Impact of India’s new map policy on accuracy of GIS theme

With the declaration of India’s new map policy (NMP), user community is looking towards its impact on spatial accuracy of GIS theme maps arising out of transformation from existing system (Polyconic Projection on Everest 1830 spheroid datum) to Open series maps (OSM in UTM projection on WGS 84 ellipsoid) and vice versa. This results in registration error of existing maps with new maps. This study aims at finding out the impact of transformation on the spatial location and to determine the extent to which the existing theme layers can be used along with the new series maps without losing accuracy. Results show that there are some geographic regions in India whose GIS database can be used as it is available, depending on the scale and within the acceptable positional accuracy. For other region, depending on the scale of theme layers, a detail analysis of the situation will be required depending on project requirements.     

Full Positional Accuracy Analysis of Spatial Data by Means of Circular Statistics

The positional error in spatial data is defined as a vector by comparing the coordinates between the true position and the measured position. The standard tests to assess the positional accuracy use only the magnitude of the vector and omit the azimuth. This article suggests that the use of both values allows a much more complete analysis of the positional error. A set of tests is proposed that are relevant for this purpose and demonstrate that some important features are not identified by the common procedures. The test samples come from two datasets. The first is obtained from the comparison of 100 homologous points in two conventional maps, and the second one comes from the geometric calibration of a photogrammetric scanner. The results are analyzed and discussed, showing that important issues such as error anisotropy are detected only by means of the circular statistics tests and density maps of distribution. Therefore, tests that assess the goodness of fit for uniform distribution in azimuths, such as Rayleigh and Rao tests, give low probabilities (P = 0 and P > 0.01). Moreover, density maps working with both magnitude and angle can locate the outlier candidate and offer more information about the spatial distribution of error.     

利用Kullback-Laible信息量的空间数据几何纠正模型选择

由于地图数字化数据在采集和制图过程中存在系统误差的影响,导致其空间位置精度较低。在实测较高精度的GPS控制点的基础上,基于Kullback-Laible(KL)信息量改进的赤池信息标准(AICc)来选择最佳的转换模型,实现地图数字化数据的几何纠正,从而达到提高其位置精度的目的。     

A measure of average error variance of line features

This article presents a new development in measuring the positional error of line features in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), in the form of a new measure for estimating the average error variance of line features, including line segment, polyline, polygon, and curved lines. This average error measure is represented in the form of a covariance matrix derived by an analytical approach. Corresponding error indicators are derived from this matrix. The error of line features mainly results from two factors: (1) an error propagated from the original component points of line features and (2) a model error of interpolation between these points. In this study, a method of average error estimation has been derived regarding the first type error of line features that are interpolated by either linear or cubic interpolation methods. The main contribution of the research is the provision of an error measure to assess the quality of spatial data in application settings. The proposed error models for estimating average error variance of line features in a GIS are illustrated by both simulated and practical experiments. The results show that the line accuracy from a linear interpolation is better than a line interpolated using a cubic model.     

Evaluation of Cartographic accuracy of IRS-1A LISS II data for upgrading linear details on the existing maps (A case study of Chandigarh area)

Considering the fest pace of development, up-to-date maps have become imperative in developmental planning. Conventional map updating techniques are expensive and time consuming. The present paper makes an attempt to tackle the problem using GIS techniques. Maps generated from IRS-1A LISS II data and Survey of India (SOI) toposheets were used as input maps in GIS. These maps were overlaid to obtain the positional errors at road junction points. The area statistics of each sector were calculated taking the SOI map as reference data. The results show that the areas calculated from LISS II data and SOI map are well comparable and the deviations are within 10%, whereas the positional accuracy (MSE) of points is within 30 m. The study demonstrates that the IRS-1A LISS II data can be used for updating of maps on scale 1:100,000 and smaller in areas where linear features are identifiable in the IRS LISS II image.     

无人车平台激光点云中线特征提取

随着无人平台的应用越来越广泛,由激光点云提取线特征构建高精度特征地图已成为研究的重点。本文基于深度图像中的二维线特征,提出了一种新的几何模型对其进行优化,得到准确的三维线特征,并使用贝叶斯滤波对多帧结果进行融合,提高了三维再线特征的精度和准确率。     

Buffer Operation on Spatial Data with Limited Accuracy

The quality of spatial data is limited by the accuracy of their sources such as paper maps and satellite images. It is also reduced by errors in map digitization and photo interpretation. Spatial operations performed on spatial data such as map overlay, buffer operations and spatial smoothing, do not always work correctly because their accuracy depends on the quality of spatial data. The present paper evaluates the accuracy of the buffer operation on a point and a line segment in relation to the positional accuracy of spatial data. Two quantitative measures are introduced to assess the accuracy of the buffer operation. Their explicit forms are derived for a point, and a condition is presented where the measures can be evaluated efficiently by numerical calculation. Applications provide empirical findings that deepen our understanding of the relationship between the accuracy of spatial data and that of the buffer operation.     

