Search Results (59)

Urban areas across Europe are undergoing rapid morphological transformations driven by densification, redevelopment, and infrastructure expansion. Monitoring these urban changes requires operational, harmonized, and reproducible approaches grounded in Earth Observation. This study presents a Copernicus use case demonstrating how the High-Resolution Layer Imperviousness Change (2015–2018) and Urban Atlas datasets can be integrated with the Guidos Toolbox (GTB) to quantify structural urban change across six metropolitan areas (Milan, Sofia, Riga, Warsaw, Viseu, Santander). Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) and entropy-based indicators were applied to characterize land take, fragmentation, compaction, and internal reorganization of impervious surfaces. The combined framework captured both configurational morphology and spatial disorder, revealing divergent development patterns: pronounced heterogeneity and fragmentation in Sofia, stabilization or compact growth in Milan, Warsaw, and Santander, controlled densification in Riga, and localized intensification without outward expansion in Viseu. All analyses rely on openly accessible Copernicus data and open-source tools, ensuring full reproducibility and transferability. Outputs were disseminated through a FAIR-compliant geoportal developed within a Copernicus FPCUP project, supporting transparency and reuse. The findings underscore the value of Copernicus services for operational urban monitoring and provide a scalable methodology to support European land-use policies, including the Zero Net Land Take 2050 target and the EU Soil Strategy. Full article

The objective of this paper is to develop an adaptable and affordable technical tool for managing small urban areas. It demonstrates a low-cost, reliable, and fast method for integrating BIMs, IFC data, and GIS to support fit-for-purpose, crowdsourcing, and participatory applications through an online dashboard. Open data and existing geoportals are used to create the necessary geospatial infrastructure. Geometric information such as building area size and volume is combined with other data from multiple sources such as market values and CO₂ emissions, which can be updated dynamically through real-time interactions. A case study is presented for a small urban neighborhood in Athens. Full article

Implementing effective geospatial data discovery mechanisms in geoportals is crucial for facilitating easy access to geospatial data and services. Despite existing efforts to formulate geoportal design requirements, understanding end-user issues beyond a single geoportal in the context of geodata discovery is still lacking. To address this gap, this study reports on a usability study conducted in Germany and Namibia, with the aim of examining issues faced by users during geodata search and discovery. The study employed a mixed-method approach combining Retrospective Think-Aloud (RTA) interviews and structured questionnaires. The results reveal key usability issues, including inefficient search mechanisms, inefficient presentation of search results, lack of user guidance, inefficient map interactions, and inefficient metadata descriptions. Additionally, the study revealed a difference in user perceptions regarding user experience aspects between the two user groups. The findings are of interest to the designers of geoportals in the context of open data reuse and spatial data infrastructure. Full article

This paper analyzes the implementation of the Geoportal SIG FESBAL–UPM, a Participatory Geographic Information System (PGIS) developed within the Master’s and Doctorate programs in Rural Development Project Planning and Sustainable Management at UPM. The study introduces a model integrated with Project-Based Learning (PBL), the Working With People (WWP) framework, and the CFS-RAI principles to address challenges in responsible food systems. The geoportal designed to be applied at the Food Bank–UPM Chair–FESBAL, acts as an innovative instrument for participation among the different stakeholders enabling the spatialization and analysis of data across social, environmental, and governance dimensions. Functionally, it offers a robust foundation for evidence-based decision-making, systematizes geographic information, and visualizes data via the web, supporting research, training, and community engagement actions. Furthermore, this study details the specific projects and activities developed under the three involved action lines: research, training, and community engagement, identifying strengths and weaknesses in each. The findings affirm that this participatory approach ensures that the proposed solutions are aligned with local needs and priorities, increasing the sustainability and long-term success of the projects implemented through the geoportal. Full article

