Mapping Current and Potential Distribution of Non-Native Prosopis juliflora in the Afar Region of Ethiopia

Article by: 

Tewodros T. Wakie , Paul H. Evangelista, Catherine S. Jarnevich, Melinda Laituri

Abstract

We used correlative models with species occurrence points, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation indices, and topo-climatic predictors to map the current distribution and potential habitat of invasive Prosopis juliflora in Afar, Ethiopia. Time-series of MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Indices (EVI) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Indices (NDVI) with 250 m2 spatial resolution were selected as remote sensing predictors for mapping distributions, while WorldClim bioclimatic products and generated topographic variables from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission product (SRTM) were used to predict potential infestations. We ran Maxent models using non-correlated variables and the 143 species- occurrence points. Maxent generated probability surfaces were converted into binary maps using the 10-percentile logistic threshold values. Performances of models were evaluated using area under the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC). Our results indicate that the extent of P. juliflora invasion is approximately 3,605 km2 in the Afar region (AUC = 0.94), while the potential habitat for future infestations is 5,024 km2 (AUC = 0.95). Our analyses demonstrate that time-series of MODIS vegetation indices and species occurrence points can be used with Maxent modeling software to map the current distribution of P. juliflora, while topo-climatic variables are good predictors of potential habitat in Ethiopia. Our results can quantify current and future infestations, and inform management and policy decisions for containing P. juliflora. Our methods can also be replicated for managing invasive species in other East African countries.

Full text here: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0112854

Europe’s Sentinel-2A Satellite Delivers its First Images of Earth

29 June 2015 – Just four days after being lofted into orbit, Europe’s Sentinel-2A satellite delivered its first images of Earth, offering a glimpse of the ‘colour vision’ that it will provide for the Copernicus environmental monitoring programme.

With a swath width of 290 km, the satellite’s first acquisition began in Sweden and made a strip-like observation through central Europe and the Mediterranean, ending in Algeria.

The data were relayed in real time to Italy’s Matera ground station, where teams eagerly awaited their arrival for processing.

Northwest Italy and southern France.
Credit: ESA

While northern and central Europe were mostly cloudy, Italy’s typical sunny weather allowed the teams to get their first glimpse of the multispectral instrument’s capabilities over the northwestern part of the country and the French Riviera – and they were excited by what they saw. With a ground resolution of 10 m per pixel, the images show individual buildings in Milan, agricultural plots along the Po River, and ports along the southern French coast.

“This new satellite will be a game changer in Earth observation for Europe and for the European Copernicus programme,” said Philippe Brunet, Director for Space Policy, Copernicus and Defence at the European Commission.

The Director of ESA’s Earth Observation Programmes, Volker Liebig, commented, “Sentinel-2 will enable us to provide data for the programme’s land monitoring services and will be the base for a wide spectrum of applications reaching from agriculture to forestry, environmental monitoring to urban planning.”

The multispectral imager is being calibrated during the commissioning phase – which will take about three months to complete – but the quality of these first images already exceeds expectations.

Po Valley, Italy.
Credit: ESA

In addition to demonstrating the imager’s high resolution, these initial data also foreshadow the mission’s land-monitoring applications in areas such as agriculture, inland and coastal waters and land-cover mapping.

The imager’s 13 spectral bands, from the visible and the near infrared to the shortwave infrared at different spatial resolutions, take land monitoring to an unprecedented level. In fact, Sentinel-2 is the first optical Earth observation mission of its kind to include three bands in the ‘red edge’, which provide key information on the state of vegetation.

This weekend’s activities also demonstrated that the operational processor works flawlessly, paving the way for the mission’s systematic data generation to come.

Sentinel-2A is the second satellite for Europe’s Copernicus programme, following the Sentinel-1A radar satellite launched last year.

Designed as a two-satellite mission, Sentinel-2 will provide optical imagery on a five-day revisit cycle once its twin, Sentinel-2B, is launched in 2016.

