Edmund C. Merem

The applications of GIS in the analysis of the impacts of human activities on south Texas watersheds.

With water resource planning assuming greater importance in environmental protection efforts, analyzing the health of agricultural watersheds using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) becomes essential for decision-makers in Southern Texas. Within the area, there exist numerous threats from conflicting land uses. These include the conversion of land formerly designated for agricultural purposes to other uses. Despite current efforts, anthropogenic factors are greatly contributing to the degradation of watersheds. Additionally, the activities of waste water facilities located in some of the counties, rising populations, and other socioeconomic variables are negatively impacting the quality of water in the agricultural watersheds. To map the location of these stressors spatially and the extent of their impacts across time, the paper adopts a mix scale method of temporal spatial analysis consisting of simple descriptive statistics. In terms of objectives, this research provides geo-spatial analysis of the effects of human activities on agricultural watersheds in Southern Texas and the factors fuelling the concerns under the purview of watershed management. The results point to growing ecosystem decline across time and a geographic cluster of counties experiencing environmental stress. Accordingly, the emergence of stressors such as rising population, increased use of fertilizer treatments on farm land, discharges of atmospheric pollutants and the large presence of municipal and industrial waste treatment facilities emitting pathogens and pesticides directly into the agricultural watersheds pose a growing threat to the quality of the watershed ecosystem.

Using GIS in Ecological Management: Green Assessment of the Impacts of Petroleum Activities in the State of Texas

Geo-information technologies are valuable tools for ecological assessment in stressed environments. Visualizing natural features prone to disasters from the oil sector spatially not only helps in focusing the scope of environmental management with records of changes in affected areas, but it also furnishes information on the pace at which resource extraction affects nature. Notwithstanding the recourse to ecosystem protection, geo-spatial analysis of the impacts remains sketchy. This paper uses GIS and descriptive statistics to assess the ecological impacts of petroleum extraction activities in Texas. While the focus ranges from issues to mitigation strategies, the results point to growth in indicators of ecosystem decline.

Relationships between Climate Parameters and Forest Vegetation At and Near Digya National Park, Ghana

This paper evaluates the effect of three climate parameters on forest cover in Ghana and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) at Digya National Park derived from Landsat image data. Climate data (temperature, humidity, dewpoint, rainfall) are assembled from statistics provided by Ghanas Meteorological Agency. The study introduces a weighted averaging method by computing weather information from neighbouring stations. Also, this research introduces a model of dewpoints, enabling the direct calculation of dewpoints from temperature and humidity data. The major finding is that while temperature significantly affects forest cover and Park vegetation, dew-points and rainfall do not. The paper suggests where future research may be more fruitful in analyzing the effects of climate on vegetation.

Appraising Variations in Climate Change Parameters Along the Lower West African Region

Narrow minded skeptics in the twenty first century deny the existence of climate change and the resultant risks threatening the welfare of cities through the destruction of properties, displacement and environmental degradation. The global climate change concern is now more important than ever in the sub Saharan African region of West Africa where the vulnerabilities remain obvious. Accordingly, in the last several years, the lower West African region continues to be an epicenter of inclement weather hazards. For that, there exists mounting evidence of risks based on recurrent challenges triggered by surge in extreme climate parameters in the savannahs, the tropical moist areas and the coastal landscapes in Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal. In these areas of the West Africa region, climate change parameters such as droughts, flooding, storm surge, and elevated temperature and greenhouse gas emissions continue to threaten the surrounding ecology. Just as climate hazards have captured the attention of various scholars in other areas, very little has been done to study the area despite its vulnerability to sea level rise, torrential rainfalls, coastal inundation and storm surge. In all these, the projected climate change trends point to continual dispersion of elevated temperature and evidence of harsh weather conditions all through the region. With the gravity of the hazards now obvious, this research fills that void in the literature, by analyzing climate change parameters threatening the study area with the use of mix scale methods of GIS, secondary data, and descriptive statistics with focus on the trends, factors, impacts and efforts of the institutions. Taking a cue from the analysis, the results show the prevalence of climate change risks and impacts in the form of flooding hazards, droughts, greenhouse gas emission, sea level rise, pollution, environmental degradation and displacement of citizens. With the impacts attributed to socio-economic and physical elements, the GIS mapping reveals a gradual spreading of climate change hazards under different scales to various areas across the region from Nigeria to Senegal. To remedy the issue, the paper proffers some suggestions such as the need for adaptation, the design of efficient planning and policy in the region.

