Extending the Qualitative Capabilities of GIS: Computer-Aided Qualitative GIS

A number of approaches for integrating GIS and qualitative research have emerged in recent years, as part of a resurgence of interest in mixed methods research in geography. These efforts to integrate qualitative data and qualitative analysis techniques complement a longstanding focus in GIScience upon ways of handling qualitative forms of spatial data and reasoning in digital environments, and extend engagements with 'the qualitative' in GIScience to include discussions of research methodologies. This article contributes to these emerging qualitative GIS methodologies by describing the structures and functions of 'computer-aided qualitative GIS' (CAQ-GIS), an approach for storing and analyzing qualitative, quantitative, and geovisual data in both GIS and computer aided data analysis software. CAQ-GIS uses modified structures from conventional desktop GIS to support storage of qualitative data and analytical codes, together with a parallel coding and analysis process carried out with GIS and a computer-aided data analysis software package. The inductive mixed methods analysis potential of CAQ-GIS is demonstrated with examples from research on children's urban geographies.     

GIS use by an urban local body as part of e-governance in India

Government organizations in the developing world have been at the forefront of ongoing reforms that have prompted their use of GIS and other information and communication technologies for urban governance. However, there have been very few examinations of GIS spatial knowledge construction in a non-Western context. Particularly, very little is known about the growing and varying use of GIS and spatial information by urban local bodies in India in the midst of India’s changing urban governance culture. This article presents an in-depth examination of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC), one of India’s leading urban local bodies as the corporation implements e-governance strategies including the use of GIS and spatial information. Drawing from Critical GIS literature and GIS implementation and diffusion literature, this article uses an integrated approach to examine SMC’s GIS spatial knowledge construction. The article demonstrates that in the case of SMC, GIS knowledge construction is not only shaped by SMC’s proactive role in positioning itself with the national government’s priorities and agendas, but also by the presence of powerful actors who play an instrumental role in introducing change and innovation. This article is part of a larger project that aims to investigate the process of GIS spatial knowledge construction situated in contemporary India.     

Critical Issues in Participatory GIS: Deconstructions, Reconstructions, and New Research Directions

In the mid‐1990s, several critical texts raised concerns about the social, political, and epistemological implications of GIS. Subsequent responses to these critiques have fundamentally altered the technological, political, and intellectual practices of GIScience. Participatory GIS, for instance, has intervened in multiple ways to try to ameliorate uneven access to GIS and digital spatial data and diversify the forms of spatial knowledge and spatial logic that may be incorporated in a GIS. While directly addressing core elements of the ‘GIS & Society’ critique, these reconstructions of a critical GIScience introduce their own ambiguities with respect to access, equity, digital representation of spatial knowledge, and epistemologies of new GIS research practices. In this paper, I examine some of the new and persistent ambiguities of participatory GIS that bear inclusion in future critical GIScience research.     

The Landscape of GIScience Publications 1997–2007: An Empirical Investigation with Latent Semantic Analysis

This article reports on an empirical study of the trends and patterns of research activities in Geographic Information Science (GIScience) during the years 1997–2007. The GIScience research priorities identified by the University Consortium of Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) were used as guidelines to examine the 985 research articles published in six well‐recognized academic journals. Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) was employed to investigate the association among the different GIScience research themes. The spatial and temporal patterns of the association between the publications and the different GIScience themes were examined to show the development of GIScience research during the study period. Furthermore, correlation analyses between the publications were conducted following the LSA results to reveal GIScience research networks, including the networks of the published articles and those formed by the research places. In this article, we applied an approach that was developed within information science to depict what GIS research activities were conducted when and where and how they connect to each other through sharing common research themes. The related findings pave the way for future efforts to describe the paradigm of GIScience as well as the pattern of GIScience research.     

Mobile Mapping and Geographic Information Systems

Mobile mapping and geographic information systems may represent a new paradigm for cartography and GIScience. This short foreword to the special issue introduces the three papers that follow, briefly surveys the growing literature of field and mobile GIS, and discusses the emerging literature surrounding wearable GIS and their augmented reality display systems. The UCGIS research agenda for mobile and distributed computing is presented, as are the calls for additional research in the papers of the special issue. Calls for a comprehensive review article of the field from a cartography/GIScience perspective, and for involvement in the research agenda of mobile systems, are made.     

