Mapping lobster biomass and the utilities/services on Tristan da Cunha. QGIS reaches the remotest inhabited island of the world!

Posted on November 14, 2016 by iLaria Marengo

by iLaria Marengo

Working with GIS and as data manager is exciting, but it becomes even more when the job is taking you to unusual places such as Tristan da Cunha, a small volcanic island in the middle of the Southern Atlantic ocean surrounded only by other two smaller islands, Inaccessible and Nightingale and, further south, Gough.

The project to realise an Information Management System and GIS centre for the South Atlantic UKOTs has reached its final destination and a proper conclusion after three years of life. Getting to Tristan is all but easy thus it took time to arrive, meet the small community and bring QGIS and a flavour of data management in such a remote place.

The QGIS course was not planned in advance but day by day once in Tristan. In fact it was thought that could be more effective to tailor the lessons according to the main needs and existent GIS skills of the users. The majority of the time was spent at the fisheries and electricity and plumbing departments. The directors showed a great interest in receiving a GIS course and their requirement were very specific. They ranged from being able to map lobster biomass per monitoring station, lobster catch (total and average per fishing season) and effort around Tristan, to the network of services, utilities and structures of the settlement of Edinburgh of the seven seas.

A series of maps (geological topographical and aerial) have been georeferenced to provide the students with a reference background. Currently the main need is to find a clear image of the settlement as it will help digitising the electricity, water and sewage networks, the buildings and other utilities such as substations, streetlights, stone water tanks and so on.

Unfortunately on the island internet is very limited and not reliable. Among the whole South Atlantic UKOTs Tristan has the smallest band width, hence it is virtually impossible to download images or connect to google earth like everyone else would do in the other territories. In terms of GIS a poor internet is partly a limitation as getting new plugins, google maps or updates of the software becomes very difficult. The solution is to work with the long term release releases and get large data (such as imagery) saved as offline images and shipped in on DVDs.

In parallel to the GIS course, time was spent in harvesting metadata. The departments involved in the training course provided metadata about their data and RSPB kindly helped in gathering information on environmental data captured throughout the years with the help of the local conservation department. Almost 40 metadata records were collected and will be available on the metadata catalogue online from the end of November.

Finally, few hours were dedicated with officers of the tourist office and advice on QGIS mapping techniques was given to improve the current maps given to the tourists landing at Tristan. Using QGIS will make mapping much easier and quicker than what is now, entirely based on graphic design software.

The GIS course delivered in Tristan focussed on simple and basic tools that could help straightway the GIS users in achieving their requirements. Indeed, more can be done with GIS but the overall idea, after being on the island, is to let the GIS grow a step at a time according to people’ needs.

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Geocaching in Tristan da Cunha

Posted on November 14, 2016 by iLaria Marengo

By iLaria Marengo

Learning about projections and coordinate systems, navigation techniques, compass and bearing, and the use a Global Positioning System (GPS) nowadays can be a bit funnier thanks to geocaching, a modern version of the traditional treasure hunt.

In brief, geocaching consists in getting a pair of coordinates, loading them into a GPS and using the device to navigate to the point where a small box, the geocache, has been hidden. The cache is a small waterproof box and generally contains a logbook and the treasure, which usually are tiny items that have a particular meaning for the person who placed them. The people who find the cache are free to take its objects (except the logbook) but they must leave something of similar value.

It was an unexpected but pleasant surprise to find out that in Tristan da Cunha, the remotest inhabited island in the world, a series of caches had been hidden by the local tourist office as part of a commemorative geotrail. The 200 anniversary of the British Garrison in Tristan da Cunha was celebrated with parties and various initiatives and setting up a geotrail was one of these.

The opportunity of being the first to do the geotrail was then seized and seen as the best way to engage the oldest students of Saint Mary’s School to have an open air geography lesson about projections, maps and the use of GPS for navigation and marking spatial objects. Thanks to Anne, the head teacher who authorised the half day out, and the help of Sarah, fisheries officer, the kids in class 5 were taken around the settlement to learn how to use a GPS, how to mark a waypoint, enter coordinates of a point and navigate to it in order to find it. The day before the “hunt”, the six pupils were asked to write on a small piece of paper why they enjoyed living in Tristan. The papers would have placed in each cache as treasure for the next geocachers.

