Bio
Bashirah is a Research Officer at Research Centre for Water Quality & Environment, NAHRIM. National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM) is a water research institute under the Ministry of Natural Reseources and Environment of Malaysia that act as a National Focal Point on water and environmental research by coordinating related national research and participating in bilateral and multilateral international research activities. Bashirah’s research works strongly focus on the determination of water quality characteristic and status mainly of lakes and rivers around Malaysia, pollution investigation and identification, and environmental management. Her background is in applied chemistry, sediment and erosion control, that focusing on water quality assessment and pollutants impact on water bodies. She is a certified chemist and graduated from The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand (MSc). Some of her works include “Development of Coastal Resources Risk Index (CORRI)”, “ A Desk Study on Status of Eutrophication of Lakes in Malaysia”, “Optimising The Effectiveness of Sediment Retention Pond with Different Soil Materials”, “Evaluating The Impact of Sediment Runoff from Earthwork Sites – A Case Study of Tasik INSTUN (urban lake)”; “Turbidity and Colour Assessment of Sungai Teris (river), Kuala Gandah, Pahang”, “Rehabilitation of Tasik Shah Alam( urban lake) and Tasik Perdana (urban lake)”; and assessment of rainwater quality in urban and rural areas. Currently, she is involved with Best Management Practice of Lake Catchment (Development of a Model Template), importance of diurnal and seasonal water quality monitoring of water bodies, pollutant mapping, investigation of pollutant source and Development of A National Lake Database. She is also in a process of refining and sharpening her GIS and remote sensing skills.

Abstract
Using GIS-based Database in Promoting Sustainable Management of Lakes and Reservoirs in Malaysia
Lakes are critical "storage tanks" for freshwater. More than 90% of all available liquid surface freshwater is contained in lakes and reservoirs. Despite their importance, many of the world's lakes are facing a serious health threat, coming from both within and outside their watershed. Hence, establishing a comprehensive, centralised and visualised database will facilitate the management to address the issues arising from degradation with a view of developing and instituting appropriate remedial measures. A GIS-based national lake database with the main purpose of providing a centralised platform for information and data keeping of lakes and reservoirs is pertinent to avoid ambiguous data, data redundancy and scattering as well as to ensure continuous update and data validation. A pilot system on Malaysia GIS-based lake database is consisting of spatial and aspatial data collected from authorised and various parties. The main features include online information updates, overseeing data through spatial layers and ability to define and obtain information based on theme. The access is through GIS web publishing software to support the database where the system is accessible to stakeholders and interested parties through internet.

Bio
MAYER is founder of PROGIS, has built up the Apple and Acer market in Austria and started in 1994 the development of PC-based GIS-products. He initiated the set-up of an Advanced Technical College for Geoinformatics in Villach. Based on his long lasting experience as consultant for ecology, agriculture and forestry –he developed with WinGIS-AGROffice a complete new and integrated GIS based agro/forestry software technology.

Abstract
We need to change GIS - from top down to bottom up and vice versa In the seventies before the PC-revolution, the world was dominated by mainframes and dumb terminals. Someone defined - on top - what others could see. The mapping content was dominated by military considerations – also top down oriented. Few user-interaction was possible what in many cases is still state of the art in GIS, even today. If we do not have a bottom up link of information, the map on top is always history. New bottom up GIS systems have to be easy to use, need to support people better that work on the field and give them a better view what are the results of their activities and give them a measurable benefit. Better public private models that share activities and responsibilities based on exact plans, controllable implementations and measurable facts have to be implemented. This also needs to share power better between top-down and bottom up related organisations. PROGIS technology, models and experience in agro-related chain-management show such possibilities, nevertheless much work has to be done and lots of understanding and change is necessary within the stakeholders.

Bio
Jarlath O’Neil-Dunne is the Assistant Director of the University of Vermont’s Spatial Analysis Laboratory and holds a joint appointment with the United States Forest Service’s Northern Research Station. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of New Hampshire, his graduate degree from the University of Vermont, and certificates in hyperspectral image exploitation and GIS operations from the National Geospatial Intelligence College. His research focuses on the application of geospatial technology to a broad range of natural resource, renewable energy, and defense applications.

