Gis For Coastal Zone Management 1st Edition

Darius J Bartlett download

https://ebookbell.com/product/gis-for-coastal-zone-
management-1st-edition-darius-j-bartlett-2127156

Explore and download more ebooks at ebookbell.com

Here are some recommended products that we believe you will be
interested in. You can click the link to download.

Gis For Environmental Decisionmaking 1st Edition Andrew A Lovett

https://ebookbell.com/product/gis-for-environmental-
decisionmaking-1st-edition-andrew-a-lovett-2206050

Gis For Health And The Environment Development In The Asiapacific

Region With 110 Figures 1st Edition Gerard Rushton Auth

https://ebookbell.com/product/gis-for-health-and-the-environment-
development-in-the-asiapacific-region-with-110-figures-1st-edition-
gerard-rushton-auth-4240036

Gis For Emergency Preparedness And Health Risk Reduction 1st Edition
David Briggs

https://ebookbell.com/product/gis-for-emergency-preparedness-and-
health-risk-reduction-1st-edition-david-briggs-4481858

Gis For Web Developers Adding Where To Your Web Applications 1st
Edition Scott Davis

https://ebookbell.com/product/gis-for-web-developers-adding-where-to-
your-web-applications-1st-edition-scott-davis-4922714
Gis For Enhanced Electric Utility Performance Bill Meehan

https://ebookbell.com/product/gis-for-enhanced-electric-utility-
performance-bill-meehan-4963988

Gis For Critical Infrastructure Protection Robert F Austin David P

Disera

https://ebookbell.com/product/gis-for-critical-infrastructure-
protection-robert-f-austin-david-p-disera-5289958

Gis For Dummies 1st Michael N Demers

https://ebookbell.com/product/gis-for-dummies-1st-michael-n-
demers-54492962

Gis For Sustainable Development 2005en535s 1st Edition Michele

Campagna

https://ebookbell.com/product/gis-for-sustainable-
development-2005en535s-1st-edition-michele-campagna-1004446

Gis For Environmental Applications A Practical Approach Xuan Zhu

https://ebookbell.com/product/gis-for-environmental-applications-a-
practical-approach-xuan-zhu-12199274
 GIS
for
Coastal Zone
Management
 GIS
for
Coastal Zone
Management

Edited by
Darius Bartlett and
Jennifer Smith

CRC PR E S S
Boca Raton London New York Washington, D.C.
TF1714 disclaimer.fm Page 1 Tuesday, June 29, 2004 8:58 AM

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

CoastGIS '01 Conference (2001 : Halifax, N.S.)

GIS for coastal zone management / edited by Darius J. Bartlett and Jennifer L. Smith.
p. cm.
Includes updated and edited presentations made to the CoastGIS '01 Conference in
Halifax, Canada 18-20 June 2001.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-415-31972-2
1. Coast changes—Congresses. 2. Environmental mapping—Congresses. 3. Coastal zone
management—Congresses. 4. Geographic information systems—Congresses. I. Bartlett,
Darius J., 1955- II. Smith, Jennifer L. III. Title.

GB450.2.C625 2001
333.91'7'0285-dc22 2004050302

This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reprinted material
is quoted with permission, and sources are indicated. A wide variety of references are listed. Reasonable
efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and the publisher cannot
assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or for the consequences of their use.

Neither this book nor any part may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or by any information storage or
retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

All rights reserved. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use, or the personal or
internal use of specific clients, may be granted by CRC Press LLC, provided that $1.50 per page
photocopied is paid directly to Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923
USA. The fee code for users of the Transactional Reporting Service is ISBN 0-415-31972-
2/04/$0.00+$1.50. The fee is subject to change without notice. For organizations that have been granted
a photocopy license by the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged.

The consent of CRC Press LLC does not extend to copying for general distribution, for promotion, for
creating new works, or for resale. Specific permission must be obtained in writing from CRC Press LLC
for such copying.

Direct all inquiries to CRC Press LLC, 2000 N.W. Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, Florida 33431.

Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation, without intent to infringe.

Visit the CRC Press Web site at www.crcpress.com

© 2005 by CRC Press LLC

No claim to original U.S. Government works

International Standard Book Number 0-415-31972-2
Library of Congress Card Number 2004050302
Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
Printed on acid-free paper
 Contents
Foreword ix
Ron Furness and Andy Sherin

Preface xiii
Darius Bartlett and Jennifer Smith

Contributors xv

Chapter One 1
Coastal Spatial Data Infrastructure
Roger A. Longhorn

Chapter Two 17
Bridging the Land-Sea Divide Through Digital Technologies
Simon Gomm

Chapter Three 27
A Comparative Study of Shoreline Mapping Techniques
Ron Li, Kaichang Di and Ruijin Ma

Chapter Four 35
Monitoring Coastal Environments Using Remote Sensing
and GIS
Paul S.Y. Pan

Chapter Five 51
Spatial Uncertainty in Marine and Coastal GIS
Eleanor Bruce

Chapter Six 63
New Directions for Coastal and Marine Monitoring: Web Mapping
and Mobile Application Technologies
Sam Ng'ang'a Macharia

Chapter Seven 77
Exploring the Optimum Spatial Resolution for Satellite Imagery:
A Coastal Area Case Study
Chul-sue Hwang and Cha Yong Ku
vi GIS for Coastal Zone Management

Chapter Eight 95
Visualisation for Coastal Zone Management
Simon R. Jude, Andrew P. Jones and Julian E. Andrews

Chapter Nine 109

Application of a Decision Support System in the Development of a
Hydrodynamic Model for a Coastal Area
Roberto Mayerle and Fernando Toro

Chapter Ten 125

Decision-Making in the Coastal Zone Using Hydrodynamic Modelling
with a GIS Interface
Jacques Populus, Lionel Loubersac, Jean-François Le Roux, Frank
Dumas, Valerie Cummins, and Gerry Sutton

Chapter Eleven 141

Towards an Institutional GIS for the Iroise Sea (France)
Françoise Gourmelon and Iwan Le Berre

Chapter Twelve 153

Culture Intermixing, the Diffusion of GIS and its Application to
Coastal Management in Developing Countries
Darius Bartlett and R. Sudarshana

Chapter Thirteen 165

The Use of GIS to Enhance Communications of Cultural and Natural
Resources and Contamination
John A. Lindsay, Thomas J. Simon, Aquilina D. Lestenkof and Phillip A.
Zavadil

Chapter Fourteen 181

GIS Applications in Coastal Management: A View from the
Developing World
Peter C. Nwilo

Chapter Fifteen 195

High-Resolution Elevation and Image Data Within the Bay of Fundy
Coastal Zone, Nova Scotia, Canada
Tim Webster, Montfield Christian, Charles Sangster
and Dennis Kingston

Chapter Sixteen 219

Mapping and Analysing Historical Shoreline Changes Using GIS
Courtney A. Schupp, E. Robert Thieler and James F. O’Connell
Contents vii

Chapter Seventeen 229

GIS for Assessing Land-Based Activities that Pollute Coastal
Environments
J.I. Euán-Avila, M.A. Liceaga-Correa and H. Rodríguez-Sánchez

Chapter Eighteen 239

Applying the Geospatial Technologies to Estuary Environments
David R. Green and Stephen D. King

Chapter Nineteen 257

A Territorial Information System (TIS) for the Management of the
Seine Estuary – Environmental and Management Applications
Jean-Côme Bourcier

Chapter Twenty 269

Developing an Environmental Oil Spill Sensitivity Atlas for the West
Greenland Coastal Zone
Anders Mosbech, David Boertmann, Louise Grøndahl, Frants von Platen,
Søren S. Nielsen, Niels Nielsen, Morten Rasch and Hans Kapel

Chapter Twenty-one 281

Environment Canada’s Atlantic Sensitivity Mapping Program
André Laflamme, Stéphane R. Leblanc and Roger J. Percy

Epilogue: Meeting the Needs of Integrated Coastal Zone Management 295

Jennifer L. Smith and Darius J. Bartlett

Index 301
 Foreword

The material presented in this volume comprises updated and edited presentations
first made to the CoastGIS’01 Conference conducted in Halifax, Canada between
the 18th and 20th June 2001 together with chapters commissioned by the Editors.

The CoastGIS series of conferences have been the outcome of a fruitful

collaboration between the International Geographical Union’s Commission on
Coastal Systems and the International Cartographic Association’s Commission on
Marine Cartography. Generally entitled “International Symposium on GIS and
Computer Mapping for Coastal Zone Management” we have seen five successful
CoastGIS conferences held over this decade-long collaboration.

These conferences were held in Ireland (Cork, 1995), Scotland (Aberdeen, 1997),
France (Brest, 1999) Canada (Halifax, 2001) and Italy (Genoa, 2003). A closely
allied CoastalGIS conference was conducted in Wollongong, Australia in July
2003. Future conferences are planned for Scotland, Australia and Barbados.

At the first meeting in Cork, we had the honour of being addressed in a keynote
presentation by Lord Chorley, who referred in his address to the House of
Commons Environment Select Committee’s 1992 Report on coastal zone
protection and planning. Reflecting on the findings of that Report, Lord Chorley
was then struck by three main points.

“First, it is only in recent years that the coastal zone has been recognised as one
important topic in its own right. Second, the huge range of relevant aspects or
considerations. (Thirdly): the huge number of agencies involved, often with
overlapping and perhaps incompatible responsibilities, jurisdictions and
objectives.”

These themes have recurred throughout the conferences that followed.

Halifax 2001

CoastGIS’01 was convened in Halifax, Canada, at Saint Mary’s University

between 18th – 20th June 2001. The conference attracted over 150 delegates from
the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia who presented 36 oral
presentations and live demonstrations in a single stream format and 50 posters.
The theme selected by the 2001 Science Committee was “Managing the
Interfaces,” a theme with a multitude of possible interpretations. Overall, the shift
in emphasis towards integration of systems for coastal management and the
x GIS for Coastal Zone Management

growing interest in coastal spatial data infrastructures were especially in evidence

at this meeting. So too was the international dimension of coastal GIS.

Notably, for the first time, financial assistance from the Canadian International
Development Agency and the Geomatics Association of Nova Scotia permitted
CoastGIS 2001 to fund ten delegates from the developing world to participate in
the conference. Two chapters in the book result from this initiative (those by
Nwilo and Euán-Avila et al.).

CoastGIS 2001 also instituted demonstrations of live GIS systems. Three chapters
in this volume arose from this innovation (Laflamme et al., Mosbech et al. and
Bourcier). There were field trips to Nova Scotia Community College's Centre for
Geographical Sciences in the Annapolis Valley and to the Bay of Fundy, where we
considered the coastal issues facing a region that experiences the highest tides in
the world.

This setting drove home the dynamic nature of the coastal zone interface of land,
sea and air. Within this framework, several of the conference presentations that
evolved into chapters in this volume deal with the dynamics of the coastal zone,
while others address approaches to bridging the land-sea divide.

Many presentations at the Halifax gathering focused on the need for an effective
interface amongst the range of participants and stakeholders involved in coastal
management. The chapters in this volume that describe applications and case
studies and those that include traditional ecological knowledge demonstrate the
impact of effective communication between these parties.

The use of increasingly advanced technologies in the coastal zone (notably remote
sensing, web mapping and mobile application technologies, visualization
techniques, and LiDAR) to support research and management was a highlight of
the conference and is detailed in several chapters.

The reader will no doubt be well aware of the amazing developments of GIS
capability over the last decade in particular. Nonetheless, the development of
standards, formats and data models together with the sheer genius of GIS
technological developments and ultimate cost effectiveness are perhaps still
hampered by the paucity of available data sets. At CoastGIS 2001, the
development of spatial data infrastructures was highlighted. Susan Lambert, then
the Executive Director of the Kentucky Office of Geographic Information and now
with the United States Geological Survey, presented a keynote lecture on the
development of the GeoData Alliance, a nonprofit organization open to all
individuals and institutions committed to using geographic information to improve
the health of our communities, our economies and the Earth. A presentation was
also made on Canada's Marine Geospatial Data Infrastructure. The Editors of this
volume invited Roger Longhorn to summarize the progress in the development of
coastal spatial data infrastructures for this volume.
Foreword xi

Genoa 2003 and beyond

One advantage the authors have in writing this Foreword is being able to do it
immediately after the successful conclusion of this successful conference, which
ran from October 16 to 18, 2003. Exploration of the SDI theme continued at the
2003 CoastGIS conference held in Genoa, Italy. At this gathering emphasis was
placed upon many of the non-science and non-technology issues that continue to
adversely impact the success and long-term sustainability of many coastal zone
projects and wider coastal zone monitoring initiatives at national and regional
levels due to barriers to the access to data and information.

In summarizing the outcomes of the Genoa conference on behalf of the Scientific

Committee, Roger Longhorn noted that virtually all presentations had covered
coastal zone research, monitoring or management work in a single nation, often in
a single sub-national region. Very few therefore faced the added difficulties that
can arise when trying to locate, access, understand and agree on the usage and
dissemination terms for data from owners outside not only one’s own discipline,
but outside one’s national legislative infrastructure for information use. The
ocean, as Longhorn pointed out, has a “nasty” way of connecting one piece of
coastline to another, and neither the ocean nor the physical coastline show any
respect for national boundaries and differing jurisdictions.

Some of the key points highlighted by different members of the Scientific

Committee at a meeting held on the last day of the conference included the
following:

1. We need political champions to help guard our interests in seeing that coastal
information needs are not forgotten as larger national and regional (trans-national)
spatial data infrastructure (SDI) frameworks are created.

2. GIS in the coastal zone is certainly about supporting “science work”, but there
are also non-scientific and non-technical issues to be considered, hence the need
for a policy level of collaboration.

3. Data usability is a key concern and continues to require both research and
information management focus for continued development of ways to harmonise
data for wider use.

4. Information infrastructure developments are needed that permit easier discovery

of existing data and use of data once located, in a variety of forms, from multiple
data owners or custodians.

5. We need to find ways to engage stakeholders (data creators, custodians and

users) even more widely in the data management and access issues.

With the launch of the EU Water Framework Directive in 2000, to be fully

implemented by December 2003 in all EU Member States, we have seen the first
institutionalized, regional (trans-national) legal requirement that GIS be used in
xii GIS for Coastal Zone Management

monitoring the implementation of a major EU policy, and one of extremely high

importance on a global level - i.e., maintaining good quality water resources in
river basins, groundwater, coastal zones and the off-shore transitional waters
leading to the coastal zone. In all likelihood this is only the first such legal
requirement that we will see coming from major international institutions for use
of spatial information and GIS tools for planning and monitoring purposes.

Therefore, coastal GIS practitioners need to address their next efforts towards
effective usability of coastal knowledge (not just coastal data) as a major
contribution to regional planning and monitoring, even at transnational level. In
regard to this perceived need, two issues arise:

1. The landscape/seascape paradigm offers a comprehensive perspective of both

the physical and human/cultural aspects and their interaction, defining the present
state and heritage. At the European level, the European Landscape Convention
(2000) may be assumed as a reference for Coastal GIS attuned for Administration
in the governance, planning and design phases. Definition of relationships with
non-European landscape policies should be sought.

2. The operation of data, jointly with the implementation of data infrastructures,

may be regarded as a chief subject for GIS optimisation. It is hoped to create a link
with the running global and pan-European initiatives and/or policies by offering a
contribution for Data Infrastructure Profiles suitable for coastal GIS and or
promoting these achievements towards non-GIS and non-ICAM specialists,
addressing the concerned stakeholders in public administration and industry.

The legal requirement to use GIS for monitoring the Water Framework Directive,
and the implied directive to use GIS to monitor the EU ICZM Recommendation
both focus on primarily physical data, i.e., coastal or benthic flora and fauna,
geomorphology, etc. Yet for wider planning and monitoring purposes, many
administrative and non-physical data sources will be needed. These must somehow
be accommodated by the evolving coastal SDI.

As we write, it is fairly clear that CoastGIS as a gathering will be around for the
foreseeable future. Perhaps the main intangible, but nonetheless very real, benefit
from the series of gatherings has been the camaraderie and consequent networking
of many of the main contributors. However, as researchers and practitioners we
all need more tangible records of these significant events. We trust that the
presentation of part of the ongoing record in this volume will contribute to the
development and improvement of coastal zone management around the globe.

