A review of volunteered geographic information quality assessment methods

With the ubiquity of advanced web technologies and location-sensing hand held devices, citizens regardless of their knowledge or expertise, are able to produce spatial information. This phenomenon is known as volunteered geographic information (VGI). During the past decade VGI has been used as a data source supporting a wide range of services, such as environmental monitoring, events reporting, human movement analysis, disaster management, etc. However, these volunteer-contributed data also come with varying quality. Reasons for this are: data is produced by heterogeneous contributors, using various technologies and tools, having different level of details and precision, serving heterogeneous purposes, and a lack of gatekeepers. Crowd-sourcing, social, and geographic approaches have been proposed and later followed to develop appropriate methods to assess the quality measures and indicators of VGI. In this article, we review various quality measures and indicators for selected types of VGI and existing quality assessment methods. As an outcome, the article presents a classification of VGI with current methods utilized to assess the quality of selected types of VGI. Through these findings, we introduce data mining as an additional approach for quality handling in VGI.     

自发地理信息在灾后恢复监测中的应用研究框架

文章探讨了如何有效利用自发地理信息（Volunteered Geographic Information, VGI）大数据促进灾后恢复监测工作。首先概述了国内外VGI相关研究的发展现状,明确了VGI用于灾后恢复监测研究的不足,然后提出了一个基于VGI大数据的灾后恢复监测应用的研究框架,助力于灾后恢复监测各类具体恢复目标（如旅游业恢复、工商业恢复、生活常态恢复）的实现。该研究框架包含数据获取、数据质量控制和数据挖掘3个核心组成部分。其中,数据获取对象以VGI为主,以传统官方权威数据为辅;数据质量控制主要是通过模糊逻辑专家系统和人工神经网络（深度学习）确保VGI适用性;数据挖掘则是以变革式范例为理论基础,利用定量和定性结合的方法调查灾区基建、经济和安全3个灾后恢复主要方面的状态。最后,文章还讨论了当前利用VGI大数据促进灾后恢复监测所存在的一些局限性,包括VGI来源的可持续性问题、各VGI平台应用程序接口的数据获取限制问题和VGI应用所涉及的用户隐私问题。     

The recent advancement in digital terrain analysis and modeling

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) represents a growing source of potentially valuable data for many applications, including land cover map validation. It is still an emerging field and many different approaches can be used to take value from VGI, but also many pros and cons are related to its use. Therefore, since it is timely to get an overview of the subject, the aim of this article is to review the use of VGI as reference data for land cover map validation. The main platforms and types of VGI that are used and that are potentially useful are analysed. Since quality is a fundamental issue in map validation, the quality procedures used by the platforms that collect VGI to increase and control data quality are reviewed and a framework for addressing VGI quality assessment is proposed. A review of cases where VGI was used as an additional data source to assist in map validation is made, as well as cases where only VGI was used, indicating the procedures used to assess VGI quality and fitness for use. A discussion and some conclusions are drawn on best practices, future potential and the challenges of the use of VGI for land cover map validation.     

Geographical Research about African Americans: A Survey of Journals, 1911–1995

This paper surveys research about African Americans in six geography journals between 1911 and 1995. 176 journal articles about African Americans were identified. A chronological analysis of a subset of these articles shows that it was not until the 1960s that African Americans were studied to any appreciable degree by geographers. Since that time, geographers have continued this research, but unevenly; annual output varies widely. Popular topics have included considerations of spatial distributions, social problems, political participation, the development of black residence areas, and historical and cultural studies of African Americans. Recent research in this area has problematized the concept of “race” and investigated the mutual constitution of racial identity and place.     

Coverage inequality and quality of volunteered geographic features in Chinese cities: Analyzing the associated local characteristics using geographically weighted regression

