SIMILE: An integrated monitoring system to understand, protect and manage sub-alpine lakes and their ecosystem

<p>Lakes are an invaluable natural and economic resource for the insubric area, identified as the geographical area between the Po River (Lombardy, Italy) and the Monte Ceneri (Ticino, Switzerland). However, the increased anthropic activity and the climate change impacts are more and more threatening the health of these resources. In this context, universities and local administrations of the two regions, that share the trans-boundary lakes, joined their efforts and started a project, named SIMILE, to develop a system for the monitoring of lakes’ status providing updated and continuous information to support the management of the lakes. This project results from a pluriannual collaboration between the two countries, Switzerland and Italy, formalized in the CIPAIS commission (www.cipais.org). The aim is to introduce an innovative information system based on the combination of advanced automatic and continuous observation system, high resolution remote sensing data processing, citizen science and ecological and physical models. The project will capitalize the knowledge and experience of the resource managers with the creation of a Business Intelligence platform based on several interoperable geospatial Web services. The use of Open software and data will facilitate its adoption and will contribute to adequately keep the costs limited. The project, started few months ago is here presented and discussed.</p>

A WEB-BASED LAND INFORMATION SYSTEM, TOOL FOR ONLINE LAND ADMINISTRATION IN AKURE NIGERIA

Access to reliable land information is a fundamental requirement for effective land administration, management, and planning and for the sustainable development of any nation. Many developing countries are faced with the absence of an adequate or coordinated land administrative system that are fit for purpose. The use of desktop geographic information system has been an effective tool for capturing, storing, analyzing, and making land information available. However, in most cases, land information is still largely inaccessible to the public where and when is needed at an instant. With the internet being an integral part of society, it is a powerful means for people to exchange and process information. The main objective of this work has been to develop a web-based LIS that facilitates users’ access and retrieval of land information. In view this, QGIS was used for data processing, PostgreSQL was used for the database design while QGIS Cloud was used to expose the data as geospatial web services. Web-GIS functionality was extended with the help of OpenLayers API. The system is composed of a single database, a web mapping application and an interactive website that provides for pan, zoom, and query in GIS functionality. Adopting the system will ensure an easy flow of land information and ensures there is well-structured process of collecting, storing, and disseminating land information. However, the adoption of LADM may be possible in the nearest future.

Research on ontology for geospatial Web services

Discovery and access of Web services for geographic information on the Semantic Web has not been addressed yet by the Semantic Web community or by the geographic information community. However, ISO/TC 211 in the ISO Technical Specification ISO/TS 19150-1:2012, Geographic information — Ontology — Part 1: Framework provides a plan to cover this purpose. Recently, ISO/TC 211 approved a new project ISO 19150-4, Geographic information — Ontology — Part 4: Service ontology, for the development of a new ISO standard that deals with Web services for geographic information. This ISO standard has reached the draft international standard stage. This paper aims at providing an overall description of the standard including the ontological framework for geographic information services and a crosswalk with other frameworks for Web services (such as OWL-S, SWSO, WSMO) to support interoperability with them.