Ron Furness – Chair, International Cartographic Association Commission on

Marine Cartography
Andy Sherin – Chair, CoastGIS 2001 Science Committee, Co-chair of the
CoastGIS 2001 Organizing Committee and Coastal Information Specialist,
Geological Survey of Canada
Sydney and Ottawa, 13th November 2003
 Preface

Darius Bartlett and Jennifer Smith

This book has arisen out of a decade-long collaborative initiative between the
Commission on Marine Cartography of the International Cartographic Association
and the Commission on Coastal Systems of the International Geographical Union,
and manifested in the series of conferences known as the CoastGIS Symposia.
The first CoastGIS meeting was held in Cork, Ireland, in February 1995. Since
then, successive events have taken place in Aberdeen, Scotland (1997), Brest,
France (1999) and Halifax, Nova Scotia (2001). The majority of chapters
presented in the pages that follow had their origins in papers presented at the
Halifax meeting, supplemented by a selection of additional contributions
commissioned by the editors specifically for this volume.
Previous volumes have focused on GIS research in the marine and coastal
realms (Wright and Bartlett, 2000) and on the application of GIS to oceanography
and fisheries (Valavanis, 2002). The current volume is, to the best of our
knowledge, the first to focus specifically on the role of GIS in integrated coastal
zone management. We hope it will provide guidance, inspiration, encouragement
and, where merited, a degree of caution, for all those tasked with the stewardship
of the world’s coasts, as well as for those whose interests are more academic and
research-oriented.
The wide diversity of perspectives that can and must be brought to bear on
the challenge of coastal zone management is reflected in the range and
organisation of chapters in this book. Thus the opening chapters focus on technical
issues, ranging from the incorporation of GIS within wider information
infrastructures to techniques of visualisation, the importance of error and
uncertainty in coastal databases, and the interfacing of GIS with simulation and
process models. This is followed by a number of chapters that step back from
technology, and which seek to put coastal zone GIS into a more human context,
particularly through examination of cultural issues and exploration of techniques
for incorporating traditional ecological knowledge within GIS-enabled coastal
management regimes; and, finally, attention focuses on the use of GIS to historic
shoreline change analysis, the application of geomatics to estuary management,
xiv GIS for Coastal Zone Management

and to better understanding and management of environmentally sensitive

shorelines.
We are particularly delighted that contributions to this volume have come
from each of the inhabited continents of the world, namely from Africa, Asia,
Australia, Europe and North and South America. The diversity of perspectives on
coastal management arising from the cultural and professional backgrounds of the
authors, and also from the range of geographic locations used in the case studies
and applications reported on, underscores the truly international dimension of
coastal management today.
As always, compilation of an edited collection of papers depends on the
support, encouragement and assistance of a vast number of people who have
worked “behind the scenes.” It is, of course, a pleasure to thank the authors who
have contributed chapters to the book, and who have borne with cheerful patience
the many demands – some reasonable, some perhaps less so – of the editors. We
also acknowledge with gratitude the support of the International Geographical
Union and the International Cartographic Association.
On an individual level, to merely “thank” Ron Furness and Andy Sherin
seems woefully inadequate: it is no exaggeration to say that, without the sustained
friendship and cheerful encouragement of both these gentlemen, this volume
simply would never have seen the light of day. No less valued was the
encouragement of our friends and colleagues on the International CoastGIS
Scientific Committee, past and present.
Closer to home, Darius Bartlett wishes to thank friends and colleagues within
the Geography Department and the Coastal and Marine Resources Centre at
University College Cork; his postgraduate students for their lively discussions and
thought-provoking questions; and, above all Mary-Anne, Becky and dog Jessa for
putting up with my irregular hours, my absences from home and my all-too-
frequent neglect of domestic duties and responsibilities. For her part, Jennifer
Smith would like to thank Andy Sherin and the Canadian CoastGIS committee
who facilitated her involvement in this project.
Finally, both authors acknowledge with gratitude the assistance, support and
guidance of Tony Moore at Taylor & Francis in London and Randi Cohen and Jay
Margolis at CRC Press in Florida, who helped steer production of this volume
from conception through all stages of publication to its final appearance on
booksellers’ shelves.

REFERENCES

Valavanis, V. D., 2002, Geographic Information Systems in Oceanography and

Fisheries, (London: Taylor and Francis).

Wright, D.J. and Bartlett, D.J., 2000, Marine and Coastal Geographical
Information Systems. (London: Taylor and Francis).
 Contributors

THE EDITORS

Darius Bartlett
Department of Geography, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland. Phone: +353
21 4902835;
Fax: +353 21 4902190; e-mail: [email protected]

Darius Bartlett first encountered GIS as a postgraduate student at Edinburgh

University in about 1982, and has been researching and writing on conceptual,
institutional and related issues arising out of coastal zone applications of GIS since
the mid-1980s. More recently, he has started investigating the incorporation of
marine and coastal areas into SDI initiatives, issues surrounding the diffusion to
and use of GIS in the Developing World, and use of GIS by community groups,
voluntary organisations and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). An avid
traveller, he has so far visited over 65 countries around the world, and looks
forward to visiting the remainder in due course. He is a Member of the
International Geographical Union's Commission on Coastal Systems; and was one
of the founder organisers of the CoastGIS series of biannual conferences.

Jennifer L. Smith
World Wildlife Fund Canada, Atlantic Office, Suite 1202, Halifax, Nova Scotia,
Canada, B3J 1P3. Phone: (902) 482-1105; Fax: (902) 482-1107; e-mail:
[email protected]

Jennifer Smith manages the application of GIS in conservation planning for World
Wildlife Fund Canada’s Marine Program. She holds an Honours degree in
Geography from McGill University, Montreal. Her interests in work and studies
have focused on environmental monitoring, change in ecological systems, seagrass
ecosystems, developing areas and GIS-based decision support for protected areas
network design.
xvi GIS for Coastal Zone Management

THE AUTHORS

Roger A. Longhorn
[email protected]

Roger Longhorn is an independent ICT policy consultant who holds B.Sc. and
M.Sc. degrees in Ocean Engineering and Shipping Management from M.I.T,
Cambridge, MA, USA. After more than a decade of implementing marine
information systems for global maritime clients, in 1989 Roger became an external
ICT expert to the European Commission, where since 1992 he focused on GIS
technology and markets in the evolving Information Society. His special area of
interest is GIS applied to the coastal zone. Currently a Ph.D. candidate in
Information Policy at City University, London, his research focuses on regional
spatial data infrastructures.

Simon Gomm
Ordnance Survey, Romsey Road, Southampton. SO16 4GU. UK. Phone: (+44)023
80305149

Simon has worked for Ordnance Survey in a variety of roles including

geodetic surveying and data quality assurance and is now a Senior Research
Leader where he is responsible for coordinating research on topics related
to the capture, maintenance and use of spatial data.

Rongxing (Ron) Li
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science, The
Ohio State University, 470 Hitchcock Hall, 2070 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH
43210-1275, Tel. (614) 292-6946, Fax. (614) 292-2957; e-mail: [email protected],
http://shoreline.eng.ohio-state.edu

Dr. Ron Li is a professor at the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

and Geodetic Science of The Ohio State University. His research interests include
digital mapping, coastal and marine GIS, spatial data structure, Mars Rover
localization and landing site mapping.

Kaichang Di
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science, The
Ohio State University, 470 Hitchcock Hall, 2070 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH
43210-1275, Tel. (614) 292-4303, Fax. (614) 292-2957; e-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Kaichang Di is a research associate at the Department of Civil &

Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science of The Ohio State University.
His current research interests are coastal mapping using high-resolution satellite
imagery, Mars Rover localization and landing site mapping.
Contributors xvii

Ruijin Ma
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science, The
Ohio State University, 470 Hitchcock Hall, 2070 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH
43210-1275, Tel. (614) 292-4950, Fax. (614) 292-2957; e-mail: [email protected]

Mr. Ruijin Ma is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Civil & Environmental

Engineering and Geodetic Science of The Ohio State University. His current
research interests are coastal mapping and GIS, 3D model reconstruction from
LiDAR and photographs, and remote sensing applications.

Paul Pan
62 Llanishen Street, Cardiff, CF 14 3QD, United Kingdom; e-mail:
[email protected]

Paul Pan was the Principal Investigator for a number of innovative coastal
monitoring projects in South Wales. He lectured and researched on GIS with the
University of Wales, Swansea and Cardiff University for over 10 years. Paul now
works as an independent consultant

Eleanor Bruce
School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
Phone: +61 2 9351 6443; Fax: +61 2 9351 3644; e-mail:
[email protected]

Eleanor Bruce is a senior lecturer in the School of Geosciences at the University of

Sydney. She teaches GIS, coastal management and advanced spatial data
analysis. Her research interests include the use of GIS for marine park zoning,
nearshore habitat mapping and coastal system modelling. Currently, she is
Assistant Director of the Spatial Science Innovation Unit at the University of
Sydney.

Sam Macharia Ng'ang'a

Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, University of New
Brunswick, P.O. Box 4400, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, E3B 5A3.
Phone: (506) 447-3259 or (506) 455-7073; e-mail: [email protected]

Sam Macharia Ng'ang'a obtained a Bachelor’s degree in surveying from the

University of Nairobi, Kenya and a Master’s degree (Land Information Systems)
from the Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, University of New
Brunswick (Canada). He is a part time lecturer at UNB and is currently completing
his Doctorate degree on marine protected area information systems. He holds
memberships in (among other institutions) the Canadian Institute of Geomatics
(CIG) and the Canadian Hydrographic Association (CHA).
xviii GIS for Coastal Zone Management

Chul-sue Hwang
Department of Geography, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 131-701, Republic of
Korea. Phone: +82-2-961-9313; e-mail: [email protected]

Chul-sue Hwang is assistant professor of geography at Kyung Hee University,

Korea, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of the Geographical
Information System Association of Korea. His recent research focuses on
uncertainty of remote sensing data, spatial data mining, and exploratory spatial
data analysis.

Cha Yong Ku
Department of Geography, Sangmyung University, Jongro-gu, Seoul 110-743,
Republic of Korea. Phone: +82-2-2287-5043; e-mail: [email protected]

Cha Yong Ku is assistant professor of geography at Sangmyung University. His

research interests include the integration of GIS and remote sensing, classification
accuracy assessment and scale effects in remote sensing, and land use/land cover
information extraction and modelling for coastal wetlands. He received his Ph.D.
in Geography from Seoul National University.

Simon Jude
School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk,
United Kingdom, NR4 7TJ. Phone: +00 44 1603 591360; e-mail:
[email protected].

Dr. Simon Jude is a research associate in the School of Environmental Sciences at

the University of East Anglia UK. His research involves developing the use of
GIS, virtual reality and visualisation techniques for coastal decision-making.

Andrew Jones
School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk,
United Kingdom, NR4 7TJ. Phone: +00 44 1603 593127; e-mail:
[email protected]

Dr. Andrew P. Jones is a lecturer in the School of Environmental Sciences at the

University of East Anglia UK.

Julian Andrews
School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk,
United Kingdom, NR3 7TJ. Phone: +00 44 1603 592536.

Dr. Julian E. Andrews is a sedimentologist at the School of Environmental

Sciences (University of East Anglia, Norwich UK) with special interest in modern
and Holocene coastal sediments.
Contributors xix

Roberto Mayerle
Coastal Research Laboratory (Corelab), Christian Albrechts University, Otto
Hahn Platz 3, 24118 Kiel, Germany; e-mail: [email protected]

Professor Mayerle is a specialist in numerical modelling of waves, currents,

sediment transport and morphological changes in rivers, coastal areas and near
hydraulic structures, with extensive experience in physical modelling of
hydroelectric power schemes. He graduated as a civil engineer at the Federal
University of Paraná in Brazil in 1979 where he worked for an energy concern
involved in the construction and operation of several major hydropower schemes
such as Itaipu. In 1988 he got his Ph.D. degree at the University of Newcastle-
upon-Tyne in England. From 1989 till 1992 he was in-charge of a team working
on the development of numerical models at the National Centre for Computational
Hydroscience and Engineering in Oxford, USA. From 1992 till 1996 he worked at
the Institute of Fluid Mechanics of the University of Hanover in Germany, being in
charge of several research projects dealing with the investigation of the impact of
climate changes on the morphological development both on the German North and
Baltic Seas. Since 1996 he heads the Coastal Research Laboratory (Corelab) of the
University of Kiel. Corelab is a research and teaching unit established to foster
research in coastal environments. The Laboratory is engaged in applied research
using a combination of in situ measurements and investigations as well as
databases and numerical models embedded into decision support systems to help in
the management of coastal areas.

Fernando Toro
Wilrijkstraat 37, 2140 Antwerpen, Belgium; e-mail: [email protected]

Fernando Toro was born in Medellin, Colombia. He received his degree in civil
engineering in 1993. He worked in Colombia in the construction of the Metro in
the city of Medellin and in an engineering consultant company for three years. He
pursued a Master of Science in computational hydrosciences, in the National
Center for Computational Hydroscience and Engineering, at The University of
Mississippi, USA, from 1996 to 1998. In 1998, he moved to Germany and did his
Doctorate studies in the Coastal Research Laboratory, at the Christian Albrechts
University in Kiel, until Summer 2003. He is presently working in an engineering
consultant company in Antwerp, Belgium. His interests are numerical models and
GIS applied to engineering problems.

Jacques Populus
Service des Applications Opérationnelles DEL/AO, IFREMER, BP 70, 29280
Plouzané, France
Phone: 0298224310; Fax : 0298224555; e-mail: [email protected]

Jacques Populus is a civil engineer who originally specialised in applications of

high resolution remote sensing to coastal studies. His current activities concern the
handling of geo-information for coastal applications, with a view to making it
available to practitioners, in both developed and developing countries. This
concerns GI as output of data analysis, remote sensing and hydrodynamic
xx GIS for Coastal Zone Management

modelling. Current applications deal with water and its use for aquaculture
sustainability. More recently, he has focused on acquisition and processing of
physical data (topography and bathymetry) in the coastal zone by way of
innovative techniques such as the LiDAR.

Lionel Loubersac
Head of the Coastal Environment and Living Resources Laboratory of Ifremer in
Sète (France). He is in charge of the organisation, coordination and planning of
scientific and technical programs dealing with a) the monitoring of coastal
environment and living resources quality along the Mediterranean shores, b) the
development, interfacing and transfer of tools in the field of coastal oceanography;
i.e. environmental monitoring networks and databases, hydrodynamic modelling,
geographical data bases and their integration within standardized coastal GIS, new
technologies of information and communication for transferring to the public
scientific results on coastal environment quality. He is involved in training
courses, scientific committees of symposiums as well as numerous projects at
national, European and international levels in the field of the applications of
Remote Sensing and Information Systems to coastal management. He has been
selected as European evaluator and expert in the framework of the DG INFSO
Programme Information Society Technology, Key Action "Systems and Services
for the Citizen; Applications related to environmental protection."

Jean-François Le Roux
Jean-François is a computer engineer with a Master’s Degree in computer science.
He has been a software engineer at Simulog, a high-technology service company
specializing in technical software engineering, between 1997 and 2000, detached
at Thomson CSF Optronics, involved in several projects of technical and
operational simulation (real-time 3D simulation). Now he is a system and software
engineer at Ifremer for the operational applications service of the Environment and
Coastal Planning Division (DEL/AO). He works on interfacing GIS, web and
hydrodynamic models.

Franck Dumas
A coastal ocean circulation modeler, Franck graduated from Ecole Nationale
Supérieure des Techniques Avancées. For the past seven years, he has been using
the MARS-2D-3D modelling system intensively in various frameworks: in the
context of pure physical oceanography and circulation along the French coast, but
also in pluridisciplinary contexts for the understanding of complex coastal
ecosystems such as that of the Baie du Mont Saint-Michel. He is now in charge of
developing Ifremer's coastal ocean modelling system, and integrating all coastal
ecosystem components developed over the past years within the Institute.
Contributors xxi

Valerie Cummins
Coastal and Marine Resources Centre, Environmental Research Institute,
University College Cork, Naval Base, Haulbowline Island, Cork Harbour, Ireland.
Phone: +353 (21) 4703100; Fax: +353 (21) 4703132; e-mail: [email protected]

Valerie Cummins (B.Sc., M.Sc.) received her B.Sc. in marine geography from
University of Wales, College of Cardiff, and her M.Sc. through the Department of
Zoology and Aninmal Ecology in University College Cork. After several years
working in the field of spatial data analysis/GIS in the UK at the British
Oceanographic Data Centre, and subsequently at Landmark Information Group,
Valerie returned to Ireland in 1999 to join the Coastal & Marine Resources Centre.
She is currently manager of the CMRC with responsibility for the co-ordination of
nineteen national and European funded research programs, with a current staff of
17.

Gerry Sutton
Coastal and Marine Resources Centre, Environmental Research Institute,
University College Cork, Naval Base, Haulbowline Island, Cork Harbour, Ireland.
Phone: +353 (21) 4703100; Fax: +353 (21) 4703132; e-mail:
[email protected]

Gerry Sutton graduated from University of Wales, Bangor, with Joint Honours
degree in marine biology and zoology in 1984, following which he worked for two
years as a fisheries officer with the Department of Fisheries in Sabah, East
Malaysia. Here he focussed on research, development and subsequent local
adoption of macro-algal cultivation techniques (Eucheuma spp.). Following his
return to Ireland Gerry joined Hydrographic Surveys Ltd where, as senior
hydrographic surveyor between 1991 and 1998, he was responsible for planning,
conducting, processing and charting high precision coastal surveys associated with
national and international civil engineering, dredging, and oceanographic projects.
Since joining the CMRC in 1998 Gerry has been actively conducting research
within the CMRC team, contributing to a number of EU and nationally funded
projects, and consultative reports. Gerry recently received his M.Sc through the
Department of Geography at University College Cork, in the field of marine
resources and GIS. His primary research interests are currently in the fields of
seabed mapping (specialising in multibeam sonar acquisition and processing);
geophysics; oceanography; marine resources and technology; and marine
geographic information systems. Gerry has been a professional member of the
Irish Institution of Surveyors (IIS) since 1997.
xxii GIS for Coastal Zone Management

Françoise Gourmelon
Laboratoire Géomer, LETG UMR6554 CNRS, European Institute for Marine
Studies (IUEM), Technopôle Brest-Iroise, 29280 Plouzané, France. Phone: + 00
33 2 98 49 86 83; Fax: + 00 33 2 98 49 86 86; e-mail:
[email protected]

Françoise Gourmelon is a senior research worker at the CNRS (French National

Center for Scientific Research). She is a member of the Géomer laboratory (LETG
UMR 6554 CNRS), part of the European Institute of Marine Studies. She has been
using GIS in ICZM studies since 1989, when she met François Cuq (Director of
the CNRS Géosystèmes laboratory). She has been working with coastal and
marine applications such as landuse and landcover changes in protected islets,
habitat of marine fauna, in temperate and tropical coastal zones. Her current
focuses are on the coupling of models with GIS for better knowledge of
social/natural dynamics; on the use of remote sensing data for the long term
monitoring of protected areas; and on the design of geomatic infrastructures
dedicated to long term environmental observation.