The volunteered geographic information (VGI) gains increasing popularity with the general public and scientific community. However, the optimism about the VGI has been tempered by two critical issues: inequality in data coverage (social justice) and data quality. It therefore requires a better understanding of the mechanism driving VGI contributions and content quality. With a case of China, this paper demonstrates one potential avenue, examining the associations between VGI coverage/quality and local demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. In particular, VGI data are harvested from the OpenStreetMap for 333 cities in China. VGI coverage is measured by the total volume of different geographic features (point, line and polygon); and VGI quality is described from two aspects: completeness and accuracy. Geographically weighted regression (GWR) shows that both demographic and socioeconomic factors have statistically significant influences on VGI coverage and quality. More specifically, densely populous cities with more young, educated and non-agricultural people enjoy higher VGI coverage and quality. Cities with lower VGI coverage and quality are primarily located in the western and southwestern regions where the ethnic minorities concentrate. High VGI coverage and quality are possibly observed in economically developed cities with high marketization degree. Besides, possibility of high VGI coverage and quality occurs in cities with more labor in scientific research and greater percentage of employers in the tertiary industry. The GWR also demonstrates that the strength and nature of the obtained relationships vary across the 333 cities. The spatial non-stationary relationships may partially answer for the controversial empirical conclusions in earlier case studies at different scales. Quantitative analysis (Gini index, Lorenz curve and Moran's I index) further evidences the great inequality in VGI coverage and quality. It can be safely inferred that the differences in engagement and use of VGI, as a new digital divide, can raise troubling concerns on the social justice implications.     

可持续性转型研究动态与经济地理学展望

近年来,可持续性转型概念进入经济地理学者视野,用于探究区域绿色技术、消费市场和产业转型的多维因果过程与空间动力机制,已成为演化经济地理学和环境经济地理学新兴议题之一。为掌握该研究动态,本文对2000—2020年来共计2453篇可持续性转型文献进行回顾,重点探讨了转型地理研究进展和理论不足,阐述了经济地理学对可持续性转型研究的理论价值和融入方向。本文发现：① 可持续性转型是创新研究和可持续管理领域热门议题,呈多学科介入特点;其中,转型地理研究正不断崛起,并聚焦区域绿色新兴产业发展的社会-技术共演过程、多尺度动力机制、环境经济和社会效应及其转型地理性等问题。② 经济地理学对转型研究有三个视角优势：时空语境敏感性;转型过程、机制和结果的空间多样性;新产业系统的地方嵌入及其合法化的地理性。③ 经济地理学对可持续性转型研究含三个提升方向：概念内涵深化（含地方、尺度和空间）、多范式互动融合（演化、制度和政治经济地理）、分析框架构建方向（多地理尺度性与多层次视角,区域创新系统与技术创新系统）。④ 中国转型地理研究在三个议题上有广阔前景：基于国家语境敏感的地方转型探索、绿色利基发展与转型空间机制研究、以及区域新产业路径发展与转型研究。     

A representativeness-directed approach to mitigate spatial bias in VGI for the predictive mapping of geographic phenomena

Volunteered geographic information (VGI) contains valuable field observations that represent the spatial distribution of geographic phenomena. As such, it has the potential to provide regularly updated low-cost field samples for predictively mapping the spatial variations of geographic phenomena. The predictive mapping of geographic phenomena often requires representative samples for high mapping accuracy, but samples consisting of VGI observations are often not representative as they concentrate on specific geographic areas (i.e. spatial bias) due to the opportunistic nature of voluntary observation efforts. In this article, we propose a representativeness-directed approach to mitigate spatial bias in VGI for predictive mapping. The proposed approach defines and quantifies sample representativeness by comparing the probability distributions of sample locations and the mapping area in the environmental covariate space. Spatial bias is mitigated by weighting the sample locations to maximize their representativeness. The approach is evaluated using species habit suitability mapping as a case study. The results show that the accuracy of predictive mapping using weighted sample locations is higher than using unweighted sample locations. A positive relationship between sample representativeness and mapping accuracy is also observed, suggesting that sample representativeness is a valid indicator of predictive mapping accuracy. This approach mitigates spatial bias in VGI to improve predictive mapping accuracy.     

VGTrust: measuring trust for volunteered geographic information

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) has emerged as a large, up-to-date, and easily accessible data source. VGI can allow authoritative mapping agencies to undertake continuous improvement of their own data, adding a currency dimension previously unattainable due to high associated costs. VGI also benefits scientific and social research by facilitating quick and low-cost research data capture by the public. VGI, however, through its diversity of authorship, presents a quality assurance risk to the use of this data. This research presents a formulaic model that addresses VGI quality issues, by quantifying trust in VGI. Our ‘VGTrust’ model assesses information about a data author, and the spatial and temporal trust associated with the data they create, to produce an overall VGTrust rating metric. This metric is both easy to understand and interpret. A facilitated case study, ‘Building Our Footprints’ is presented which tests the feasibility of VGTrust model in a real-world data capture exercise run by Land Information New Zealand, New Zealand’s mapping organisation. By overcoming the trust issues in VGI, this research will allow the integration of VGI and authoritative data and potentially expand the application of VGI, thereby leveraging the power of the crowd for productive and innovative re-use.     

