Method for multiple assessments of land parcels on the base of fuzzy set theory integrated into geographic information systems (GIS) is developed. Numerical experiments for the application of the method in urban planning are carried out. Multiple assessments of land parcels in St.Petertsburg (Russia) suburbs is calculated and mapped. Complex evaluations of land parcels have been carried out by fuzzy model with the use of four criteria (technological, economical, ecological and social) for two special tasks: 1) ecological criterion is more important and 2) economical criterion is more significant. The results show the opportunity of the land parcels ranging for decision making support

Visibility determination is a key requirement in a wide range of national and urban applications, such as national security, landscape management, and urban design. Mobile LiDAR point clouds can depict the urban built environment with a high level of details and accuracy. However, few three-dimensional visibility approaches have been developed for the street-level point-cloud data. Accordingly, an approach based on mobile LiDAR point clouds has been developed to map the three-dimensional visibility at the street level. The method consists of five steps: voxelization of point-cloud data, construction of lines-of-sight, construction of sectors of sight, construction of three-dimensional visible space, and calculation of volume index. The proposed approach is able to automatically measure the volume of visible space and openness at any viewpoint along a street. This approach has been applied to three study areas. The results indicated that the proposed approach enables accurate simulation of visible space as well as high-resolution (1 m × 1 m) mapping of the visible volume index. The proposed approach can make a contribution to the improvement of urban planning and design processes that aim at developing more sustainable built environments.

An improved Mualem–Van Genuchten method for estimating soil hydraulic conductivity in the vadose zone from data on filtration coefficient and water-retention capacity of soil is proposed. The approach offered by Kosugi for a functional description of hydraulic conductivity of soil is applied. To calculate the values of hydraulic conductivity by Mualem’s formula, the function of differential water capacity of soil with interpreted parameters has been used instead of the function of integral water capacity of soil, which describes the water-retention capacity of soil. Approximations to functions of soil water-retention capacity and hydraulic conductivity are offered here. On the basis of some concepts on the specificity of the curve that describes soil water-retention capacity, a technique for identification of these parameters is developed. The experimental data from two parts of capillary pressure range, on which the water-retention capacity of soil is measured, are used in the technique. The first part corresponds to the zone of mainly film moisture, where the sorption component of the capillary-sorption forces retaining the water in the soil predominates. The second part includes (a) the zone of the mainly capillary-suspended moisture, where the capillary component of the capillary-sorption forces predominates, and (b) the zone of the capillary-backed moisture. The improved method for estimating relative values of hydraulic conductivity of soil has been verified with the use of measured data for the Beit Netofa Сlay soil. The advantages of this method include (a) the ability to identify parameters of the soil hydrophysical functions using relatively available soil indices and (b) the higher accuracy of calculating the soil hydraulic conductivity in comparison with the original version of the method.

In this paper we proposed a methodology that describes the major steps of a scan-to-BIM process. The methodology includes six steps: (1) classification of considered elements, (2) definition of required level of detail (GI), (3) scan data acquisition, (4) point cloud registration and segmentation, (5) as-built BIM creation and (6) analysis. The examples of the application of the proposed methodology are demonstrated by creation of as-built BIM models for existing industrial sites and historic buildings. As the results of these case studies have shown, the proposed methodology can be used for as-built BIMs without any prior information.

Early crop disease detection is one of the most important tasks in plant protection. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the early wheat leaf rust detection possibility using hyperspectral remote sensing. The first task of the study was to choose tools for processing and analyze hyperspectral remote sensing data. The second task was to analyze the wheat leaf biochemical profile by chromatographic and spectrophotometric methods. The third task was to discuss a possible relationship between hyperspectral remote sensing data and the results from the wheat leaves, biochemical profile analysis. The work used an interdisciplinary approach, including hyperspectral remote sensing and data processing methods, as well as spectrophotometric and chromatographic methods. As a result, (1) the VIS-NIR spectrometry data analysis showed a high correlation with the hyperspectral remote sensing data; (2) the most important wavebands for disease identification were revealed (502, 466, 598, 718, 534, 766, 694, 650, 866, 602, 858 nm). An early disease detection accuracy of 97–100% was achieved from fourth dai (day/s after inoculation) using SVM.