A GIS application for regional planning
' ^ ^A. Bonfiglio', C. Cosmi^, V. Cuomo^, M. Macchiato^,
L. Mangiamele\ L. Minervini^ & M. Salvia^
' Istituto di Metodologie Avanzate di Analisi Ambientali -
Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche - Universita Federico II-Via Cintia, 80126NapoliIstituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Mater ia - Unita di
Napoli - Via Cintia, 80126 Napoli* Dipartimento Ingegneria e Fisica deirAmbiente - Universitadelta Basilicata - Via della Tecnica, 85100 Potenzae-mail: Man£iamele(a),vxtito. area.pz. cnr. it
Abstract
The aim of this work is to perform a local environmental-energy planningstrategy in the framework of a regional plan for air quality recovering andprotection.In order to consider the complex relationship among the different variablesinvolved (socio-economical. Environmental), a global approach to the problemhas been adopted to represent local energy system. The first step of the study hasdealt with the set-up of a database which can be utilised from different modelschosen for the system's characterisation.Preliminary thematic maps have been carried out to describe the differentdemand sectors on a municipal scale, emphasising the most important features ofthe investigated system and pointing out the homogeneous areas, allowing theplanner to differentiate the recovering interventions. The thematic mapsunderline the role of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in the steps ofplanning process, either in performing the preliminary characterisation of theterritory and in determining solutions suited for the local problems.
Transactions on Information and Communications Technologies vol 18, © 1998 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517
232 GIS Technologies and their Environmental Applications
Introduction
A regional air quality and recovery plan, e.g. DM', must give an
exhaustive and comprehensive description of the territory (land-use,
emissions sources, evaluation of atmospheric emissions, demographic
characterisation, etc.) and must define, at the same time, the objectives
and the instruments to improve the quality of environment and human
life. Therefore the principal issues of a planning strategy must be:
1. the characterisation of the territory and the individuation of areas with
specific problems;
2. the optimisation of air quality monitoring networks regarding either
pollutants and meteorological parameters;
3. the optimisation of the anthropic activities system to carry out the best
resource management from an economic-environmental point of view;
4. the definition of operative tools to carry out effective abatement
strategies;
5. the definition of updating procedures, to take into account system's
evolution.
A GIS can represent the core of the planning panel (figure 1) allowing
one to manage easily different database to interface data and models and
to visualise the information by means of thematic maps, e.g. Cuomo\
In this framework, it is very important to utilise flexible tools and
comprehensive models, capable of integrating the information coming
form different fields and of performing an analysis of the local system in
which all the components are taken into account.
Transactions on Information and Communications Technologies vol 18, © 1998 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517
GIS Technologies and their Environmental Applications 233
i
t1 EMISSIONS CENSUS
1 r
1* IDENTIFICATION OFPOLLUTANTS AT SOURCE
1 METEOCLIMATIC DATA L"•CALCULATION OR ESTIMATES^
1 f
I/ PRESUMED FALLOUT MAPS
^
^r
^« IDENTIFICATION OF 1CRITICAL 1̂ 4-AND "CLEAN" AREAS | ,_
L 1 '
^11 IDENTIFICATION OF REGIONMONITOR NG SYSTEM(WHERE, HOW, WHEN)
1v
I» FALLOUT MAP ANALYSIS
' ^-1
1
II LAND US
"1 ,
h
^ r 1 ̂ r
I
— 1 Gl— | W1|fr.1 1MPAC
1[OOPTIMIZTRANSNET\
1I C H O ITEST
118ANA LYSIS OFT
^ tHJ 1DEVELOPMENT PLANS 1
ti* 1. ITH-
THEMATIC MAPS 1
^ r
H" DIFFERENTIATED LIMITS 1OF ACCEPTABILITY 1 '
VI F^ r
'S \
I^SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND 1POLITICAL RESTRICTION 1
•*• \ « — "ir
TMAPS 1 k 1 PROTECTION AND 1 ,FMAlb | ̂ — 1 RECOVERY PLANS f*~
rATIONOF 1 'TIONAL 1VORKS §
CE OF 1SITES 1
r i ' A J
116 OPTIMIZATION OK 1 ̂RESOURCE ALLOCATION r*-(MARKAL) 1
^
1" IDENTIFICATION OF ACTION 1TO BE TAKEN AND ITS ESECUTION Ii 4 '
HE EFFECTS OF 1
Figure 1: Planning Procedure
Software Environment
A crucial point is represented by the data collection, that must be able to
describe in a satisfying way all the anthropic activities (Residential,
Services, Industry, Agriculture and Transportation) concerning either the
energy uses and the produced emissions. In this case study, collected data
have been organised into a relational database by using MS Access,
whereas tabular data have been subsequently elaborated by using MS
Excel in order to make them available for further elaboration in a GIS
Transactions on Information and Communications Technologies vol 18, © 1998 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517
234 GIS Technologies and their Environmental Applications
environment and to extract the information for the models utilised.