Extracting and analyzing semantic relatedness between cities using news articles

News articles capture a variety of topics about our society. They reflect not only the socioeconomic activities that happened in our physical world, but also some of the cultures, human interests, and public concerns that exist only in the perceptions of people. Cities are frequently mentioned in news articles, and two or more cities may co-occur in the same article. Such co-occurrence often suggests certain relatedness between the mentioned cities, and the relatedness may be under different topics depending on the contents of the news articles. We consider the relatedness under different topics as semantic relatedness. By reading news articles, one can grasp the general semantic relatedness between cities; yet, given hundreds of thousands of news articles, it is very difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to manually read them. This paper proposes a computational framework which can ‘read’ a large number of news articles and extract the semantic relatedness between cities. This framework is based on a natural language processing model and employs a machine learning process to identify the main topics of news articles. We describe the overall structure of this framework and its individual modules, and then apply it to an experimental dataset with more than 500,000 news articles covering the top 100 US cities spanning a 10-year period. We perform exploratory visualizations of the extracted semantic relatedness under different topics and over multiple years. We also analyze the impact of geographic distance on semantic relatedness and find varied distance decay effects. The proposed framework can be used to support large-scale content analysis in city network research.     

Volunteered geographic information quality assessment using trust and reputation modelling in land administration systems in developing countries

This article presents an innovative approach to establish the quality and credibility of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) such that it can be considered in Land Administration Systems (LAS) on a Fit for Purpose (FFP) basis. A participatory land information system can provide affordable and timely FFP information about land and its resources. However, the establishment of such a system involves more than just technical solutions and administrative procedures: many social, economic and political aspects must be considered. Innovative approaches like VGI can help address the lack of accurate, reliable and FFP land information for LAS, but integration of such sources relies on the quality and credibility of VGI. Verifying volunteer efforts can be difficult without reference to ground truth: a novel Trust and Reputation Modelling methodology is proposed as a suitable technique to effect such VGI data set validation. This method has been applied to successfully demonstrate that VGI can produce accurate and reliable data sets which can be used to conduct regular systematic updates of geographic information in official systems. It relies on a view that the public can police themselves in establishing proxy measures of VGI quality thus facilitating VGI to be used on a FFP basis in LAS.     

Analysis of positional uncertainty of road networks in volunteered geographic information with a statistically defined buffer-zone method

Volunteered geographic information (VGI) is crowdsourced information that can enrich and enhance research and applications based on geo-referenced data. However, the quality of VGI is of great concern, and positional accuracy is a fundamental basis for the VGI quality assurance. A buffer-zone method can be used for its assessment, but the buffer radius in this technique is subjectively specified; as result, different selections of the buffer radius lead to different positional accuracies. To solve this problem, a statistically defined buffer zone for the positional accuracy assessment in VGI is proposed in this study. To facilitate practical applications, we have also developed an iterative method to obtain a theoretically defined buffer zone. In addition to the positional accuracy assessment, we have derived a measure of positional quality, which comprises the assessment of positional accuracy and the level of confidence in such assessment determined with respect to a statistically defined buffer zone. To illustrate and substantiate the theoretical arguments, both numerical simulations and real-life experiments are performed using OpenStreetMap. The experimental results confirm the high significance of the proposed statistical approach to the buffer zone-based assessment of the positional uncertainty in VGI.     

Progresses and Perspectives of the Resource Evaluation Related to Agri-cultural Heritage Tourism

The scientific evaluation of tourism resources is not only an important prerequisite for the development of agri-cultural heritage tourism (AHT), but it can also promote the conservation and management of Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (IAHS). With the goal of providing scientific support for the sustainable management of tourism resources, this review systematically analyzes the overall situation, research regions, developmental timeline trends, key fields and hot topics of resource evaluation research related to AHT over 2005-2020. With a comprehensive perspective that incorporates both traditional literature review and quantitative literature review, the study revealed four important aspects of AHT research. (1) Relevant articles could be divided into two phases, a development-oriented period (2005-2012) and a conservation-oriented period (2013-2020). (2) GIAHS accounts for the absolute majority (about 66.7%) of relevant studies. In particular, Longji Terraces System, Hani terraces system and Dong’s Rice-Fish-Duck System were the research hotspots IAHS, and Yunnan, Zhejiang and Guangxi were the research hotspot provinces. (3) Terraced landscapes and tea culture were the most popular themes in tourism resource evaluation, while sports tourism, tea culture tourism and study tours are becoming the new trends in IAHS sites. (4) Research methods have undergone a shift from qualitative to quantitative approaches, and a combination of these two in an interdisciplinary manner is becoming a new research trend. By reviewing and prospecting the relevant literature, this study not only makes a unique contribution to the tourism resource evaluation of IAHS, but also helps to enrich the relevant evaluation theories and further promote the sustainable development of heritage tourism from theoretical and methodological perspectives.     