Iwan Le Berre
Laboratoire Géomer, LETG UMR6554 CNRS, European Institute for Marine
Studies (IUEM), Technopôle Brest-Iroise, 29280 Plouzané, France. Phone: 00 33
2 98 49 86 80 ; Fax: 00 33 2 98 49 86 86; e-mail: [email protected]

Iwan Le Berre acquired his first experience with GIS when he joined the
Géosystèmes laboratory as a Master of Science student in 1990 (and has stayed
ever since!). His research interests deal with the implementation of GIS for
synthetic mapping of coastal and marine environment. In 1992, he got a grant from
the MaB committee of UNESCO for the achievement of a synthetic map of the
Iroise Sea Biosphere Reserve. He defended his Ph.D., focused on the
implementation of a coastal and marine GIS for the Iroise Sea, in 1999 and has
been awarded by the Regional Council of Brittany in 2001. After several studies
with different organisations in France (National Park Service, National coastal
zone heritage agency, Ministry of Equipment) he got his position at the Western
Brittany University in 2001 and he now teaches cartography, GIS and remote
sensing for graduate, master and Ph. D. students.

R. Sudarshana
RI227, National Remote Sensing Agency, Dept. of Space, Govt. of India,
Balanagar, Hyderabad 500 037, India; e-mail: [email protected]

R. Sudarshana conducted his doctoral research on seabed ecology in the

Arabian sea and taught in Karnatak University, India for a while. He then
joined the Department of Space, Government of India, wherein he developed an
academic niche in marine science, developing and propagating remote sensing
application skills. After several years of work in the field of marine
applications of remote sensing, he now heads the programme planning affairs
of the national remote sensing activities. He has been a consultant to
Contributors xxiii

UNESCO in Africa, Arabia and Iran, besides being a visiting professor in

institutions in Europe and Japan.

John Lindsay
John A. Lindsay, NOAA Pribilof Project Office, 7600- Sand Point Way NE,
Building 3, Seattle, WA 98115. Phone: (206) 526-4560; e-mail:
[email protected]

John A. Lindsay is the director of the Pribilof Islands Environmental Restoration

Project. He began work with NOAA more than fifteen years ago following a long
career as a marine invertebrate taxonomist and ecologist. At NOAA, Mr. Lindsay
implemented the agency’s natural resource trustee responsibility nationwide at
hazardous waste sites, and chemical and oil spills. He also represented the U.S.
Department of Commerce on the Joint U.S./Canada Atlantic Regional
Environmental Emergencies Team.

Thomas J. Simon
NOAA Environmental Compliance, Health & Safety, and Security Office, 7600-
Sand Point Way NE, Building 1, Seattle, WA 98115. Phone: (206) 526-6295; e-
mail: [email protected]

Tom Simon is a geographer and GIS specialist who helped develop the NOAA
Pribilof Project Office GIS project. His interests include the use of GIS to
integrate varying technologies and develop interactive presentation tools.

Aquilina D. Lestenkof
Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, Tribal Government, P.O. Box 86, St. Paul
Island, AK 99660. Phone: 907-546-2641; Fax: 907-546-2655; E-mail:
[email protected]

Aquilina D. Lestenkof of St. Paul Island continually seeks ways to balance and
blend the cultural knowledge of her people – Unangan (Aleut) – with present day
life. Aquilina currently co-directs the Ecosystem Conservation Office of the Aleut
Community of St. Paul Island's Tribal Government.

Phillip A. Zavadil
Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, Tribal Government, P.O. Box 86, St. Paul
Island, AK 99660,
Phone: 907-546-2641; Fax: 907-546-2655; e-mail: [email protected]

Phillip A. Zavadil of St. Paul Island co-directs the Ecosystem Conservation Office
of the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island's Tribal Government. Mr. Zavadil
enthusiastically seeks means to understand and improve the quality of life on St.
Paul Island.
xxiv GIS for Coastal Zone Management

Peter Nwilo
Department of Surveying and Geoinformatics, University of Lagos, Lagos,
Nigeria.

Dr. Nwilo is an associate professor of surveying and geoinformatics at the

University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria, and is currently the sub-dean of the
Postgraduate School of the University. Dr. Nwilo has a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in
Surveying from the University of Lagos and a Ph.D. in environmental resources
from the University of Salford, United Kingdom. His special research interests
cover sea level variations and the impacts along the coast of Nigeria; GIS and its
applications in coastal management; subsidence phenomenon along the coast of
Nigeria; management of the navigable rivers of Nigeria; and management of
Nigerian coastal areas. He has published extensively on these topics.

Tim Webster
Email: [email protected]

Tim Webster is a research scientist with the Applied Geomatics Research Group
(AGRG) at the Centre of Geographic Sciences (COGS), a component of the Nova
Scotia Community College. He currently is also pursuing his Ph.D. in earth
sciences from Dalhousie University where he is applying DEM technologies
including LIDAR to mapping geological landforms.

Charles Sangster
Email: [email protected]

Charles Sangster is a graduate from the Applied Geomatics Research Program at

COGS, and works in the field of conservation GIS. Currently, he is the GIS
specialist for the Protected Areas Branch of the Nova Scotia Department of
Environment and Labour.

Montfield Christian
Email: [email protected]

Montfield Christian is a graduate from the Applied Geomatics Research Program

at COGS, and works in Toronto, Ontario as an independent GIS analyst. His
company is Green Eminent Consulting and they specialise in customised GIS
projects.

Dennis Kingston
Email: [email protected]

Dennis Kingston is the department head of the Information Technology

Department, Annapolis Valley Campus, NSCC. Formerly, he taught GPS
technology at COGS in the Survey Program.
Contributors xxv

Courtney Schupp
Department of Physical Sciences, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Rt. 1208
Greate Road, Gloucester Point, VA 23062

Courtney Schupp focuses her research on shoreline behavior and its relationship to
nearshore processes and underlying geology. After earning her B.S. in geology
from Duke University, she worked as a GIS analyst at the U.S. Geological Survey
and as a consultant to the Maryland Geological Survey. She is currently working
towards an M.S. in marine science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at
the College of William and Mary.

Rob Thieler
U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, 384 Woods Hole
Road, Woods Hole, MA, 02543-1598, USA. Phone: (508) 457-2350; Fax: (508)
457-2310; e-mail: [email protected]; http://marine.usgs.gov

Rob Thieler is a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Woods
Hole, MA. His research includes continental margin sedimentation, late
Quaternary sea-level change, coastal hazards, and development of software to
quantify rates of shoreline change.

James F. O'Connell
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Sea Grant Program, 193 Oyster Pond
Road, MS#2, Woods Hole, MA, 02543-1525, USA. Phone: (508) 289-2993; e-
mail: [email protected]

Jim is presently the coastal processes specialist with the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution Sea Grant Program and Cape Cod Cooperative
Extension (past 5 years). Prior to joining WHOI, Jim was the coastal geologist
and coastal hazards specialist with the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone
Management for 13 years, followed by a year with the Cape Cod Commission as a
marine resources specialist. Jim's speciality is shoreline change analysis, analyzing
human effects on coastal processes and coastal landforms, coastal floodplains,
erosion control alternatives, and coastal hazard mitigation issues.

Jorge I. Euán-Avila,
Department of Marine Resources, CINVESTAV, Mérida, México; e-mail:
[email protected].

Jorge I. Euán-Avila, Ph. D., is an engineer and researcher in the Department of

Marine Resources, CINVESTAV, Mérida, México.
xxvi GIS for Coastal Zone Management

María de los Angeles Liceaga-Correa

Department of Marine Resources, CINVESTAV, Mérida, México; e-mail:
[email protected].

María de los Angeles Liceaga-Correa,Ph.D, is a mathematician and researcher in

the Department of Marine Resources, CINVESTAV, Mérida, México.

Héctor Rodríguez-Sánchez
Department of Marine Resources, CINVESTAV, Mérida, México; e-mail:
[email protected].

Héctor Rodríguez-Sánchez, M.Sc., is a biologist and research assistant in the

Department of Marine Resources, CINVESTAV, Mérida, México.

David R. Green
Centre for Marine and Coastal Zone Management (CMCZM) / Aberdeen Institute
of Coastal Sciences and Management (AICSM), Department of Geography and
Environment, School of Geosciences, College of Physical Sciences, University of
Aberdeen, Elphinstone Road, Aberdeen, AB24 3UF, Scotland, UK. / Tel. +44
(0)1224 272324 /Fax. +44 (0)1224 272331; e-mail: [email protected]
Internet. www.abdn.ac.uk.cmczm or www.abdn.ac.uk/aicsm

David R. Green was educated in geography at the Universities of Edinburgh,

Pennsylvania and Toronto. He is currently director of the Centre for Marine and
Coastal Zone Management (CMCZM), and assistant director of the Aberdeen
Institute for Coastal Sciences and Management (AICSM) at the University of
Aberdeen in Scotland. He lectures in the environmental applications of the
geospatial technologies (including remote sensing and GIS) with special research
interests in online Internet-based GIS, mobile mapping, and user interfaces for use
in integrated coastal zone management. David is currently president of the EUCC-
The Coastal Union, and GIS Editor of the Journal of Coastal Conservation (JCC).
He is also chief assessor and examiner for the ASET GIS Programme, chairman of
the AGI Marine and Coastal Zone Management GIS Special Interest Group, and
deputy chair of the ICA Commission on Marine Cartography (International
Cartographic Association). David has presented papers and workshops at a number
of national and international conferences, and has published a number of books on
the use of GIS in landscape ecology, school education, marine and coastal
applications, and use of remote sensing for coastal applications. He is currently
involved in organising the Littoral 2004 and CoastGIS 2005 conferences.

Stephen D. King
Centre for Marine and Coastal Zone Management, Department of Geography and
Environment, University of Aberdeen, Elphinstone Road, Aberdeen, AB24 3UF,
UK.; Tel. +44 (0)1224 272324, Fax +44 (0)1224 272331; e-mail:
[email protected]

Stephen is currently a research assistant in the Department of Geography and

Environment at the University of Aberdeen. He has a B.A. in geography
Contributors xxvii

(University of Liverpool) and an M.Sc. in environmental remote sensing

(University of Aberdeen). His main interests are the application of remote sensing
and GIS to coastal zone management and, in particular, the development of
Internet-based coastal information systems and the use of mobile communications
technology and GIS for field data collection.

Jean-Côme Bourcier
8 Rue Georges Laroque, Appartement 1021, 76300 Sotteville-Les-Rouen
FRANCE. Phone: +33 02 63 87 30 or +33 06 88 43 54 95; e-mail: jean-
[email protected] or [email protected]

J.-C. Bourcier obtained his Ph.D. at University of Le Havre, France, and works as
a GIS specialist, environmental engineer and territorial planning engineer. His
research concerns the use of GIS as a tool designed to create a better
understanding of coastal processes, functioning and change and, more specifically,
better management and development of coastal spaces such as estuaries. He is
currently the president of GeoInformatique, an association which helps people to
better use geographical information.

Anders Mosbech
National Environmental Research Institute, Department of Arctic Environment,
Frederiksborgvej 399, P.O. Box 358, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark. Phone: +45
4630 1934; Fax: +45 4630 1914; e-mail: [email protected]

Anders Mosbech, Ph.D., is a senior scientist who performs ecological research in

Greenland on marine birds, geese, muskoxen, marine mammals and vegetation. He
is an advisor to the regulatory agencies in the Greenlandic and Danish
governments concerning environmental impacts of oil exploration and
development in Greenland.

David Boertmann
National Environmental Research Institute, Department of Arctic Environment,
Frederiksborgvej 399, P.O. Box 358, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark. Phone: +45
4630 1934; Fax: +45 4630 1914; e-mail: [email protected]

David Boertman is a senior research biologist with long experience in arctic

ornithology and Arctic natural history, and has worked with environmental issues
related to oil exploration in the arctic. He is currently associated with the National
Environmental Research Institute, Denmark.

Louise Grøndahl
National Environmental Research Institute, Department of Arctic Environment,
Frederiksborgvej 399, P.O. Box 358, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark. Phone: +45
4630 1934; Fax: +45 4630 1914; e-mail: [email protected]

Louise Grøndahl holds an M.Sc. in physical geography. She has worked as

research assistant at NERI with GIS and is now doing a Ph.D. on carbon flux in
Northeast Greenland at the National Environmental Research Institute, Denmark.
xxviii GIS for Coastal Zone Management

Frants von Platen

Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS). E-mail: [email protected]

Frants von Platen is a geographer and GIS-specialist who has been employed since
1983 at GEUS, where he works with geological databases and GIS development.

Niels Nielsen
Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Phone: +45
35322508; Fax: +45 35322501; e-mail: [email protected]; www.geogr.ku.dk

Niels Nielsen is an associate professor in physical geography (coastal

geomorphology) at the Institute of Geography of the University of Copenhagen.

Søren Stach Nielsen

Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, P.O. Box 570, DK-3900 Nuuk,
Grønland. Phone: +299 328095 /ext. 243; Fax: +299 325957; email:
[email protected]

Søren Stach Nielsen holds a Master of Technological and Sociological Planning

degree from Roskilde University and is at present a project-researcher at the
Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, investigating socioeconomic relations
between hunting and hunting-gear and hunting and household economy, and
incorporation of local knowledge into scientific research.

Morten Rasch
Danish Polar Center, Strandgade 100H, DK-1401 Copenhagen K, Denmark.
Direct phone: +45 32880110 Mobile phone: +45 23490645; Secretary: +45
32880100; Fax: +45 32880101; e-mail: [email protected]; homepage, Zackenberg:
www.zackenberg.dk, homepage, Danish Polar Center: www.dpc.dk

Morten Rasch, Ph.D, is a coastal geomorphologist educated at the Institute of

Geography of the University of Copenhagen. He is a specialist in arctic coastal
geomorphology and Holocene relative sea-level changes in Greenland. He has
been working as station manager of Zackenberg Station, North East Greenland and
is also head of logistics at Danish Polar Center.

Hans Kapel
SILA, The Greenland Research Center at The National Museum of Denmark,
Frederiksholms Kanal 12, DK 1220 Copenhagen K. Phone: +45 33473256; e-
mail. [email protected]

Hans Kapel is a curator and archaeologist who has conducted archaeological

research in Greenland since 1969. His field of responsibility includes The Central
Register of Protected Monuments in Greenland.
Contributors xxix

André Laflamme
Environment Canada - Environmental Emergencies Section, Dartmouth, Nova
Scotia, CANADA. Phone: 902-426-5324; Fax: 902-426-9709; e-mail:
[email protected]

André Laflamme graduated from University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, in physical

geography in 1994. He has worked since with Environment Canada Atlantic
Region with the environmental emergencies section as an environmental
emergencies officer. André is also the regional sensitivity mapping coordinator for
Environment Canada. He was a co-author on scientific papers produced during
several conferences such as the International Oil Spill Conference (IOSC), and the
Arctic and Marine Oil Spill conference (AMOP). André was also part of a team
tasked to develop a national oil spill contingency plan for the Republic of Chad
(Africa) where he spent some time.
 CHAPTER ONE

Coastal Spatial Data Infrastructure

Roger A. Longhorn

1.1 INTRODUCTION

The term Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is now in common use in countries
around the world, although definitions for the term differ quite considerably. The
stated objectives of SDI initiatives vary as much as do the definitions, legal
mandates, types of organisation responsible for specifying and implementing SDI
and actual progress achieved in creating national and regional SDIs.
One complication in specifying any SDI is the nature of spatial information,
i.e. information with an important location attribute, often said to represent 80% of
all information held, especially at government level. The visionaries and designers
of SDI must accommodate the widely varying information needs of highly diverse
disciplines and sectors of society, business and government. Health
epidemiologists are seldom interested in the same spatial data as geological
surveyors, air traffic controllers or coastal zone managers. Yet an important
overlap in jurisdiction and information needs may arise, e.g. when a potential
health epidemic is generated by toxic chemical concentrations in marine fauna
later consumed by area residents. Then knowledge of the coastal zone flora and
fauna, hydrography, tidal states, nearby land use practices of industry and
agriculture and transport routes, fishing practices and zones all become
intertwined. The complex relationships between different types of spatial
information are one reason that countries take different routes to specify their SDI,
ranging from visions to strategies to goals to detailed content (data and standards)
and implementation plans (rules and regulations).
We all recognize that the coastal zone is a difficult geographical area to
manage due to temporal issues (tides and seasons) and the overlapping of physical
geography and hydrography (offshore, near shore, shoreline, inshore), of
jurisdictions, legal mandates and remits of government agencies and the often
competing needs of stakeholders. Typically, many different local, national and
regional government agencies are responsible for different aspects of the same
physical areas and uses of the coastal zone, e.g. fisheries, environment, agriculture,
transport (inland and marine), urban planning and cadastre, national mapping
agency and the hydrographic service.
Conflict resolution in this complex piece of real estate called the “coast” is
sometimes used as justification for special attention for the coast within NSDI
initiatives. As Bartlett (2000) expresses it: “Given the diversity of interest groups,
stakeholders, managerial authorities and administrative structures that converge at

0-41531-972-2/04/$0.00+$1.50
©2004 by CRC Press LLC
2 GIS for Coastal Zone Management

the shore, conflicts are almost inevitable between and among coastal users,
managers, developers and the wider public, as well as between human society and
the natural environment.”
Because of such complex physical and institutional relationships, it is not
possible to develop a coastal SDI (CSDI) in isolation from the broader National
SDI (NSDI) for a nation or Regional SDI (RSDI). CSDI will necessarily be a
subset of a more comprehensive NSDI because the coastal zone covers multiple
physical and institutional spaces included in the generic NSDI. For that reason, it
is important that people and agencies with specific knowledge and experience of
the coastal zone and marine offshore areas and information requirements be an
integral part of the NSDI and RSDI planning process.

