A web based spatial decision supporting system for land management and soil conservation

Abstract

Abstract. Today it is evident that there are many contrasting demands on our landscape (e.g. food security, more sustainable agriculture, higher income in rural areas, etc.) but also many land degradation problems. It has been proved that providing operational answers to these demands and problems is extremely difficult. Here we aim to demonstrate that a Spatial Decision Support System based on geospatial cyber-infrastructure (GCI) can embody all of the above, so producing a smart system for supporting decision making for agriculture, forestry and urban planning with respect to the landscape. In this paper, we discuss methods and results of a special kind of GCI architecture, one that is highly focused on soil and land conservation (SOILCONSWEB-LIFE+ project). The system allows us to obtain dynamic, multidisciplinary, multiscale, and multifunctional answers to agriculture, forestry and urban planning issues through the web. The system has been applied to and tested in an area of about 20 000 ha in the South of Italy, within the framework of a European LIFE+ project. The paper reports – as a case study – results from two different applications dealing with agriculture (olive growth tool) and environmental protection (soil capability to protect groundwater). Developed with the help of end users, the system is starting to be adopted by local communities. The system indirectly explores a change of paradigm for soil and landscape scientists. Indeed, the potential benefit is shown of overcoming current disciplinary fragmentation over landscape issues by offering – through a smart web based system – truly integrated geospatial knowledge that may be directly and freely used by any end user (http://www.landconsultingweb.eu). This may help bridge the last much important divide between scientists working on the landscape and end users.

Soil Sealing: Quantifying Impacts on Soil Functions by a Geospatial Decision Support System

“…Details of system features are provided in Terribile et al . (); basically, it includes a 3‐tier logical architecture in which the presentation, application processing and data management are logically separate processes. The presentation tier displays information relating to the services, the business logic tier controls the functionality of the application by performing detailed processing and, finally, the data tier consists of a database where information is stored and retrieved in such a way as to keep data neutral and independent of application servers or business logic.…”

“…Before being integrated into the database, uneven data (e.g. different spatial scales and data gaps) were processed in order to be homogenous and comparable (Terribile et al ., ). Quality control assessments are required in order to ensure that the database accurately reflected data types, field survey data, etc.…”

“…While, in Terribile et al . (), the global description of the SOILCONSWEB Geospatial Cyberinfrastructure is reported, almost nothing is said about soil sealing as problem, as impact on ES, as procedures and obtained results to support planning.…”

A Geospatial Decision Support System Tool for Supporting Integrated Forest Knowledge at the Landscape Scale

“…Recent applications of web-GIS services allow us to overcome limitations in public participation processes enabling public participation in decisions designing tools that support understanding of environmental issues, develop and evaluate alternatives projecting the consequences of different courses of action [7]. The need of spatial analysis, open-source platform and easy to use web capabilities is growing day by day as such systems are capable of offering-through a smart Web-based system-a truly integrated geospatial knowledge archive which can be used directly and freely by any end user [29]. In order to get some understanding about whether and how open source and web capabilities have been implemented into S-DSS applied to forestry, in particular for supporting forest management planning [30], we have reviewed current DSS literature, primarily the works carried out by Packalen [9] and Borges [31].…”

“…Considering the above framework, the general aim of this paper is to demonstrate that a new type of DSSs developed over Geospatial Cyber-Infrastructure (GCI) platform can provide a strategic and flexible web-based operational tool to challenge multifunctional and sustainable forestry knowledge for planning and management purposes at the landscape level, with a demonstration of potential deliveries at high spatial detail (e.g., Cadastral ID) and for large spatial extent areas. The forestry tool reported here (named GIFT tool which stands for "Geospatial Integrated Forest knowledge Tool") is a component of a more general multipurpose Geospatial Decision Support System (S-DSS) named SOILCONSWEB [29], currently in use (www.landconsultingweb.eu) and fully active within the limit of the administrative boundaries of Telesina Valley (South Italy, Benevento). This system is currently under further development under the H2020 LANDSUPPORT project (www.landsupport.eu).…”