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A GIS for the Antarctic specially managed area of Admiralty Bay, King George Island, Antarctica

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Geo-spatial Information Science

Abstract

A GIS is proposed as a tool for the managing plan for the Antarctic specially managed area (ASMA) in Admiralty Bay. The ASMA comprises the area considered to be within the glacial drainage basin of the bay. Furthermore, it includes part of SSSI No. 8 adjacent to the area but outside of the glacial drainage basin. Three stations and six refuges are located in the area. Using a SPOT satellite image map, the limits of the ASMA are marked and its area is re-calculated. It consists of 362 km2, including 186 km2 island ice field and small cirque glaciers and 32 km2 ice-free field. The rest comprises water of the bay and a small adjacent area (8 km2) of the Bransfield Strait.

The ASMA-GIS will consists of 12 data layers ranging from the physiographic settings to the biological and administrative features. All data will be implemented into Arc/Info GIS according to the cartographic guidelines of the SCAR WG-GGI. First, five plans of information will be realised using a topographic database compiled from various sources and data from the revised bathymetric chart published by the Brazilian Navy Hydrographic Survey and also including: 1) Limits of the ASMA and protected areas; 2) Glaciological features (e.g. drainage basin limits) and 3) Human presence (e.g. stations and historical sites). These basic GIS layers will be operational in early 2001. Then, additional data on the remaining layers (e.g. hydrology, geology and geomorphology) will be included from published sources.

The ASMA-GIS will form an important database for environmental monitoring and studies surveying temporal changes of features such as glacier front positions or bird breading sites.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Pesquisas Antárticas e Glaciológicas, Departamento de Geografia Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Goncalves 9500, 91501-970, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Jefferson Cardia Simões, F. A. Ferron, Matthias Braun, J. Arigony Neto & F. E. Aquino

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  1. Jefferson Cardia Simões
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  2. F. A. Ferron
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  3. Matthias Braun
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  4. J. Arigony Neto
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  5. F. E. Aquino
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Correspondence to Jefferson Cardia Simões.

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Simões, J.C., Ferron, F.A., Braun, M. et al. A GIS for the Antarctic specially managed area of Admiralty Bay, King George Island, Antarctica. Geo-spat. Inf. Sci. 4, 8–14 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02826972

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02826972

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