Assessing the users’ need for a spatial decision support system of smallholder farming in Kenya

Accurate data of the natural conditions and agricultural systems with a good spatial resolution are a key factor to tackle food insecurity in developing countries. A broad variety of approaches exists to achieve precise data and information about agriculture. One system, especially developed for smallholder agriculture in East Africa, is the Farm Management Handbook of Kenya. It was first published in 1982/83 and fully revised in 2012, now containing 7 volumes. The handbooks contain detailed information on climate, soils, suitable crops and soil care based on scientific research results of the last 30 years. The density of facts leads to time consuming extraction of all necessary information. In this study we analyse the user needs and necessary components of a system for decision support for smallholder farming in Kenya based on a geographical information system (GIS). Required data sources were identified, as well as essential functions of the system. We analysed the results of our survey conducted in 2012 and early 2013 among agricultural officers. The monitoring of user needs and the problem of non-adaptability of an agricultural information system on the level of extension officers in Kenya are the central objectives. The outcomes of the survey suggest the establishment of a decision support tool based on already available open source GIS components. The system should include functionalities to show general information for a specific location and should provide precise recommendations about suitable crops and management options to support agricultural guidance on farm level.

Effects of changing water availability on land use in irrigated mountain oases of Al Jabal Al Akhdar, northern Oman

In Oman, during the last three decades, agricultural water use and groundwater extraction has dramatically increased to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and major changes in lifestyle. This has triggered agricultural land-use changes which have been poorly investigated. In view of this our study aimed at analysing patterns of shortterm land-use changes (2007-2009) in the five irrigated mountain oases of Ash Sharayjah, Al’Ayn, Al’Aqr, Qasha’ and Masayrat ar Ruwajah situated in the northern Oman Hajar mountains of Al Jabal Al Akhdar where competitive uses of irrigation water are particularly apparent. Comprehensive GIS-based field surveys were conducted over three years to record changes in terrace use in these five oases where farmers have traditionally adapted to rain-derived variations of irrigation water supply, e.g. by leaving agricultural terraces of annual crops uncultivated in drought years. Results show that the area occupied with field crops decreased in the dry years of 2008 and 2009 for all oases. In Ash Sharayjah, terrace areas grown with field crops declined from 4.7 ha (32.4 % of total terrace area) in 2007 to 3.1 ha (21.6 %) in 2008 and 3.0 ha (20.5 %) in 2009. Similarly, the area proportion of field crops shrunk in Al’Ayn, Qasha’ and Masayrat from 35.2, 36.3 and 49.6 % in 2007 to 19.8, 8.5 and 41.3 % in 2009, respectively. In Al’Aqr, the area of field crops slightly increased from 0.3 ha (17.0 %) in 2007 to 0.7 (39.1 %) in 2008, and decreased to 0.5 ha (28.8 %) in 2009. During the same period annual dry matter yields of the cash crop garlic in Ash Sharayjah increased from 16.3 t ha-1 in 2007 to 19.8 t ha-1 in 2008 and 18.3 t ha-1 in 2009, while the same crop yielded only 0.4, 1.6 and 1.1 t ha-1 in Masayrat. In 2009, the total estimated agricultural area of the new town of Sayh Qatanah above the five oases was around 13.5 ha. Our results suggest that scarcity of irrigation water as a result of low precipitation and increased irrigation and home water consumption in the new urban settlements above the five oases have led to major shifts in the land-use pattern and increasingly threaten the centuries-long tradition and drought-resilience of agriculture in the oases of the studied watershed.

Changes of traditional farming systems and their effects on land degradation and socio-economic conditions in the Inle Lake region, Myanmar

