African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) are the most endangered large carnivore in Southern Africa. There are as little as 5,000 individuals globally and less than 450 African wild dogs in South Africa alone. African wild dogs are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Therefore, the time has never been more crucial to conserve the species. With increased human encroachment and inhabitation in and around protected areas, so are increased conflicts between humans and carnivores. Human-wild dog conflict is likely to rise where a common resource is found. Human-carnivore conflicts have often been induced by the uncomfortably close inhabitation of humans in areas predominantly occupied by large carnivores. For this reason, it is becoming vital to establish a harmonious relationship between carnivores and humans. This research investigated the extent and causes of human-carnivore conflict specific to private landowners and the African wild dog in the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve, Limpopo Province, South Africa between April 2018 and January 2019. The causes of conflict in the Waterberg and levels of tolerance by the farmers for African wild dogs were investigated. The methodology was two-fold, using spatial analyses and an online survey. Three African wild dogs from the same pack were collared using telemetry collars (Tag 2651, Tag 2953 and Tag 3017). These data were used for the spatial analysis part of the research, using Geographic Information System (GIS) to determine the African wild dogs’ home ranges, movement patterns, and proximities to commonalities with humans and preferred land use. The private landowners possibly experiencing human-carnivore conflict were surveyed using an online survey (n = 81), and this information was used to determine the extent of conflict and tolerance of African wild dogs amongst the farmers in the Waterberg. The information gathered will be used by the Endangered Wildlife Trust to develop an early warning system for private landowners affected by the presence of free-roaming African wild dogs in the area. In general, English speaking farmers in the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve were more tolerant of African wild dogs compared with Afrikaans speaking farmers. Results also showed that areas near food and water sources are high potential conflict hotspots. The results also showed that African wild dog movement patterns in Waterberg Biosphere Reserve have an influence on conflict hotspot areas during denning season, wet and dry months, different phases of the moon, and overall hunting patterns of African wild dogs. This research facilitated an understanding of aspects of utilisation, persecution, and how to mitigate conflict between humans and African wild dogs within the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve. / Dissertation (MSc (Environment and Society))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / GreenMatter Fellowship Mapula Trust Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) National Research Foundation (NRF) / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / MSc (Environment and Society) / Unrestricted

The doctoral thesis deals with the interdisciplinary issue of variants evaluation from real estate engineering, multi-criteria analyses and geographic information systems, and represents the technological ways of the visual aspect related to mutual spatial relations of real estates. The thesis describes the design and verification of methodology dealing with the use of GIS technology in real estate engineering. The primary element of the methodology is the locality as a fundamental determinant of the real estate market objects to which strictly applies a unique characteristic of spatial information. The object location as such is defined by a large number of criteria that need to be spatially analysed. For the needs of spatial analysis was chosen combination of GIS technology with multi-criteria methods (MCDA) which evaluate variants of the problem. Objective determination of a suitable combination of weighting methods and multi-criteria methods is part of the methodology. An objective determination should lead to a reduction in the human factor risk by determining preferences and variants. The proposed procedures are validated on case studies which were dealt with in specific projects. This methodology should be beneficial not only for the criteria evaluation of price comparison in real estate engineering but also for several areas of multi-criteria decision making in terms of space and location-related data.

The work deals with the modeling of the parameters of solar power plants and the issue of solar energy with its use in the photovoltaic power plants. It uses the geographic information system named ArcGIS. In the beginning of the work, there is the theory. This theory is necessary to understanding the function of the photovoltaic cells, from the beginning to the photovoltaic panels construction. There were analyzed the conditions of the location of the photovoltaic panels in the Czech Republic. Furthermore, the work approaches the ArcGIS and its 3D modeling possibilities. The part of the work deals with the proposal for the selection process of the most suitable location to the photovoltaic panels installing. The main part of the work is the visualization of the 3D models of the locations of interest.

The thesis deals with geographical information systems ( GIS) which are nowadays common tools for use in civil service and local administration. The theoretical part is focused on more detailed characterization of these systems including issues concerning geographical data and data base systems. The description of the particular GIS software solution for the selected village of Dolní Újezd in the application of ArcInfo is the main contain of the practical sections. The creation of spatial analysis is a component of the project with the aim of finding a suitable location for benches for public use. The resulting project called “GIS Dolní Újezd”wil be used by the local council in Dolní Újezd.

The aim of this diploma thesis was to design and implement web mapping service Web Processing Service. The purpose of this service is to provide geospatial oriented calculations on the internet. Introduction part is dedicated to analysis of existing mapping services implementations and defined standards. Thereafter conclusion was drawn and the service was implemented, with respect to computing system efficiency, pluggable design and simplicity of integration in client applications. The interface for work with geographic information system GRASS GIS is also part of the implemented service and it brings the possibility to use the tool from service. The last chapter describes the testing of implemented service in term of functional and performance tests.