A map of the settlement with a sketch of the geotrail, the coordinates of each cache and a description of the importance of each site in the context of the British garrison period was given to the kids for reference.

The kids of class 5 learned very quickly how to use the GPS in the two hours of cache hunting and navigation. The day before rained heavily, however the muddy and soaked fields did not spoil the day and the amusement of the kids. The hope is to have passed to the kids a new skill which they can well use in Tristan and in any job with conservation, fisheries and public work.

It would have been great to show the kids how to map the points in QGIS. However, there was not enough time to plan for a GIS lesson, which was instead given to some of their parents!

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The South Atlantic metadata catalogue online as source of information for two Swiss MSc students.

Posted on January 20, 2016 by iLaria Marengo

by iLaria Marengo, Antoine Amphoux and Titouan Chapouly

When the IMS-GIS data centre started its activities in October 2013, data collected by individuals or groups working in the South Atlantic UKOTs were rarely documented. Data management was a concept that was considered as necessary, but it was not realised or implemented. As a consequence, it was common to have duplicated data or to lose data because of lack of proper backup procedures. The main priority of the data centre was, therefore, to start documenting data using standard metadata. As such, having these standards ensures that the documentation could be transferable to other systems, organisations and individuals.

After 2 years of activity, the online metadata catalogue is populated with more than 630 records describing data from Ascension Island, Saint Helena and the Falkland Islands. The achievement was possible thanks to the work of the data managers on the three islands and all the stakeholders involved in the process.

One of the reasons for documenting data through the standard metadata form is so that data can be discovered in an easier and quicker way. It also ensures data longevity and increases awareness of the data that can bring opportunities for collaborative works.

Antoine Amphoux & Titouan Chapouly are two master students at the Swiss Federal Institute of technology of Lausanne. They discovered the data through the online metadata catalogue, approached the data managers of the islands, used the data request form to obtain the data and sent back their final result, which is their Master thesis. The document has the taste of victory for the data managers as is the tangible evidence that the effort, put into harvesting metadata and persuading people that metadata are essential part of the data, it is worth.

Antoine & Titouan were asked few questions after sending their thesis entitled “South Atlantic Islands. The resilience of isolated territories: toward an architecture of imported vernacular”.

Q: Why did you decide to embark a research project on the South Atlantic islands?

A: One of the starting points in our choice of this research topic lies in the observation of territories and human settlements on it. Indeed, societies have been created at an increasing pace, on wider and larger territories following an exponential and global culture development. By doing so, societies have created buildings, landscapes and machines that deny collective reality and natural conditions.

In opposition of this spread, Islands territories are enclosed geographical spaces where human expansion is very limited. And the particular case of the South Atlantic Ocean islands question this logic of goods, materials and culture model importation due to their radical remoteness. Thus, if we consider this increasing development as a vehicular culture, what becomes a more specific culture, a vernacular culture that emerges from a place?

Through these first observations, we decided to launch this project, first, curious about the strong persistence of the islander settlements, then strongly interested in very particular aesthetic expression of these cultures.

Q: What is in brief the research thesis about?

Regarding this description, the three islands seem for us the ideal locations to explore the resilience of isolated territories and its related dichotomy of vernacular logic versus colonial logic.

Indeed as a spatial aesthetic, vernacular and colonial are usually represented as opposite concepts. The first emerging from the specificity of a place, as paradigm of local cultures intimately linked to their territories. The latter tied to foreign cultures, as an invasive system, vehicular of a modern world.

The thesis accepts that both might merge to create synergies in order to answer challenges of our time. However, reality is quite different, the colonization brought globalization where any local culture tends to be standardized by the logic of mass production. However, because of remoteness and extreme conditions, we try to understand how the three islands developed through time different degrees of hybrid cultures linked to both vernacular and colonial architectures.