中国乡村地理学研究的主要热点演化及展望

以地理学主要中文期刊近40年来刊发的有关乡村研究的文献为分析对象,采用Citespace软件文献计量分析及文献归纳方法,对中国乡村地理学研究主要热点进行识别和阶段性划分,并梳理其主要热点的研究进展。结果发现,伴随20世纪80年代的乡镇工业和21世纪初以乡村旅游业兴起的乡村两次产业结构调整,以及国家乡村发展和建设的战略和政策不断调整,乡村地理学的研究热点演化大致可分为3个阶段：①1978-2000年,主要聚焦于乡村城市化、城乡关系、乡村聚落、农业发展、农村经济等研究,为国家和地区的农业与农村发展做出了基础性和战略性贡献。②2000-2008年,开始转向以乡村旅游、农村居民点、新农村建设、村庄规划、空心村等研究热点话题,中国乡村地理学发展改变了“重城轻乡”的学科格局,逐渐走向繁荣。③2008年至今,研究热点转向多元化,涉及乡村转型、乡村重构、乡村性、空间重构、乡村社区、乡村治理等,研究主题逐渐接轨于国际乡村地理学。未来中国乡村地理学的研究应以建设乡村地理学学科基础理论和方法体系为核心目标,服务于国家实施乡村振兴战略需要,积极关注乡村发展、转型、分化、重构与治理等核心话题,深化乡村多元空间价值理论研究,形成独具中国特色的乡村地理学理论框架和研究范式。     

国外地理学对公共卫生问题的研究与启示

在工业化、城镇化、信息化持续发展,全球变化和全球事件轮番冲击的背景下,公共卫生研究不断深化,已发展为全球性的跨学科议程及研究热点。回顾相关文献发现,国内外地理学对公共卫生问题的研究在数量上均经历了缓慢上升、加速上升和当前的快速上升阶段,但切入角度和关注议题存在差异。本文通过梳理国外地理学对公共卫生问题的研究,对这一领域概念、理论、方法的发展及热点进行归纳总结和综合评述,探讨健康老龄化、健康不平等、融合健康考量的城市规划等议题下现有研究的主要争议、前景及其对国内研究的启示,尤其指出气候变化和传染病大流行等外部压力下暴露出的地理学研究契机,以期拓展视野、聚焦问题,为国内地理学者参与公共卫生研究提供参考。     

中国社会文化地理学研究的发展与反思：基于2015—2020年中英文文献分析

作为一个在中国发轫较晚的人文地理学分支,社会文化地理学逐渐成为人文地理学的重要分支。随着研究话题的日新月异以及研究方法和理论的推陈出新,中国社会文化地理学的理论和应用研究在近年（2015—2020年）得到越来越多学者的关注和参与,同时涌现出一系列新的学科现象和值得反思的问题,如话题的多样性、研究方法的交叉性、研究科学性的反思和质疑等。因此,从延续学科自省的视角出发,有必要坚持从中、西对比的角度,不断度量中国社会文化地理学的发展趋势,定位学科的特点,以期为国内社会文化地理研究提供一定的方向和启示。借助文献分析工具对2015—2020年中、英文领域主要学术期刊的社会文化地理学文献进行采集和分析,辅以德尔菲法对学科专家进行咨询,尝试结合客观和主观数据,综合辨析当前中外社会文化地理学的研究特色,以及未来中国社会文化地理学研究可能的发展方向和潜力所在。从分析结果上看,国外社会文化地理研究话题涵盖：1）从移民研究到流动性研究;2）从文化景观研究到超越人类的地理学研究;3）弱势人群研究与关怀地理学等方面。中国社会文化地理研究话题包括：1）理论引介与反思;2）城镇化、流动性与多元移民;3）旅游与地方;4）乡村转型与乡愁等方面。综合国内外社会文化地理研究成果可知,西方国家（尤其是英国）作为社会文化地理学的重要发源地,在学科知识“生产—消费”循环中保持优势地位;西方社会文化地理学研究重点关注国际大政治和日常政治话题,而中国社会文化地理研究与旅游和乡村话题结合紧密,与西方形成明显区别,反映中国社会发展需要;中国社会文化地理学国际化趋势明显,但中、西方知识交换程度不高,知识边界依然明显。另外,专家咨询意见也凸显社会文化地理研究者的学科归属感有待加强、研究范式系统化不足与共识不充分等问题。未来中国社会文化地理学需要不断推进学科交叉和方法创新,探索其地理学本质,在国际化进程中讲好中国故事,总结中国经验,发展中国理论,服务国家,对话世界。     