Dynamic GIS Case Studies: Wildfire Evacuation and Volunteered Geographic Information

Incorporating the temporal element into traditional GIS is a challenge that has been researched for many years and has many proposed solutions. The implemented system "Extended Dynamic GIS" or EDGIS is based on the "geo-atom" and Space Time Point (STP). EDGIS provides a platform for spatiotemporal data representation, storage, and query in order to address the need for a dynamic GIS to manage complex geographic data types. The system has the capability of executing spatiotemporal object interaction queries (OIQs) such as crossing and coincidence of field-objects and object-fields. In this article existing dynamic GIS analysis techniques are further improved and enhanced through exploration of more in-depth case studies. Further examined here are applications to wildfire evacuation modeling and travel scenarios of urban environments with individuals providing volunteered geographic information (VGI). The EDGIS platform provides a means for interacting with a range of dynamic geographic phenomena. The areas of transportation, location based services (LBS), hazards, and geo-sensor networks provide challenges intertwined with the above applications as well as additional challenges pertinent to the ongoing GIScience research topic of spatiotemporal GIS. Using EDGIS to explore the described case studies of wildfire evacuation as well as VGI provides the advancements described above and demonstrates implemented uses for dynamic GIS.     

Enriching the GIScience research agenda: Fusing augmented reality and location‐based social networks

Augmented reality (AR) overlays real‐world views or scenes with virtual, computer‐generated objects that appear to visually coexist in the same space. Location‐based social networks (LBSNs) are platforms for individuals to be connected through the interdependency derived from their physical locations and their location‐tagged social media content. Current research and development in both areas focuses on integrating mobile‐based AR and LBSNs. Several applications (e.g., Sekai Camera and Wallame) have been developed and commercialized successfully. However, little research has been done on the potential impacts and successful evaluation methods of AR‐integrated LBSNs in the GIScience field. To close this gap, the article outlines the impacts and benefits of AR‐integrated LBSNs and highlights the importance of LBSNs in GIScience research. Based on the status quo of AR‐integrated LBSNs, this article discusses—from theoretical and application‐oriented perspectives—how AR‐integrated LBSNs could enrich the GIScience research agenda in three aspects: data conflation, platial GIS, and multimedia storytelling. The article concludes with guidelines on visualization, functionality, and ethics that aim to help users develop and evaluate AR‐integrated LBSNs.     

GIS内涵的发展

根据GIS30多年的发展历程,总结了GIS的三个主要发展阶段及其内涵特点,说明了GISystem、GIScience和GIService的主要研究内容,最后提出了基于GIS内涵的三点初步认识。     

基于GIS的城市空气污染综合分析

在城市空气污染的模型研究中,GIS可以作为复杂环境模型的输入数据处理器,而且GIS有一个重要的功能模块——统计分析模块,GIS能够对模型的运算输出数据进行综合处理,并对结果进一步分析,进行有关的查询以及对研究成果的可视化输出。在基于GIS的城市空气污染的综合分析中,我们探究了城市土地利用现状对空气质量的影响,本文采用模糊综合分析法探索城市三大污染源在空气污染中所占的比重,制作城市空气污染等级分布图。GIS在大气污染研究领域可以充分发挥其空间分析和可视化优势,为治理工作提供技术路线。     

A rationale for accrediting GIScience programs

The accreditation of GIS programs was first proposed more than 25 years ago as a means of encouraging consistency in instructional content and learning outcomes across many new GIS programs being developed at U.S. colleges and universities. However, in lieu of a peer review system to evaluate the quality of instruction, the GIS community focused instead on certification programs for recognizing and rewarding competency and professionalism among persons already in the workforce. With hundreds of colleges and universities now offering formal programs in GIScience ranging from certificates to undergraduate and graduate degrees, it may be an appropriate time reconsider rewards associated with accreditation. This article argues that accreditation can benefit institutions, students, and GIScience employers by directing attention to “upstream” and formative elements in the preparation of entry-level GIScience professionals that can potentially complement “downstream” and summative programs for recognizing experienced GIScience professionals such as certification. Along with providing detail about the implementation and administration of accreditation, we explore accreditation processes in surveying and engineering as possible pathways for accrediting academic GIScience programs.     