Q: How useful to your project was the South Atlantic metadata catalogue online?

The condition of remoteness of the three islands not only produces economical challenges, but also makes them, to a certain point, isolated from a global data network. We can find metadata on most of the territories on Earth, but the South Atlantic islands become quite challenging to study as soon as you try to grasp details, or specific entities in order to understand the geography.

The Metadata catalogue in parallel of multiple media, allowed us to fulfill our desire to look the territory and its complexity. Through this approach, geographical maps, raw data but also pictures comparisons and aesthetic references allowed us to have a better understanding of the islands.

Q: How easy was to obtain the data through the data request form?

A: Through our search, we easily found the access to the Metadata catalogue, and, in the same way, the data request was quick to find in the description of the website.

Q: Were the data managers helpful and did they reply to you promptly?

A: The exchanged mails were essential in our right use of the data. Actually, we already worked with metadata and .shp .xml files through previous work in university but it’s always difficult to choose precisely the data. Indeed, descriptions in the catalogue and advice from the three GIS managers were helpful in the use of the different formats.

We were also surprised to see the efficient communication and teamwork between the three GIS managers while asking different data files, and it sometimes allowed us to not duplicate the requests about the same files.

Q: Are you planning to visit the territories you studied during your Masters?

A:The difficulty to reach the places is an essential fact. However, after these series of observations and analysis, our desire to visit the three islands increases even more.The new airport in Saint Helena is indeed a factor that potentially allows us to reach both Ascension Island and Saint Helena Island, but Tristan da Cunha remains remote as the long journey by boat has just a few places opened to visitors.

Moreover, our particular interest and the work we produced about Tristan da Cunha make this island a place we would like to visit. The University’s schedule don’t give us time to plan a visit before this summer, but we still plan to do it after the academic year as a continuity of our study. We’re actually looking for any support from scientific, architectural or governmental institutions. Indeed, our wish would be to present the final architectural project to the administrator of Tristan da Cunha and also share our ideas with the islanders.

Q: Is there anything you want to suggest to improve the accessibility to data?

A:The centralization of the data would be a fundamental point to set up regarding the large catalogue of metadata available. Currently, the requests have to be done and sent to the owner and manager of the data, and potentially, it would allow a considerable gain of time to send to a main system, or a common request file.

Although data from the Falkland Islands were requested and obtained, unfortunately the thesis did not include them. Antoine & Titouan explained that the climate condition and the size of Falklands are too different to compare it with Saint-Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. Also, the geopolitical issues of the Falklands deserve to be treated in one full study. Perhaps in the future there will be another opportunity, nevertheless the work by the two master students proved that metadata and the online catalogue are valuable and the online catalogue is working and data request system can be improved further. Overall, for everybody in the South Atlantic UKOTs this is a great achievement after 2 years of hard work.

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Soil mapping exercise and field work in New Island

Posted on January 17, 2016 by iLaria Marengo

By iLaria Marengo

New Island is one of the western islands of the Falkland Islands archipelago. Its western coastline is characterised by sheer cliffs (mainly sandstone) which are the nesting (breeding) ground of black-browed albatrosses, king cormorants and rockhopper penguins. The cliffs are a distinctive character of the island and the most scenic and spectacular landscape that people can enjoy along with several white sandy beaches scattered all over. A field research station built in the 1970s has been offering a great support to researchers coming to study what nature shows at its best in this place. The mix between the natural beauty, the self-contained and small environment, and the research facilities provided by New Island, made the location the perfect ground for attempting the first ground truthing of the Falkland Islands interpreted soil map.

The map (see May blog) is one of outcomes of the TEFRA (Terrestrial Ecosystems of the Falklands – a Climate Change Risk Assessment) project and it is a very valuable dataset considering that there are very few studies of the soils of the Falklands and the most prominent goes back to the 1970’s. The interpretation was by Rodney Burton, a soil specialist who has worked previously in the Falklands, on the basis of the superficial deposits described in the geological map drawn up by the British Geological Survey. In late May Rodney came to Stanley and delivered a two week soil course funded by the TEFRA project and the result was a familiarisation with the identification of types of soils and above all a new interest in an element of the landscape that generally is not eye-catching, except in eroded areas.

