AGISGRID

Environmental applications based on GIS and Grid Technologies

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Challenge

Sustainable exploitation of natural resources is a sensible issue in everyday life of institutions and firms. In particular, monitoring and management of soil use are crucial issues for a responsible exploitation of land and environment; in this sense, complex and multidisciplinary problems need proper tools able to combine scientific and technical knowledge with planning and intervention requirements.

Overview

AGISGRID, designed as a tool for monitoring and management of environmental issues related to various aspects of land use, is a Web application based on GIS and GRID technologies, to support optimal management of natural resources. The software comprises a range of different tools:

Land Suitability Classification model (based on the FAO framework) to assess specific vocational degrees of soil uses (see figure);
desertification risk assessment module based on ESAs methodology;
environmental geochemisty module to monitor natural and anthropogenic anomalies in soils and surface water.

Innovative features

Web based access to high-performance-computing centre with the possibility to upload input files, run analysis online and download the outputs;
output visualization on the Internet browser by means of msCross, an in-house developed open source Web-GIS client (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mscross/);
intuitive and user-friendly interface;
designed to support work in team, enabled to share land planning studies and analyses;
extensible and customizable to many other different application.

Potential users

AGISGRID users should have technical knowledge of the environmental problem at study and basic knowledge of geographical data formats but they are not required to be computer experts. The software service is designed for technical staff members working in agencies for environmental protection, and land use development (Research centers, public Agencies, Tourism and agriculture SME's, etc.).