Positional accuracy and measurement error in digital databases of land use: an empirical study

This paper discusses the issues of positional accuracy and measurement error in the context of a large empirical study of landscape change in England and Wales. The epsilon band model of digitizing accuracy is used to make estimates of the levels of positional uncertainty and measurement error that is due to digitizing polygon outlines. The degree of error expected had the same polygons been captured in raster format is then determined. These results prompt a general discussion of the nature of error in spatial databases.     

Evaluating the effects of land‐use development policies on ex‐urban forest cover: An integrated agent‐based GIS approach

We use a GIS‐based agent‐based model (ABM), named dynamic ecological exurban development (DEED), with spatial data in hypothetical scenarios to evaluate the individual and interacting effects of lot‐size zoning and municipal land‐acquisition strategies on possible forest‐cover outcomes in Scio Township, a municipality in Southeastern Michigan. Agent types, characteristics, behavioural methods, and landscape perceptions (i.e. landscape aesthetics) are empirically informed using survey data, spatial analyses, and a USDA methodology for mapping landscape aesthetic quality. Results from our scenario experiments computationally verified literature that show large lot‐size zoning policies lead to greater sprawl, and large lot‐size zoning policies can lead to increased forest cover, although we found this effect to be small relative to municipal land acquisition. The return on land acquisition for forest conservation was strongly affected by the location strategy used to select parcels for conservation. Furthermore, the location strategy for forest conservation land acquisition was more effective at increasing aggregate forest levels than the independent zoning policies, the quantity of area acquired for forest conservation, and any combination of the two. The results using an integrated GIS and ABM framework for evaluating land‐use development policies on forest cover provide additional insight into how these types of policies may act out over time and what aspects of the policies were more influential towards the goal of maximising forest cover.     

A grid-based collaborative virtual geographic environment for the planning of silt dam systems

To improve the efficiency of planning and designing silt dam systems, this article employs theories and technologies of collaboration and distributed virtual geographic environments (VGEs) to construct a collaborative virtual geographic environment (CVGE) system. The CVGE system provides geographically distributed users with a shared virtual space and a collaborative platform to implement collaborative planning. Many difficulties have been found in integrating data resources and model procedures for the planning of silt dam systems because of their diversity in heterogeneous environments. Unlike most of the current distributed system applications, the proposed CVGE system not only supports multi-platform and multi-program-language interoperability in the dynamically changing network environment, but also shares programs, data and software in the collaborative environment. Based on creating a shared 3D space by virtual reality technology, agent and grid technologies were tightly coupled to develop the CVGE system. A grid-based multi-agent system service framework was designed to implement this new paradigm for the CVGE system, which efficiently integrates and shares geographically distributed resources as well as having the ability to build modelling procedures on different platforms. At the same time, mobile agent computing services were implemented to reduce the network load, process parallel tasks, enhance communication efficiency and adapt dynamically to the changing network environment. Using Java, JMF (Java Media Framework API), Globus Toolkits (GT) core, Voyager, C++, and the OpenGL development package, a prototype system was developed to support silt dam systems planning in the case study area, the Jiu-Yuan-Gou watershed of the Loess Plateau, China. Compared with the traditional workflow, the CVGE system can reduce the workload by between one third and a half.     

A multicriteria spatial decision support system for solving emergency service station location problems

Earthquakes occurring in urban areas constitute an important concern for emergency management and rescue services. Emergency service location problems may be formulated in discrete space or by restricting the potential location(s) to a specified finite set of points in continuous space. We propose a Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support System to identify shelters and emergency service locations in urban evacuation planning. The proposed system has emerged as an integration of the geographical information systems (GIS) and the multicriteria Decision-Making method of Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation IV (PROMETHEE IV). This system incorporates multiple and often conflicting criteria and decision-makers’ preferences into a spatial decision model. We consider three standard structural attributes (i.e., durability density, population density, and oldness density) in the form of spatial maps to determine the zones most vulnerable to an earthquake. The information on these spatial maps is then entered into the ArcGIS software to define the relevant scores for each point with regards to the aforementioned attributes. These scores will be used to compute the preference functions in PROMETHEE IV, whose net flow outranking for each alternative will be inputted in ArcGIS to determine the zones that are most vulnerable to an earthquake. The final scores obtained are integrated into a mathematical programming model designed to find the most suitable locations for the construction of emergency service stations. We demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method and the efficacy of the procedures and algorithms in an earthquake emergency service station planning case study in the city of Tehran.     