Traditional geoportals depend primarily on keyword-based search, which often fails to retrieve relevant datasets when metadata are heterogeneous, incomplete, or inconsistent with user terminology. This limitation reduces the efficiency of data discovery and selection, particularly in domains where metadata quality varies widely. This study aims to address this challenge by developing a semantic collaborative filtering recommendation system designed to enhance dataset discovery in geoportals through the analysis of implicit user interactions. The system captures users’ search queries, viewed datasets, downloads, and applied filters to infer feedback and organize it into a user–item matrix. Because interaction data are typically sparse, semantic user clustering is applied to mitigate this limitation by grouping users with semantically related interests through hierarchical relationships represented in the Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS). However, as users often need complementary datasets to complete specific tasks, association rule mining is employed to identify co-occurrence patterns in search histories and enhance task-related result diversity. The final recommendation scores are then computed by factorizing the user–item matrix with Alternating Least Squares (ALS), using cosine similarity on the latent user vectors to identify nearest neighbors, and applying a standard user-based neighborhood prediction model to rank unseen datasets. The system is implemented within an existing ontology-based geoportal as a standalone, configurable component, requiring only access to user interaction logs and dataset identifiers. Evaluation using precision, recall, and Precision@5 demonstrates that increasing user interactions improves recommendation performance by strengthening behavioral evidence used for ranking. The findings indicate that integrating semantic relationships and behavioral patterns can strengthen dataset discovery in geoportals and complement conventional metadata-based search mechanisms. Full article

Soil moisture is a very important parameter influencing many hydrological and climatic processes. It is also a key factor in agriculture, determining crop yields and thus influencing food security. It is crucial to model this variable for large areas with high spatial and temporal resolution and good accuracy. The aim of this study is to develop a soil moisture model for bare soils from Sentinel-1 SAR data that would be characterized by high spatial resolution and would be universal enough to be applicable to large areas of various soil types, textures, and large ranges of roughness. Over 800 soil moisture measurements from five study areas located in different parts of Poland were used. The work was performed on Sentinel-1 data registered between March 2024 and March 2025 using both backscattering and polarimetric analysis. The soil data were obtained from a 1:5000 scale soil map available online for Poland through the soil-agricultural geoportal. The results of machine learning modeling of soil moisture based on backscattering were relatively poor, with R² = 0.49 and 6.65% accuracy of volumetric water content in the soils. In the case of polarimetric channels, results were more or less the same. The best results were obtained by taking the silt and clay content (particles < 0.02 mm) in the soil into account. Volumetric water content accuracy of 5.27% with R² = 0.69 was thus achieved. The proposed solution seems to be a good alternative to soil moisture studies that take soil roughness into account due to its simplicity, good accuracy, and relatively easy availability of data necessary for model inversion. The analyses carried out showed that it can be used for exposed soils of very diverse roughness. Full article

Discovering and selecting relevant geospatial datasets from heterogeneous sources remains difficult in conventional geoportals, where keyword-based search often fails to capture thematic relationships or user intent. This article presents an ontology-based framework that augments geoportals with semantic-aware discovery and selection. The contributions are as follows: (1) the geospatial metadata ontology (GMO), which reuses W3C and OGC ontologies and aligns with ISO 19115 to provide a uniform metadata representation enriched with thematic hierarchies and relations; and (2) GeoFit, a discovery framework that integrates GMO into geoportal workflows. The framework extends conventional functionality by enabling semantic query expansion, faceted exploration of thematic hierarchies, and ranking of datasets according to conceptual proximity and fitness-for-use criteria. These capabilities demonstrate how ontology integration operationalizes domain knowledge in the discovery process and makes dataset selection more interpretable and targeted. Validation demonstrated feasibility in the context of natural hazard Early Warning Systems (EWSs), where the prototype surfaced datasets relevant to different components, organized them into ranked and navigable results, and illustrated portability of the method to applied settings. The study confirms that embedding an ontology layer into geoportals provides semantic capabilities absent from keyword-only interfaces and establishes a foundation for extending discovery functions in heterogeneous geospatial infrastructures. Full article

This study explored the Erasmus+ project ’H2OMap: Innovative Learning by Hydraulic Heritage Mapping’, integrating environmental awareness and cultural heritage into secondary education through interdisciplinary, ICT, and STEM-based approaches. Focused on water-related heritage in the Mediterranean, the study pursued three aims: integrate ICT-supported participatory mapping bridging history/geography subjects with digital innovation; identify learning benefits and implementation conditions; and generate transferable outputs and datasets for classroom reuse. Intellectual outputs include a methodological guide, an e-learning course, and an educational multiplatform comprising a mobile mapping app for in situ geocataloguing, an online database, and a geoportal with interactive StoryMaps. Evidence came from classroom testing across age groups, teacher feedback from the e-learning course, student mobilities in Spain, Italy, and Portugal, and platform usage records. More than 390 students and teachers participated, documenting over 100 hydraulic heritage elements. Additionally, dissemination through nine multiplier events and conferences reached over 550 external attendees. Findings show increased student engagement and ICT/GIS skills, clearer cross-curricular integration, and a replicable open workflow supported by structured coordination that strengthens school–university partnerships. Learner experience emphasised hands-on, place-based exploration and collaborative documentation of water heritage. Recommendations include using open geospatial standards, providing teacher training, and maintaining geoportals for classroom reuse. Full article