At many locations in Myanmar, ongoing changes in land use have negative environmental impacts and threaten natural ecosystems at local, regional and national scales. In particular, the watershed area of Inle Lake in eastern Myanmar is strongly affected by the environmental effects of deforestation and soil erosion caused by agricultural intensification and expansion of agricultural land, which are exacerbated by the increasing population pressure and the growing number of tourists. This thesis, therefore, focuses on land use changes in traditional farming systems and their effects on socio-economic and biophysical factors to improve our understanding of sustainable natural resource management of this wetland ecosystem. The main objectives of this research were to: (1) assess the noticeable land transformations in space and time, (2) identify the typical farming systems as well as the divergent livelihood strategies, and finally, (3) estimate soil erosion risk in the different agro-ecological zones surrounding the Inle Lake watershed area. GIS and remote sensing techniques allowed to identify the dynamic land use and land cover changes (LUCC) during the past 40 years based on historical Corona images (1968) and Landsat images (1989, 2000 and 2009). In this study, 12 land cover classes were identified and a supervised classification was used for the Landsat datasets, whereas a visual interpretation approach was conducted for the Corona images. Within the past 40 years, the main landscape transformation processes were deforestation (- 49%), urbanization (+ 203%), agricultural expansion (+ 34%) with a notably increase of floating gardens (+ 390%), land abandonment (+ 167%), and marshlands losses in wetland area (- 83%) and water bodies (- 16%). The main driving forces of LUCC appeared to be high population growth, urbanization and settlements, a lack of sustainable land use and environmental management policies, wide-spread rural poverty, an open market economy and changes in market prices and access. To identify the diverse livelihood strategies in the Inle Lake watershed area and the diversity of income generating activities, household surveys were conducted (total: 301 households) using a stratified random sampling design in three different agro-ecological zones: floating gardens (FG), lowland cultivation (LL) and upland cultivation (UP). A cluster and discriminant analysis revealed that livelihood strategies and socio-economic situations of local communities differed significantly in the different zones. For all three zones, different livelihood strategies were identified which differed mainly in the amount of on-farm and off-farm income, and the level of income diversification. The gross margin for each household from agricultural production in the floating garden, lowland and upland cultivation was US$ 2108, 892 and 619 ha-1 respectively. Among the typical farming systems in these zones, tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) plantation in the floating gardens yielded the highest net benefits, but caused negative environmental impacts given the overuse of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and spatial analysis within GIS were applied to estimate soil erosion risk in the different agricultural zones and for the main cropping systems of the study region. The results revealed that the average soil losses in year 1989, 2000 and 2009 amounted to 20, 10 and 26 t ha-1, respectively and barren land along the steep slopes had the highest soil erosion risk with 85% of the total soil losses in the study area. Yearly fluctuations were mainly caused by changes in the amount of annual precipitation and the dynamics of LUCC such as deforestation and agriculture extension with inappropriate land use and unsustainable cropping systems. Among the typical cropping systems, upland rainfed rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivation had the highest rate of soil erosion (20 t ha-1yr-1) followed by sebesten (Cordia dichotoma) and turmeric (Curcuma longa) plantation in the UP zone. This study indicated that the hotspot region of soil erosion risk were upland mountain areas, especially in the western part of the Inle lake. Soil conservation practices are thus urgently needed to control soil erosion and lake sedimentation and to conserve the wetland ecosystem. Most farmers have not yet implemented soil conservation measures to reduce soil erosion impacts such as land degradation, sedimentation and water pollution in Inle Lake, which is partly due to the low economic development and poverty in the region. Key challenges of agriculture in the hilly landscapes can be summarized as follows: fostering the sustainable land use of farming systems for the maintenance of ecosystem services and functions while improving the social and economic well-being of the population, integrated natural resources management policies and increasing the diversification of income opportunities to reduce pressure on forest and natural resources.

Software libre y sistemas de información geográfica: conceptos, definiciones y aspectos legales

This article covers some of the principal legal aspects of free and open software applied to Geographic Information Systems. Starting out form basic concepts in FOSS licensing, it aims to deal with questions such as "who is responsible for FOSS projects'", "how are they developed?", "who is the owner of the software?" and discusses the legal issues and problems that may arise during the course of creating, distributing or deploying a FOSS-based GIS

Las Herramientas SIG Libre en la investigación histórica

On last years we have seen an increase on the use of GIS technologies as analysis tools on the field of historical research. The study of landscape, and how it has influenced the development of History is a focal point of research fields like archaeology and battlefield analysis, and we are seeing nowadays how its use is spreading. (...)

wxGRASS: una interfaz gráfica de usuario para la integración de diversos programas libres para SIG

This paper presents a Graphical User Interface, developed with python and the graphic library wxpython, to GRASS GIS. This GUI allows to access several modules with a graphic interface written in Spanish. Its main purpouse is to be a teaching tool, that is the reason way it only allows to access several basic put crucial moludes. It also allows user to organize the elements presented to stress the aspects to be resalted in a particular working sesion with the program

SIGFRUT: aplicación web para el diseño de plantaciones e instalaciones agrícolas

The SIGFRUT project is set within what we could call GIS applications in a web environment. (The acronym GIS is SIG in Spanish). We are all familiar with Internet map servers or IMS, with which we can visualize different thematic layers, check their attributes and, in the best cases, consult a data base, selecting and visualizing the elements that meet the required conditions. Nevertheless, these types of applications are basically simple map viewers and do not have any more functional features than the classic tools of visualization and consultation.(...)

