‎7 things, the future of GIS: Now happening

Posted by F on

As I wrote in my another homepage (click here for details) about the future of GIS, one of the future thing is now happening. For a simple case is written here, where peoples without any basic theory or understanding about Geographical Information System can do GIS without any cost, totally free!

Article above gave us a sample map about what was happened in England’s riots, when poverty was has correlation with. You can access the map from this link

Correlation between poverty and riot in London, England

However, if we want to make Indonesian people more concern about their environment or how to make their government work for them, it is little bit difficult because lack of internet access and information/spatial data unavailable.

Now, I am working to compile all my satellite image, coverage whole over Indonesia, and in the future I would like make it available and easy to access. And make people understand about their environment, understand the consequences, consider to make action, and force the government work for them!

A gift from Tohoku’s earthquake (March 11, 2011)

Posted by F on

From a routine GCOE seminar, which is held in the campus regularly, there is an interesting research. Author, title, and quote of his paper are written below:

Author: Senior Fellow Shuichi Kodaira

Title: “Geophysical evidences of co-seismic fault breaking at the trench axis by the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake”

Quote: “From bathymetry and seismic surveys along existing profiles immediately after the earthquake and compared the data acquired before and after the 2011 earthquake. From this analysis, we detected considerable bathymetric deviation at the landward side of the trench, extending up to the trench axis and estimated that the seafloor on the landward side of the trench moved 50 m horizontally in the SE to ESE direction, and 10 m upward. This observation suggests that the plate coupled zone between earthquakes may extend at the shallowest part of the subduction zone, which is used to believe to be a stable sliding region.”

So, after last year big earthquake, has caused Japan’s trench to shifted horizontally as far as 50 m and lifted 10 m vertically. Zone meeting of the plate between each occurrence of the earthquake would extending the shallowest part of subduction zone, which is believed will make the Tohoku region shifted in a more stablestate. Or in other words in the near future Tohoku region is relatively safe from deadly major earthquakes.

Map below help us to understand the spatio-situation of Tohoku region in Japan after hit by big earthquake last year. (picture from: Shestakov, Nikolay V., Takahashi, Hiroaki, Ohzono, Mako,Prytkov, Alexander S., Bykov, Victor G., Gerasimenko, Mikhail D., Luneva, Margarita N., Gerasimov, Grigory N., Kolomiets, Andrey G., Bormotov, Vladimir A., Vasilenko, Nikolay F., Baek, Jeongho, Park, Pil-Ho, Serov, Mikhail A., Analysis of the far-field crustal displacements caused by the 2011 Great Tohoku earthquake inferred from continuous GPS observations, Tectonophysics (2011), doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2011.12.019)

Comparison of the observed (black arrows) and computed (white arrows) horizontal coseismic displacements at the GEONET sites.

Expansion of remote sensing research

Posted by F on

Nowadays, technology continues to grow, even beyond the estimates that have been previously calculated, including remote sensing technology.

Expansion beyond the scope of remote sensing technolgy that I think before, I thought that this technology is to monitor the earth’s surface and the content in the earth, but now includes the building of man-made constructions (http://www.slideshare.net/giorgiobarsacchi/ibisl-ibisl-an-innovative-solution-for-remote-monitoring-of-displacements-on-slopes-and-structures), previously, I only use it to see the pattern of land use land cover change only, but now it is able to predict future land use with high precision, resources management and habitat assessment (http://www.clarklabs.org/products/Land-Change -Modeling-IDRISI.cfm), monitor climate change and to model future trends (http://clarklabs.org/about/Clark-Labs-Unveils-IDRISI-Selva.cfm), and even calculating the volume change of the earth and earthquake prediction by only using UAVs (http://www2.cr.chiba-u.jp/mrsl/coestartup.html)

As a simple conclusion, it may be said that the movement of world changes more quickly and dynamically, and technology continues to adapt for a better earth managements. And the most important thing we should do as a researcher in the future are (if we choose to making career outside Indonesia, but still want to contribute to developing Indonesia): 1. internship program to up-grade the skills of domestic young scientist in our institution; 2. establishment of representative office in Indonesia to get smart at young scientists; 3. popularize appropriate technologies to increase community involvement in sustainable earth management; 4. If you decide to back home, please consider to be a political leader such as Governor or even President!

Flood in Thailand: more than 2 times of Java island

Posted by F on

Flood in Thailand is the largest flood disaster in the last 100 years. Area affected by flooding in Thailand at present is more than twice of Java island (Java = 126,700 sq km) or less extensive than half of Sumatra island. Water levels ranging from 30 cm to 400 cm, and some areas even more than 4 m.

Until October 23, 2011, using data from RADARSAT-1, extensive inundation has reached 289,337 sq km, almost 62% of Sumatra island (Sumatra = 470,000 sq km) and caused more than 300 people died and millions of people who still live scattered throughout the affected areas.

I tried to find out the water situation under normal conditions using Landsat satellite imagery (aquisition date: January 1, 2011, which I have edited using additional data with acquisition January 14, 2010 and January 11, 2009 to close the gap), I found that most areas flooding is a flat area with mostly land use is agricultural crops.

Look at the picture below, the blue color is water under normal conditions, water was in agricultural areas, rivers, and lakes. At the time of flood, water has submerged the entire area of agriculture and many farm villages have been suffered (red circle).

Affected area

Note: I only use one scene of Landsat satellite imagery data for Thailand region. The above picture does not show the whole affected area. For more details you can refer to this page (http://flood.gistda.or.th/), but in Thailand language.

This flood will surely cause the farmer suffered, which their main income is come from agricultural crops.