THE ROLE OF GIS
The geographic information system (GIS) incorporates software, hardware and data for capturing, observing, analysing, managing and displaying all varieties of geographically referenced information. With GIS, service providers are able to analyse, question, interpret, visualise and understand data that reveals trends, relationships and patterns through maps, charts and reports. This then enables service providers to make improvements on the delivery of services and collect baseline information on the satisfaction of the quality of services delivered. Human Sciences Research Council made use of GIS to gain information on service delivery on the two trial studies they did on the Metropolitan area of South Africa to the City of Tshwane and the Rural Areas to O.R Tambo District Municipality. The GIS information they obtained aided their studies with the focus being on identifying important services and target areas; establishing liability structures between municipalities and citizens; researching the levels of satisfaction with service delivery; and enabling the supervising of municipalities’ delivery of primary services.
CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTION
Through my investigation of service provision in Kensington, I felt that there could be improved efforts in the recycling of solid waste. The only refuse collection recycling option from Pikitup is the Ronnie bag reserved for paper waste and I feel that there should be plastic, glass and tin options available to each household as well. The convenience of refuse collection once a week from each household with additional recycling options may create a higher incentive for households to separate their waste for recycling. A further incentive could be added if, for instance, each ...
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Biosphere The Realm Of Life. Authors: Robert A. Wallace, Jack L.King , Gerald P.Sanders – 1998
Thorne, Greg. “About Earth First!” Earth First! N.p., 18 May 2011. Web. 18 May 2011. .
By material, the three largest areas of recycling in Canada are organics, newsprint, and cardboard (Statistics Canada, 2008, para. 13). Organics include food wastes, and are the items that go into green bins. It was only recently in Ontario that green bin collection began on a regular basis, and according to a recent study, the program may have grown faster than initially expected. In 2007, t...
...e Earth and Its Peoples, Second Edition. CENGAGE LEARNING, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. .
Numerous people may not realize what he or she discards may in fact be of use to someone in a homeless condition, therefore education for the public to instruct them to donate more items should be considered. If collaboration could be made between the local refuse plants and the homeless shelters to help educate the public, more usable items could be donated rather than discarded as trash. This could be as simple as a correspondence attached to the monthly bills for all the residents of a
Audesirk, T. (2003). Life on Earth. In (Ed.), (3rd ed., pp. 581-620). New York: Pearson Custom Publishing - Prentice Hall, Inc..
As applications of geospatial technologies continuously break the disciplinary barrier, the need for books on these technologies to reach diverse audiences is greater than ever. The challenge, however, is to write a book on this complicated subject that incorporates the knowledge of multiple disciplines and makes it valuable for those who may or may not have diverse educational backgrounds, but require using these technologies. Most books on geospatial technologies target a specific audience. Contrary to this, Geographical Information Science tries to target three different audiences (users, students, and engineers) by using formats and languages comfortable to them. While this effort is laudable, maintaining the balance and attractiveness to all the three audiences is challenging. The author, Narayan Panigrahi, has accomplished this balancing act but with mixed outcomes. His computer science background is clearly seen in the structure and contents of the chapters.
Geographers plan new communities, decide where new highways should be placed, and establish evacuation plans. Computerized mapping and data analysis is known as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a new frontier in geography. Spatial data is gathered on a variety of subjects and input onto a computer. GIS users can create an infinite number of maps by requesting portions of the data to plot.
Building a GIS system from the ground up is a very time consuming and extremely expensive venture. This is why only large metropolitan areas have developed or are developing GIS systems.
middle of paper ... ... The Web. 13 Mar. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. Dinosaurs: Climate Change and Biodiversity."
Withgott, J., & Laposata, M. (2014). Environment: the science behind the stories (5th Ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
In the 1870’s, plastic was discovered in the United States when John Wesley Hyatt was trying to create a different material to make billiard balls (Manrich, 3). Little did he know it would majorly evolve into material we use everyday. However, plastics are now taking over our landfills. The average American throws away one-hundred and eighty-five pounds of plastic a year (Popescu, 121). The answer to decrease this statistic is easy: recycling. I believe that recycling will help eliminate littering and the growth of landfills, while also creating jobs for the unemployed. Not only does recycling plastic help eliminate littering, but also reuses the plastic so there is not a production of additional unneeded plastics. The
Lots of people consider recycling to be kind of a no-brainer, something we all should do. It’s good for the environment, it re-uses materials rather than creates new ones, it reduces landfills -- the list goes on and on. But one major benefit that people often overlook is the impact recycling programs can have on a community.
Policy is needed to regulate which course of action should be taken and how it should be implemented. Because of this, many plans and policies revolving around the management of solid waste have been put in place. Sometimes however, a particular policy can have its shortfalls, potentially resulting in its negative aspects outweighing the positive ones. According to the Conference Board of Canada Report, “Canadians dispose of more municipal solid waste per capita than any other country” (2013). Solid waste management in particular, involves many aspects, ranging from packaging waste, food waste, etc. (White & Franke 1999), hence, the following analysis revolves around household and commercial waste – referred to as Municipal Solid Waste (White & Franke. 1999) – in the Greater Vancouver Regional District. Municipal waste is a major health and environmental concern as it contributes to numerous problems like habitat destruction, surface groundwater pollution, and other forms of air, soil, and water contamination. Waste disposal methods like incineration create toxic substances, and landfills emit methane, which contributes to global warming. According to the Zero Waste Objective Report, “The impact of climate change and the increasing awareness of the role of “waste” and “wasting” in the production of greenhouse gas emissions is a constant environmental pressure… (2009). This leads to an increasing limitation of government to prevent and control the volume and toxicity of products in the waste stream and a growing need to shift responsibility to the product manufacturer.
Recycling is important in the effort to preserve our environment for future generations. We are running out of locations to put landfills. Recycling is a simple and effective way to reduce the amount of waste stored in landfills, yet many people do not know how easy it can be. For example, whenever I go to Shoprite® and I b...