Concerning the geographic information, municipal and provincial
boundaries have been managed by using the Arclnfo software package,
e.g. Understanding GIS\ while an ArcView GIS has been useful to carry
out the thematic maps.
The anthropic activities local system
The census of the anthropic activities is aimed to the classification and
characterisation the pollutant processes and the emission sources. In the
description of the energy system features, a bottom-up approach, e.g.
Macchiato*, has been used to build up the entire system from its
components, integrating the socio-economic and technological data it
with the geographical information layer. In particular, data have been
collected on a municipal scale to point out the homogeneous areas and to
evaluate easily the consequences of regional policies on a smaller scale.
Basilicata region is located in Southern Italy: it has 131 municipalities
and nearly 600.000 inhabitants. There are two chief town (Potenza e
Matera) with the highest population density (more than 50.000
inhabitants each one). Starting from data census, some thematic maps
have been produced to show demographic flows, consumptions, energy
end-use, transportation networks. Demographic flows which occurred in
Basilicata from 1991 to 1995, e.g. ISTAT̂ , emphasise five areas more
interested by population growth (figure 2). These are the surroundings of
the two chief towns, in which most of the territory activities are located,
the South-east zone, which is a sea resort place, the Val d'Agri, in which
there was a recent development of oil-extraction activities, and the
Vulture basin, one of industrial areas. Figure 3 shows an insight on
density of employees in the productive sector, e.g. ISTAT̂ . It can be seen
that nearly the 90% of productive activities have less than 3 employees
and nearly the 50% of working people are concentrated in only seven
municipalities. Moreover, the comparison between the previous maps of
Transactions on Information and Communications Technologies vol 18, © 1998 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517
GIS Technologies and their Environmental Applications 235
igure 2: Demographical flows from 1991 to 1995
Transactions on Information and Communications Technologies vol 18, © 1998 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517
236 GIS Technologies and their Environmental Applications
50 - 500
500-1000
>1000
no data
Figure 3: Density of employees in the productive sector
Transactions on Information and Communications Technologies vol 18, © 1998 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517
GIS Technologies and their Environmental Applications 237
points out that the zones characterised by a positive demographic flow are
almost coincident with the ones with highest employees density. Figure 4
shows the distribution of heating plants in Residential, e.g. ISTAT̂ and
Pipparelir. Heating plants are more diffused in areas with a higher
population density. In particular single family house boilers are the most
utilised in zone served by gas grid and there is a high diffusion of stoves
and fireplaces elsewhere. Figure 5 shows the natural gas consumption.
The gas grid connects only 63 municipalities for civil uses and 23
municipalities for industrial uses, e.g. SNAM®. It can still be noticed that
the areas with the highest consumption are also the ones with increased
development of the anthropic activities.
