing landslide historical data and multiple field-verified results. Lastly, the landslide susceptibility map will help decision makers in risk management, site selection, site planning, and the design of control engineering.     

区域经济空间分异机制研究——一个理论分析模型及其在黄河流域的应用

区域经济空间分异机制是区域经济研究的一个重要问题。目前对此问题的研究有多个视角,但各个视角的研究成果都只是从某个方面阐释区域经济空间分异的机制。本文从区域经济空间分异机制的内涵出发,以经济增长因素的相关理论和分工理论为基础,将各个视角的研究成果贯穿起来,构建了一个解释区域经济空间分异机制的理论分析模型,并运用这个模型对黄河流域经济空间分异机制进行了实证分析。结果表明,黄河流域综合要素禀赋、分工与集聚的耦合互动关系明显存在,黄河流域经济空间分异受要素禀赋决定作用机制、分工传导作用机制和循环累积因果机制的支配。     

时空接近空间自相关模型构建及其应用——以长三角区域经济差异分析为例

地理学第一定律是空间自相关统计学的核心和基石,传统的空间自相关以邻接性或空间距离函数确定空间权重矩阵。但随着快速交通网络变得具有渗透性,空间距离内涵已发生质的变化,接近概念有必要从空间接近拓展为时空接近。基于这一新的内涵,提出时空接近空间自相关概念并构建相应计算模型,结合表征时间距离的可达性指标将该模型应用于长三角区域经济差异分析。通过计算全局Moran's I和局域Moran's I,结果表明:在全局空间自相关指标上,时空接近空间自相关能更好地揭示地理事物间的关联动态变化。在局域空间自相关指标上,当时间距离截取在合理范围时,邻接性表现出较强的稳健性,但时空接近与传统空间接近的空间相关性存在较大差异,两者结合能更客观揭示地理事物空间关联的现象和本质。