In this research, we have compiled and analysed the organisations and studies that jointly address the issue of land administration, fundamentally in the cartographic aspects related to the cadastre and land registry, in the international environment, and at the Ibero-American level. Through qualitative social research, interviews were conducted with internationally recognised experts on issues of general cartography, cartography and legal security, and related to cadastral valuation, obtaining conclusions that allow a general diagnosis of the situation of the Land Administration System in Ibero-America. In this environment, problems such as the heterogeneity of systems, overlapping of competencies, instability, lack of sustainability, need for standards, lack of transparency, etc., should be highlighted, among others. Finally, based on the compilation of existing data from the Cadastre Data survey conducted in 2011 by the Permanent Committee of Cadastre in Ibero-America, and with information from its members and member organisations of the Pan-American Association of Professional Surveyors, the geoportal Diagnosis of the Situation of the Land Administration System in Ibero-America has been created. This geoportal allows the initial identification of the different organisations and general regional data. Full article

This article aims to assess the usability of selected map portals with a checklist. The methods employed allowed the author to conduct user experience tests from a longer temporal perspective against a retrospective analysis of the evolution of design techniques for presenting spatial data online. The author performed user experience tests on three versions of Tomice Municipality’s geoportal available on the Internet. The desktop and mobile laboratory tests were performed by fourteen experts following a test scenario. The study employs the exploratory approach, inspection method, and System Usability Scale (SUS). The author calculated the Geoportal Overall Quality (GOQ) index to better illustrate the relationships among the subjective perceptions of the usability quality of the three geoportals. The usability results were juxtaposed with performance measurements. Normalised and aggregated results of user experience demonstrated that the expert assessments of the usability of geoportals G1 and G3 on mobile devices were similar despite significant development differences. The overall results under the employed research design have confirmed that geoportal G2 offers the lowest usability in both mobile and desktop modes. The study has demonstrated that some websites can retain usability even considering the dynamic advances in hardware and software despite their design, which is perceived as outdated today. Users still expect well-performing and quick map applications, even if this means limited functionality and usability. Moreover, the results indirectly show that the past resolution of the ‘large raster problem’ led to the aggravation of the issue of ‘large scripts’. Full article

Sustainable tourism minimises the adverse impact of tourism on the natural environment and local culture while stimulating the socioeconomic development of regions or even countries. Geoportals and (geo)informational mashup portals significantly affect sustainable tourism planning through modern computer solutions for more sustainable planning of tourist activities on the demand and supply sides. This study had two research aims: (1) to develop a checklist for assessing the functionality of tourist geoportals and evaluate it and (2) to assess the inventory of functions useful for sustainable tourism planning available at selected geoportals with the checklist. The aims were pursued with an original research tool, the Functionality Assessment Checklist (FAC). The FAC is a set of original criteria useful for assessing the quality of tourist geoportals. This study investigated the following research questions: (Q1) What functions should be included on a checklist for assessing the functionality of geoportals useful for sustainable tourism planning? (Q2) What functions should be included in a geoportal to facilitate sustainable tourism planning? The original contributions of this article are (1) the checklist for assessing the functionality of tourist geoportals and (2) the assessment of the impact of geoportal’s functionality on the possibility of planning sustainable tourism. The functionality assessment revealed that the tested geoportals have most of the tourism, informational, educational, and use-related functions. This suggests they can be useful for sustainable tourism planning. Full article

This paper presents the Sustainability Compass as an emerging innovative bottom-up framework that promotes social learning about overall sustainability—i.e., human wellbeing and prosperity within environmental boundaries—by mean of its practical implementation in the PlanWise4Blue geoportal. The Sustainability Compass aims to put the theoretical idea of sustainability into practice by a systemic approach that continuously generates, refines and updates appropriate themes and metrics, through bottom-up enlarged participatory learning involving all researchers, entrepreneurs, environmental managers, and anyone else with an interest. Such inclusiveness promotes a common understanding of sustainability, cultivates a collective vision and facilitates the assessment of sustainability levels in different contexts, including national and regional planning efforts. The Sustainability Compass operationalises the generic, top-down and differently interpretable UN SDGs into more practical and bottom-up practice. This article outlines the finalised structure of the Sustainability Compass and presents its first application through case studies of cross-border aquaculture in Finland and Estonia, and a collaborative initiative in Finnish wind energy. Through detailed analysis of interviews and workshops, the article explains the empirical findings and offers a comprehensive guide to the use of the Sustainability Compass. This is exemplified by its integration with the PlanWise4Blue geoportal, demonstrating its practicality and effectiveness in real-world applications. Full article

