Monitoring land changes in an urban area using satellite imagery,GIS and landscape metrics

Monitoring land changes is an important activity in landscape planning and resource management. In this study, we analyze urban land changes in Atlanta metropolitan area through the combined use of satellite imagery, geographic information systems (GIS), and landscape metrics. The study site is a fast-growing large metropolis in the United States, which contains a mosaic of complex landscape types. Our method consisted of two major components: remote sensing-based land classification and GIS-based land change analysis. Specifically, we adopted a stratified image classification strategy combined with a GIS-based spatial reclassification procedure to map land classes from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) scenes acquired in two different years. Then, we analyzed the spatial variation and expansion of urban land changes across the entire metropolitan area through post classification change detection and a variety of GIS-based operations. We further examined the size, pattern, and nature of land changes using landscape metrics to examine the size, pattern, and nature of land changes. This study has demonstrated the usefulness of integrating remote sensing with GIS and landscape metrics in land change analysis that allows the characterization of spatial patterns and helps reveal the underlying processes of urban land changes. Our results indicate a transition of urbanization patterns in the study site with a limited outward expansion despite the dominant suburbanization process.     

Linking pesticides and human health: A geographic information system (GIS) and Landsat remote sensing method to estimate agricultural pesticide exposure

Accurate pesticide exposure estimation is integral to epidemiologic studies elucidating the role of pesticides in human health. Humans can be exposed to pesticides via residential proximity to agricultural pesticide applications (drift). We present an improved geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing method, the Landsat method, to estimate agricultural pesticide exposure through matching pesticide applications to crops classified from temporally concurrent Landsat satellite remote sensing images in California. The image classification method utilizes Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values in a combined maximum likelihood classification and per-field (using segments) approach. Pesticide exposure is estimated according to pesticide-treated crop fields intersecting 500 m buffers around geocoded locations (e.g., residences) in a GIS. Study results demonstrate that the Landsat method can improve GIS-based pesticide exposure estimation by matching more pesticide applications to crops (especially temporary crops) classified using temporally concurrent Landsat images compared to the standard method that relies on infrequently updated land use survey (LUS) crop data. The Landsat method can be used in epidemiologic studies to reconstruct past individual-level exposure to specific pesticides according to where individuals are located.     

Protected geographical indications: Institutional roles in food systems governance and rural development

This paper examines the importance of national-level institutional arrangements for promoting the EU’s Protected Geographic Indication scheme (PGI). Taking the example of Ireland, for which PGI designations remain comparatively low, it explores whether the approach to providing institutional supports to the PGI scheme is influenced by top-down technocratic governance structures that pertain to food safety and quality certification that encompass the broader operating environment for food production in Ireland. Although the regulation of food safety and quality certification are distinct remits to the administration of the PGI scheme, in the Irish context the same institutional bodies are involved in governance of both. Using a discourse analysis interpretative framework, this paper draws on interviews with Irish producer group members and institutional representatives to examine how governance of the PGI scheme reflects management perspectives and practices more in keeping with a regulatory environment for food safety and quality than with development of place-based food product links. It suggests that incentives to avail of the PGI scheme as a means of realising value-added for producers are not well established because they require the development of more subjective, context-dependent processes and practices linked to geographical place and place identity. These are not easily accommodated under current institutional arrangements that also incorporate food safety and quality remits because these are in turn strongly established through nationally and internationally recognised systems of regulation and benchmarking. The findings point to the benefits to be gained from a more layered governance structure for PGI; devolving operation of the scheme to relevant regional and local development organisations that possess the expertise and relevant local knowledge to (a) incentivise the formation of producer groups, and (b) prioritise mentoring and support for PGI concept development as a clearer reflection of bottom-up rural sustainability policy.     

