Environmental Decision-making utilizing a Web GIS to Monitor Hazardous Industri...

• Author(s): Kamberov, Rustam
• Date: 2012
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/8330
• Origin: Repositório Institucional da UNL
• Subject(s): Web GIS; Interoperability; Geovisualization; Web Map Service; Environmental monitoring; Geographical Information Systems; Spatial Decision Support Systems; Open source
• Document Type: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Advisor(s): Sánchez, Laura Díaz; Pultar, Eduard; Neto, Miguel

Description

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies. Air pollution is a critical issue in contemporary times. For this reason, officials and environmental managers are in need of suitable tools for visualization, manipulation and analysis of environmental data. Environmental concerns in Europe have encouraged the European Environmental Agency (EEA) to create the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR). The E-PRTR is vital and valuable because society will benefit if the data are used to improve monitoring and consequently advance environmental management. However, the data are not accessible in an interoperable way, which complicates their use and does not allow for a contribution to environmental monitoring. This paper describes a Web GIS system developed for the monitoring of industrial emissions using environmental data released by the EEA. Four research objectives are addressed: (1) design and create an interoperable spatial database to store environmental data, (2) develop a Web GIS to manipulate the spatial database, facilitate air pollution monitoring and enhance risk assessment, (3) implement OGC standards to provide data interoperability and integration into a Web GIS, (4) create a model to simulate distribution of air pollutants and assess a population’s exposure to industrial emissions. The proposed approach towards interoperability is an adoption of servicebased architecture for implementation of a three-tier Web GIS application. This system’s prototype is developed using open source tools for the Valencian Community of Spain.