The ground truthing work ended in coring locations across 80% of the island (the southernmost area and Sabina point were not visited) resulting in a total of 160 cores and describing the soil characteristic of each core such as depth, colour, texture, stoniness, structure and mottling. Dutch and gouge augers were the tools used to extract the cores; the latter was preferred in the case of peat or very peaty soils (figures below). According to the landscape and the interpreted soil map, the cores were taken along transects perpendicular to slope and longitudinal to the valleys in order to have a good representation of changes in soil types if these occurred.

The data and description of the soils cored to different depth have been entered in a postgres database and mapped in QGIS. The last part of the work, currently in progress, is to match the soil descriptions with the soil type classification scheme adopted by the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB). A simplified illustrated legend of soil types with related pictures was presented by Rodney in May and it will provide a valuable visual aid. WRB methodology for soil classification can be summarised in three steps: determining diagnostic horizons, properties and materials; allocating the soil to a Reference Soil Group; allocating principal and supplementary qualifiers. The principal qualifier are ranked from right to left in order of importance and differentiate the RSG according to the primary pedogenetic process (soil-forming factors or processes that most clearly condition the soil) that characterise soil features. The supplementary qualifiers, used in alphabetical order, are added in brackets. The two tables below offer example of a simplified guide to the WRB RGS and the classes of soils identified in the Falklands.

Scale is the factor to be taken into account after the soil identification at each sample point has been completed. In fact there is a discrepancy between the scale of the interpreted map, which is at 1:250,000, and the level of detail provided by the ground truthing, which is in the order of 300-500 metres (where the coring took place the samples were taken on average at 300-500 metres). A full report will be available in early 2016 and the hope is that the results can be useful to refine the interpreted map; the methodology could be applied to other small islands; conservationists can refer to the outcomes for planning habitat restoration projects and other researchers can be inspired to carry out further investigations. We would like to thank the New Island Conservation Trust to give us the opportunity to carry out the field works and to offer the Field station facilities as base camp. Thank you to the wardens of New Island for their kindness and hospitality.

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Mapping areas at risk of marine invasion from biofouling

Posted on December 3, 2015 by iLaria Marengo

By iLaria Marengo

In a recent blog, it was revealed that the Falkland Islands, although remote, actually receive a considerable amount of marine traffic. More than a thousand different vessels (tankers, cargo ships, supply vessels, fishing boats, cruise liners, yachts etc) entered the Falklands Conservation zones from May 2014 to May2015.

Biosecurity is a set of precautions to reduce the risk of introducing or spreading invasive non-native species (NNS), and other harmful organisms such as diseases, in the wild. Biosecurity is a hot topic in the Falkland Islands because the characteristic of being remote does not exclude the risk of invasion from NNS that in such isolated islands and pristine environment can be very detrimental to the local habitats and their unique native species.

The Falkland Islands can be reached either by plane or boat. It means that in terms of biosecurity, introduction and spreading of invasive NNS can occur via both. The maps below show the connections from the rest of the world to the Falklands by air and by sea. It is evident that biosecurity control on ships is more crucial considering the annual number and the various locations from which the boats depart before reaching the Falklands, compared to the more regular and limited air connection.

One of the main biosecurity risks associated with boats is biofouling which is the colonisation, and the transport on the submerged surfaces of the boats, of unwanted organisms such as bacteria, barnacles and algae. These organisms travel on the ship hull and can be released and introduced in a new area where, as NNS, they may become invasive and damage the native marine environment or its resources. Ship biofouling is therefore a marine biosecurity risk that needs to be managed. Site monitoring in areas known to be at risk can also help detecting invasive NNS and remove or eradicate them before they spread.