1.2 CSDI WITHIN NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND GLOBAL SDI

Few nations have specified separate SDI components for individual sectors such as
the coastal zone. In the USA, a Coastal NSDI vision exists based on four goals that
relate to the USA NSDI (NOAA, 2001). Practical implementation work is
undertaken by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and
the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC).
Canada has proposed a Marine Geospatial Data Infrastructure initiative
(MGDI) within the national Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI)
(Chopin and Costain, 2001). MGDI is seen as an extension to the CGDI in
response to “the need for a comprehensive, integrated and common infrastructure
of marine data and information … accessible to all stakeholders.”

1.2.1 Regional SDI Initiatives

At regional level, the INSPIRE project (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in

Europe) recognizes hydrographic data as one of its “selected topographic themes”
for data content for a Regional SDI for Europe (INSPIRE, 2002). More detailed
data requirements are presented in the European Commission’s Water Framework
Directive (European Commission, 2000), which underpins the need for INPSIRE.
These two European regional projects are discussed more fully in a later section as
they have legal mandates from a recognized regional government body—the
European Commission—and have developed detailed descriptions of spatial data
requirements, including marine and coastal zone data.
Work on specification for an Asia-Pacific SDI (APSDI) began in 1994 with
formation of the Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the
Pacific (PCGIAP) under the auspices of the UN Regional Cartographic
Conferences (UNRCC). The APSDI model stresses institutional frameworks,
technical standards, fundamental datasets and an access network (PCGIAP, 1998).
A new initiative started in 2000 for a Regional SDI for the Americas (PC-
IDEA), but it is too new to have achieved anything more than creating a basic
project organisational framework at this stage.
Coastal Spatial Data Infrastructure 3

1.2.2 Global SDI Initiatives

Global level SDI initiatives include the Global Map Project (ISCGM, 2001), which
began in 1996, the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Association, which
began as a series of international conferences in 1996, and the Digital Earth
initiative sponsored by the US government (Evans, 2001). These initiatives intend
to build on existing national and/or regional SDI work and existing data resources
(primarily remote sensing imagery). They typically mention shoreline data,
boundary data (including marine, ocean, inland waters) and references to cadastre
that may or may not include marine cadastral data. GSDI and the Global Map
project are discussed more fully later.
Of more immediate interest—and importance—to coastal and marine
managers and researchers is the work of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic
Commission (IOC) International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange
(IODE) working group mentioned later and described in some detail by Longhorn
(2002).

1.3 CSDI IN THE US

The US NSDI initiative began formally in April 1994 with a presidential

Executive Order (Clinton, 1994) in response to a national performance review of
federal government. One of the main elements of the US NSDI is the creation,
harmonisation and promulgation of technical standards by which all federal spatial
information can be recorded, metadata being of highest importance so that existing
spatial data resources can be identified, accessed and used. This major task fell to
the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), which was created in 1990.
Responsibilities with regard to NSDI implementation for all federal agencies in the
US was set out in the revised OMB Circular A-16 in 2002 (OMB, 2002).
In the US, the Coastal SDI vision is based on four goals relating to the NSDI
(NOAA, 2001). The US CSDI initiative is led by the Coastal Services Centre of
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). The main goals of
the US CSDI are:
• that the coastal management community should understand and embrace the
vision, concepts and benefits of the NSDI,

• spatial coastal and marine framework data should be readily available to the
coastal management community,

• technologies to facilitate discovery, collection, description, access and

preservation of spatial data should be widely available to the coastal
management community, and

• NOAA should help develop and implement spatial data applications to meet
the needs of the coastal and marine communities.
Note the emphasis on support for coastal resources management, a role
assumed by NOAA under the 1972 Coastal Zone Management Act, as opposed to
4 GIS for Coastal Zone Management

NOAA’s historical focus and initial primary mission of ensuring safety of

navigation.
The main elements of CSDI that NOAA promote are bathymetry, shoreline
identification and marine cadastre, although other types of data are under review
for attention as a formal part of CSDI, e.g. coastal imagery, marine navigation,
tidal benchmarks and benthic habitats (Lockwood and Fowler, 2001).
Development of technical standards to support the CSDI is undertaken by the
FGDC’s Marine and Coastal Spatial Data Subcommittee, under chairmanship of
NOAA/CSC (FGDC, 2002). The committee’s primary mission is to develop and
promote the Marine and Coastal NSDI so that “current and accurate geospatial
coastal and ocean data will be readily available to contribute locally, nationally,
and globally to economic growth, environmental quality and stability, and social
progress” (NOAA, 2003). In 2000, this committee assumed the remit of the FGDC
Bathymetric and Nautical Charting Data Subcommittee, formed in 1993.
Bathymetric data is treated as a sub-layer of the Elevation layer data in the
NSDI Framework. Marine cadastre is being examined within both the FGDC
Marine Boundary Working Group (MBWG) which includes members of the
FGDC Cadastral Subcommittee. The MBWG was formed in 2001 to address
issues relating to the legal and technical aspects of marine boundaries, with the
goal to alleviate cross-agency problems concerning marine boundaries, plus
provide outreach, standards development, partnerships and other data development
critical to the NSDI. A major product of the MBWG work to date is the FGDC’s
Shoreline Metadata Profile (FGDC, 1998).
Two further standards nearing completion for the CSDI are the National
Hydrography Data Content Standard for Inland and Coastal Waterways (FGDC,
2000a) and Accuracy Standards for Nautical Charting Hydrographic Surveys
(FGDC, 2000b).
The US CSDI initiative should help identify the basic reference data required
to achieve goals for national programs such as those stated in the Clean Water
Action Plan - Coastal Research and Monitoring Strategy, which represents “the
first effort to integrate coastal monitoring and research activities on a national
scale to provide thorough, cross-cutting assessments of the health of the nation's
coastal resources” (CRMSW, 2000). These goals include:
• Improving monitoring programs for integration at national level

• Integrating interagency research efforts

• Conducting national and regional coastal assessments, and

• Improving data management.

Interestingly, a report from the US Commission on Ocean Policy found a
tight connection between inland systems for development and agriculture to areas
traditionally designated as coastal. “The coastal zone is not a narrow band. It’s the
whole country” (US CoOP, 2002). Regarding data collection and sharing, the US
Ocean Policy report further found that “there is no marine equivalent to the
networks of meteorological observation stations distributed on land on all
continents. Ocean observation efforts are limited temporally and spatially.” This
Coastal Spatial Data Infrastructure 5

leads to the conclusion that “there is a need for a better and more comprehensive
way to link the work of different disciplines in a manner that offers a more
integrated understanding of the marine environment and the processes that control
it… there is a need for standardized practices and procedures” (US CoOP, 2002).
These findings reinforce the premise that CSDI cannot and should not be
developed in isolation from the broader NSDI of a nation or region. Actions like
the Clean Water Action Plan mentioned earlier provide important input into the
political process for securing added support for creating a CSDI.

1.4 CSDI IN CANADA

In Canada, the NSDI is called the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI)
with the snappier, market-oriented title GeoConnections. From its beginning, the
CGDI recognized that “governments have a responsibility to make geospatial
information available … for developing a knowledge economy in response to the
needs of citizens, industry and communities in support of economic, social and
environmental well-being” (Labonte, Corey and Evangelatos, 1998). Marine
navigation and charting for pollution control, coastal zone management and
environmental monitoring were considered important applications to be fostered
under CGDI. The CGDI has five technical and policy thrusts: access, data
framework, standards, partnerships and creating a supportive policy environment.
The CGDI vision is “to enable timely access to geo-info data holdings and services
in support of policy, decision-making and economic development through a co-
operative interconnected infrastructure of government, private sector and academia
participants. From the outset, CGDI planners realized that “institutional issues will
likely eclipse technology as an impediment to CGDI development and
implementation” (Labonte et al., 1998).
Within the framework of the CGDI, the Marine Geospatial Data
Infrastructure (MGDI) is being developed in Canada, “to enable simple, third party
access to data and information that will facilitate more effective decision-making”
(Gillespie et al., 2000) for anyone involved in coastal zone management. MGDI is
described as comprising data and information products, enabling technologies as
well as network linkages, standards and institutional policies. The concept for an
MGDI-like information network was first proposed in 1988 as the “Inland waters,
Coastal and Ocean Information Network (ICOIN)” (after Butler et al., 1998 in
Gillespie et al., 2000).
In support of the five main elements of GeoConnections (the CGDI), a
Marine Advisory Committee was created in 1999 at the time of publication of a
draft concept report for the MGDI (CCMC, 1999). The committee’s remit is to
ensure the full functionality of the CGDI in providing service to all marine
stakeholders. To aid in this, a Marine Advisory Network has been set up to act as
the physical focal point for stakeholder outreach and consultation
(GeoConnections, 2003).
The MGDI recognizes the need for common standards permitting data to be
used seamlessly across disciplines and systems. Because of the principally land-
based focus of most NSDI developments, MGDI also recognizes that standards
that apply perfectly well to land-based applications and data are sometimes
6 GIS for Coastal Zone Management

incompatible with the marine world. It is also understood that simply making
spatial data available across the Internet does not always provide solutions to
specific problems. Data is not information and information is not knowledge.
MGDI also recognizes that data pricing and related policy issues dealing with
intellectual copyright will be crucial to the success of both CGDI and MDGI and
that, while these potential barriers may not fall easily, they are not insurmountable.
The needs of users and potential stakeholders were identified more completely in
an extensive requirements analysis study in 2001 (DFO, 2001).
The MGDI architecture includes:
• A common spatial data model

• An integrated process and data modelling environment

• A common spatial language and data exchange format

• Methods for managing, querying and delivering data with integrity, and

• Open source productivity tools ensuring access for all.

Progress in implementing the MGDI as a coherent system has been slower
than anticipated, due mainly to two things that affect nearly all such initiatives
known to this author, i.e. lack of resources (especially any new or extra resources)
and institutional barriers inherent in government whether local or national. Note
that even the Presidential Executive Order creating the USA NSDI did not offer
any new money, rather all work to achieve the NSDI had to be conducted from
within existing budgets.

1.5 CSDI ELEMENTS IN REGIONAL SDI

Regional SDI (RSDI) initiatives have started in Europe (INSPIRE), Asia-Pacific

(PCGIAP) and the Americas (PC-IDEA). These projects all intend to build on
National SDIs located within their geographic regions. Unfortunately, since few
NSDIs have reached an advanced degree of completion—and many have not yet
even been specified or received legal mandates—it is still early to see how coastal
and marine SDI requirements will be accommodated within the RSDI envelopes.
The Permanent Committee for SDI for the Americas (CP-IDEA/PC-IDEA)
was only formed early in 2000 under the auspices of the UN Regional
Cartographic Conference. This new initiative has yet to produce any substantial
documents relating to how SDI will be coordinated across the nations of Central
and South America. Initially it is focusing on institutional strengthening, metadata,
access policies, outreach and similar issues to those being pursued by PCGIAP and
within the global GSDI Association.
Coastal Spatial Data Infrastructure 7

1.5.1 INSPIRE—Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe

INSPIRE recognizes hydrographic data as one of its selected topographic themes

for data content for the proposed Regional SDI for Europe (INSPIRE, 2002).
Hydrography is defined as “surface water features such as lakes and ponds,
streams and rivers, canals, oceans and shorelines.” During the many years that
European SDI consultations progressed from the GI2000 initiative (1995–1999)
through ETeMII (European Territorial Management Information Infrastructure
1999–2001) to INSPIRE (2001–present), reference to specific themes for spatial
data content in the proposed SDI specification was initially resisted. After much
debate, the hydrographic component (including coastal zones) was included, along
with only two other “topographic themes” - transport and height. Hydrography is
defined in INSPIRE as “surface water features such as lakes and ponds, streams
and rivers, canals, oceans and shorelines.” The “height” topographic theme
includes “contour data showing heights by isolines, and including with the same
data set spot heights, high and low water lines, breaklines and bathymetry”
(INSPIRE, 2002). At the end of the consultation period, INSPIRE was extended to
cover a wide range of coastal and marine data components, including “bathymetry,
coastline, hydrography, surface water bodies, water catchments, oceans and seas,
oceanographic spatial features, sea regions, aquaculture facilities, polluted areas
and more (INSPIRE, 2003).

1.5.2 European Water Framework Directive

The EU Water Framework Directive (European Commission, 2000) represents the

culmination of five years of consultation and negotiations for implementing a
harmonized and integrated water policy for all European Union Member States
(now 15, soon to be 25). The WFD places quite detailed—and some say onerous—
monitoring and reporting requirements for the status of surface water in four
regimes: rivers, lakes, coastal waters and transitional waters (estuaries and similar
bodies of water which are partly saline but strongly influenced by freshwater
flows).
The data relating to coastal and transitional waters required in order for EU
Member States to report to the European Commission on water condition include:
detailed location (boundary) information, various biological data for aquatic flora
and benthic fauna, hydromorphological data including depth variations, tidal
regimes, transparency, thermal conditions, oxygenation conditions, salinity,
nutrient conditions and pollution.
In order to do this reporting, a very detailed GIS specification has been
produced (European Communities, 2002). For coastal waters, the data to be
captured include shape, name, various identifying codes, type of water body, status
of the water body (artificial, heavily modified), salinity typology, depth typology,
tidal typology, and more. The specification document is nearly 170 pages long—a
far cry from the “hydrography” or “marine boundary” terms found in isolation,
without further explanation, in other regional and all global SDI specifications. In
8 GIS for Coastal Zone Management

fact, one worries if the European government authorities and their national
oceanographic and coastal research institutions will be able to provide data at the
level of detail required within the timeframe set by the Directive, which comes into
force in December 2003.
The WFD Directive has been used by various Directorates General at the
European Commission to justify the INSPIRE European Regional SDI initiative,
on the basis that much harmonised, integrated and interoperable basic reference
data will be required if WFD reporting requirements are to be met at least cost. It
remains to be seen if the level of detail already specified in the INSPIRE working
documents will in fact be sufficient to help fulfil that requirement.

1.5.3 Asia-Pacific Regional SDI (APSDI)

In the Asia-Pacific SDI (APSDI), what are termed “fundamental datasets” are only
presented in the most general terms and with no detail. The discussion on what
data should be included in the APSDI began in 1998 and has yet to reach a
conclusion. Due to the large number of participants—55 nations across Asia and
the Pacific are members—and very limited development resources, we should not
expect the situation to change any time soon in regard to formal data specification.
At the most recent meeting of the Working Group on Fundamental Data held in
April 2002, the working group recommendations included (PCGIAP, 2002):
• The contents of the Asia-Pacific Regional Fundamental Dataset shall be
defined, and further, the technical specifications of the Asia-Pacific Regional
Fundamental Dataset shall be developed, with the Global Mapping
Specifications and Administrative Boundary Pilot Project Specifications, as
reference.