A heuristic‐based approach to mitigating positional errors in patrol data for species distribution modeling

Species distribution modeling (SDM) at fine spatial resolutions requires species occurrence data of high positional accuracy to achieve good model performance. However, wildlife occurrences recorded by patrols in ranger‐based monitoring programs suffer from positional errors, because recorded locations represent the positions of the ranger and differ from the actual occurrence locations of wildlife (hereinafter referred to as positional errors in patrol data). This study presented an evaluation of the impact of such positional errors in patrol data on SDM and developed a heuristic‐based approach to mitigating the positional errors. The approach derives probable wildlife occurrence locations from ranger positions, utilizing heuristics based on species preferred habitat and the observer's field of view. The evaluations were conducted through a case study of SDM using patrol records of the black‐and‐white snub‐nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) in Yunnan, China. The performance of the approach was also compared against alternative sampling methods. The results showed that the positional errors in R. bieti patrol data had an adverse effect on SDM performance, and that the proposed approach can effectively mitigate the impact of the positional errors to greatly improve SDM performance.     

Quality Assessment of Online Street and Rooftop Geocoding Services

The widespread use of Internet-based mapping and geospatial analysis has caused an increase in the demand for online geocoding services. Although such services provide convenience, low (or free) cost and immediate solutions, their characteristics, sometimes, overshadow the expectation of producing quality of geocoded results. In recent years, several geocoding techniques have emerged, including rooftop geocoding, but they have yet to receive much attention in the literature. This paper examines and compares the quality of online rooftop and street geocoding services based on match rates and positional accuracy. Six geocoding services by five providers (i.e., Microsoft Virtual Earth, Google, Geocoder.us, MapQuest, and Yahoo!) were evaluated using addresses in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Results of the comparison indicate that rooftop geocoding produces slightly lower match rates but significantly higher positional accuracy than street geocoding. The hybrid service, which combines the two techniques, produces match rates as high as other street geocoding services but improves in positional accuracy close to the level of rooftop geocoding. Geocoding services employing reference databases with similar quality trend to produce compatible match rates and positional accuracy. This paper examines the sensitivity of different address types on geocoding quality. The results reveal that both rooftop and street geocoding produce high match rates and high accuracy for residential addresses. However, positional accuracies of agricultural and industrial address types are not very reliable due to the small sample sizes. With these, it is recommended to use online rooftop geocoding services if high positional accuracy is the priority, use street geocoding if high match rate is the priority, and use the hybrid approach if both high match rates and high positional accuracy are required.     

Application of space borne cartographic camera for thematic mapping

A remote sensing experiment ‘TERRA’ was conducted during the first Indo-Soviet joint manned space flight. Under this experiment aerial photographs of the Indian terrain were taken using fixed cameras like MKF-6 and KATE-140 and hand held cameras like Hasselblad 500 EL/M and Practika B-200. In order to find out the positional accuracy of features identifiable on TERRA photographs, an experiment was carried out photogrammetrically using a stereopair of KATE-140 photographs. Analog as well as analytical stereo-plotter were used. A simple technique of comparing the known ground coordinates of various well defined ground features identifiable both on map as well as on stereo model, with the coordinate calculated from the stereopair observation was adopted. Due to the non availability of the actual coordinates of ground details/features and limitations of identifications of such ground details, used for observation in the present study, the results obtained have indicated that the residual errors are random in nature and not systematic. The results showed that such space borne aerial photographs like KATE-140, can be used for obtaining desired cartographic accuracy for the preparation of topographical as well as other thematic maps on scale 1:250,000 and smaller.     

地理信息系统中几何特征不确定性的通用模型：从1维到N维

本文提出了描述地理信息系统中几何特征位置不确定性的一个通用模型，从１维到Ｎ维，在每１维中，ＧＩＳ中的特征被划分为点，线段及线性特征。由于ＧＩＳ中数据含有误差。这些特征在ＧＩＳ中位置未必与其现实世界中的真实位置一致，而其真实位置只是在围绕着ＧＩＳ中量测位置的某一个区域内，本文提出的模型给出了这些区域的统计描述。     

An adaptive approach for the segmentation and extraction of planar and linear/cylindrical features from laser scanning data

Laser scanning systems have been established as leading tools for the collection of high density three-dimensional data over physical surfaces. The collected point cloud does not provide semantic information about the characteristics of the scanned surfaces. Therefore, different processing techniques have been developed for the extraction of useful information from this data which could be applied for diverse civil, industrial, and military applications. Planar and linear/cylindrical features are among the most important primitive information to be extracted from laser scanning data, especially those collected in urban areas. This paper introduces a new approach for the identification, parameterization, and segmentation of these features from laser scanning data while considering the internal characteristics of the utilized point cloud – i.e., local point density variation and noise level in the dataset. In the first step of this approach, a Principal Component Analysis of the local neighborhood of individual points is implemented to identify the points that belong to planar and linear/cylindrical features and select their appropriate representation model. For the detected planar features, the segmentation attributes are then computed through an adaptive cylinder neighborhood definition. Two clustering approaches are then introduced to segment and extract individual planar features in the reconstructed parameter domain. For the linear/cylindrical features, their directional and positional parameters are utilized as the segmentation attributes. A sequential clustering technique is proposed to isolate the points which belong to individual linear/cylindrical features through directional and positional attribute subspaces. Experimental results from simulated and real datasets demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach for the extraction of planar and linear/cylindrical features from laser scanning data.     

