Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/55888
Moreover, there's no centralized server at the world- wide scale. In addition, to make the different countries comfortable with sharing their mine-action information with the mine-action community, data sensitivity must be preserved. For these reasons, the Server for Explosive Remnants of War Information Systems (SERWIS) project was cre- ated to show the impact of ERW in contaminated coun- tries, through maps, but without showing the ERW's exact location. Also, because dozens of countries use it, SERWIS systematically automates all processes. SERWIS is a research project, so no data will be pub- lished without approval. In addition to IMSMANG Figure 1. A density grid shows mine contamination in Afghanistan. Original vector data (points and polygons) representing the exact , more countries now use Esri's ArcGIS Desktop. To encourage this, GICHD developed cus- tomized tools and a collection of cartographic symbols. It also published an online course for novice users. GICHD and the University of Geneva Since the beginning of 2010, GICHD has been working in partnership with the University of Geneva on the following activities: vector data by setting up functionalities to calculate density rasters from vector data that are stored in the MySQL databases as well as automating this calculation and its integration into IMSMANG soft- ware. Eventually, the resulting density rasters will be published on an ArcGIS server, associated metadata will be created, and maps and Web services will be designed following ISO recommendations. and better understand the operational difficulties of demining, a comparison will be made among density rasters and global databases (e.g., population, slope, hydrology, land use, soils, climate, etc.). tools to fulfill the needs of mine-action users. Campus course to teach the basics of ArcGIS Desktop to end users. "What I find appealing about the tool is the flex- ibility of factors that can be inputted in the form of a lot of geographical data in Western Sahara on the location of hazardous areas, accidents, water points and routes, so this tool would be ideal to incorporate all this data (in a few simple steps) to generate a high, medium or low priority." Calculating Density Rasters Each country can submit data on a voluntary basis, but most countries are understandably concerned by the sensitivity of mine-action data. The process of data location of mines is interpolated with the ArcGIS Kernel function into density rasters. This way, the confidentiality of the data is preserved, and mapping several thousands of points and polygons becomes possible. submission has to allow for the data to be obfuscated or aggregated to a level where countries feel comfort- able sharing them. The original data are available as points or polygons (stored as coordinates in MySQL tables). For reasons of confidentiality and visibility, density rasters are calculated from the vector data, country by country, using an ArcGIS interpolator. ArcGIS provides useful interpolators, the most pertinent being the Kernel function. This estimator is used in a lot of applica- tions (e.g., crime analysis, medical sciences, urban networks, etc.). Each output pixel receives the sum of the contribu- tion of the input pixels located within a given search radius (also called "Kernel radius"). The input pixels are weighted by an "applicative" field (the area of the hazard), but also by the inverse distance to the output Figure 2. A variety of figures show populations exposed to hazards in Afghanistan. FEBRUAR Y 2O12 / WWW . GEOPLA CE . COM 27 LANDSCAN 2008, ORNL, UT-BATTELLE LLC