Conclusions
Air Quality Protection and Recovery Plan is a planning scheme for
designing air quality strategies, which regards the whole regional
anthropic activities system. The coupling of GIS techniques and
Advanced Local Energy Planning methods, e.g. Fedra*, contributes to the
development of air quality policies suited to the local necessities. In the
framework thematic maps can be an useful tool to outline the situation
both on regional and on municipal scale. Relatively to the Basilicata
Region features, we have distinguished six homogeneous areas: the
Vulture zone, in which most of the main industries are located (as FIAT-
SATA plant and FENICE incinerator platform); Potenza and Matera
towns and their surrounding; the Ionic sea coastal area, characterised by
agricultural and sea-resort activities; the Val d'Agri, interested by oil
mining activities; an inner zone with a lower density of population, which
activities are interesting from a naturalistic point of view.
The following step will be the localisation of the emissions sources, for
all the anthropic activities sectors and a representation of the ground level
concentration maps of the main pollutants. These maps will give the basis
on which the results of the abatement strategies will be compared.
Transactions on Information and Communications Technologies vol 18, © 1998 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517
238 GIS Technologies and their Environmental Applications
Diffusion of heating plants
min - 0.850.85 - 0.950.95 - max
(chart)muttifamily house boilerssingle family house boilersother household appliances
Radius indicates total appliances
i Civil NGA Network
Figure 4: Heating Plants Distribution in House Buildings
Transactions on Information and Communications Technologies vol 18, © 1998 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517
GIS Technologies and their Environmental Applications 239
Residential-Servicestoe]
%/% <900
| 900 - 2600
y 2600-5000
> 5000
Industrial
a Textile
Cement
| Mechanical
•Ea Food and Drinks
Brick-works
| Paper
| Plastics
I Metallurgical
I - ' \ Chemical
gure 5: Natural Gas Consumption
Transactions on Information and Communications Technologies vol 18, © 1998 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517
240 GIS Technologies and their Environmental Applications
References
[1] DM 20/5/91 Criteri per I'elaborazione del piani regional! per il
risanamento e la tutela delta qualita dell'aria, G. U. 31/5/91.
[2] Cuomo V., Macchiato M., Cosmi C, Mangiamele L., Salvia ML,
Conte E., Minervini L., Definition of a Regional Plan for Air Quality
Protection and Recovery, Proceedings of (he joint meeting oflEA-Annex
33 "Advanced Local Energy Planning" and lEA-ETSAP/Annex VI, /'
Workshop, Roma, 1997.
[3] Understanding GIS - The Arc/Info Method, Environmental Systems
Research Institute, Inc., Redlands CA, U.S.A., 1992.
[4] Macchiato M., Cosmi C., Ragosta M. and Tosato G. - Atmospheric
Emission reduction and abatement costs in regional environmental
Planning, Journal of Environmental Management, 41, pp. 141-156, 1994.
[5] ISTAT, Popolazione e Abitazioni - Basilicata, 13° Censimento
Generate della Popolazione e delle Abitazioni 1991 (1993).
[6] ISTAT, Impresa Istituzioni e unita locali - Basilicata, 7° Censimento
GeneraledelPIndustriaedeiServizi 1991 (1994).
[7] Pipparelli M., Chiala S., Gli usi finali di energia nel settore civile,
Conferenza "The final Uses of energy: experiences, studies, results",
Castelgandolfo, 1992.
[8] SNAM S.p.A., Compendio Provincial della Distribuzione di Gas
mediante Reti Urbane, Roma 1994.
[9] Fedra K., Greppin H., Haurie A., Hussy C., Dao, Hy and Kanal,
GENIE: An Integrated Environmental Information and Decision Support
System for Geneva. Part I: Air Quality, pp.247-263, Arch.Sci.Geneve,
Vol.49, Fasc.3, 1996.
Transactions on Information and Communications Technologies vol 18, © 1998 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517
Section 4
Data Acquisition
Transactions on Information and Communications Technologies vol 18, © 1998 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517