• For the first version of the Asia-Pacific Regional Fundamental Dataset, the
vector data shall be no less accurate than 1:1 million in map scale, and the
raster data shall be no less than 1KM in ground resolution.
At a 2001 meeting of the PCGIAP Working Group on Cadastre, an item was
recommended for the work plan covering “identification of broad types of marine
cadastres in use throughout the world as they become established” (PCGIAP,
2001). Unfortunately, the meeting also noted “concern about the apparent direction
of the Cadastre WG in majoring in activities on marine cadastre, boundaries being
a very sensitive issue in PCGIAP.”
One surmises that little practical progress has been achieved in more detailed
data specification in nearly six years of work and that the small scale of the data
will be of minimal use to local coastal managers or researchers. Also, political
issues may limit the degree of actual detail that will be agreed within the very
broadly based group.
Coastal Spatial Data Infrastructure 9

1.6 CSDI AT GLOBAL LEVEL

At the global level, the not-for-profit Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI)
Association primarily offers a forum for discussion and exchange of experiences,
especially in relation to creating SDI at national level. The GSDI’s ‘SDI
Cookbook’ (GSDI, 2001) does not specify what types of data nations should have
in their SDI, but rather it concentrates on general, though still important, matters
such as metadata creation, access policy and other administrative and institutional
issues. In a general listing of the types of data that should be considered for
including in a National SDI, the cookbook does mention cadastre and
hydrography. No further details are given and there is no working group
specifically targeting marine or coastal data requirements. A more thorough review
of how coastal zone information is related to the GSDI can be found in Longhorn
(2003b).
The Global Map specification (ISCGM, 2000) makes reference only to
“coastline/shoreline” and “ocean/sea” boundary data, “ferry routes” under a
“transportation” heading and edges of “islands” and “inland water” under
“drainage (hydrography).” The remainder of the specification is devoted to
identifying existing public domain data sources (all at scales of 1:1 million or
smaller), data models for vector and raster data, precision and accuracy and
metadata issues. The primary data sources listed are VMAP Level 0 from the US
National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), the Global 30 Arc Second
Elevation Data Set (GTOPO30) and Global Land Cover Characteristics Database,
both available from the US Geological Survey and other sources. These resources
have been available in the public domain for some years now, and include only
small scale data, some of which are rather old compared to the time frames of
interest for much coastal management and research work. For these reasons, there
is little new in the Global Map project that would excite coastal managers and
researchers.
What approximates a useful global marine SDI does exist for oceanographic
data due to long established information management and data exchange
programmes of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)
(Longhorn, 2002). At its most recent meeting in June 2002, the IODE working
group considered including coastal data in its remit, only to have the possibility
removed from its future agenda by refusal or reluctance of the governments of
some important developing country members to permit ready access to coastal
zone data for national security and economic reasons.

1.7 PRINCIPAL COMPONENTS FOR CSDI

Having reviewed the few formal coastal SDI initiatives that exist, all at national
level, it appears that a CSDI mainly comprises: data sources, standards, enabling
technologies and institutional policies. Work in relation to the first two
components needs to be carried out with a specific marine or coastal focus, which
is sometimes missing from generic SDI initiatives. The latter two aspects apply to
10 GIS for Coastal Zone Management

the wider requirements of any information infrastructure, not just that of coastal
SDI or even for spatial data alone.

1.7.1 Basic Reference Data for the CSDI

The presence or absence of basic reference spatial data (also sometimes called
‘framework’ data) in National, Regional and Global SDI implementations that
relate to the needs of a viable coastal SDI are shown in table 1.1. As one might
suspect, the most common are bathymetry, shoreline and boundary data. For most
Regional and Global SDI initiatives, there is not sufficient detail in specification of
data elements to determine whether or not the needs of coastal and marine resource
managers and researchers will be met (with the exception of INSPIRE/WFD).
Since the basic data will be collected at national level, this might not appear to be a
serious problem at the moment. Yet when data exchange is required for research
purposes, resolving boundary disputes or to satisfy a nation’s responsibilities
regarding various international data exchange conventions, then the absence of
regional and global agreement on SDI contents and access issues will become
noticed.

Table 1.1 Coastal SDI components in national, regional and global SDIs

SDI Component USA Canada INSPIRE- APSDI GlobalMap

WFD
bathymetry yes yes yes maybe maybe
shoreline yes yes yes yes yes
marine cadastre yes yes no yes maybe
coastal imagery maybe maybe yes no no
marine maybe yes maybe no maybe
navigation
tidal maybe maybe yes no no
benchmarks
benthic habitats maybe maybe yes-WFD no no

A ‘yes’ indicates that the component in the left-hand column is formally listed as
an important data component in the definition of spatial data infrastructure at
national, regional or global level. The number of ‘no’ and ‘maybe’ entries is
disquieting. Fortunately, the ‘nos’ appear mainly in regional or global initiatives
while ‘maybes’ indicate that detailed user requirements or specifications have been
identified and published, along with existing data sources that might provide this
data. However, no firm decisions have been made as to how or if this data will be
included within the higher-level NSDI or not.
Coastal Spatial Data Infrastructure 11

1.7.2 CSDI Is More Than Data

Other components of an SDI mentioned in most SDI descriptions cover: metadata

creation and standards, technical guidance (including standards) on spatial
precision, accuracy and data formats (both raster and vector), data access policies
(some of which are more liberal than others) and intellectual property guidance.
Standards issues in the spatial data world are now much better addressed than
a mere five years ago due to the extensive work of the International Standards
Organization’s Technical Committee 211 (TC/211) on Geographic
Information/Geomatics which is creating “a structured set of standards for
information concerning objects or phenomena that are directly or indirectly
associated with a location relative to the Earth” comprising some 40 new GI-
related standards (ISO, 2002). In parallel with ISO, the global reach and uptake of
the GIS interoperability work of the Open GIS Consortium, Inc., and OGC
Europe, Ltd., is providing a clear way forward in regard to integrating GI
applications and data sources, especially using the Web as the service delivery
machinery (OGC, 2002).
Other important standards developments relating to coastal and marine data
include the S-57 (Special Publication No. 57) cartographic standard developed for
and maintained by the International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO) and
International Hydrographic Bureau (IHB) in Monaco (IHO, 1996). This standard is
used for collection and exchange of hydrographic data among national
Hydrographic offices globally. It is also very important for marine navigation as
applied to the new Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS)
now being introduced throughout the maritime industry. S-57 comprises a
hydrographic data model, an object catalogue and an electronic nautical chart
(ENC) product specification that are standard for ECDIS data.
Various shoreline and boundary data metadata standards have been
developed at national level, as mentioned previously for the USA within the
FGDC shoreline metadata working group. Looking to the future, two projects are
underway that aim to specify a globally agreed standard for marineXML, a
marine-specific implementation of the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) now
used widely on the Internet for conveying semantic content of information as
opposed to only the display specifications provided by HTML (Hypertext Markup
Language). MarineXML is described as “an interoperability framework for global
ocean observation systems” (ICES, 2003) which will encompass coastal zone
elements as well. The development work on marineXML is undertaken by the
European Union, via a part-funded project in the EU’s Framework RTD
programme (IOC, 2003a) in conjunction with the Intergovernmental
Oceanographic Commission’s Committee on International Oceanographic Data
and Information Exchange (IODE) based at UNESCO headquarters in Paris (IOC,
2003b). National initiatives on creating marineXML specifications are also
underway, for example in Australia and the USA (Sligoeris, 2002; Davis et al.,
2002).
More serious barriers remain in regard to harmonised data access policies
and exploitation rights for spatial information, particularly that collected by public
sector agencies. The European Union is trying to address this problem at a regional
level via a new Directive setting out an agreed EU-wide framework for access to
12 GIS for Coastal Zone Management

and exploitation of public sector information (European Commission, 2002).

Similar initiatives are under discussion, in consultation or being implemented in
both developed and developing nations across the globe. The impact that these
initiatives will have on the coastal zone (and larger research) community cannot be
underestimated. Even in countries with strong “freedom of information” cultures,
such as the USA, some public sector marine information is not disclosed due to
fear of liability actions against the data providers (Lockwood and Fowler, 2001).
With intellectual property (IP) legislation in a state of flux across the globe while
attempts are made to accommodate the prior IP regime and existing international
IP conventions to the digital world, resolving many of the non-technical data-
related problems is far easier than the institutional ones.

1.8 CONCLUSIONS

The CZM community should be aware that their input, based on knowledge and
experience of the coastal zone, is imperative during specification of SDI
initiatives, whether at national, regional or global level. What we can conclude
from the above examination of various types of spatial data infrastructures that are
under development—national, regional and global—is that, at regional and global
level, the emphasis is virtually all on process, standards, metadata and institutional
issues, and rarely on data specifications for the content of an SDI. Thus, for the
most part, these initiatives will almost certainly never have a separate strong
coastal or marine focus. The only exception at Regional SDI level is that of
INSPIRE, justified partly by the legal data reporting requirements of the European
Water Framework Directive, the latter of which focuses very heavily and in great
detail on coastal and near-shore waters. As more such regional (non-European)
environmentally focused initiatives evolve, we can expect a similar emphasis on
the need to arise for wider access to and use of coastal and marine spatial data in
regard to environmental monitoring.
At the global level, some of the most important work in regard to major
elements of what comprise an SDI has been implemented within major
international environmental monitoring and research programmes, such as those of
IOC, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), International Geosphere-
Biosphere Program (IGBP) and others (Longhorn, 2003a).
At national level, where one tends to find more detail in specification of the
SDI and a more advanced state of actual implementation of elements of SDI, there
is evidence that only the more obvious data needs are being considered, e.g.
shoreline, hydrography/bathymetry and (sometimes) cadastre/boundaries. Yet
other important elements such as habitat and navigation do not fit well within the
primarily land-focused sections of NSDI specifications. This may be due partly to
the absence of coastal zone/marine professionals on the SDI development teams or
for other reasons, e.g. a national decision that the SDI should focus on only the
most basic ‘reference data’ that is considered commonly needed to underpin
broadly based economic activities and governance.
Finally, one should not forget that spatial data is only one facet of an SDI
implementation. Important institutional, jurisdictional, data policy and
standards/interoperability issues also Figure high on the agenda. These appear to
Coastal Spatial Data Infrastructure 13

be the principal focal points for most regional and global SDI initiatives, rather
than detailed basic reference data specifications.

1.9 REFERENCES

Bartlett, D.J., 2000, Working on the Frontiers of Science: Applying GIS to the
Coastal Zone, In Marine and Coastal Geographical Information Systems edited
by Wright, D. and Bartlett, D. (London: Taylor & Francis).
Butler, M.J.A., LeBlanc, C. and Stanley, J.M., 1998, Inland Waters, Coastal and
Ocean Information Network (ICOIN), Report submitted to the Canadian
Hydrographic Service, Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) by MRMS,
Inc. pp. 85.
CCMC, 1999, Draft Concept Outline Marine Geospatial Data Infrastructure
(MGDI), Canadian Centre for Marine Communications,
http://cgdi.gc.ca/english/geospatial/MGDI/pdf/mgdi.pdf (May 22, 2003).
Chopin, T. and Costain, K., 2001, Beyond 2000: An Agenda for Integrated Coastal
Management Development, Post-Conference Report of the Coastal Zone Canada
2000 International Conference, Saint John, New Brunswick, September 17-22
2000. (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia: Coastal Zone Canada Association).
Clinton, W., 1994, Executive Order 12906, April 13, 1994, Federal Register, vol.
59, no. 720, pp. 1771–1774. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office).
CRMSW, 2000, Clean Water Action Plan: Coastal Research and Monitoring
Strategy, September 2000, Coastal Research and Monitoring Strategy
Workgroup (Washington, D.C.: US Environmental Protection Agency).
http://www.cleanwater.gov/coastalresearch/H2Ofin.pdf (May 19, 2003).
Davis, D. et al., 2002, Using XML Technology for Data and System Metadata for
the MBARI Ocean Observing System (MOOS), (Moss Landing, CA, USA:
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute). http://www.mbari.org/ (10 October
2003).
DFO, 2001, Marine User Requirements for Geospatial Data: Summary 2001,
Geospatial Projects Integration Office, (Ottawa, Canada: Department of Fisheries
& Oceans), http://www.geoconnections.org/english/MGDI/Key_Docs/
Marine_User_Requirements.pdf (May 20, 2003).
European Commission, 2000, Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament
and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community
action in the field of water policy, (Luxembourg: Office of Official Publications
of the European Communities).
European Commission, 2002, Proposal for a European Parliament and Council
Directive on the Re-use and Commercial Exploitation of Public Sector
Document. June 5, 2002, COM(2002) 207, (Brussels: European Commission),
20 p.
European Communities, 2002, Guidance Document on Implementing the GIS
Elements of the WFD, EUR 20544 EN, edited by Jürgen Vogt, (Ispra, Italy: DG
Joint Research Centre). http://agrienv.jrc.it/publications/pdfs/GIS-GD.pdf (May
19, 2003).
Evans, J. (editor), 2001, The New Digital Earth Reference Model, NASA Digital
Earth Office, http://www.digitalearth.gov/derm/v05/index.html (May 22, 2003).
14 GIS for Coastal Zone Management

FGDC, 1998, Shoreline Metadata Profile of the Content Standards for Digital
Geospatial Metadata, FGDC-STD-001.2-2001, Marine and Coastal Spatial Data
Subcommittee, (Reston, VA: Federal Geographic Data Committee),
http://www.csc.noaa.gov/metadata/sprofile.pdf (May 20, 2003).
FGDC, 2000a, National Hydrography Data Content Standard for Inland and
Coastal Waterways - Public Review Draft - January 2000, Marine and Coastal
Spatial Data Subcommittee, (Reston, VA: Federal Geographic Data Committee),
http://www.fgdc.gov/standards/documents/standards/hydro/HydroStd_pr_draft.p
df (May 19, 2003).
FGDC, 2000b, Geospatial Positioning Accuracy Standards Part 5: Standards for
Nautical Charting Hydrographic Surveys - Public Review Draft - November
2000, (Reston, VA: Federal Geographic Data Committee),
http://www.csc.noaa.gov/cgibin/goodbye.cgi?url=http://www.fgdc.gov/standard/
status/sub1_4.html (May 22, 2003).
FGDC, 2002, Charter for Subcommittee on Marine and Coastal Spatial Data,
NOAA Coastal Services Center, http://www.csc.noaa.gov/fgdc_bsc/overview/
charter.htm (May 23, 2003).
GeoConnections, 2003, Marine Advisory Network Node Terms of Reference,
(Ottawa, Canada: GeoConnections Secretariat), http://www.geoconnections.org/
english/MGDI/index.html (May 22, 2003).
Gillespie, R., Butler, M., Anderson, N., Kucera, H. and LeBlanc, C., 2000, MGDI:
An Information Infrastructure to Support Integrated Coastal Management in
Canada, GeoCoast, 1, pp. 15-24, http://www.theukcoastalzone.com/geocoast/
Volume1/Gillespie.pdf (May 22, 2003).
GSDI, 2001, Developing Spatial Data Infrastructures: The SDI Cookbook version
1.1, edited by D. Nebert, Gloal Spatial Data Infrastructure Technical Working
Group Chair, http://www.gsdi.org/pubs/cookbook/cookbook0515.pdf (May
22,2003)
IHO, 1996, IHO Transfer Standard for Digital Hydrographic Data Edition 3.0 -
March 1996. Special Publication No 57, (Monaco: International Hydrographic
Bureau).
INSPIRE, 2002, Reference Data and Metadata Position Paper, RDM Working
Group edited by Rase, D., Björnsson, A., Probert, M. and Haupt, M-F.
INSPIRE, 2003, Contribution to the extended impact assessment of INSPIRE,
INSPIRE FDS Working Group and Dr. M. Craglia, Univ. of Sheffield,
(Environment Agency for England and Wales, UK).
IOC, 2003a, The MarineXML Project portal - inaugural meeting summary report.
http://ioc.unesco.org/marinexml/contents.php?id=9 (13 October 2003).
IOC, 2003b, Marine XML Web portal. http://ioc.unesco.org/marinexml/ (May 13,
2003).
ISCGM, 2000, Global Map, version 1.1 Specifications, 16 March 2000,
Capetown, http://www.iscgm.org/html4/index_c5_s1.html#doc13_3787 (May
20, 2003).
ISCGM, 2001, Resolutions of the 8 th ISCGM Meeting, Cartagena, Columbia, 25
May 2001, http://www.iscgm.org/more-iscgm/reso-8th-meeting.pdf (May 18,
2003).
ISO, 2002, ISO/TC 211 Geographical information/Geomatics Scope, International
Standards Organisation, Geneva, http://www.isotc211.org/scope.
Coastal Spatial Data Infrastructure 15

htm#scope (May 23, 2003).

