Geospatial Technology For Environmental Hazards

The book demonstrates the geospatial technology approach to data mining techniques, data analysis, modeling, risk assessment, visualization, and management strategies in different aspects of natural and social hazards. This book has 25 chapters associated with risk assessment, mapping and management strategies of environmental hazards. It covers major topics such as Landslide Susceptibility, Arsenic Contaminated Groundwater, Earthquake Risk Management, Open Cast Mining, Soil loss, Flood Susceptibility, Forest Fire Risk, Malaria prevalence, Flood inundation, Socio-Economic Vulnerability, River Bank Erosion, and Socio-Economic Vulnerability. The content of this book will be of interest to researchers, professionals, and policymakers, whose work involves environmental hazards and related solutions.

Geospatial technology is a combination of state-of-the-art remote sensing and technology for geographic information systems (GIS) and global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) for the mapping and monitoring of landscapes and environment. The main thrust of using geospatial technology is to understand the causes, mechanisms, and consequences of spatial heterogeneity, while its ultimate objective is to provide a scientific basis for developing and maintaining ecologically, economically, and socially sustainable landscapes. This book presents new research on the interdisciplinary applications of geospatial technology for identification, assessment, monitoring, and modelling issues related to landscape, natural resources, and environmental management. The book specifically focuses on the creation, collection, storage, processing, modelling, interpretation, display, and dissemination of spatio-temporal data, which help to resolve environmental management issues including ecosystem change, resource utilization, land use management, and environmental pollution. The positive environmental impacts of information technology advancements with regard to global environmental and climate change are also discussed. The book addresses the interests of a wide spectrum of readers who have a common interest in geospatial science, geology, water resource management, database management, planning and policy making, and resource management.

The pervasive relevance of geospatial information and the development of emerging geospatial technologies offer new opportunity for bridging the gap between remote sensing scientific know-how and end users of products and services. Geospatial technology comprises tools and techniques dealing with the use of spatially referenced information, for the description and modeling of spatial and dynamic phenomena related to the Earth's environment. This book addresses environmental and social applications of geospatial technologies, thus also providing a multidisciplinary perspective on emerging geospatial techniques and tools. It consists of ten chapters offering insight into geospatial technology progress and trends. Authors present several application-oriented studies from various parts of the world, including applications in collaborative geomatics, geospatial statistics, GIS, agriculture, and natural hazard monitoring.

This book is the second in a series that examines how geographic information te- nologies (GIT) are being implemented to improve our understanding of a variety of hazard and disaster situations. The main types of technologies covered under the umbrella of GIT, as used in this volume, are geographic information systems, remote sensing (not including ground-penetrating or underwater systems), and global po- tioning systems. Our focus is on urban areas, broadly de ned in order to encompass rapidly growing and densely populated areas that may not be considered “urban” in the conventional sense. The material presented here is also unabashedly applied – our goal is to provide GIT tools to those seeking more ef cient ways to respond to, recover from, mitigate, prevent, and/or model hazard and disaster events in urban settings. Therefore, this book was created not only with our colleagues in the academic world in mind, but also for hazards professionals and practitioners. We also believe graduate students will nd the material presented here of interest, as may upper division undergraduate students.

This is a comprehensive resource that integrates the application of innovative remote sensing techniques and geospatial tools in modeling Earth systems for environmental management beyond customary digitization and mapping practices. It identifies the most suitable approaches for a specific environmental problem, emphasizes the importance of physically based modeling, their uncertainty analysis, advantages, and disadvantages. The case studies on the Himalayas with a complex topography call for innovation in geospatial techniques to find solutions for various environmental problems. Features: Presents innovative geospatial methods in environmental modeling of Earth systems. Includes case studies from South Asia and discusses different processes and outcomes using spatially explicit models. Explains contemporary environmental problems through the analysis of various information layers. Provides good practices for developing countries to help manage environmental issues using low-cost geospatial approaches. Integrates geospatial modeling with policy and analysis its direct implication in decision making. Using a systems’ approach analysis, Geospatial Modeling for Environmental Management: Case Studies from South Asia shall serve environmental managers, students, researchers, and policymakers.

The emerging field of using geospatial technology to teach science and environmental education presents an excellent opportunity to discover the ways in which educators use research-grounded pedagogical commitments in combination with their practical experiences to design and implement effective teacher professional development projects. Often missing from the literature are in-depth, explicit discussions of why and how educators choose to provide certain experiences and resources for the teachers with whom they work, and the resulting outcomes. The first half of this book will enable science and environmental educators to share the nature and structure of large scale professional development projects while discussing the theoretical commitments that undergird their work. Many chapters will include temporal aspects that present the ways in which projects change over time in response to evaluative research and practical experience. In the second half of the book, faculty and others whose focus is on national and international scales will share the ways in which they are working to meet the growing needs of teachers across the globe to incorporate geospatial technology into their science teaching. These efforts reflect the ongoing conversations in science education, geography, and the geospatial industry in ways that embody the opportunities and challenges inherent to this field. This edited book will serve to define the field of teacher professional development for teaching science using geospatial technology. As such, it will identify short term and long term objectives for science, environmental, and geography educators involved in these efforts. As a result, this book will provide a framework for future projects and research in this exciting and growing field.

"Geospatial Information" is spatial data concerning a place or, in space, collected in real time. Geospatial techniques together with remote sensing, geographic information science, Global Positioning System (GPS), cartography, geovisualization, and spatial statistics are being used to capture, store, manipulate and analyze to understand complex situations to solve mysteries of the universe. These techniques have been applied in various fields such as meteorology, forestry, environmental management, agriculture, health, homeland security etc. around the globe. This volume presents case studies and examples from various parts of the world and provides a broad overview of various approaches; data sets; data acquiring, monitoring and dissemination methods; satellites and sensors; tools and techniques used; integrating tools, techniques and application to various fields for the sustainable management of environmental resources in the context of global environmental change and natural hazards. The objective of this book is to provide state-of-the-art information to academics, researchers and industry practitioners who are involved or interested in the study, use, design and development of advanced and emerging geospatial technologies around the world with ultimate aim to empower individuals and organizations in building competencies for exploiting the opportunities of the knowledge society. All the chapters are peer-reviewes and evaluated and are an inter- and multi-disciplinary source of information, making an effort to link various geospatial techniques to make the earth an habitable place. The contributors have tried to focus their respective views on the current problems that need urgent attention. Consequently, we see this book as a comprehensive information base, which includes work of expertise in their specific fields of research.