Spatial analysis of geometric design consistency and road sight distance

Because of the high number of crashes occurring on highways, it is necessary to intensify the search for new tools that help in understanding their causes. This research explores the use of a geographic information system (GIS) for an integrated analysis, taking into account two accident-related factors: design consistency (DC) (based on vehicle speed) and available sight distance (ASD) (based on visibility). Both factors require specific GIS software add-ins, which are explained. Digital terrain models (DTMs), vehicle paths, road centerlines, a speed prediction model, and crash data are integrated in the GIS. The usefulness of this approach has been assessed through a study of more than 500 crashes. From a regularly spaced grid, the terrain (bare ground) has been modeled through a triangulated irregular network (TIN). The length of the roads analyzed is greater than 100 km. Results have shown that DC and ASD could be related to crashes in approximately 4% of cases. In order to illustrate the potential of GIS, two crashes are fully analyzed: a car rollover after running off road on the right side and a rear-end collision of two moving vehicles. Although this procedure uses two software add-ins that are available only for ArcGIS, the study gives a practical demonstration of the suitability of GIS for conducting integrated studies of road safety.     

Flood evacuation simulations using cellular automata and multiagent systems -a human-environment relationship perspective

ABSTRACT

A flood evacuation represents a complex geographic phenomenon that includes comprehensive interactions among humans, the flood and urban environments; thus, the simulation of flood evacuations requires crowd simulation models to be coupled with flood models. This paper studies the human-environment relationship during flooding and promotes a simulation model that combines cellular automata and a multiagent system to simulate crowd evacuations in flood disasters. A case study of Niaodao Island was used to evaluate the performance of flood evacuation experiments, and real-participant experiments based on the virtual reality (VR) environment were employed for bench-mark comparisons. The integrated model can provide a comprehensive solution to assist flood risk analysis.     

Bringing Time Back In: A Study on the Influence of Travel Time Variations and Facility Opening Hours on Individual Accessibility

Although recent studies of individual accessibility have used detailed representations of urban street networks, unrealistic measures of travel time based on assumptions about constant travel speeds through the network were often used. Utilizing constant travel times does not allow for daily congestion and assumes that the effects of congestion are uniform throughout the city and affect all people equally. This research measures individual space-time accessibility in order to show that the incorporation of locally specific travel times within a street network allows a significant increase in the ability to realistically evaluate individual accessibility within cities. The results show that the accessibility of individuals within cities is not homogenous, and neither does access to employment or shopping opportunities vary according to common expectations about urban form and human behavior. Instead, the role of distance in predicting accessibility variations within cities is quite limited. This article also shows that incorporating time into accessibility measures in the form of congestion and business hours leads to additional (and highly spatially uneven) reductions in accessibility, revealing that the temporal dimension is very important to accurately assessing individual accessibility.     

用微体古生物定量水深法对东营凹陷沙四上亚段沉积早期湖泊水深再造

东营凹陷广布的始新统沙河街组四段上亚段滩坝砂岩具有十分巨大的勘探价值和潜力。对沙河街组沙四上亚段滩坝砂体的精细勘探,要求对古水深展开水深量化再造的研究。文中在对东营凹陷47口含沙四上亚层段低位域层段多门类微体古生物分析和高分辨层序地层学地层划分基础上,确定量化估计水深的古生物替代标志,获得如下主要研究成果:(1)获得较高分辨率(2m等深线表示)的东营凹陷沙四上亚段低位体系域沉积期间古水深量化等值图;(2)东营凹陷是一个以滨浅湖(水深0～15m)为主的湖泊;(3)湖盆具"北深陡南浅缓"的特点,湖边高地或隆起向湖方向深入的岬角一带与陡坡冲积环境相邻;(4)湖盆凹陷内"东西分异"的次级地貌格局,从东向西,出现较深水区、中央深水区和西南浅水带,其长轴均为北东-南西走向。上述结果可与前人研究比较或验证,表明文中所获的多门类微体化石叠合水深量化标志和结果可信。     