Labonte, J., Corey, M., and Evangelatos, T., 1998, Canadian Geospatial Data
Infrastructure (CGDI)–Geospatial Information for the Knowledge Economy,
Geomatica, 52, pp. 214–222.
http://www.geoconnections.org/english/publications/General_information/public
ations_geomatica_cgdi_e..pdf (May 24, 2003).
Lockwood, M. and Fowler, C., 2000, Significance of Coastal and Marine Data
within the Context of the United States National Spatial Data Infrastructure. In
Marine and Coastal Geographical Information Systems edited by Wright, D.J.
and Bartlett, D.J. (London: Taylor & Francis).
Longhorn, R, 2002, Global Spatial Data Sharing Frameworks: The Case of the
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). In Proceedings of GSDI-
6, Budapest, Hungary, 16–19 September 2002. http://www.gsdi.org/ (April 10,
2003).
Longhorn, R., 2003a, A comparison of spatial information access policies of
transnational environmental modelling and global climate change programs. In
Geoinformation for European-wide Integration edited by Benes, T., (Rotterdam:
Millpress), pp. 305–313.
Longhorn, R. 2003b, European CZM and the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure
Initiative (GSDI). In Coastal and Marine Geo-Information Systems edited by
Green, D.J. and King, S.D. (Dordrecht, NL: Kluwer Academic Publishers), pp.
543–554.
NOAA, 2001, Coastal NSDI, NOAA Coastal Services Center, http://www.csc.
noaa.gov/themes/nsdi/ (May 23, 2003).
NOAA, 2003, FGDC Marine and Coastal Spatial Data Subcommittee 2003 Work
Plan, http://www.csc.noaa.gov/fgdc_bsc/accomp/2003plan.htm (May 22, 2003).
OGC, 2002, Open GIS Consortium Vision, Mission and Values,
http://www.opengis.org/info/vm.htm (May 22, 2003)
OMB, 2002, Circular No. A–16 Revised, August 19, 2002. (Washington, DC:
Office of Management and Budget), http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/
a016/a016_rev.html (May 27, 2003).
PCGIAP, 1998, PCGIAP Publication Number 1, http://www.gsi.go.jp/PCGIAP/
tech_paprs/apsdi_pub.htm (May 24, 2003).
PCGIAP, 2001, Working Group 3 report of Group Meeting at Tsukuba, 25th April
2001, PCGIAP Working Group 3: Cadastre, http://www.gsi.go.jp/PCGIAP/
tsukuba/WG3_back.htm (May 22, 2003).
PCGIAP, 2002, Report of working group 2 meeting, 18 April 2002, PCGIAP
Working Group 2: Fundamental Data, http://www.gsi.go.jp/PCGIAP/brunei/
wg2_report.htm (May 22, 2003).
Sliogeris, P. 2002, An XML Based Marine Data Management Framework. (Potts
Point, NSW, Australia: Australian Oceanographic Data Centre),
http://www.aodc.gov.au/ (20 May 2003).
U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, 2002, Developing a National Ocean Policy:
Mid-term report, September 2002, http://www.oceancommission.gov.
16 GIS for Coastal Zone Management
 CHAPTER TWO

Bridging the Land-Sea Divide Through

Digital Technologies
Simon Gomm

2.1 INTRODUCTION

There are many different types of users of coastal zone information, from the
casual user who may only want to browse, to the sophisticated user who makes
frequent use of mapping and demands continuous improvement. These user
communities are diverse in the topics they address, covering such areas as Local
and Central Government, environmental and economic analysis, and also
increasingly leisure use.
A common mapping framework that bridges the land-sea divide allows users
to build applications and decision-making tools necessary to promote the shared
use of such data throughout all levels of Government, the private and non-profit
sectors and academia. A consistent framework also serves to stimulate growth,
potentially resulting in significant savings in data collection, enhanced use of data
and assist better decision-making.
As well as a physical division, the land-sea divide has also, for many spatial
data suppliers, acted as a limit to their area of responsibility, or formed a data
product boundary. As a result users wanting to model the diverse aspect of the
coastal zone across this divide have had to identify, obtain and combine separate
datasets to provide the data coverage they require. The combination process must
resolve integration problems resulting from the differing projections, scale of
capture and other specification issues of the source datasets. This process can be
time consuming, result in inconsistent data and can cause a hindrance to the
management of a particularly sensitive environmental zone.
This chapter will look at the technical issues involved with the integration of
data across the land-sea divide and identify means for resolving these. Examples
within this chapter have been drawn from the work done by Ordnance Survey of
Great Britain, United Kingdom Hydrographic Office and the British Geological
Survey on integrated coastal zone mapping project (ICZMap) (Gomm, 2001).

0-41531-972-2/04/$0.00+$1.50
©2004 by CRC Press LLC
18 GIS for Coastal Zone Management

2.2 DATA SPECIFICATIONS

At the commencement of a project the user will need to have assessed the project’s
spatial and non-spatial requirements, and these will provide the key criteria for
defining and selecting suitable data. Typically such criteria will include: physical
extent of the project area, data content, attribution, positional accuracy, spatial
resolution, currency, projection, datum and transfer format. These criteria are all
discussed in more detail below.

2.2.1 Spatial Extent

The extent of the area for which data are required needs to be defined clearly in the
coordinate system to be used in the project. At a minimum the extent should be
defined by a bounding rectangle using the x and y coordinates of 2 diagonal
corners. Ideally the extent should be delineated by a bounding polygon at an
appropriate spatial resolution. A bounding polygon will allow for better selection
of relevant information and itself provide a tool for analysis within the project. In
defining the extent a sufficient margin should be included to allow for inclusion of
features which may have an influence on the application.

Figure 2.1 Bounding Rectangle. © Crown Copyright 2004. All rights reserved.

Figure 2.2 Bounding Polygon. © Crown Copyright 2004. All rights reserved.
Bridging the Land-Sea Divide Through Digital Technologies 19

In Figure 2.1 the extent of the ICZMap coastal zone project is defined as a
simple bounding rectangle and in Figure 2.2 as a polygon defined by buffering the
coastline 20km offshore and 5km inland. In practice, the latter was more
appropriate for the application and datasets of the ICZMap project, with its
emphasis on the processes and dynamics of the land-sea interface.
Whilst it is normal to consider defining extent only in two dimensions, it is
worth noting that there will be applications where height/depth extents, along with
the temporal aspect may need to be specified.

2.2.2 Data Content

The use to which data are to be put will define the features that are required. At the
simplest level this may merely be raster imagery for use as backdrop mapping
within an application. At a more complex level, where the data are required to
form part of the analysis, the user will need to consider what features and object
classes are required. In defining these requirements there will be some features that
fall uniquely on the land or in the sea, but there will also be others that by their
nature bridge this land-sea divide.

2.2.3 Attribution

Attribution of features within a dataset can be at a number of different levels. As a

minimum this could take the form of feature coding, allowing selection of required
features for analysis and symbolisation. Beyond this, additional attribution
concerning the real-world properties of the feature and how it was captured will
increase the versatility of the data. These attributes will vary for different features
within a dataset depending on the real-world object they represent, and the uses for
which the dataset was intended.

2.2.4 Positional Accuracy and Spatial Resolution

An appreciation of the positional accuracy requirements of a dataset is important to

ensure that the data are used in an appropriate way with other datasets, and to put
results of any analysis in to the correct context. The positional accuracy of spatial
data can be expressed both in terms of its absolute accuracy and its relative
accuracy.
Absolute accuracy is a measure to which a coordinated position in the dataset
corresponds to the true position of the real world feature it represents. Relative
accuracy expresses the positional accuracy between points in a dataset, and is a
comparison of the distance between features in a dataset with the real world
distance. Datasets with a high relative accuracy but low positional accuracy may
indicate a systematic shift in the data with respect to the coordinate system.
The spatial resolution represents the coordinate precision to which data are
stored in the dataset, and affects the maximum achievable accuracy for a dataset,
Other documents randomly have
different content
 CAPÍTULO II

Los Nombres de los Sapos.—El director de «Los Debates» y sus redactores.

Sánchez Gómez el impresor, a quien también se le conocía por el

mote del Plancheta, aunque trabajaba como obrero era hombre rico;
tenía un humor endiablado y desigual, una jovialidad corrosiva y un
fondo de buen corazón.
Era el impresor más pintoresco y multiforme de Madrid, y su
negocio, el más complicado e interesante.
Este solo dato bastaba para juzgarle: con una sola prensa, movida
por un motor de gas, de los antiguos, publicaba nueve periódicos,
cuyos títulos nadie podría encontrar insignificantes.
Los Debates, El Porvenir, La Nación, La Tarde, El Radical, La Mañana,
El Mundo, El Tiempo y La Prensa; todos estos diarios importantes
nacían en el sótano de la imprenta. A cualquier hombre vulgar le
parecía esto imposible; para Sánchez Gómez, aquel Proteo de la
tipografía, la palabra imposible no existía en el diccionario.
Cada periódico importante de éstos tenía una columna suya; y lo
demás, información, artículos literarios, anuncios, folletín, noticias,
era común a todos.
Sánchez Gómez hermanaba en sus periódicos el individualismo y el
colectivismo. Cada uno de sus órganos gozaba de su autonomía e
independencia en absoluto y, sin embargo, cada uno de ellos se
parecía al otro como dos gotas de agua. El cojo realizaba en sus
publicaciones la unidad y la variedad.
El Radical, por ejemplo, furibundo republicano, dedicaba la primera
columna a faltar al Gobierno y a los curas; pero sus noticias eran las
mismas que las de El Mundo, diario conservador impenitente que
empleaba la primera columna en defender la Iglesia, esa arca santa
de nuestras tradiciones; la Monarquía, esa gloriosa institución,
símbolo de nuestra Patria; el Ejercito, baluarte firmísimo de nuestra
nacionalidad; la Constitución, ese compendio de nuestras libertades
públicas...
De todos los periódicos allí impresos, Los Debates constituían un
buen negocio para su propietario, don Pedro Sampayo y Sánchez del
Pelgar. Era Los Debates—utilizando los símiles empleados en el diario
—terrible ariete contra el bolsillo de los políticos, fortaleza
inexpugnable para las exigencias de los acreedores.
El chantage, en manos del director del periódico, se convertía en
terrible arma de combate; ni la catapulta antigua ni el cañón de
treinta y seis podía comparársele.
El periódico de don Pedro Sampayo y Sánchez del Pelgar disponía de
tres columnas propias.
Estas columnas las fabricaba un gallegote, macizo y grueso, de
aspecto cerril, que escribía muy intencionadamente, llamado
González Parla, y un señor Fresneda, muy flaco, muy espiritado, muy
bien vestido y siempre muerto de hambre.
Langairiños, el Superhombre, pertenecía a la redacción de Los
Debates, pero sólo en una parte alícuota, pues sus producciones
geniales se estampaban en los nueve sapos nacidos en el sótano de
la imprenta de Sánchez Gómez.
Indudablemente, es hora de presentar a Langairiños. Le llamaban,
en broma, los periodistas el Superhombre y, abreviando, el Súper,
porque siempre estaba hablando del advenimiento del superhombre
de Nietzsche, sin comprender que, en broma y todo, no le hacían
más que justicia.
Era lo más alto, lo más excelso de la redacción; unas veces se
firmaba Máximo, otras Mínimo; pero su nombre, su verdadero
nombre, el que inmortalizaba diariamente, y diariamente, cada vez
más, en Los Debates o en El Tiempo, en El Mundo o en El Radical,
era Ernesto Langairiños.
¡Langairiños! Nombre dulce y sonoro, algo así como una brisa fresca
en una tarde de verano, ¡Langairiños! Un sueño.
El gran Langairiños tenía entre treinta y cuarenta años; abdomen
pronunciado, nariz aquilina y barba negra, fuerte y tupida.
Algún imbécil de los que le odiaban, al verle tan vertebrado y
cerebral, alguna de esas serpientes que tratan de morder en el acero
de las grandes personalidades, aseguraba que el aspecto de
Langairiños era grotesco, aseveración falsa a todas luces, pues, a
pesar de que su indumentaria no reunía las condiciones exigidas por
el más estrecho dandysmo; a pesar de que casi constantemente sus
pantalones mostraban rodilleras y flecos y sus americanas
constelaciones de manchas; a pesar de todo esto, su elegancia
natural, su aire de superioridad y de distinción borraba tan ligeras
imperfecciones, bien así como la ola del mar hace desaparecer las
huellas en la arena de la playa.
Langairiños ejercía de crítico, y de crítico cruel; sus artículos
aparecían al mismo tiempo en nueve periódicos. Su manera
impresionista despreciaba esas frases vulgares como «la señorita
Pérez rayó a gran altura», «los caracteres están bien sostenidos en
la obra» y otras de la misma clase.
En dos apotegmas reunía aquel superhombre todas sus ideas acerca
del mundo que le rodeaba, eran dos frases terribles, de una ironía
amarga y dislacerante. Que alguno aseguraba que este político, el
otro periodista tenían influencia, dinero o talento..., él replicaba: Sí,
sí, ya sé quien dices. Que otro decía que el novelista, el dramaturgo
hacían o dejaban de hacer..., él contestaba: Bueno, bueno; por la
otra puerta.
La superioridad de espíritu de Langairiños no le permitía suponer
que un hombre que no fuera él valiese más que otro.
Su obra maestra era un artículo titulado Todos golfos. Se trataba de
una conversación entre un maestro del periodismo—él—y un
aprendiz de periodista.
Aquel derroche de sal ática terminaba con este rasgo de humor:
El aprendiz.—Hay que tener principios.
El maestro.—En la mesa.
El aprendiz.—Hay que decir las cosas con verdadera crudeza al país.
El maestro.—Se le van a indigestar. Acuérdese usted de los
garbanzos de la casa de huéspedes.
El Superhombre escribía siempre así, de un modo terrible,
shakesperiano.
A consecuencia del desgaste cerebral producido por sus trabajos
intelectuales, el Súper se encontraba neurasténico, y para curar su
enfermedad tomaba glicerofosfato de cal en las comidas y hacía
gimnasia.
Manuel recordaba haber oído muchas veces en la casa de huéspedes
de doña Casiana una voz sonora que contaba valientemente y sin
fatiga el número de flexiones de piernas y de brazos. Veinticinco...,
veintiséis..., veintisiete, hasta llegar a ciento, y aun más. Aquel
Bayardo de la gimnasia se llamaba Langairiños.
Los otros dos redactores no podían compararse con Langairiños.
González Parla parecía un bárbaro por su facha de mozo de cuerda.
Hablaba brutalmente; llamaba al pan, pan, y al vino, vino; a los
políticos braguetones y a los periódicos de Sánchez Gómez, los
sapos.
El otro redactor, Fresneda, podía apostar a finura al hombre más fino
y almibarado de Madrid. Experimentaba un verdadero placer en
llamar señor a todo el mundo. Fresneda se sostenía en pie por
milagro; se pasaba la vida muerto de hambre, pero esto no producía
en él iras ni cóleras.
González Parla y Fresneda necesitaban recurrir a toda clase de
expedientes para obligar a Sampayo, el propietario de Los Debates,
a que les pagara algunas pesetas. La esperanza de los dos, una
credencial obtenida por intermedio del director propietario, no se
realizaba nunca.
Manuel oía hablar tanto de Sampayo, que sintió curiosidad por
conocerle.
Era un señor alto, erguido, de noble aspecto, de unos sesenta y
tantos años; había conseguido varias veces el cargo de Gobernador,
gracias a su mujer, una real hembra, en sus buenos tiempos, capaz
de obtener cualquier cosa de un Ministro. En los gobiernos civiles
por donde pasó el matrimonio no quedaron ni los clavos.
La mujer de Sampayo tenía buenas amistades con algunos señores
ricos, pero en justa reciprocidad era tan superhembra y tan
tolerante, que buscaba siempre criadas guapas y amables para que
su marido estuviese satisfecho.
¡Y qué espectáculo más humano presentaba el hogar! Algunas
veces, cuando llegaba la señora de Sampayo a su casa, un tanto
fatigada, después de alguna aventurilla, se encontraba a su esposo
con su noble aspecto cenando mano a mano con la criada, cuando
no abrazándola cariñosamente.
El matrimonio gastaba sus ingresos íntegros; pero Sampayo era tan
diestro en el arte de crearse acreedores y de torearlos después, que
siempre encontraba medio de sacar algunos cuartos.
Una vez que González Parla, muy ceñudo, y Fresneda, muy amable,
llamando al director señor Sampayo a cada momento, le exponían su
crítica situación, Sampayo entregó a Fresneda una carta para un
general americano, pidiéndole dinero. Puso a su redactor la
condición de que todo lo que pasara de diez duros quedaría para la
caja.
Al salir a la calle los dos redactores, González Parla le exigió a su
compañero la carta, y el hombre espectral se la dió.
—Yo iré a verle a ese braguetón de general—dijo González Parla—y
le sacaré las perras y nos las repartiremos. La mitad para ti y la otra
mitad para mí.
El hombre flaco acompañó al hombre gordo hasta la casa del
general.
El general, un guachindanguito vestido de guacamayo, leyó la carta
del director, miró al periodista, se caló los lentes y le preguntó,
contemplándole de arriba abajo:
—¿Uté es el señó Fresneda?
—Sí, señor.
—¿Etá uté seguro?
—Claro; soy yo.
—Pero uté etá tísico, ¿no?
—¿Yo? No, señor.
—Pues eso me disen en la carta, ¿sabe?... Que tiene uté siete hijos y
que por su aspecto podré comprender que etá en el último período
de tisis, ¿sabe?
González Parla se azoró; dijo que era verdad que no estaba tísico;
pero que había tenido un padre que había estado tísico, y como
había tenido el padre tísico, le decían los médicos que él quedaría
también tísico, que ya lo estaba en principio, de modo que aunque
no lo fuera, era casi lo mismo que si lo estuviera ya.
—Yo no comprendo eso, ¿sabe?—dijo el general, después de
escuchar una argumentación tan deficiente—; yo entiendo que eso é
una macana, ¿no? No se puede etá tan gordo hallándose enfermo,
¿sabe? Pero, en fin—y largó un billete doblado entre sus dedos—,
tome y váyase, y no sea pendejo.
—Esta gordura es falsa—replicaba humildemente González Parla,
cogiendo el billete—. Es la patata que come uno, y se escabulló
avergonzado.
El billete era de cien pesetas, y se lo repartieron entre el redactor
flaco y el redactor gordo, con gran indignación de Sampayo. Este se
prometió no darles ni un céntimo durante meses.
Fresneda, en las últimas boqueadas del hambre tuvo la única frase
enérgica de toda su vida.
—Yo le daré a usted una recomendación para el ministro—le dijo el
director, contestando así a una petición de dinero.
—Para morirse de hambre, señor de Sampayo—contestó con energía
no exenta de su proverbial finura Fresneda—, no se necesitan
recomendaciones.
 CAPÍTULO III

El Parador de Santa Casilda.—La historia de Jacob.—La Fea y la

Sinforosa.—La chica sin madre.—Mala Nochebuena.