Background: Nigeria is among the top five countries that have the highest gap between people reported as diagnosed and estimated to have developed tuberculosis (TB). To bridge this gap, there is a need for innovative approaches to identify geographical areas at high risk of TB transmission and targeted active case finding (ACF) interventions. Leveraging community-level data together with granular sociodemographic contextual information can unmask local hotspots that could be otherwise missed. This work evaluated whether this approach helps to reach communities with higher numbers of undiagnosed TB. Methodology: A retrospective analysis of the data generated from an ACF intervention program in four southwestern states in Nigeria was conducted. Wards (the smallest administrative level in Nigeria) were further subdivided into smaller population clusters. ACF sites and their respective TB screening outputs were mapped to these population clusters. This data were then combined with open-source high-resolution contextual data to train a Bayesian inference model. The model predicted TB positivity rates on the community level (population cluster level), and these were visualised on a customised geoportal for use by the local teams to identify communities at high risk of TB transmission and plan ACF interventions. The TB positivity yield (proportion) observed at model-predicted hotspots was compared with the yield obtained at other sites identified based on aggregated notification data. Results: The yield in population clusters that were predicted to have high TB positivity rates by the model was at least 1.75 times higher (p-value < 0.001) than the yield in other locations in all four states. Conclusions: The community-level Bayesian predictive model has the potential to guide ACF implementers to high-TB-positivity areas for finding undiagnosed TB in the communities, thus improving the efficiency of interventions. Full article

Site investigation is essential for developing and constructing a dependable and effective wind engineering project. Also, the kinetic energy of moving air, used to drive a wind turbine, produces electricity. Having seen the shortage of previous studies on wind energy sites’ suitability across Africa and having read about the abundance of untapped wind energy resources in the East African region, this paper used Geographical Information System (GIS), multi-criteria, and Analytic Hierarchy techniques to provide a geospatial analysis of wind energy technology siting suitability in Eastern African Community Countries. Different data were acquired and processed from numerous open-access databases (Global Wind atlas, Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), African Geoportal, East African community website, and Energy data Info.org). The results reveal Kenya has large parts of its land areas highly appropriate for wind energy siting (15.26%) and 1.55% of its land classified as unsuitable for wind energy generation. The rates of suitability and unsuitability were respectively 26.57% and 4.87% for Burundi, 20.6% and 10.21% for Rwanda, 20.39% and 10.44% for Tanzania, and 4.65% and 27.15% for South Sudan. The findings also show that East Africa exhibits moderate levels of wind energy siting suitability, with an estimated average of around 37.27% of its land area moderately suitable for wind energy technology installation, covering thousands of square kilometers. The study is advantageous to academia and industry-related personnel engaged in renewable energy-related activities in other African countries with similar topographies. Full article

To transition to carbon neutrality by the year 2050, copper, lithium, rare earths, cobalt, nickel, and silver are essential due to their use in the manufacture of electric cars, lithium batteries, wind turbines, solar panels, motors, and electrical wiring. The main goal of this study is to carry out a mining approach of the prospective areas of Colombia with strategic minerals for energy transition and climate change, analyzing the geospatial location, mining rights, mineral extraction, and royalty collection. Open data from SGC, ANM, and SIMCO geoportals were consulted. The prospective areas totaled 311,535.2 km², equivalent to 27.3% of Colombia, and were located mainly in the Andes Mountains. The total area of mining rights and applications with strategic minerals for the energy transition is 112,802.2 km² or 9.9% of Colombia, representing 5731 rights and 3939 applications. From 2012 to 2023, 448,330 tons of nickel, 172.9 tons of silver, and 171.6 tons of copper were mined in Colombia, which has contributed USD 513,140,286 as royalties to the state. No royalties have been earned from the extraction of rare earths, lithium, or cobalt. Fulfilling the Paris Agreement is possible with new sustainable mining projects of strategic minerals. Full article