Mapping of Environmental Pollution in Urban Areas with Gis

Environmental pollution in urban areas has resulted in the design of monitoring and decision-making systems. These systems are supported by the information systems that can manage spatial dynamics of pollution processes. Due to a wide range of data, which are necessary for modeling of spatio-temporal phenomena, new methods of data collection and management have to be created. This paper describes terrain mapping and data collection concerned on environmental pollution. Mapping is realized by the integration of GIS, GPS and remote sensing technology in the frame of a mobile GIS's station. Spatial data are captured by the GPS together with their attributes that are formed by descriptions of samples, direct terrain measurements (mobile sensors of air, water and soil pollution; noise assessment) and terrain observations (landscape classifications; mapping of fauna and flora and waste production). The mobile GIS station can carry out a number of estimates based on terrain data and shared data through the remote network connection. The GIS functions support decision-making on a few levels (administration of data and basic environmental analyses; sharing of other data and analyses through the network; modeling of spatio-temporal phenomena by dynamic models). A case study demonstrates mapping of sources of pollution and measurements of water quality complemented by other terrain observations. The attached dynamic models demonstrate dynamic modeling of contamination from point and non-point sources of pollution. Introduction Protection of urban areas requires measurements and observations of a wide range of parameters that can characterize levels of environmental pollution. Mostly, the measurements are focused on air pollution, pollution of surface water and groundwater, soil contamination, noise assessment, waste management and landscape protection. Within these fields, monitoring of environmental pollution is created to estimate short and long term changes, to carry out risk assessment analysis, to develop models for prediction and optimization, and finally, to print maps for the support of decision-making processes. In the past, only heavy industrial areas and large cities were monitored and mapped in the local scale. At present, observations in a global scale are carried out to protect all the environment of our planet. A wide variety of techniques in order to determine individual factors of pollution and stress are used for decision-making processes. A number of automatic and manual-operated stations, chemical analyses in laboratories, satellite technology, risk assessment analyses and modeling systems is applied to improve our knowledge about behavior of various types of pollution and its influence on living organisms. Mapping of pollution together with their sources and the living environment helps to illustrate all the phenomena more transparently. Increasingly more powerful desktop and especially mobile computing systems with their graphic capabilities represent a new possibility for digital mapping. In addition to mapping, advanced analyses can be solved by digital computing systems, which can be represented by the Geographic Information Systems-GIS. There are a number of GISs in the market. Their capabilities are mainly focused on spatial data management that includes a wide range of extensions for spatial analyses, development of three-dimensional map objects, network optimization, image processing, etc. New data inputs represent satellite and aerial images processed by remote sensing, and geopositional systems-GPS. Integration of digital tools for mapping of environmental pollution together with standard monitoring systems and environmental measurements illustrates