Para la primavera Manuel componía con facilidad. Poco después, el

tercer cajista se fué, y Jesús dijo al amo que debía de poner a
Manuel en la plaza vacante.
—Pero si no sabe nada—replicó el dueño.
—¡No ha de saber! Páguele usted por líneas.
—No, le subiré el jornal.
—¿Cuánto le va usted a dar?
—Le daré ocho reales.
—Es poco. El otro ganaba doce.
—Bueno, le daré nueve; pero que no venga a dormir aquí.
El nuevo cargo emancipó a Manuel de la obligación de barrer la
imprenta y salió de su cuchitril. Jesús le llevó al parador de Santa
Casilda, en donde él vivía; un enorme caserón de un solo piso, con
tres patios muy grandes, que estaba en la ronda de Toledo. Hubiera
deseado Manuel no ir por aquellos barrios, de los que conservaba
malos recuerdos; pero su amistad con Jesús le hizo quedarse allí. Le
alquilaron en el parador, por ocho reales a la quincena, un cuartucho
con una cama, una silla de paja rota, y una estera colgada del techo,
que hacía de puerta. Cuando el viento venía del campo de San
Isidro, se llenaban de humo los cuartos y los corredores del parador
de Santa Casilda. Los patios del parador eran, poco más o menos,
como los de la casa del tío Rilo, con galerías idénticas, y puertas
numeradas.
Desde la ventana del cuartucho de Manuel se veían tres depósitos,
panzudos, rojos, de la fábrica del gas, con sus soportes altos de
hierro terminados en poleas, y alrededor el Rastro; a un lado,
vertederos ennegrecidos por el carbón y las escorias; más lejos se
extendía el paisaje árido, y sus lomas calvas amarillentas se
escalonaban hasta perderse en el horizonte. Enfrente sobresalía el
cerrillo de los Angeles con su ermita en la punta.
En el cuarto inmediato al alquilado por Manuel había un carpintero y
su mujer que tenían una niña. Los dos se emborrachaban y pegaban
a la chica de una manera bestial.
Manuel estuvo muchas veces dispuesto a entrar en el cuarto, porque
suponía que aquellos bárbaros martirizaban a la niña.
Una de las mañanas que encontró a la carpintera, le dijo:
—¿Por qué pegan ustedes así a la chica?
—¿Te importa algo?
—Claro que me importa.
—¿No es mi hija? Puedo hacer con ella lo que quiera.
—Así debía haber hecho su madre con usted—le contestó—, quitarla
de en medio a palos por bruja.
Refunfuñó la mujer y Manuel se fué a la imprenta.
Por la noche, el carpintero detuvo a Manuel.
—¿Qué le has dicho tú a mi señora, eh?
—Le he dicho que no debía pegar a su hija.
—Y a ti, ¿quién te mete a decir nada?
El carpintero tenía un aspecto feroz, un entrecejo abultado y un
cuello de toro. Una gruesa vena le cruzaba la frente. Manuel no le
contestó.
Afortunadamente para él el carpintero y su mujer se mudaron de la
casa pronto.
En los cuchitriles del mismo pasillo del parador vivían también dos
gitanos viejos con sus familias, los dos muy zaragateros y muy
ladrones; una muchacha ciega, que cantaba flamenco en la calle,
moviéndose con unas convulsiones de epiléptica, y que iba
acompañada de otra chica, con la que se pegaba continuamente, y
dos hermanas muy golfas, muy zarrapastrosas, pintadas, chillonas,
embusteras, liosas, pero alegres como cabras.
La habitación de Jesús se hallaba bastante próxima a la de Manuel,
y esta vida común de la imprenta y de la casa hizo que estrecharán
más sus relaciones de amistad.
Jesús era un excelente muchacho, pero se emborrachaba con una
frecuencia lamentable; tenía dos hermanas solteras, una bonita, con
unos ojos verdes de gato, de facha desvergonzada, llamada
Sinforosa, y la otra una pobre enclenque, torcida y escrofulosa, a
quien todos le decían, implacablemente, la Fea.
A los dos meses o cosa así de vivir en el parador, Jesús, con su tono
irónico peculiar, le dijo a Manuel cuando marchaban los dos a la
imprenta.
—¿No sabes? Mi hermana está preñada.
—¿Sí?
—Vaya.
—¿Cuál de las dos?
—La Fea. ¿Quién habrá sido el héroe? Merece una cruz.
El cajista siguió hablando del percance y bromeando con
indiferencia.
A Manuel no le parecía bien esto; al fin era su hermana; pero Jesús
salió con sus invectivas contra la familia y con que uno no se debía
ocupar para nada de los hermanos, ni de los padres, ni de nadie.
—Buena teoría para los egoístas—le dijo Manuel.
—La familia no es más que el egoísmo en beneficio de unos pocos y
en contra de la humanidad—contestó Jesús.
—Bastante caso haces tú de la humanidad, tan poco como de tu
familia—le replicó Manuel.
Por esta cuestión volvieron a discutir varias veces y llegaron a
decirse cosas muy agrias y mortificantes.
A Manuel no le importaba mayormente aquello; pero le producía
indignación al ver que Jesús y la Sinforosa no se compadeciesen de
su hermana y la enviasen a hacer recados y la obligasen a barrer
cuando la pobre raquítica no podía con su barriga, que amenazaba
ser monstruosa. Por motivo de estas discusiones, hubo días en los
cuales Manuel apenas cruzó unas cuantas palabras con Jesús, y se
dedicó a charlar con Jacob y a hacerle preguntas acerca de su país.
A Jacob, a pesar de que según decía no le había ido muy bien en su
tierra, le gustaba hablar de ella.
Era de Fez y tenía un entusiasmo grande por esta ciudad.
—La pintaba como un paraíso lleno de huertas con palmeras,
limoneros y naranjos, cruzada por riachuelos cristalinos. En Fez, en
el barrio de los judíos, pasó Jacob su infancia, hasta que entró al
servicio de un comerciante rico, que negociaba en Rabat, Mogador y
Saffi.
Jacob, con su imaginación viva y su modo de hablar exagerado,
pintoresco y lleno de imágenes, daba la impresión de la realidad
cuando hablaba de su país.
Pintaba el paso de las caravanas compuestas de camellos, asnos y
dromedarios. Describía éstos con sus cuellos largos y su cabeza
pequeña, que se balancea como la de las serpientes, con los ojos
apagados que miran al cielo; y al oirle mientras peroraba se creía
estar atravesando aquellos arenales blancos, en donde el sol ciega.
Describía también los mercados constituídos en la confluencia de
unas cuantas sendas y caracterizaba a la gente que acudía a ellos;
los moros de las cabilas próximas con sus fusiles, los encantadores
de serpientes, los hechiceros, los narradores de cuentos de las Mil y
una noches, los médicos que sacan los gusanos de los oídos.
Y al retirarse las caravanas, al alejarse unos y otros por las sendas,
jinetes en sus caballos y en sus mulas, Jacob imitaba los graznidos
de los cuervos que acudían en bandadas al lugar del mercado y lo
cubrían de una capa negra.
Pintaba el efecto que causaba ver treinta o cuarenta bereberes a
caballo, con melenas largas, armados de espingardas, y que, al
pasar un judío, escupían en el suelo; la vida sin seguridad; por los
caminos, gentes sin ojos y sin brazos, castigados por la justicia,
pidiendo limosna en nombre de Muley Edris, y durante el invierno, el
paso peligroso de los ríos, los anocheceres en la puerta del aduar,
mientras se preparaba el cus-cus, tocando el guembrí y cantando
canciones soñolientas y tristes.
Un sábado, Jacob le convidó a Manuel a comer en su casa.
Vivía el judío en el barrio de Pozas, en una casucha de una callejuela
próxima al paseo de Areneros.
La casita aquella tenía un aspecto extraño, algo oriental. Una o dos
mesas bajitas de pino; jergones pequeños en vez de sillas, y
colgando de las paredes trapos de color y dos guitarrillos de tres
cuerdas.
Manuel conoció al padre de Jacob, un viejo melenudo que andaba
por casa con una túnica obscura y una gorra, a su mujer Mesoda y a
una niña de ojos negros llamada Aisa.
Se sentaron todos a la mesa; el viejo pronuncio unas cuantas
palabras gravemente en una lengua enrevesada, que Manuel supuso
sería una oración en judío, y comenzaron a comer.
La comida tenía gusto a hierbas aromáticas fuertes, y a Manuel le
pareció que mascaba flores.
En la mesa, el viejo, en el castellano extravagante en que hablaba
toda la familia, contó a Manuel las peripecias de la guerra de Africa;
en su narración Prim, el señor Juan Prim—como decía él—tomaba
proporciones épicas. Jacob debía de respetar profundamente al viejo
y le dejaba perorar y hablar de Prim y del Eterno; Mesoda muy
tímida sonreía y se ruborizaba por cualquier cosa.
Después de comer, Jacob descolgó de la pared uno de los guitarrillos
de tres cuerdas y cantó varias canciones árabes acompañándose de
uno de aquellos instrumentos primitivos.
Manuel se despidió de la familia de Jacob y prometió visitarla de
cuando en cuando.

Una noche de otoño, al volver Manuel del trabajo, después de un día

entero en que Jesús no apareció por la imprenta, al entrar en el
parador se encontró en el pasillo que conducía a su cuarto con un
grupo de comadres, que hablaban de Jesús y de sus hermanas.
La Fea había parido; estaban en su cuarto el médico de la Casa de
Socorro y la señora Salomona, una buena mujer que se ganaba la
vida asistiendo enfermos.
—¿Pero qué ha hecho Jesús?—preguntó Manuel al oir los dicterios
de las mujeres contra el cajista.
—¿Qué ha hecho?—contestó una de las comadres—, pues ná, que
ha resultao que vivía amontonao con la Sinfo, que es una pécora
más mala que un dolor, y Jesús y ella se habían entregao a la
bebida, y la zorrona de la Sinfo le quitaba el jornal que ganaba la
Fea.
—Eso no puede ser verdad—replicó Manuel.
—¿Qué no? Si lo ha dicho el mismo Jesús.
—Pues la otra no es muy decente tampoco, que digamos—añadió
una de las mujeres.
—Tanto como la que más—replicó la comadre oradora—. Se lo ha
contao tó al médico de la Casa de Socorro. Una noche en que no
había pasao gracia divina por su cuerpo, porque Jesús y la Sinfo se
habían llevao tóos los quisquis, fué la Fea y, para remediar el
hambre, bebió un trago de aguardiente y luego otro, y con la
debilidá que tenía se quedó borracha. Vinieron la Sinfo y Jesús, y los
dos cargados, y la muy zorra, viéndola en la cama a la Fea, la dijo,
dice: Anda, que la cama la necesitamos nosotros para... (haciendo
un ademán desvergonzado). Ya me entienden ustés, y va y pone a
su hermana a la puerta. La Fea, que no sabía lo que se hacía, salió a
la calle, y uno del Orden, al verla curda, la lleva a la delega y la
mete en un cuarto obscuro, y allí algún tío...
—Que estaría también curda—dijo un albañil que se detuvo a oir la
relación.
—Pues ná...—añadió la comadre.
—Si llega a haber luz, pa mí que no hay nada, porque el compadre,
al ver la cara de la socia se asusta—añadió el albañil siguiendo su
camino.
Manuel se separó del grupo de comadres y se asomó a la puerta del
cuarto de Jesús. Era un espectáculo desolador; la hermana del
cajista, pálida, con los ojos cerrados, echada en el suelo sobre unas
esteras, cubierta con telas de sacos, parecía un cadáver, el médico la
fajaba en aquel momento; la señora Salomona vestía el recién
nacido; un charco de sangre manchaba los ladrillos.
Jesús, arrimado a la pared en un rincón, miraba al médico y a su
hermana, impasible, con los ojos brillantes.
El médico pidió a las vecinas que trajeran un colchón y unas
sábanas; cuando llegaron estas cosas pusieron el colchón sobre el
petate, de tablas, y colocaron con cuidado a la Fea. Estaba la pobre
raquítica como un esqueleto; su pecho era liso como el de un
hombre y, a pesar de que no debía tener fuerzas para moverse,
cuando le pusieron el niño a su lado, cambió de postura e intentó
darle de mamar.
Manuel, al notarlo, miró a Jesús con ira.
Le hubiera pegado con gusto, por permitir que su hermana estuviera
así.
El médico, cuando concluyó su trabajo, cogió a Jesús, lo llevó al
extremo de la galería y habló con él. Jesús se hallaba dispuesto a
hacer todo lo que le dijeran; daría el jornal entero a la Fea, lo
prometía.
Luego, cuando se fué el médico, Jesús cayó en manos de las
comadres, que le pusieron como un trapo.
El no negó nada. Al revés.
—Durante el embarazo—dijo—ha dormido en el suelo sobre la
estera.
Todas las comadres cementaron indignadas las palabras del cajista.
Este se encogía de hombros estúpidamente.
—¡Mire usté que estar la pobre infeliz durmiendo sobre la estera
mientras que la Sinfo y Jesús se estaban en la cama!—decía una.
Y la indignación se acentuó contra la Sinfo, aquella golfa indecente,
a la que juraron dar una paliza morrocotuda. La señora Salomona
tuvo que interrumpir la charla, porque no dejaban dormir en paz a la
parturienta.
La Sinfo debió sospechar algo, pues no se presentó en el parador.
Jesús, ceñudo, sombrío, con las mejillas encendidas y los ojos
brillantes, en los días posteriores, iba de su casa a la imprenta sin
hablar una palabra. Manuel sospechó si estaría enamorado de su
hermana.
Durante el sobreparto, las mujeres de la vecindad cuidaron con
cariño a la Fea; exigían el jornal entero a Jesús, quien lo daba sin
inconveniente alguno. El recién nacido, encanijado e hidrocéfalo,
murió a la semana.
La Sinforosa no apareció más por el parador; según se decía se
había lanzado a la vida.