Address data within geographic information systems (GIS) is used as reference data to link personal and administrative information, thus making it possible to locate and deliver goods and services to eligible persons. Preferably, every country must develop and maintain a single national address database (NAD) to eliminate data redundancy and provide a common point of reference across the board. In South Africa, the challenge is that there are separate address databases, which are developed and maintained by various public and private organizations – with little or no cooperation on data sharing. Currently, the establishment of a Committee for Spatial Information (CSI) which is tasked with the implementation of the South African Spatial Data Infrastructure (SASDI) and the publication of the South African Address Standard (SANS 1883) offer organizations an opportunity to collaborate towards the creation of a single address dataset. This research posits that the implementation of a successful data sharing initiative depends on the understanding of motivators and barriers of organizations participating in it. The research applied the case study method – with a semi-structured questionnaire – to assess the issues that motivate or obstruct GIS data sharing among three address organizations in South Africa. The results identified significant motivators that underlie the data sharing activities, e.g. reduced cost of data collection, improved data quality; and equally identified significant barriers that make organizations reluctant to enter into a data sharing initiative, e.g. data copyright and ownership, high staff-turnover, and lack of financial and technical resources. Although the case studies focused on address data in South Africa, the research findings can equally apply to other spatial datasets and are relevant for the successful implementation of the South African Spatial Data Infrastructure (SASDI). / Dissertation (MIT)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Computer Science / Unrestricted

The importance of increasing renewable energy production to facilitate a sustainable energy transition has been well-discussed and reinforced worldwide. In land- and resource-scarce and tropical Singapore, solar has been deemed the most feasible renewable energy technology for the country moving forward. Previous studies have focused on assessing the feasibility of various solar technologies. This paper instead analyses the rooftop solar power production potential of existing high-rise residential buildings in Singapore, and thus contributes to reaching the national solar goal using geographic information system geospatial imagery.  For this study, the chosen focus area is the south of Jurong East in Singapore. Results show that solar deployment on all available public high-rise residential building rooftop areas in the focus area will be able to generate a total potential solar peak power and annual solar energy output of 2-megawatt peak and 2.8-gigawatt hour per year respectively. This equates to meeting the energy demand of 679 public residential apartments in the focus area and meeting 0.18% of the national solar goal of reaching 1.5- gigawatt peak by 2025. In an urban context, the use of geospatial analysis has been presented to benefit urban planning especially with regards to the integration of rooftop solar photovoltaic systems.

Le perfectionnement des modes d’acquisition 3D (relevés laser, photographiques, etc.) a conduit à la multiplication des données 3D géolocalisées disponibles. De plus en plus de villes mettent leur modèle numérique 3D à disposition en libre accès. Pour garantir l’interopérabilité des différentes sources de données, des travaux ont été effectués sur la standardisation des protocoles d’échange et des formats de fichier. En outre, grâce aux nouveaux standards du Web et à l’augmentation de la puissance des machines, il est devenu possible ces dernières années d’intégrer des contenus riches, comme des applications 3D, directement dans une page web. Ces deux facteurs rendent aujourd’hui possible la diffusion et l’exploitation des données tridimensionnelles de la ville dans un navigateur web. Ma thèse, dotée d’un financement de type CIFRE avec la société Oslandia, s’intéresse à la représentation tridimensionnelle de la ville sur le Web. Plus précisément, il s’agit de récupérer et de visualiser, à partir d’un client léger, de grandes quantités de données de la ville sur un ou plusieurs serveurs distants. Ces données sont hétérogènes : il peut s’agir de la représentations 3D des bâtiments (maillages) et du terrain (carte de hauteur), mais aussi d’informations sémantiques telles que des taux de pollution (volumes), la localisation de stations de vélos (points) et le nombre de vélos disponibles, etc. Durant ma thèse, j’ai exploré différentes manières d’organiser ces données dans des structures génériques afin de permettre une transmission progressive de fortes volumétries de données 3D. La prise en compte de l’aspect multi-échelle de la ville est un élément clef de la conception de ces structures.L’adaptation de la visualisation des données à l’utilisateur est un autre grand axe de ma thèse. Du fait du grand nombre de cas d’utilisations existants pour la ville numérique, les besoins de l’utilisateur varient grandement : des zones d’intérêts se dégagent, les données doivent être représentées d’une manière spécifique... J’explore différentes manières de satisfaire ces besoins, soit par la priorisation de données par rapport à d’autres lors de leur chargement, soit par la génération de scènes personnalisés selon les préférences indiquées par l’utilisateur. / Advances in 3D data acquisition techniques (laser scanning, photography, etc.) has led to a sharp increase in the quantity of available 3D geolocated data. More and more cities provide the scanned data on open access platforms. To ensure the intercompatibility of different data sources, standards have been developed for exchange protocols and file formats. Moreover, thanks to new web standards and the increase in processing power of personal devices, it is now possible to integrate rich content, such as 3D applications, directly in a web page. These two elements make it possible to share and exploit 3D city data into a web browser.The subject of my thesis, co-financed by the Oslandia company, is the 3D representation of city data on the Web. More precisely, the goal is to retrieve and visualize a great quantity of city data from one or several distant servers in a thin client. This data is heterogenous: it can be 3D representations of buildings (meshes) or terrain (height maps), but also semantic information such as pollution levels (volume data), the position of bike stations (points) and their availability, etc. During my thesis, I explored various ways of organising this data in generic structures in order to allow the progressive transmission of high volumes of 3D data. Taking into account the multiscale nature of the city is a key element in the design of these structures. Adapting the visualisation of the data to the user is another important objective of my thesis. Because of the high number of uses of 3D city models, the user’s needs vary greatly: some specific areas are of higher interest, data has to be represented in a certain way... I explore different methods to satisfy these needs, either by priroritising some data over others during the loading stage, or by generating personalised scenesbased on a set of preferences defined by the user.