It is therefore important for the Falkland Islands to identify the most susceptible areas of introduction of NNS. In the context of Marine Spatial Planning, GIS were used as analytical and mapping tool to provide useful information for biosecurity policies. Mapping areas at risk of invasive NNS from biofouling was a collaborative work between the GIS specialist (Dr iLaria Marengo) and the Marine Spatial Planning project leader (Dr Amélie Augé) at SAERI.

The shipping data were split by vessel category and were classified into groups with a high risk of introduction (from overseas) of NNS such as cargo ships, tankers, cruise ships and pleasure boats, or with a high risk of diffusion (within the islands) of NNS such as cruise ships, harbour, military and internal ferry. The risk of introduction and diffusion generated by each vessel category was scored according to the likeliness of biofouling, and the frequency of activities.

QGIS was used to conduct all the analyses and mapping. A Kernel density analysis was performed for each vessel category to map the density of boats for 5km cells within the territorial sea (12nm from shore) all around the islands. Density was multiplied by the number of different vessels occurring in the same area because variety, along with the quantity, of boats will have an impact in terms of risk of introduction of NNS. The resulting values were then multiplied by the risk scores. Finally, the maps for each vessel category were added to each other to create the final map of risk of introduction and diffusion of NNS in the Falkland Islands.

In parallel, a second GIS analysis was run to map areas with environmental features that would be sensitive to invasive NNS. The locations of breeding colonies of albatrosses, penguins, and pinnipeds were taken into account along with the distributions of kelp beds, Important Plant Areas, RAMSAR sites and tussac islands. The sensitivity of each environmental feature was mapped by creating buffers (ranging from 500m to 3 km) from the centre of the colonies or from the centre of the area. The areas of the buffers were attributed a value of 1, which corresponded to a high sensitivity score, so all the environmental variables were equally assessed as high in terms of sensitivity. The maps were added together to produce the overall environmental sensitivity map with values from 0 (low) to 1 (high).

The conclusive part of the GIS analyses was to highlight which environmentally sensitivite areas are most at risk to be affected by introduction of NNS due to biofouling. The resulting maps show that the area with the highest risk of introduction of NNS is Port Williams/Stanley Harbour. This did not come as a surprise because the Shallow Marine Survey Group has already detected some invasive NNS there. The areas of high risk of diffusions are the main touristic islands since they are well known sites of seabird and marine mammal colonies. Mare harbour stood out as a likely area at risk too.

The overall conclusion of this GIS analysis is that there are significant risks of introduction and diffusion of NNS, which may damage the pristine environment of the Falkland Islands. Some sites were highlighted as most at risk of direct introduction and should be surveyed, while biosecurity measures should be taken. Other sites at risk were identified from the diffusion process all around the islands. The results are preliminary and should be taken as initial findings. They are however already good indicators of where the biosecurity officer could target efforts, and provide good information for marine spatial planning. The analysis could be refined with more data and by taking into consideration other ways of introductions of NNS such as ballast water. More in-depth analyses of potential impacts of some NNS on inshore marine species should also be explored in the future.

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Remote sensing: the science of interpreting and identifying features from a distance.

Posted on November 13, 2015 by iLaria Marengo

By iLaria Marengo

Remote sensing is the fascinating science that studies and exploits the way the light coming from the sun (or from another source, e.g. radar) is first absorbed and then reflected back to the atmosphere by the objects on the Earth’s surface. Contrary to GIS, whose basic concepts are relatively simple and more “user friendly”, remote sensing is a sort of “niche” discipline because it involves more physics and maths, and requires skills in image interpretation. Nevertheless, remote sensing, coupled with GIS, is a powerful tool for understanding the spatial and temporal changes of the environment and deriving useful information to support environmental policies, decisions on management planning and strategies.