Solute and gas geothermometry of geothermal wells: a geochemometrics study for evaluating the effectiveness of geothermometers to predict deep reservoir temperatures

Deep reservoir temperatures of 10 important geothermal systems of the world were estimated by applying 13 solute (Na/K) and 21 gas geothermometers. The predicted temperatures were comprehensively evaluated and compared with measured bottom-hole temperatures using geochemometric techniques. The present study reveals (1) high prediction performances in most of the Na/K geothermometers for the majority of the geothermal fields with liquid-dominated reservoirs, whereas low prediction performances were indicated for the geothermal fields with vapour-dominated and high-temperature reservoirs; (2) the gas geothermometers, in comparison to Na/K, are more successful in predicting the subsurface temperatures in high-temperature geothermal systems; (3) the geothermal systems for which Na/K geothermometers have indicated a high prediction performance, the gas geothermometers have specified a low prediction performances, and vice versa; (4) both Na/K and gas geothermometers, generally, overestimated the reservoir temperatures for the majority of the low-enthalpy geothermal fields and underestimated for the majority of the high-enthalpy geothermal fields; (5) the reservoir temperature predictions of gas geothermometers have more scatter than those temperatures inferred from Na/K geothermometers; and (6) in general, Na/K geothermometers seem to be a more successful geochemical tool in predicting reliable reservoir temperatures than gas geothermometers.     

Mesophotic coral buildups in a prodelta setting (Late Eocene,southern Pyrenees,Spain): a mixed carbonate–siliciclastic system

Lower Priabonian coral bioherms and biostromes, encased in prodelta marls/clays, occur in the Aínsa‐Jaca piggyback basin, in the South Central Pyrenean zone. Detailed mapping of lithofacies and bounding surfaces onto photomosaics reveals the architecture of coral buildups. Coral lithosomes occur either isolated or amalgamated in larger buildups. Isolated lithosomes are 1 to 8 m thick and a few hundred metres wide; clay content within coral colonies is significant. Stacked bioherms form low‐relief buildups, commonly 20 to 30 m thick, locally up to 50 m. These bioherms are progressively younger to the west, following progradation of the deltaic complex. The lowermost skeletal‐rich beds consist of bryozoan floatstone with wackestone to packstone matrix, in which planktonic foraminifera are abundant and light‐related organisms absent. Basal coral biostromes, and the base of many bioherms, consist of platy‐coral colonies ‘floating’ in a fine‐grained matrix rich in branches of red algae. Corals with domal or massive shape, locally mixed with branching corals and phaceloid coral colonies, dominate buildup cores. These corals are surrounded by matrix and lack organic framework. The matrix consists of wackestone to packstone, locally floatstone, with conspicuous red algal and coral fragments, along with bryozoans, planktonic and benthonic foraminifera and locally sponges. Coral rudstone and skeletal packstone, with wackestone to packstone matrix, also occur as wedges abutting the buildup margins. Integrative analysis of rock textures, skeletal components, buildup anatomy and facies architecture clearly reveal that these coral buildups developed in a prodelta setting where shifting of delta lobes or rainfall cycles episodically resulted in water transparency that allowed zooxanthellate coral growth. The bathymetric position of the buildups has been constrained from the light‐dependent communities and lithofacies distribution within the buildups. The process‐product analysis used here reinforces the hypothesis that zooxanthellate corals thrived in mesophotic conditions at least during the Late Eocene and until the Late Miocene. Comparative analysis with some selected Upper Eocene coral buildups of the north Mediterranean area show similarities in facies, components and textures, and suggest that they also grew in relatively low light (mesophotic) and low hydrodynamic conditions.