The topics of the workshop cover major geoinformation science including:

Medical doctors and podiatrists have been using plantar pressure for the evaluation of the foot loading in regard to foot biomechanics and foot health for decades. High plantar pressure can cause pain and foot injury such as plantar ulcer during walking. Two types of systems are suitable for pressure capture and they are commonly known as floor mat or floor pad and in-shoe pad. For the floor-mat system pressure values are displayed as image which does not depict the foot shape. Therefore, shortcoming of this system for plantar pressure recording during walking is that the location of the pressure value related to the plantar surface is only approximate. A research was conducted to determine whether markers can be placed on the plantar surface and their positions identifiable on the pressure image. This paper describes the technique for matching the plantar shape to the pressure image during walking.

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The interest in the study of the human foot and gait loading to determine and manage the impairments associated with various musculoskeletal, integumentary, and neurological disorders has intensified considerably in recent years. This type of research is particularly important for finding the cause of diabetic foot ulceration. In this research, a dynamic plantar 3D model is captured by video cameras and photogrammetric technique while ground reaction force and pressure are captured by an AMTI force plate and Tekscan pressure system respectively. However, it is necessary to carry out research to develop a suitable method to match these three types of plantar data. Consequently, this paper provides a discussion on the method developed for matching the dynamic 3D model, the ground reaction force plate and the pressure data recorded during the loading phase of gait. The matching methods developed allowed precise matching between the computed 3D model and the pressure data. Results show the contact area obtained by the 3D model and the area obtained by the pressure mat has a correlation of r2 = 0.998. Besides, the correlation of the vertical force (Fz) of the force plate and MatScan was r2 = 0.997. The ability to match the plantar loading and the captured dynamic 3D surface model is a significant development in the study of human gait.

An earthquake is a natural phenomenon and natural catastrophe. It can cause massive damage and losses of life. Future prediction of natural catastrophes such as earthquakes can minimize their risks and save people lives and properties. GIS can be very essential for predicting and estimating a future earthquake. Thus, this study is dedicated to predict the locations of future earthquakes in the eastern part of Iraq using GIS techniques. The study involves establishing a GIS database (DB) of the previous earthquake in the period (1985 - 2015), identifying the parameters that a map layers of all parameters (factors) which are responsible on occurring earthquakes, and using GIS techniques to identify and predict the locations of the future earthquakes. This research is accomplished through a number of essential stages. These are data gathering, data processing and data analyzing. The gathered data among the period of the study (from 1985 to 2015) was classified into three stages ((1985-1995), (1996-2005), and (2006 to 2015) to distinguish a fine details of past earthquakes easily and precisely. The results show that GIS is a powerful tool that can provide an accurate prediction of upcoming natural phenomena such as earthquakes. This can evaluate earthquake hazards and raise the awareness of the government to save people’s lives, properties and infrastructures against the possible future earthquakes and the accuracy assessment processes reveals that about 80% of coming quakes happened where they expected (very close to the prediction seismic line).