From the 5^th to the 13^th of November, the Ascension Island Government Conservation Centre (AIG CC) hosted a training course in remote sensing as part of the capacity building supported by the Darwin Initiative project entitled “Mapping Ascension Island’s Terrestrial Ecosystem”. The course was run by Dr Johanna Breyer, who works at Environment Systems in Aberystwyth, and has been contracted to support AIG CC in the delivery of the Darwin Initiative project. Environment Systems is a well-established consultancy company with years of experience in the field of remote sensing and GIS analyses. Johanna’s main task is the processing and interpretation of the high resolution World View 2 image (2 metre resolution) by applying a rule-based object analysis called image segmentation.

Data managers from the Falkland Islands and Saint Helena governments were invited to attend the course with the intention of becoming “intelligent consumers and users” of remote sensing tools. The aim of the course was to better understand the concepts behind remote sensing and apply them specifically to habitat classification. Central part of the course was to learn how the remote sensing analyst operates when carrying out the image segmentation and how the field surveyors proceed in determining and validating the classes of habitats on the ground and with the help of statistics. Time was spent in the office and on field trips to various locations in Ascension, with a very interesting off road traverse of Green Mountain from east to west.

False colour image of Ascension (IR, red, green) to highlight the vegetated (red) and not vegetated (greyish) land. Clouds are visible in white.

Spectral signature plot of water, bareground and vegetation. According to the signature the remote sensing analytical tools are able to identify and distinguish the objects on the surface.

There were many lessons learned from the hard job that Sam and Phil did in terms of habitat classification, for instance using systematic approach in deciding the sampling points and in assessing the habitat (use a standard density scale, consider the height of the species, carry out the assessment according to three altitude zones, etc). Similarly, Johanna provided the necessary basis to become aware of what a remote sensing analyst needs in order to set the rules for the image segmentation and extract the objects that will match the habitat classes. Interpreting a satellite image means being able to read and understand the spectral signatures that describe how the light is absorbed and reflected by the objects. In addition, ancillary information can help in identifying the objects, along with the knowledge of the local ecologist. At the end is a matter of aligning what a remote sensing analyst can extract from the satellite image and what the ecologist can see and map from the ground.

Field works on a lava flow which hosts the sooty terns

The spread of the invasive Mexican thorn bush on the slope of the Devil’s Riding School

Although the rule-based image segmentation is carried out using commercial software, QGIS, the open source software being used across the South Atlantic overseas territories, provides a series on interesting plugins, such as Semi Automatic Classification and Orfeo tool box, which can be used as starting tools for unsupervised/supervised classifications and for practising what was learnt at the course. Furthermore, free Landsat images offer the opportunity to perform spatial/temporal analyses in QGIS and detect land cover changes which affect the territories.

An important outcome of the course was talking and drafting best and standard practice for habitat classification with the use of remote sensing and ecological knowledge that can be applied across the South Atlantic UKOTs. In fact, the goal is to transfer what has been achieved in Ascension to projects that will be run in Saint Helena and the Falklands in the future.

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Geographic Information Systems: are maps only pretty pictures or is there more?

Posted on November 9, 2015 by iLaria Marengo

by iLaria Marengo

We see maps every day, we use them when we travel and we refer to them to look for places and locations, but have you ever thought what makes a map? Basically, a map is a symbolic representation of a space. All objects within that space have a location and can therefore be mapped.. These objects, once associated with their geographic reference (location) are called spatial data. For example, a map displays boundaries, addresses, roads, buildings, wrecks and it is possible to attribute different colours or symbols according to what the objects represent. Think of the town plan for instance and its divisions into zones: residential, industrial, ports and marinas etc.

In the past, maps were made by hand, but this is no longer the case. Instead, there are computer programs called Geographic Information Systems (GIS) that allow drawing or importing data and create digital maps. GIS are very flexible and user-friendly tools as they facilitate the visualisation and analysis of spatial data. The great and unique property of GIS is not only to make pretty maps, but also to relate spatial objects (draw on maps as points, lines or areas) and overlap these data to derive information and provide it to the decision makers and the general public.