SigWeb 2.0: AJAX + OpenToro

This communication presents the development of a new Internet GIS viewer that integrates a good set of AJAX functionalities and integrates OpenToro, an open source component for web publication

LOCALITZA: una herramienta SIG para resolver problemas de localización óptima

LOCALITZA software is a tool that increases GIS applications possibilities to analyze and solve optimal facility location problems. This system, that it is being migrated from Delphi to Python, allows to evaluate how existing facility supply covers the demand. ON the other hand, it includes the resolution of an elevated number of classic location-allocation models and, in some cases, includes new models

Introducción a los conceptos y a la utilización del SIG Open-Source GRASS

In this presentation, we would like to focus on GRASS GIS (version 5.x and latest 6.x), one of the oldest GIS developped by the Open-Source Community. Our goal is trying to make it accessible to any GIS user by explaining its main concepts

HidroSIG: un sistema de información geográfica para la gestión de recursos naturales y modelación del medio ambiente

This paper describes HidroGIS, a GIS platform developed by Water Resources Program at Universidad Nacional de Colombia at Medellín. HidroSIG is a tool for hydrological variables visualization and analysis, using a set of modules that make this software a powerful tool for hydrological modeling. HidroSIG has tools for digital terrain models processing, water supply estimation using long term water balance in watersheds, a rainfall-runoff model, a model for landslide susceptibility estimation, an one-dimensional pollutant transport model, tools for homogeneity analysis in time series and tools for satellite images classification. The tools in development status are also described

Gestor de colecciones de recursos para gvSIG

Actualmente la Dirección General de Patrimonio Natural y Biodiversidad de la Consejería de Agricultura y Agua de la Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia (en adelante DGPNB) utiliza gvSIG como herramienta de trabajo. Los usuarios de gvSIG tienen disponible un elevado conjunto de capas de datos a los que acceden a través de la herramienta de añadir capa en gvSIG. El procedimiento de trabajo presenta problemas de usabilidad a los usuarios a la hora de añadir nuevas capas, o simplemente se dificulta involuntariamente el acceso a la información cartográfica existente y disponible en la DGPNB. Así pues Prodevelop ha iniciado el desarrollo de una extensión para gvSIG que permite con un procedimiento sencillo, la creación de colecciones de recursos cartográficos que puedan ser empleados por múltiples usuarios a lo largo de toda una corporación y a su vez facilita a cada usuario la creación y mantenimiento de su propia colección de recursos más empleados

Estructura del servidor interactivo de información epidemiológica

Los sistemas de software SIG Open Source implementados en servidores Web se encuentran en una etapa de madurez, de forma que son en muchos aspectos iguales o superiores a sus homónimos comerciales; su sofisticación, solidez, estabilidad y manejabilidad facilitan la creación de sistemas de información geográfica accesibles mediante Internet, especializados en diferentes materias, entre ellas la investigación médica. La vigilancia de la situación en salud sigue siendo la piedra angular de la detección de amenazas para la población, que requieren medidas de salud pública. La distribución de este tipo de información especializada es muy útil tanto para apoyar posteriores estudios técnicos, como para cubrir las necesidades de información de los potenciales usuarios. (...)

LocalGIS

LocalGIS, anteriormente denominado GeoPista, es el Sistema de Información Territorial Software Libre para Entidades Locales que surgió a iniciativa del Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio y está englobado dentro del Plan Avanza. LocalGIS cuenta con el respaldo de la FEMP, Catastro, MAP e IGN, entre otros organismos, y facilita realizar la gestión municipal de forma georreferenciada, al ser un Sistema de Información Geográfica, permitiendo también ofrecer servicios de información on-line a los ciudadanos utilizando la cartografía de la entidad local. (...)

Capaware: plataforma de desarrollo de software libre para aplicacines geográficas 3D multicapa

En este trabajo se presenta Capaware, una plataforma de software libre para el desarrollo de aplicaciones geográficas 3D multicapa, que surge a partir de la iniciativa del Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias en colaboración con la Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Este entorno simplifica la creación de aplicaciones 3D sobre territorios geográficos extensos, disponiendo de una herramienta muy visual que aporta un nuevo punto de vista muy importante para una toma de decisiones eficaz. Capaware proporciona una interfaz fácil de usar y muy flexible que simplifica el desarrollo de nuevas aplicaciones, permitiéndonos crear rápidamente entornos virtuales con múltiples capas de información sobre el terreno. Con las capacidades clásicas de un Sistema de Información Geográfica (SIG), Capaware permite actualmente la carga de capas WMS sobre entornos 3D, añadir objetos 3D sobre el terreno, y visualizar elementos dinámicos, ofreciendo una nueva perspectiva de la información analizada. Así mismo, podemos administrar las capas de recursos y elementos que se pueden representar sobre la zona geográfica en cuestión. (...)