Geo-ontology Tools: The Missing Link

Numerous authors have presented ontology building tools that have all been developed as part of academic projects and that are usually adaptations of more generic tools for geo-spatial applications. While we trust that these tools do their job for the special purpose they have been built, the GIScience user community is still a long way away from off-the-shelf ontology builders that can be used by GIS project managers. In this article, we present a comparative study of ontology building tools described in some twenty peer-reviewed GIScience journal articles. We analyze them from the perspective of two application domains, crime analysis and transportation/land use. For the latter, we developed a database schema, which is substantially different from the three main templates commonly used. The crime analysis application uses a rule base for an agent-based model that had no precursor. In both cases, the currently available set of tools cannot replace manual coding of ontologies for use with ESRI-based application software. Based on these experiences, we outline a requirements list of what the tools described in the first part of the article are missing to make them practical from an applications perspective. The result is an R&D agenda for this important aspect of GIScience.     

DBSCAN空间聚类算法及其在城市规划中的应用

空间聚类是空间数据挖掘和知识发现的主要方法之一。DBSCAN算法可以从带有“噪声”的空间数据库中发现任意形状的聚类,是一种较好的聚类算法。本文介绍了DBSCAN算法的基本概念和原理,并应用GIS二次开发组件MapObjects予以了实现。然后,本文将该算法应用于城市规划中,对某城市中小学和商业网点等公共设施的分布进行了聚类分析,并根据聚类结果对城市规划设计规范中的某些条款进行了讨论。     

Exploring the anatomy of Geographic Information Systems and Technology (GIS&T) textbooks

Choosing a textbook is among the most important decisions instructors make in preparation for an academic term. Geographic Information Systems and Technology (GIS&T) textbook development has been influenced by a unique set of circumstances, mainly the rapid development of the discipline within an interdisciplinary environment, which has resulted in a continuous state of evolution. We examine the anatomy of GIS&T textbooks through a comparison of their organization, content, and depth of coverage. Specifically, utilizing the Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge (BoK) as a comprehensive reference, we categorize the content of 26 of the most widely used introductory GIS textbooks. Our results show that there has been consistent coverage of topics over time, with analytical methods and geospatial data being the most prominent topics covered in texts. However, individual textbooks place varying emphasis on the BoK knowledge areas, which is potentially useful to instructors seeking books that emphasize particular knowledge areas. Additionally, long‐term trends indicate a shift toward an emphasis on new forms of geospatial data (e.g., social media). Ongoing efforts to expand and revise the BoK reflect how the discipline continues to manage its own evolution as new geographic research linked to GIS and GIScience emerges.     

The Cost(s) of Geospatial Open Data

The provision of open data by governments at all levels has rapidly increased over recent years. Given that one of the dominant motivations for the provision of open data is to generate ‘value’, both economic and civic, there are valid concerns over the costs incurred in this pursuit. Typically, costs of open data are framed as internal to the data providing government. Building on the strong history of GIScience research on data provision via spatial data infrastructures, this article considers both the direct and indirect costs of open data provision, framing four main areas of indirect costs: citizen participation challenges, uneven provision across geography and user types, subsidy of private sector activities, and the creation of inroads for corporate influence on government. These areas of indirect cost lead to the development of critical questions, including constituency, purpose, enablement, protection, and priorities. These questions are posed as a guide to governments that provide open data in addressing the indirect costs of open data.     

How fast is a cow? Cross‐Scale Analysis of Movement Data

Data representing the trajectories of moving point objects are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in GIScience, and are the focus of much methodological research aimed at extracting patterns and meaning describing the underlying phenomena. However, current research within GIScience in this area has largely ignored issues related to scale and granularity – in other words how much are the patterns that we see a function of the size of the looking glass that we apply? In this article we investigate the implications of varying the temporal scale at which three movement parameters, speed, sinuosity and turning angle are derived, and explore the relationship between this temporal scale and uncertainty in the individual data points making up a trajectory. A very rich dataset, representing the movement of 10 cows over some two days every 0.25 s is investigated. Our cross‐scale analysis shows firstly, that movement parameters for all 10 cows are broadly similar over a range of scales when the data are segmented to remove quasi‐static subtrajectories. However, by exploring realistic values of GPS uncertainty using Monte Carlo Simulation, it becomes apparent that fine scale measurement of all movement parameters is masked by uncertainties, and that we can only make meaningful statements about movement when we take these uncertainties into account.     