Change Estimates by Map Comparison: A Method to Reduce Erroneous Changes Due to Positional Error

A common method to assess land use/cover change (LUCC) is the comparison of digital maps of an area within a geographic information system (GIS). However, positional errors of the maps involved in the comparison affect this assessment and much of the change shown by means of this comparison may be an artifact due to these errors. This note presents a simple method to improve change estimates by detecting and correcting erroneous changes resulting from positional errors. It allows an important reduction of error in change area estimates and is likely to be useful in LUCC assessment studies.     

DEM精度检查中等高线回放的量化方法

目前数字高程模型(DEM)精度检查中广泛采用等高线回放方法,以目视检查方式进行,定性为主。基于集合论引进了一种量化方法,即层次等高线差异栅格分析法,用于描述等高线回放的平面位置变形量。实验证明此方法不仅可视化效果好,其量化指标有助于定位DEM误差,包括粗差;也适合对不同DEM内插方法精度评定的对比分析。     

类型地图的空间相关关系

针对类型地图,在介绍已有空间相关关系分析方法的基础上,给出一种计算空间相关关系的简便方法,其基本思想是用现实分布与随机分布下相对重叠度的差异来表达类型之间的相关程度;同时还讨论了位置不确定性对类型地图空间相关关系的影响.实验表明,该方法能够有效表达类型地图之间的整体空间相关和局部空间相关.     

Modelling Positional Uncertainty of Line Features by Accounting for Stochastic Deviations from Straight Line Segments

The assessment of positional uncertainty in line and area features is often based on uncertainty in the coordinates of their elementary vertices which are assumed to be connected by straight lines. Such an approach disregards uncertainty caused by sampling and approximation of a curvilinear feature by a sequence of straight line segments. In this article, a method is proposed that also allows for the latter type of uncertainty by modelling random rectangular deviations from the conventional straight line segments. Using the model on a dense network of sub‐vertices, the contribution of uncertainty due to approximation is emphasised; the sampling effect can be assessed by applying it on a small set of randomly inserted sub‐vertices. A case study demonstrates a feasible way of parameterisation based on assumptions of joint normal distributions for positional errors of the vertices and the rectangular deviations and a uniform distribution of missed sub‐vertices along line segments. Depending on the magnitudes of the different sources of uncertainty, not accounting for potential deviations from straight line segments may drastically underestimate the positional uncertainty of line features.     

Horizontal accuracy assessment of very high resolution Google Earth images in the city of Rome,Italy

Google Earth (GE) has recently become the focus of increasing interest and popularity among available online virtual globes used in scientific research projects, due to the free and easily accessed satellite imagery provided with global coverage. Nevertheless, the uses of this service raises several research questions on the quality and uncertainty of spatial data (e.g. positional accuracy, precision, consistency), with implications for potential uses like data collection and validation. This paper aims to analyze the horizontal accuracy of very high resolution (VHR) GE images in the city of Rome (Italy) for the years 2007, 2011, and 2013. The evaluation was conducted by using both Global Positioning System ground truth data and cadastral photogrammetric vertex as independent check points. The validation process includes the comparison of histograms, graph plots, tests of normality, azimuthal direction errors, and the calculation of standard statistical parameters. The results show that GE VHR imageries of Rome have an overall positional accuracy close to 1 m, sufficient for deriving ground truth samples, measurements, and large-scale planimetric maps.     

一种用于空间数据整合的建筑物面实体对齐方法

提出了一种用于空间数据整合的建筑物面实体对齐方法,可用来改善空间数据的位置精度。首先,采用基于最小外接矩形（minimum bounding rectangle,MBR）组合优化算法的匹配方法识别整合数据之间的同名实体;然后,提出基于几何相似性的成对约束谱匹配算法检测1:1、1:N和M:N同名实体之间的共轭点对;针对1:N和M:N匹配中不可避免存在弱对应点对和错误对应点对的问题,提出基于IGG1权重的最小二乘法来有效对齐同名实体。将所提出的方法应用于对齐较高位置精度的基础测绘地图数据和较低位置精度的谷歌地图数据中,结果表明,该方法不仅可检测存在复杂轮廓对应的1:N和M:N同名实体的共轭点对,而且可实现它们之间的有效对齐,使同名实体的位置信息差异最小化。