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AVI 080 Project "ACROSS" |
"Analyzed Climatology of Rainfall Obtained from Satellite and Surface data
for the Mediterranean Basin"
by L.G. Lanza
The organisation and presentation of spatially distributed datasets have been made increasingly manageable since the introduction of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and the related numerical algorithms for data analysis and elaboration.
The capabilities of GISs include the opportunity to overlay information provided by each thematic map according to a user-specified logic and to produce derivative map outputs. The use of GIS- supported modelling and data management tools is especially significant when the output of the investigation is requested in a distributed form too, as is the case of rainfall climatology. This is typical, however, of many different kinds of distributed information widely extending across various disciplines in the geophysical, social and economic sciences. When dealing with climatological data, and especially in the case of rainfall climatology, a special category of data management tools - namely the 'Hydrologically Oriented' GIS family [La Barbera et al., 1993] - is the most appropriate and useful.
A hydrologically oriented GIS should be able to store, manipulate and display geomorphologic data related to any selected region in the study area, resulting into an appropriate set of operational tools oriented to solve hydrological problems. Databases resulting from the joint use of several maps of spatially distributed information are able to support a series of hydrological and climatological models for use in the various fields of water resources management and environmental or land use strategies. Databases are therefore the fundamental skeleton over which information analysis can be performed.
Based on the above considerations there is no doubt that the basis for the management of data within the ACROSS project should be provided by a GIS-supported archive of geographically referenced information. The information collected and produced as a result of the ACROSS project will be also integrated with ancillary data and other climatological and geomorphologic information already available as being the output products of different international projects which have been operating over the same area.