Source

Real Estate Price Distribution Analysis with GIS Technology

GIS Application: Analyzing Changes of Housing Prices in Zhongli District

Scenario Real-Estate price is often influenced by policy and economy volatilities. Investors and young people who intend to buy houses can cognize the current real-estate price through actual price registration system. Designed for policies of residence justice, the Actual Price Registration System is expected to meet social desirability and improve information asymmetry happening to the current real-estate trading cases. However, it is still not enough for people to figure out how real-estate prices change just by knowing the price. Su, Jia-Hong, a student in Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology who majors in Applied Geomatics, joined SuperGIS Youth Award, a GIS Competition hold by Supergeo Technologies Inc., and proposed that Geographic Information System can be employed to analyze and demonstrate the result to tell how housing prices rise/fall. Goals Mr. Su employed the GIS desktop software, SuperGIS Desktop, and used real-estate data collected from the Actual Price Registration website, including required coordinates, housing prices, pings of all floors in the building and so forth of Qingpu special district in Taoyuan City. Through data analyses with Interpolation Method, Mr. Su comprehended the process that how housing price changed during 2012 to 2014. Solutions 1. Collecting Geographic Data of Qingpu Special District in Taoyuan City: Qingpu special district, located at the North-West area of Zhongli District and being close to High Speed Rail Station District, has been developed speedily in recent years. It is also known as Taoyuan High Speed Rail Station special district.. ▲ Qingpu Special Distric Map 2. Collecting Housing Data and Creating Information Files: Mr. Su collected housing data on the Internet. The Actual Price Registration website provides trading information of the recent two years, including trading year and month, house address, total price, unit price of each ping, floor area, plot of land, age of houses, the number of floors, housing pattern, etc. This research applied information of houses that located within 2 kilometers from Qingpu Special District in Taoyuan City and have been traded successfully during the last two years. All the picked houses are aged or less than 10 years old; and most of them are new ones. However, the housing prices are different with the floor that each apartment loacted on; therefore, Mr. Su selected mid-level apartments for the research while necessary. In addition, he also converted houses’ coordinates to geographic coordinates and then TM coodinates for his 2012 and 2013 house information reports, which includes houses’ coordinates, address, unit price of each ping and the trading date. ▲Querying Coordinates by Address ▲Reports of House Information 3. Importing Data into SuperGIS Desktop: Using the toolbar on SuperGIS Desktop, Mr. Su mashed up hose data and the XY data to create different point layers of 2012, 2013 and 2014, and rectified images cached from GoogleMap by Data Rectifier (Tool). We can see the red points represent position of houses that were traded in 2012, green ones in 2013 and yellow ones in 2014. ▲Import Data 4. Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) Function: Subsequently, Mr. Su employed Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) function of Spatial Analyst within SuperGIS Desktop, imported point data into house data layers of 2012, 2013 and 2014, entered unit price of each ping as Z value and export as a raster file. On the maps which show the results of IDW analysis, we can see that the red part means area having houses with high prices; the green part means converse situation. ▲Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) Analysis for 2014 Data Results According to the result of interpolation method through IDW function of Spatial Analyst within SuperGIS Desktop, Mr. Su found that price of houses in the area near to south of High Speed Rail Station increased obviously in 2012 and 2013; moreover, from 2013 to 2014, the price of all houses around the High Speed Rail Station increased. After comparing data 2012 with data 2014, he found that unit price of each ping increased a lot during 2 years. ▲Data 2012 and 2013 Comparison Result Benefits The student, Lin, of Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology used SuperGIS Desktop to access data he collected and utilized SuperGIS Analyst to conduct spatial analyses; afterwards, SuperGIS Desktop can demonstrate the analysis results to help Su map the required data and provide powerful evidence for his research. In this way, Su can observe the process of housing price change through GIS to comprehend the price trend and the relation among housing price, environment around and spatial changes. Source

ITC Recruiting for Lecturer Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing

The Department of Earth Observation Science (EOS) of the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC),University of Twente in Enschede, the Netherlands, has a vacant two-year full-time position for a Lecturer Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing This position supports our education in geo-informatics. Topics to be taught include sensor characteristics and operational aspects of image acquisition, geo-referencing and mapping.

Position: Lecturer Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing

Deadline: 1 August 2015

Organization: ITC

The challenge

You support and teach modules in photogrammetry and remote sensing at technician, master and Master of Science level. You contribute to the development of educational modules and new educational products. You keep your theoretical and practical expertise up to date, following the development of technology. The focus is on geometric processing of images from aerial and satellite camera systems; including aerial triangulation and direct georeferencing, DTM generation, ortho-image production, topographic feature extraction and texture mapping.

Our offer

We offer an inspiring and challenging international environment. You will be employed for a period of two years. Salary and conditions will be in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) of the Dutch Universities. Gross monthly salary depends on experience and qualifications, and ranges from € 2.476,00 up to € 3.908,00, exclusive of allowances (in accordance with the job profile ‘Docent’ level 4, under the University System for Job Classification (UJC).

Your profile

You possess a MSc with at least 5 years professional experience in photogrammetry and/or remote sensing. You have experience with professional digital photogrammetry and remote sensing software and the ability to quickly master LPS/Erdas. Experience in developing and implementing new educational materials is also essential. Preferably you have proven didactic skills and experience in teaching (University Teacher Qualification certificate ‘BKO’ or equivalent), affinity with a multi-cultural, post-graduate education environment, and experience in international consulting and advising services. A good command of English is required. You are willing to undertake international travel.

HOW TO APPLY

Additional information about this position can be obtained from Professor George Vosselman, head of the Department EOS (phone: +31 53 4874 344, e-mail: george.vosselman@utwente.nl).

Interested candidates are invited to send their application, detailed curriculum vitae and a letter elaborating the motivation for the application before 1 August 2015. Please locate this vacancy onhttp://www.utwente.nl/en/organization/careers/vacancies/ and select ‘apply now’ to fill out the application form.

Read detailed advertisement click here

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PhD Fellowships in the UK

3 PhD positions were announced in the following Universities:

• SRUC - Scotland's Rural College, 
• Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and 
• University of Birmingham

PhD in Geo-hazards, climate risk and the spatial economics of cities: quantifying theeconomic vulnerability and resilience of cities in developing countries

http://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=64446&Email=1

PhD in Geography and Evolution - to examine the geography and evolution of land tenure systems and subsistence strategies across the globe

http://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=64369&Email=1

PhD Studentship - Spatial econometric modelling of land use and ecosystem services

http://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=64344&Email=1

Follow the links for more information

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