Figure 1:French hand-drawn map, circa 1800 (https://falklandstimeline.wordpress.com/maps-3/)

But what makes a map a good map, or the information useful? It would not be so good if you were to follow a map for kilometres and figure that the building you were looking for was actually on the other side of town! Because the map reflects the data that it displays, it is obvious that the quality of a map depends on the quality of the data. The way of saying “garbage in, garbage out” is applicable to GIS. Hence, it is important to have good data, to trust the data providers, and eventually to store the data in a central repository.

In order to spread the use of GIS and initiate spatial data management in the Falklands, a project called “Information Management System and GIS Data Centre” started two years ago, funded by the Foreign Commonwealth Office. This project included several free training courses. The last course was held on the 22^nd and 23^rd October at FIDF and was tailored to the FIG’s policy, planning and public work departments. After the course a trainee commented “Highways operate an asset management plan that is best managed and presented in geographical form. Undertaking the training in GIS has given me the tools to help improve the capture and presentation of information which should provide an easier approach, in the long term, to asset management”. Another trainee said “Using GIS will enable us to graphically represent statistics and information for the Islands in a comprehensive way. It will be particularly useful in visualising data for large-scale projects such as the upcoming Census, and in communicating those results to decision-makers and the public.”

Figure 2: Map of part of the Stanley plan (2015) made with GIS.

Establishing a long term plan for developing GIS and data management within the government has multiple advantages. In fact, it means the introduction of rules and concepts such as data standards, data sharing, data access and metadata (which is information about data) recording. Thanks to a collaborative work and joined effort (FIG, SAERI, and FC) everybody can now search for information on data collected in the Falklands through the IMS-GIS Centre and its metadata catalogue online on the SAERI webpage.

In the future, public data will be accessed through the internet using a webGIS service to show and communicate information derived from mapping and analysing spatial data. Falkland Islanders will access the service without using their megabytes. So next time you look at a map, think that behind that pretty picture, there is a long process of data management and that GIS are likely to have played a role.

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Learning how to identify soils in the Falklands Islands

Posted on June 1, 2015 by iLaria Marengo

By iLaria Marengo

Soil is a natural, unique and multifunctional resource that provides and supports a range of ecosystem services, in the form of food and as a host for organisms and material that are important for human life. However, much we know about what we are standing on? How much are we aware of soils, their characteristics and properties? Can we use the soil in a more advantageous way for our activities without damaging them?

The Falklands Islands are an archipelago that spread across a bit more than 12,000 square kilometres and we know only approximately and generically about the soils within the islands. In order to start addressing this, a two week course in soil identification was funded as part of an EU BEST project, the Terrestrial Ecosystems of the Falklands – A climate change risk assessment (TEFRA), led by Dr Rebecca Upson and Prof Jim McAdam.

Rodney Burton, with 45 year of experience in soil survey, has travelled all the way south to train and enthuse representatives of Falklands Conservation (FC), Department of Agriculture (DOA), landowners and SAERI about soils. The aim of the course was to provide information and stimulus for the participants in understanding the basics of soil, its properties and processes, and how to apply that understanding to their everyday work and own specific needs.

The lack of a soil map is a noticeable and important gap in the baseline spatial information of the Falkland Islands. Hence, the main objective in learning about soils is to enable the participants to gather soil information (through description, interpretation and recording) to improve the first draft of the TEFRA project soil map. This map is an interpretation that Rodney Burton has produced based on the solid and superficial deposits geological maps.

The new skills acquired during the course are going to be applied to the identification and description of soil profiles for the main soil types derived from the TEFRA soil map. The idea is to do surveys at specific study areas chosen by Dr Stuart Smith, leader of the habitat restoration project at FC, add some opportunistic auger holes at farms where DOA is taking already soil samples for lab analyses and wherever leisure walks take iLaria Marengo in her attempt to walk each 1 km² cell of the OS map.

The course was fascinating and enjoyable. It comprised of two days in the classroom, where Rodney gave a general introduction on soil genesis, classification, sampling, interpretation and a description of the soil survey field handbook. This was followed by a week spent in the field finding spots for the description and interpretation of soil profiles.