基于 ArcG IS 和 Python 集成开发可达性分析工具的研究

为降低可达性度量的实现难度,弥补现有GIS软件没有集成可达性分析模型或方法的不足,在详尽分析有关模型或方法与GIS集成研究现状的基础上,提出以改进潜能模型作度量模型,按GIS内部集成方式,使用面向ArcGIS 10的Python脚本编程技术集成开发可达性分析工具的设想,对可达性潜能模型分析原理、工具开发环境配置、使用数据的预处理要求、工具的具体设计流程和实现方法等作了详细叙述。最后以评价某市小学教育资源空间布局合理性为例,阐述工具在实际应用中应采取的使用方法和流程,实例评价结果验证工具开发的有效性。     

The Influence of Urban Street Characteristics on Pedestrian Heat Comfort Levels in Philadelphia

This article demonstrates a way to model the urban microclimate using a combination of statistical analysis and a geographic information system (GIS). Field measurements of ambient temperature and relative humidity were collected in various urban settings at ground level over two surface materials and at two different times of the day. A panel autoregressive (PAR) model was created to conduct a regression analysis capable of accounting for the spatial autocorrelation. With the PAR analyses, selected urban street characteristics showed varying effects over the different surface materials and at different times of the day. The overall influences were consistent with previous findings. PAR models were then applied in GIS to create thermal prediction maps for the study area to determine the hot and cool spots. Since GIS is the most commonly used technology among a wide range of researchers and professionals, this article provides a means to improve the synthesis, integration, and sharing of information to understand the relationship between the heat‐vulnerable population and heat stress within the urban environment. This methodology will be useful in the effort to reduce the heat‐related morbidity and mortality, which are expected to increase with projected global warming.     

GIS在城市智能公交系统中的应用

随着经济的逐步发展,城市中的交通问题愈发凸显。相比人们出行需求日益增加,交通管理系统的便捷程度和服务水平却相对较低。本文从GIS在城市智能公交系统的应用前景,GIS在城市智能公交系统的应用、以及分析对比GIS在城市智能公交系统在国内应用的几个实例方面强调了城市智能公交系统建立的必然性和可行性,基于GIS的城市智能交通系统的建立将使公交服务更加方便、快捷和舒适。同时,GIS的城市智能交通系统的建立也将帮助政府交通部门为交通管理提供依据。     

The Implications of Including Women's Daily Lives in a Feminist GIScience

In this paper, we argue that a feminist geographical analysis that examines women as active agents in their daily lives, pays attention to the multiplicity of women's experiences in relational space, and values knowledge for transformative purposes, provides insights as to how GIScience might develop in the near future. We draw upon our research with two different community organizations in North Philadelphia to show how a feminist geographical analysis can shape the conceptualization of a community GIS. We argue that collaborative work with community organizations based on “a view from below” necessitates alternative institutional arrangements while providing rich data to better understand the intersection of daily life and information and communication technologies (ICT) as experienced, in the particular case of our work, by poor women. Our research illustrates that understanding ICT frameworks from the perspective of women and in the context of their daily lives has important implications for GIScience.     

基于CA模型的城市空间扩展研究——义乌市为例

本文引入地理信息系统(GIS)和元胞自动机的有机集成而构筑的GeoCA-Urban模型模拟义乌市城市空间扩展的动态演化过程。结果表明:从发展速度分析,义乌市城市发展经历了一个起步—缓慢发展—爆炸发展的过程,而且爆炸式发展还在继续,从发展的空间布局上分析,义乌市在交通(主要是浙赣铁路和主要公路)、水系(义乌江)和城市中心辐射作用下,经历了带状(东北西南向)—椭圆—圆形的发展过程。通过设置转换规则、参数,真实直观地再现展示了城市空间系统的演化过程,为城市规划等提供了辅助决策。