基于CALIPSO卫星资料的京津冀地区MODIS卷云云顶高度订正

卷云在大气辐射中扮演着重要角色,对天气系统和气候变化产生重要影响。相比传统地基观测手段,卫星遥感更容易探测到高层卷云的信息,本文利用CALIOP主动遥感仪器可获取较为准确的薄卷云特性的特点,针对MODIS被动遥感探测器反演的薄卷云云顶高度的偏差开展订正研究。研究选取2013～2017年京津冀地区MODIS云产品,结合CALIPSO卫星的卷云云顶高度数据,基于交叉验证的方法得到线性拟合方案,对MODIS卷云云顶高度进行订正。订正后的MODIS与CALIPSO卷云云顶高度差值的分布区间由?3～2 km变为?2.0～2.5 km,峰值由?0.8 km左右变为0.2 km左右。订正效果随云顶高度和云光学厚度的不同有所变化,其中较低层卷云和光学薄卷云的订正效果更明显。     

建立WebGIS的月球三维可视化关键技术

嫦娥工程获得了大量月球探测数据。针对让公众用户通过网络获取月球信息,更好了解月球知识的需求,地面应用系统提出了建立基于WebGIS的月球三维可视化系统的解决方案。首先介绍了国内外三维月球的发展现状,详细分析了开发WebGIS系统的客户端和服务器端技术,重点阐述了月球空间数据模型和三维场景可视化渲染等三维GIS可视化关键技术,为建立我国的三维月球可视化系统提供了理论支持。     

地理信息系统发展趋势

本文根据国内外在地理信息系统方面的进展，就地理信息系统的科学概念、基本构成和它的以下一些发展趋势作了讨论：（1）地理信息系统是构成地理学日臻完善的技术体系的重要部分；（2）空间分析功能是系统研究和应用的主要目标；（3）系统最重要的技术问题是管理和存储大量空间数据的数据结构；（4）综合性的发展特色日益明显；（5）标准化和智能型的发展方向已引起关注。     

关于地理环境的理解和运用问题

本文借助语言、逻辑知识,从“偏正结构”、“相关词义”、“派生概念”三方面,阐明了地理环境的确切含义和实际运用问题。笔者在分析、探讨地理环境问题时,提出了一些与当今辞书和重要著述相悖的定义。作者认为,长期以来,围绕地理环境及其派生概念“决定论”所开展的一切无端之争,除立场、观点和历史局限外,无不与下列问题的认识、理解不一有关:关于历史与现代决定论问题;关于决定与决定论问题;关于内外环境决定论问题。     

区域地理信息系统在农业中的应用——以福建省浦城县为例

本文应用系统分析的理论和方法，建立了浦城县地理信息系统，分析了信息系统的结构、功能及信息管理过程，并在系统的支持下对浦城县农业发展战略进行决策研究，提出了一系列分析意见，开辟了地理信息系统应用的新领域。     

Bias and uncertainty in regression-calibrated models of groundwater flow in heterogeneous media

Groundwater models need to account for detailed but generally unknown spatial variability (heterogeneity) of the hydrogeologic model inputs. To address this problem we replace the large, m-dimensional stochastic vector β that reflects both small and large scales of heterogeneity in the inputs by a lumped or smoothed m-dimensional approximation γθ_∗, where γ is an interpolation matrix and θ_∗ is a stochastic vector of parameters. Vector θ_∗ has small enough dimension to allow its estimation with the available data. The consequence of the replacement is that model function f(γθ_∗) written in terms of the approximate inputs is in error with respect to the same model function written in terms of β, f(β), which is assumed to be nearly exact. The difference f(β) − f(γθ_∗), termed model error, is spatially correlated, generates prediction biases, and causes standard confidence and prediction intervals to be too small. Model error is accounted for in the weighted nonlinear regression methodology developed to estimate θ_∗ and assess model uncertainties by incorporating the second-moment matrix of the model errors into the weight matrix. Techniques developed by statisticians to analyze classical nonlinear regression methods are extended to analyze the revised method. The analysis develops analytical expressions for bias terms reflecting the interaction of model nonlinearity and model error, for correction factors needed to adjust the sizes of confidence and prediction intervals for this interaction, and for correction factors needed to adjust the sizes of confidence and prediction intervals for possible use of a diagonal weight matrix in place of the correct one. If terms expressing the degree of intrinsic nonlinearity for f(β) and f(γθ_∗) are small, then most of the biases are small and the correction factors are reduced in magnitude. Biases, correction factors, and confidence and prediction intervals were obtained for a test problem for which model error is large to test robustness of the methodology. Numerical results conform with the theoretical analysis.     

地理信息技术在城市规划编制中的应用

城市规划编制是城市规划管理工作的基础,关系到城市的有序、合理、持续发展。从空间表达与数据挖掘、用地评定与空间结构分析、预测与模拟3个方面,以典型案例为重点,对地理信息在城市规划编制中的应用进行了探讨。