This doctoral thesis deals with the issue of solving massive tasks in GIS. These tasks process large volumes of geographic data with different formats. The thesis describes a theoretical analysis of the complexity of tasks and the possibilities to optimize sub-processes which lead to an acceptable solution. It considers the possibility of using parallelism in GIS, which leads to an acceleration in the processing of large volumes of geographic data. It also proposes a method for the optimization of processes through an algorithm which determines the number of means necessary for the successful solution of a task at a specified time and assigns processes to these means. Additionally, there is a proposed algorithm for the optimization of the preparation of data for extensive GIS projects. The algorithms have been validated by the results of a research project, the aim of which was to analyse the terrain surface above a gas line in the Czech Republic. The primary method of analysis was the classification of an orthophoto image, which was further refined through filtration using the ZABAGED layers. Therefore, the thesis deals with the possibility of improving the results of image classification using GIS instruments as well as dealing with the determination of the error rate in analysis results. The results of the analysis are now used for the strategic planning of maintenance and the development of gas facilities in the Czech Republic. The results of the work have general importance regarding the performance of other operations of the same class in GIS.

[pt] Este estudo apresenta uma avaliação do projeto BRT Transoeste, no município do Rio de Janeiro - RJ, sob a perspectiva da mobilidade e do desenvolvimento urbano sustentáveis. O BRT Transoeste consiste no primeiro sistema Bus Rapid Transit implantado no município e foi proposto inicialmente visando atender a compromisso, em termos de mobilidade urbana, da Prefeitura da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro com o Comitê Olímpico Internacional – COI para realização dos Jogos Olímpicos de 2016. Este sistema, que atravessa bairros das Áreas de Planejamento 4 (Barra da Tijuca) e 5 (Zona Oeste) da cidade, foi concebido para exercer a função de sistema estruturador de transporte de passageiros de sua área de influência. Com o auxílio de Sistema de Informações Geográficas - SIG, foram analisados indicadores associados à cobertura espacial do sistema, às condições de circulação no espaço urbano, ao uso e a ocupação do solo e ao ordenamento territorial em sua Área de Influência Direta. Os resultados obtidos a partir da análise destes indicadores espaciais foram avaliados através de seis princípios de desenho ou projeto para cidades sustentáveis desenvolvidos pelo Grupo de Pesquisa Móbile, da COPPE/UFRJ. Estes princípios evidenciam a necessidade de integração do planejamento de transporte e do uso do solo para promoção da mobilidade e do desenvolvimento urbano sustentáveis. / [en] This study presents a BRT Transoeste project evaluation in the city of Rio de Janeiro, from a sustainable mobility and urban development perspective. The BRT Transoeste is the first Bus Rapid Transit system implemented in the municipality and was proposed initially to fufill the agreement between Rio de Janeiro City Government and the International Olympic Committee for the 2016 Olympic Games. This system crossing the city neighborhoods in Planning Area 4 (Barra da Tijuca) and 5 (West Side) was envisioned to work as a passenger transportation structuring system for its area of influence. The Geographic Information System – GIS helped analyze indicators associated with the system s spatial coverage, urban space circulation conditions, land occupation, use and zoning laws in its direct area of influence. The Móbile Research Group (COPPE/UFRJ) developed six principles for sustainable city design to analyze results obtained for these spatial indicators. These principles make clear the need to integrate transportation and land use planning to promote sustainable mobility and urban development.