Analyzing Changing Trends in Forest Land Areas of Mississippi

The state of Mississippi compared to its size contains enormous forestland with ecological and economic benefits. Just as it provides habitats for different species of animals, and acts as a carbon sink for greenhouse gases. In the last several years, the forestry sector has assumed a leading role in the state’s economy. With a production structure built on private ownership, the forest sector continued to face wildfire threats, and the limited adoption of forest management plans by most landowners. Despite four decades of stability, the impacts of extensive logging and the risks of forest depletion from such practices could emerge as major problems in the future in the absence of effective management. Accordingly, the paper presents an analysis of changing trends in Mississippi’s forestry sector. The project uses descriptive statistics and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to track the changes under a mix-scale model alongside the identification of factors fuelling the problems in the state. In view of that, the results point to the presence of different forest types and ownership categories as well as changing forestland at the state and regional level. GIS mapping revealed clusters of counties filled with concentration of forests in various regions, the risks of forest fire, outbreak of pests and the penetration of wood processing mills statewide. Notwithstanding the partial diffusion of forest management plans and changes attributed to physical, economic and demographic factors, the suggested mitigation measures ranged from the adoption of forest management plans to continued GIS mapping.

Coupling GIS and remote sensing techniques for coastal zone disaster management: the case of Southern Mississippi

BackgroundSince hurricane Katrina, developer and planners are looking at a tools and sustainable ways to minimize vulnerabilities in events of disasters especially along the coast. In this setting, remote sensing and Geographic information systems (GIS) have the capacity to provide valuable and timely information about coastal resources, and form an important basis for sustainable planning for land management and decision making. This paper focuses on the design of appropriate coastal databases in six counties in Southern Mississippi using remote sensing and GIS technology. The intent is to enable planners and policy-makers contribute to improved land administration and coastal resources management in order to enhance their competence in decision-making. In order to achieve these objectives, satellite image and digital elevation models (DEMs) data were downloaded from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) seamless data warehouse National Elevation Dataset (NED). From there, the DEM data was co-registered to the satellite image to facilitate draping of the image over the DEM to create terrain models.ResultsResult reveals greater part of the three counties along the coast lies less than 10 meters above mean sea level with exposure to coastal disaster vulnerability.ConclusionsIn the context of the objectives of the research anchored on the applications of GIS and remote sensing towards efficient land administration and coastal resource management in six coastal counties in an ecologically fragile area already dubbed the epicenter of coastal disasters. Considering the changes that took place in the six counties after Hurricane Katrina debacle, the findings in this study not only stand out, but they remain highly beneficial to decision makers made up of planners and policy makers in several ways. Just as the study injected elements of novelty by identifying digital elevation model information for the six counties in low lying areas, revealing the steeper areas in the north portion of the study stands out as a major finding and study contribution in a way beneficial to decision makers in the region. With that they are now better informed in sharing and cautioning and pinpointing to the public the hidden critical pathways to coastal vulnerability that were previously unknown to ordinary people.

Using GIS to Assess the Contribution of Farming Activities towards Climate Change in the State of Mississippi

The study uses primary data, descriptive statistics, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and correlation analysis to analyze the contributions of farming activities to climate change in Mississippi between 1992 through 2002. This involved the assessment of methane emissions from rice cultivation in the state of Mississippi as well as the relationship between the levels of methane gas concentration and other variables associated with rice production. In highlighting the extent to which rice production activities fuel climate change, the results of the study not only showed greenhouse gas emission related rice production activities to be on the rise, but there is a relationship between methane emissions and rice farming. The GIS analysis also points to a visible concentration of rice production activities associated with methane emissions in the major counties of Bolivia, Sunflower and Washington along the Northwest portion of the state. While this raises the threats of climate change predictors in the area. To remedy the problems, the paper suggests five future lines of actions from the need for education to the promotion of emission trading.

GIS Based Analysis of Growth Management and Environmental Decline of the Central Mississippi Region

Abstract This paper examines the changing growth patterns along the Central Mississippi Planning District and then offers growth management strategies for ameliorating the situation. To analyze these trends, the project adopts a time series approach and Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping of socio-economic and environmental data from the United States Census across time and space. Existing regional statistics shows that the region has been undergoing some major changes due to growth. The nature of growth in the area is so one dimensional that sustainable growth anchored in ecological economic principles is sacrificed for short-term economic gains. This comes at an era when other counties in the United States are embracing the tenets of sustainable communities as a way of making cities livable for posterity. Not only has the population growth been moving at a geometric progression, but the areas agricultural land base and ecological indicators have experienced a decline over the years.