Abstract
Mapping the Green Infrastructure
Urbanized areas around the world are facing numerous environmental pressures, from rising temperatures to stormwater runoff to poor air quality. Traditionally, environmental challenges have been addressed through “gray” solutions, such building new water treatment plants or expanding transportation networks into the suburbs. Our mapping efforts have mirrored the solutions; data on structures, roads, and property boundaries is typically excellent in the developed world. With water treatment plants at maximum capacity, multi-hour commutes from the suburbs getting longer, and summer after summer of record temperatures it is clear that the limits of “gray” solutions are being reached. The world’s cities also find themselves in an era of intense global competition - to host the most successful companies and attract the brightest minds. Cities are making investments in their “green” infrastructure in an effort to provide ecosystem services to their citizens and make the urban environment more livable in the push towards sustainability. Despite massive investments in geospatial data and technology, most cities know little about their green infrastructure – how much they have, who owns it, who cares for it, and how it changes over time. Fortunately, novel solutions are being developed to provide actionable intelligence to decision makers. Automated feature extraction techniques allow sub-meter resolution land cover data sets to be developed from billions of remotely sensed data points with accuracies nearly approaching that of manual interpretation. Stewardship mapping is providing new insights into the “who, what, and where” of environmental management, allowing greening initiatives to be targeted at areas with a high probability of success. Finally, the need for near real-time monitoring of environmental resources is finally cost effective thanks to the ubiquitous nature of smartphones, which has made every citizen a sensor.

Bio
Dr. S. Jyothi is now heading the CSE/IT department having expreince more than 25 years have guided 15 M.Phil, Ph.D scholars. She has published 15 papers and four books. intrested in contributing solutions to environenal issues through computer techniques. Analyzing the Factors of Deforestation using Association Rule Mining The socio – demographic factors plays dominant role in any country’s development which directly or indirectly affects natural resources. The growing needs of minerals and other natural resources that is present in the forest area leads to mining industries which in turn results into construction of roads to the nearest accessible towns. The socio-demographic factors and the land use patterns are identified and derived from the remote Sensing images using GIS. Given these elements, the main objective of this paper is to analyze the role of different driving factors for deforestation and the relationship among these factors in the study area. For that an association analysis on deforestation factors is done. The widespread use of spatial database and spatial data mining technique can be used to understand inter – relational nature of spatial data. The spatial association extraction algorithm discussed by Koperski and Han [15] is used in our study. The algorithm searches for associations between spatial objects, or spatial objects and attributes. In this study, rules are expressed by spatial and non-spatial predicates. Typically, the analysis reveals the positive association of each of the above specified factors for deforestation. The final outcome of this paper can be used as the suggestions for policy issues and technological developments to the decision makers.

Abstract
Analyzing the Factors of Deforestation using Association Rule Mining
The socio – demographic factors plays dominant role in any country’s development which directly or indirectly affects natural resources. The growing needs of minerals and other natural resources that is present in the forest area leads to mining industries which in turn results into construction of roads to the nearest accessible towns. The socio-demographic factors and the land use patterns are identified and derived from the remote Sensing images using GIS. Given these elements, the main objective of this paper is to analyze the role of different driving factors for deforestation and the relationship among these factors in the study area. For that an association analysis on deforestation factors is done. The widespread use of spatial database and spatial data mining technique can be used to understand inter – relational nature of spatial data. The spatial association extraction algorithm discussed by Koperski and Han [15] is used in our study. The algorithm searches for associations between spatial objects, or spatial objects and attributes. In this study, rules are expressed by spatial and non-spatial predicates. Typically, the analysis reveals the positive association of each of the above specified factors for deforestation. The final outcome of this paper can be used as the suggestions for policy issues and technological developments to the decision makers.

Bio
Dr Safiah is currently a Senior Lecturer at Urban Studies and Urban Planning Program, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University Malaya. He is also the Coordinator of Urban Studies and Urban Planning Program and teaching Geographic Information System, Urban Environment and Hydrology He has been awarded PhD from University of Wales, Swansea, UK in 2007 and has led few research Projects and published several number of books and journal articles.

Abstract
Optimization of the Route of the Forest Logging Road
Effective forest management very much depends on the construction and maintenance of an appropriate forest road network. Road building is essential to the extraction of multiple-use forest resources; hence, roads must be designed to satisfy a whole range of needs. However, careless logging and road building have been the main causes for environmental degradation in many forest regions. The aim of this study is to optimize the forest road network so that it is aligned based on results of the determination of the Net Production Area (NPA) and the identification of harvestable trees, while being constrained by information on soil loss prediction and hydrological flow direction. In optimizing the road routing, there are several matters that have to be considered, namely that the road should be: (1) as near as possible to clusters of harvestable trees, (2) away from the rivers and their buffers, (3) avoid high erosion risk areas, and (4) avoid relatively steep land. A number of software problems are experienced in implementing this procedure, but the results obtained in this chapter show how the final timber harvesting plan might be constructed for the study area, which is ready to be implemented in the forest.