Each day in the field revealed something new. We went from some extreme conditions, such as snow and freezing strong winds, to a more “balmy” temperature of 8 degrees and absence of wind. We found that the soils are largely shallow, except in areas where peat accumulates. In Cape Pembroke we dug through almost 4 metres of peat but in the other locations we didn’t manage to dig more than 40 cm because the bottom (clay) was too hard.

Interesting periglacial polygonal features were spotted in all the location and in Saladero ventifacts were scattered across some bare land. Both features thrilled an already enthusiastic Rodney and were evidence that the geomorphology of the Falkland Islands is extremely rich in fascinating and puzzling features which are worth further investigation.

We would like to thank Rodney for the way he taught us soils, for his passion and the clarity of his explanations. Another thank is for the TEFRA project which made possible this course. We hope that as participants we can use the new skills efficiently and in a useful way.

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From Rome to Nødebo, learning webGIS techniques and meeting with QGIS developers, educators and other users.

Posted on June 1, 2015 by iLaria Marengo

By iLaria Marengo

One of the aims of the IMS-GIS data centre is to make open data available to all. The best way to reach multiple users, who may or may not have skills and insight on GIS, is to develop and provide a webGIS service. Through the web, data can be visualised, queried and then downloaded.

In Rome I attended a two day course that was run by Paolo Cavallini (http://www.faunalia.eu/en/), one of the promoters of QGIS. The course was essential to understand how QGIS server runs and how it allows the user to work on a QGIS project and publish it to the web to make it accessible to a wider public.

The course was very good, with 5 participants and taught by Paolo with the help of Andrea Fantini (http://www.tecnostudiambiente.it/). First of all we explored a few plugins that allow publishing data online. Then we moved to the core of the course, which was the installation of QGIS server (it runs better on a Linux server) and the use of Lizmap as web interface. We were given a virtual machine to run the installations during the course, but now that I am back to the Falklands I will be installing QGIS server on the real server at SAERI, with the assistance of Synergy, the local IT Company.

The advantage of using QGIS server is that the webGIS reflects exactly what is in the project, symbology and attribute tables. Hence publishing data online and creating webGIS services is very easy and quick and all the changes and modification can be executed directly from QGIS. By the end of 2015 a webGIS service should be available for Falkland Islands users.

From chaotic but beautiful Rome, I then moved to tranquil and relaxing Nødebo (Denmark) to attend the first QGIS conference for users, developers and educators. Around 150 people gathered for the event, representing and 25 countries.

The setting was ideal, the Skovskolen (Landscape and Forestry College of the University of Copenhagen) provided all the facilities and the organisation was superb thanks to the hard work of Lene Fischer and her team.

I had the chance to present the QGIS training courses and GIS development promoted by the IMS-GIS data centre across the UK Overseas Territories in the South Atlantic. I also had the opportunity to listen to many case studies presented by other users. The second day focussed on workshops and gave everyone the opportunity to have the developers of QGIS tools and plugins as teachers for a day.

What I really appreciated in my two days in Nødebo was feeling at ease and comfortable with the “geo-geeks”. All of them were very approachable, helpful and interested to hear from the users, talk to them and understand the sort of issues we have encountered whilst using the software. I started using QGIS almost 2 years ago and I am extremely happy with the software. It performs very well, but above all it is supported by a wide community, which thrives on and is full of ideas and new developments.

Socialising at the conference was not difficult at all and it would have been great to be able to spend more time with the developers, as I found all of them extremely keen on making QGIS a better product. The strength and potential of open source was tangible, and it is important that the users contribute to improve QGIS by finding bugs, asking for new plugins and highlighting those that still require some polishing. Promoting and sponsoring QGIS is also very important to broaden the community and make the use of QGIS more wide spread.

It was a great experience and I was happy to participate in this first event, which I hope is the first of many. I would like to thank the organisers, the developers that spent time listening to us and the rest of the users and educators that gave examples of the use and application of QGIS.

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SAERI

South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute

Author Archives: iLaria Marengo

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From Rome to Nødebo, learning webGIS techniques and meeting with QGIS developers, educators and other users.