El día de Nochebuena, por la tarde, llegaron al parador tres señores

vestidos de negro. Un viejecillo de bigote blanco y ojos alegres; un
señor estirado de barba entrecana y anteojos de oro; y otro que
parecía secretario o escribiente, bajito, de bigote negro, que
taconeaba al andar e iba cargado de papeles. Dijeron que eran de la
Conferencia de San Vicente de Paúl, visitaron a la hermana de Jesús
y a otras personas que vivían en rincones y tabucos de la casa.
Detrás de aquellos señores vestidos de negro fueron Manuel y Jesús,
que no hacían más que dormir en el parador, no conocían la
vecindad, así que anduvieron por su casa como por una extraña.
—¡Hipócritas!—decía el albañil a voz en grito.
—Pero, hombre. ¡Cállese usted!—exclamó Manuel—que le van a oir.
—¿Y qué?—replicaba el vecino—. ¡Qué me oigan! Son unos
hipócritas. ¿A qué vienen aquí a echárselas de caritativos? A hacer el
paripé, a eso vienen esos tíos; estos jesuítas farsantes. ¿Qué leñe
quieren saber? ¿que vivimos mal? ¿que estamos hechos unos
guarros? ¿que no cuidamos de los chicos? ¿que nos
emborrachamos? Bueno, pues que nos den su dinero y viviremos
mejor, pero que no se nos vengan con bonos y con consejos.
Entraron los tres señores en un tabuco de un par de metros en
cuadro. En el suelo, sobre un montón de paja y de harapos, había
una mujer hidrópica, con la cara hinchada y entontecida.
En una silla, a la luz de una candileja, cosía una mujer joven.
Desde el pasillo Manuel pudo oir la conversación que tenían adentro.
El viejecillo del bigote blanco preguntó con su voz alegre qué es lo
que le pasaba a la mujer, y una vecina que vivía en un cuarto
próximo contó un sin fin de miserias y dolores.
La hidrópica sobrellevaba sus desdichas con resignación
extraordinaria.
Se cebó la desgracia en ella y fué cayendo y cayendo hasta llegar a
aquella situación tan triste. No encontró una mano amiga, y sus
únicos favorecedores fueron un carnicero y su mujer, antiguos
criados de su casa a quienes había ayudado a establecerse en
mejores épocas. La carnicera, que además era prestamista, solía
comprar en el Rastro mantones y pañuelos de Manila, y cuando
tenían algo que zurcir o arreglar se los llevaba a la hija de la
hidrópica para que los compusiera.
Esto, la antigua criada se lo pagaba a la hija de sus amos con un
montón de huesos, y a veces, cuando quedaba satisfecha de su
trabajo le daba las sobras de su comida.
—¡Moler con la generosidad de la carnicera!—dijo el albañil, que
escuchaba la narración de la vecina.
—También la gente del pueblo—repuso Jesús en broma, recordando
una frase de zarzuela—tiene su corazoncito.
Los señores de la Conferencia de Paúl, después de oir tan
conmovedora relación, dieron tres bonos a la hija de la hidrópica y
salieron del cuarto.
—Ya es feliz esta mujer—murmuró Jesús irónicamente—; tenía que
morirse mañana y se muere pasado. ¿Para qué quiere más?
El albañil murmuró:—Me parece.
El secretario, el de los papeles, recordó un caso análogo al de la
hidrópica, y lo llamó curioso y extremadamente interesante.
Cuando los tres señores salían de un pasillo para desembocar en
otro, una vieja les llamó y habiéndoles de usía les pidió que la
acompañaran y les llevó alumbrándoles con una bujía a un
caramanchón o agujero negro abierto debajo de una escalera. Sobre
un montón de trapos y arropada en un mantón raído, había una
chiquilla delgada, esmirriada, la cara morena y flaca, los ojos negros,
huraños, y brillantes. A su lado dormía un chico de dos o tres años.
—Yo quisiera que usías—dijo la vieja—la metieran a esta chica en un
asilo. Es huérfana; su madre, que con perdón, no llevaba muy buena
vida, murió aquí. Ella se ha metido en este agujero y nadie la puede
echar, y roba huevos, pan, todo lo que puede, unas veces en una
casa, otras en otra, para dar de comer al rorro. Yo quisiera que usías
consiguieran que la llevaran a un asilo.
La chiquilla miró con sus ojos grandes, espantados a los tres
señores, y agarró de la mano al chico.
—Esta niña—dijo el secretario, el de los papeles—, tiene por su
hermano un cariño verdaderamente curioso e interesante, y yo no sé
si no sería cruel separarlos.
—Estaría mejor en un asilo—añadió la vieja.
—Ya veremos, ya veremos—replicó el señor anciano—. Se fueron los
tres.
—¿Cómo te llamas tú?—le preguntó Jesús a la chica.
—¿Yo? Salvadora.
—¿Quieres venir a vivir conmigo con tu chico?
—Sí—contestó sin vacilar la niña.
—Bueno, pues vamos, levántate. La Fea se va a poner más contenta
—dijo Jesús como para dar una explicación de su rasgo—. Si no la
van a separar de su crío y es una barbaridad.
La chica cogió al niño en brazos y acompañó a Jesús. La Fea debió
recibir a los dos abandonados con gran entusiasmo. Manuel no
presenció la escena porque en el pasillo le detuvo un muchacho
joven:
—¿No me conoces?—le preguntó, encarándose con él.
—Sí, hombre... El Aristón.
—El mismo.
—¿Vives aquí?
—Ahí en el Corral.
El Corral era uno de los patios del parador, y daba a ese infecto
Rastro que va desde la Ronda a la fábrica del gas. El Aristón seguía
con su necromanía; no le habló a Manuel más que de muertos,
entierros y cosas fúnebres.
Le dijo que iba a los camposantos los domingos; pues él consideraba
como un deber el cumplir esa Obra de Misericordia que manda
enterrar a los muertos.
En el curso de la conversación, el necrómano insinuó la idea de que
si el rey se muriera se le haría un entierro admirable; pero que a
pesar de esto, él se figuraba que el entierro del Papa sería más
suntuoso.
Cruzaron el necrómano y Manuel varios pasillos.
—¿A dónde me llevas?—le preguntó Manuel.
—Si quieres venir, verás un muerto.
—¿Y qué vas a hacer junto a ese muerto?
—Voy a velarle y a rezar por él—dijo el Aristón.
En un cuartucho iluminado por dos velas puestas en dos botellas,
había un hombre muerto, tendido en un jergón...
De lejos llegaba rumor de panderetas y de cánticos; de cuando en
cuando una voz chillona de vieja borracha, cantaba a voz en grito:

«Ande, ande, ande

la marimorena;
ande, ande, ande,
que es la Nochebuena.»

En el cuarto del muerto, en aquel instante, no había nadie.

 CAPÍTULO IV

La Navidad de Roberto.—Gente del Norte.

A la misma hora, Roberto Hasting marchaba a casa de Bernardo

Santín, envuelto en su abrigo. La noche estaba fría, apenas
transitaba nadie por la calle, los tranvías pasaban de prisa
resbalando por los railes con un zumbido suave.
Roberto entró en la casa, subió al último piso y llamó. Abrió la
puerta Esther y pasó adentro.
—¿Y Bernardo?—preguntó Roberto.
—No ha venido en todo el día—contestó la ex-institutriz.
—¿No?
—No.
Esther, envuelta en un chal, se sentó ante la mesa. El cuarto, la
antigua galería fotográfica, estaba iluminada con un quinqué de
petróleo. Todo denunciaba allí la mayor miseria.
—¿Se han llevado la máquina?—preguntó Roberto.
—Sí, esta mañana. Tengo el dinero guardado en este cajón. ¿Qué
me aconseja usted que haga, Roberto?
Roberto paseó de un lado a otro del cuarto, mirando al suelo; de
repente se detuvo ante Esther.
—¿Usted quiere que le hable con entera franqueza?
—Sí, con entera franqueza; como hablaría usted con un camarada.
—Pues, bien, entonces yo creo que lo que debe usted hacer es, no
sé si el consejo le parecerá a usted brutal...
—Diga usted.
—Lo que creo que debe usted hacer es separarse de su marido.
Esther calló.
—Ha caído usted en manos, no de un infame, ni de un canalla, pero
sí en manos de un desgraciado, de un pobre imbécil, sin talento, sin
energía, incapaz de vivir e incapaz de comprender a usted.
—¿Y qué voy a hacer?
—¿Qué? Volver a su vida pasada, a sus lecciones de piano y de
inglés. ¿Es que le sería a usted dolorosa la separación?
—No, al revés; puede usted creerlo, no siento el menor cariño por
Bernardo; me inspira lástima y repulsión. Es más, no lo he querido
nunca.
—Entonces, ¿por qué se casó usted con él?
—Qué sé yo. La fatalidad, el consejo pérfido de una amiga, el no
conocerle; fué una de esas cosas que se hacen sin saber por qué. Al
día siguiente estaba arrepentida.
—Lo creo. Yo cuando supe que Bernardo se casaba, pensé: Será
alguna aventurera que quiere legitimar su situación con un hombre;
luego, cuando la fuí conociendo a usted, me pregunté: ¿Cómo ha
podido esta mujer engañarse con un hombre tan insignificante como
Bernardo? No hay explicación. Ni dinero, ni talento, ni energía. ¿Qué
le ha impulsado a una mujer ilustrada, de corazón, a casarse con un
tipo así? Nunca me lo he podido explicar. ¿Es que creyó usted ver en
él un artista, un hombre, aunque pobre, dispuesto a trabajar y a
luchar?
—No, me hicieron ver todo esto. Para que comprenda usted mi
decisión, tendría que contarle mi vida, desde que llegué a Madrid
con mi madre. Vivíamos las dos modestamente con una pequeña
pensión que nos mandaba un pariente de París. Yo había concluído
de estudiar en el Conservatorio y buscaba lecciones. Tenía dos o tres
de piano, y una de inglés, con lo que sacaba bastante para mis
gastos. En esta situación se puso enferma mi madre, perdí mis
lecciones para atenderla y me ví en una situación angustiosísima.
Luego cuando murió, me encontraba sola en una casa de
huéspedes, asediada por hombres que me hacían proposiciones
indignas a todas horas; correteando por las calles para encontrar
una plaza de institutriz; verdaderamente desesperada. Crea usted
que hubo días en que sentí la tentación de suicidarme, de echarme a
la mala vida, de tomar una resolución extrema para no tener ya que
pensar. En esta situación un día leo en un periódico que una señora
inglesa que se hospedaba en el hotel de París quería una señorita de
compañía que conociera bien el español y el inglés. Me presento en
el hotel, espero a la señora y ésta me recibe con los brazos abiertos
y me trata como a una hermana. Puede usted comprender mi
satisfacción y mi gratitud. Nunca he sido ingrata; si en aquella época
mi protectora me hubiera pedido la vida se la hubiese dado con
gusto. Créalo usted. Esta señora era aficionada a pintar y
acostumbraba ir al Museo; yo solía acompañarla. Entre los que
copiaban en el Museo había un joven alemán, alto, rubio, amigo de
mi protectora, que comenzó a hacerme el amor. Yo le encontraba
petulante y poco simpático. Cuando mi protectora notó que el pintor
me galanteaba, se incomodó mucho y me dijo que era un perdido,
un canalla cínico; hizo un retrato horrible de él, lo pintó como un
egoísta depravado. Yo, que no sentía gran simpatía por el alemán,
escuché los consejos de mi protectora y le manifesté al pintor
claramente mi desprecio. A pesar de esto, Oswald, así se llamaba,
insistía, cuando apareció allí Bernardo. Creo que conocía algo al
alemán, y un día habló con nosotras. Entonces mi protectora hizo,
sin que yo lo advirtiera, una labor contraria a la que había hecho con
Oswald; me alabó a Bernardo a todas horas, me dijo que era un
gran artista, de un talento superior, de una sensibilidad exquisita, un
corazón de oro; me dijo que me adoraba. Efectivamente, recibí
cartas de él encantadoras, llenas de sentimientos delicados, que me
conmovieron. Ella, mi protectora, facilitó nuestras entrevistas, excitó
mi imaginación, me impulsó a este matrimonio desdichado, y
viéndome casada se fué de Madrid. A las dos o tres semanas de
matrimonio, Bernardo me confesó riendo que las cartas que me
había escrito se las había dictado Fanny.
—¿Fanny dice usted?—preguntó Roberto.
—Sí; ¿la conoce usted?
—Creo que sí.
—Estaba ella enamorada de Oswald. Había hecho para impedir que
Oswald me galantease una gran perfidia. Después de salvarme de la
miseria, me ha llevado a una situación aun peor que aquélla en que
me encontró. Abusó de la confianza ciega que en ella tenía. Pero me
vengaré, sí, me vengaré. Fanny está aquí con Oswald. Los he visto.
Le he escrito a él citándole para mañana.
—Ha hecho usted mal, Esther.
—¿Por qué? ¿Se juega así con la vida de una persona?
—¿Qué adelantará usted con eso?
—Vengarme; ¿le parece a usted poco?
—Poco. Si ha conservado usted cariño por Oswald, es otra cosa.
—No, yo no. No le quiero; pero no dejaré a Fanny sin castigar su
perfidia.
—¿Llegaría usted al adulterio por la venganza?
—¿Y quién le ha dicho a usted que llegaría al adulterio? Además, en
mí sería un derecho, no una falta.
—Haría usted además desgraciado a Oswald.
—¿No me han hecho desgraciada a mí?
Esther se hallaba presa de una gran excitación.
—¿Cree usted que mañana vendrá Oswald a esta casa?—le preguntó
Roberto.
—Sí, creo que sí.
—Esta protectora de usted, ¿es alta, delgada, con ojos grises?
—¡Sí!
—Es mi prima.
—¿Su prima de usted?
—Sí. Le advierto a usted que es muy violenta.
—Lo sé.
—Que es capaz de atacarle a usted en cualquier parte.
—Lo sé también.
—¿Ha pensado usted con calma en su resolución? Como
comprenderá usted, un hombre a quien se le cita y se le dice: «—Si
no le correspondí a usted fué porque me engañaron respecto a
usted, y me dijeron que era usted lo que no era», ese hombre no
puede resignarse a oir tranquilamente esta confidencia.
—¿Y qué va a hacer?
—Buscará una compensación. Nadie se resigna a ser un instrumento
de venganza ajena. Usted perturba la tranquilidad de ese hombre.
—¿No perturbaron la mía?
—Sí; pero vengar la perfidia de Fanny en su amante, no me parece
justo.
—No me importa. Sólo una cosa me haría olvidar mi venganza.
—¿Cuál?
—El que le pudiera ocasionar a usted algún perjuicio. Usted ha sido
bueno para mí—murmuró Esther ruborizándose.
—No, a mí ningún perjuicio puede ocasionarme, pero a usted sí.
Fanny es colérica.
—¿Quiere usted venir mañana?
—Pero yo, ¿con qué derecho voy a intervenir?
—¿No es usted amigo mío?
—Sí.
—Entonces venga usted.
Fué Roberto al día siguiente por la tarde. Bernardo estaba, según su
costumbre, fuera de casa; Esther se hallaba muy excitada. A las
cuatro llegó Oswald. Era un joven rubio, encarnado, chato, con los
ojos rojos, muy alto y con el pelo largo. Pareció sufrir una gran
decepción al encontrar solo a Roberto. Hablaron. A Roberto, Oswald
le pareció un pedante insoportable. Tomó la palabra para decir, en
un tono de dómine, que no podía aguantar a los españoles ni a los
franceses. Iba a escribir un libro, el Antilatino, considerando los
pueblos latinos como degenerados, que deben conquistar cuanto
antes los germanos. Le indignaba que se hablara de Francia. Francia
no existía; Francia no había hecho nada. Francia tenía a su alrededor
la muralla de la China. Como ha dicho Bjorson, desde hace mucho
tiempo, el mundo tiene como el mejor músico a Wagner; como el
mejor dramaturgo, a Ibsen; como el mejor novelista, a Tolstoi; como
el mejor pintor a Bocklin; sin embargo, en Francia se sigue hablando
de Sardou, de Mirbeau y de otros imbéciles por el estilo. Los
escritores originales de París plagian a Nietzsche; los músicos latinos
han copiado y saqueado a los alemanes; la ciencia francesa no
existe, ni la filosofía, ni el arte. El hecho histórico de Francia era una
completa ilusión. Toda la raza latina era una raza despreciable.
Roberto no contestó a esto y observó atentamente a Oswald. ¡Le
parecía tan absurdo, tan pedantesco aquel nombre largo, a quien
citaba una mujer y hablaba de sociología!
Entró Esther. La saludó el alemán muy gravemente, y le preguntó de
sopetón el motivo de la cita. Esther nada dijo; Roberto,
discretamente, salió del taller y comenzó a pasear por el corredor.
—¿Sabe Fanny que ha venido usted aquí?—dijo Esther a Oswald.
—Sí, creo que sí.
—Me alegro.
—¿Por qué?
---Porque vendrá también ella.
—¿Tiene algo que ver en este asunto?
—Sí. ¿Hace tiempo que vive con usted?
—Sí, ya hace tiempo.
Callaron los dos y esperaron sin hablarse en una situación
embarazosa. De pronto se oyó un campanillazo formidable.
—Aquí está ella—dijo Esther, y abrió la puerta.
Penetró Fanny en el estudio. Venía pálida, descompuesta.
—¿No me esperabas?—preguntó a Esther.
—Sí, sabía que vendría usted.
—¿Qué le quieres a Oswald?
—Nada, quiero decirle qué clase de mujer es usted; quiero contarle
sus perfidias nada más. Usted ha cometido conmigo, que me fiaba
en usted como en mi madre, una acción villana; usted me ha
vendido. Me dijo usted que Oswald había engañado una mujer para
abandonarla después.
—¡Yo!—dijo con asombro el pintor.
—Si, usted; ella me lo contó; me dijo también que usted era un
pintor despreciable y sin talento.
Fanny, asombrada, desprevenida, no contestó una palabra.
—Durante el tiempo que usted y yo nos tratamos—siguió diciendo
Esther dirigiéndose a Oswald—no dejó ocasión de hablar mal de
usted, de insultarle; decía que usted quería seducirme; le pintaba a
usted como un malvado, como un canalla, como un hombre
repugnante...
—¡Mientes, mientes!—gritó Fanny con voz chillona.
—Digo la verdad, sólo la verdad. Yo entonces creí que sus consejos
eran por mi bien, por el cariño que me tenía; después ví que había
cometido conmigo la perfidia más grande, más inicua que se puede
cometer, valiéndose del ascendiente que tenía sobre mí.
—Pero usted me escribió una carta—dijo Oswald.
—Yo, no.
—Sí, una carta en que contestaba con burlas a mis palabras.
—No, yo no he escrito esa carta, la escribiría Fanny, que quería a
todo trance apartarle a usted de mí.
—¡Oh! Ha matado mi vida—exclamó Oswald de un modo enfático, y
se sentó junto a la mesa y apoyó la frente en su mano; luego se
levantó de la silla y comenzó a pasear de un ladro a otro del cuarto.
—Esta es la verdad, la pura verdad—afirmó Esther—, y quería que la
supiera usted, y delante de ella, que no podrá desmentirme. A mí
me ha hecho desgraciada, pero ella no gozará tranquilamente de su
perfidia.
—¡Ha matado mi vida!—repitió Oswald con su tono enfático.
—Ella. Ha sido ella.
—Te mataré—gritó Fanny con voz ronca, agarrando de los brazos a
Esther.
—¿Pero ahora sabe usted que lo que ha dicho de mí es mentira?—
preguntó Oswald.
—Sí.
—Ahora ¿podrá usted oirme?
—Ahora, ja... ja...—rió Fanny—; ahora tiene un amante.
—No es cierto—exclamó Esther.
—Sí lo es, viene todos los días a verte. Es uno rubio. No lo puedes
negar.
—¡Ah! Estaba aquí hace un momento—dijo Oswald.
—No es mi amante, es un amigo.
—¿Pero por qué le has llamado a Oswald—gritó Fanny con rabia—.
¿Es que le quieres?
—¡Yo, no!; pero quiero enseñarle a usted que no se juega con la
vida de los demás, como usted jugó con la mía. Me engañó usted;
ya me he vengado.
Welcome to our website – the perfect destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world,
offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth.
That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of
books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to
self-development guides and children's books.

More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge

connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an
elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can
quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally,
our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time
and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and

personal growth every day!

ebookbell.com