GEOGRAPHICAL LITERATURE IN JAPAN

This is the third in a series of reports on Japanese geographic research prepared in cooperation with the Association of Japanese Geographers (AJG). Like the two previous reports, which appeared in the August and November issues, it has been modified for the English-speaking readership of THE PROFESSIONAL GEOGRAPHER. However, unlike the previous articles, each of which aimed at providing data regarding Japanese research on specific geographic topics, this paper is intended to supply the reader with an inventory of those materials that will be needed for the conduct of research in Japan. —H. Jesse Walker, Member, U.S. National Committee, IGU.     

Utilising volunteered geographic information to assess resident's flood evacuation shelters. Case study: Jakarta

Research on disaster response frequently uses volunteered geographic information (VGI), due to its capability to provide near real-time information during and after a disaster. It is much less commonly used in spatial planning related to disaster management. However, VGI appears to have considerable potential for use in spatial planning and offers some advantages over traditional methods. For example, VGI can capture residents' preferences in a much faster, more timely, and more comprehensive fashion than is possible with, for example, questionnaires and surveys. This research investigates the usefulness of VGI for planning flood evacuation shelters. Using Jakarta, Indonesia, as a case study, we use VGI to capture the locations of flood evacuation shelters based on residents' preferences during flood periods in 2013–2014 and 2014–2015 and compare these with the locations of official shelters. Floods frequently affect Jakarta and the city administration uses VGI in flood emergency responses. Moreover, Jakarta has been identified as having the largest number of active Twitter users among cities worldwide. Thus, Jakarta is an appropriate place to study the use of VGI for planning evacuation shelters. VGI generated by Twitter users was used to identify the shelter locations preferred by Jakarta residents, and more precisely the flood evacuees. Of 171,046 tweets using keywords relating to flood evacuation, the content of 306 tweets indicated that they had been sent from inside or near evacuation shelters. The spatial pattern showed that those tweets were sent from 215 locations, mostly located near flooded areas. The analysis further showed that 35.6% of these shelter locations preferred by residents intersected with the locations of official evacuation shelters. As a general conclusion, our study demonstrates the advantages of using VGI for spatial planning, which mainly relates to the ease of capturing community preferences over a large area.     

Population in Advanced Placement Human Geography

Abstract

The Advanced Placement human geography course affords high school students the opportunity to experience an introductory college-level course in geography. Population is one of six major themes in the course. The course outline identifies four key areas of study in the population unit: geographical analysis of population, population distribution and composition, population growth and decline over time and space, and population movement. This article addresses each of these areas of study and identifies examples of concepts, topics, and types of data that could form the basis for instructional activities. A resource list is provided for additional reading.     

Rockin' and Rappin' in American Music: Themes and Resources

Abstract

As a relevant aspect of contemporary culture, music is a significant part of the lifestyles of students at all levels of education. Thus, use of various genres of American music is framed in the context of the National Standards five themes of geography—location, movement, human-environment interaction, region, and place. Several classroom projects appropriate for grades 7–12 are identified, including data collection, map preparation, and development of a research paper. Teaching resources consist of references used in text, music geography bibliography in addition to references, data sources, useful music-related websites, and list of research paper topics.     

A GIS research agenda

Abstract

This paper is a review of research themes in the field of geographical information systems, as identified from the evidence submitted to the Department of the Environment's Committee of Enquiry into the Handling of Geographic Information (the Chorley Committee) which reported in 1987, the papers and discussions at a workshop on research in GIS held in Edinburgh in 1987 and jointly sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council in the United Kingdom and the National Science Foundation in the United States, and the proceedings of an international symposium on the research agenda for GIS, organized by the Association of American Geographers and held in Washington in 1987. The interpretation of and the emphases given to these themes are, however, the author's own