Automation and evaluation of graduated dot maps

Dot mapping is a traditional method for visualizing quantitative data, but current automated dot mapping techniques are limited. The most common automated method places dots pseudo-randomly within enumeration areas, which can result in overlapping dots and very dense dot clusters for areas with large values. These issues affect users’ ability to estimate values. Graduated dot maps use dots with different sizes that represent different values. With graduated dot maps the number of dots on a map is smaller, reducing the likelihood of overlapping dots. This research introduces an automated method of generating graduated dot maps that arranges dots with blue-noise patterns to avoid overlap and uses clustering algorithms to replace densely packed dots with those of larger sizes. A user study comparing graduated dot maps, pseudo-random dot maps, blue-noise dot maps and proportional circle maps with almost 300 participants was conducted. Results indicate that map users can more accurately extract values from graduated dot maps than from the other map types. This is likely due to the smaller number of dots per enumeration area in graduated dot maps. Map users also appear to prefer graduated dot maps over other map types.     

中国古地图遗产与文化价值

中国古地图学创于公元三世纪《西晋·裴秀传》提出的“制图之体有六焉”,被西方誉为中国地图学之父的裴秀（西晋司空）,领衔制作了《禹贡地域图》十八篇和《地形方丈图》（公元224-271年）。其后的1600年间,先后完成了一批著名的中国古地图,例如南朝大臣谢庄领衔完成的”木方丈图”（公元502-557年）、隋炀帝命学者崔绩（550-618年）撰《区宇图志》（公元581-600年）、唐朝宰相贾耽领衔绘制《海内华夷图》（公元730-805年）、北宋科学家沈括领衔绘制《守令图》（公元1031-1095年）、南宋礼部尚书黄裳绘制《苏州石刻天文图》原图（公元1190年）、元代玄教宗师朱思本制作《舆地图》（公元1273-1333年）、明代航海家郑和领衔完成《郑和航海图》与地理学家罗洪先领衔制作《广舆图》（公元1504-1564年）、明代天文学家徐光启等完成的《恒星屏障图》、清代高邮知州魏源受林则徐委托编撰《海国图志》（公元1842-1852年）等,继承与发展了独特的中国古代地图学,即使西方经纬度制图技术于公元1584-1600年前后传至中国,启动了中西地图融合发展,中西两种制图理论和方法并行地使用了400余年。闻名中外的中国古地图,包括古天文图、世界图、中国图、航海图、区域图、水利图、军事图、风景名胜图、历史图、教育图等,迄今仍被国内外著名藏图机构分散地保存着,构成了世界古地图文化遗产中的重要组成部分,具有十分珍贵的文化价值,值得进一步深入探讨、挖掘和利用。本文最后初步地探讨了中国古地图的稀有价值、应用价值、历史价值、科学价值和艺术价值。     

The heritage and cultural values of ancient Chinese maps

Ancient Chinese cartography dates back to the Western Jin Dynasty in the third century. Cartography was initiated during this period by Pei Xiu, a minister and cartographic expert, who suggested six principles of cartography. Pei Xiu, who is known as the father of Chinese cartography, oversaw the completion of the “Yu Gong Regional Maps”, along with 18 articles and the “Terrain Fangzhang Map” (AD 224–271). This led to a number of subsequent cartographic initiatives including the “Wooden Fangzhang Map” (an administrative map) which was completed by Xie Zhuang, a minister during the Southern Dynasties (AD 502–557), “Haineihuayi Tu” (Map of China and its neighbouring countries) (AD 730–805), drawn by Jia Dan, a cartographer of the Tang Dynasty, and “Shouling Tu” (an administrative map, AD 1031–1095), drawn by Shen Kuo, a scientist during the Northern Song Dynasty. Throughout the 16th century, ancient Chinese cartography developed continuously and cumulatively, and formed the specific characteristics of China ancient cartography. Although Western latitude- based and longitude-based mapping techniques introduced to China in AD 1460, the theories and methods of Chinese and Western mapping systems co-existed for over 400 years. The cultural heritage of Chinese cartography can be seen in many famous ancient Chinese maps, including astronomical figures and atlases (world, Chinese, regional, military, water conservancy, historical, and educational maps), charts, and maps of scenic spots. These have hitherto been kept in well-known archives and institutions across the world. They form an important part of the global cultural heritage of ancient maps and cartography. Given their high cultural value, these maps remain an important point of study. This paper provides a preliminary discussion on the rarity, application, and the historical, scientific, and artistic value of ancient Chinese maps.     

2008年以来地图学眼动与视觉认知研究新进展

地图是人类日常生活中不可或缺的工具。地图认知作为研究人对地图的感知、学习、记忆、推理和决策的科学,一直以来是地图学基础理论的重要内容。作为地图认知研究的核心,近年来地图视觉认知在相关学科（如心理学、认知科学和计算机视觉）和新的研究手段（如眼动跟踪、脑电和核磁）的促进下取得了一系列新的研究成果。尤其是眼动跟踪方法作为地图视觉认知研究的重要手段之一,越来越受到研究者的关注,为地图视觉认知研究的定量化、实用化提供了有力支撑。本文系统地梳理了2008年以来眼动跟踪方法在地图视觉认知研究中取得的新进展,并将其归纳为6个发展趋势,分别包括：① 刺激材料：从静态地图到动态交互地图;② 研究范围：从地图认知到地图空间认知;③ 实验环境：从实验室环境到真实环境;④ 地图维度：从二维地图到三维地图;⑤ 个体差异：从单一维度到多维度;⑥ 研究目的：从规律探究到实践应用。本文最后总结了未来研究面临的挑战、难点和可能的解决方法,期望能在地图视觉认知研究中起到抛砖引玉的作用。     

The fractal nature of maps and mapping

A fractal can be simply understood as a set or pattern in which there are far more small things than large ones, for example, far more small geographic features than large ones on the earth surface, or far more large-scale maps than small-scale maps for a geographic region. This article attempts to argue and provide evidence for the fractal nature of maps and mapping. It is the underlying fractal structure of geographic features, either natural or man-made, that make reality mappable, large-scale maps generalizable, and cities imageable. The fractal nature is also what underlies the beauty of maps. After introducing some key fractal concepts such as recursion, self-similarity, scaling ratio, and scaling exponent, this article demonstrates that fractal thought is rooted in long-standing map-making practices such as series maps subdivision, visual hierarchy, and Töpfer’s radical law. Drawing on previous studies on head/tail breaks, mapping can be considered a head/tail breaks process; that is to divide things around an average, according to their geometric, topological and/or semantic properties, into the head (for those above the average) and the tail (for those below the average), and recursively continue the dividing process for the head for map generalization, statistical mapping, and cognitive mapping. Given the fractal nature of maps and mapping, cartography should be considered a perfect combination of science and art, and scaling must be formulated as a law of cartography or that of geography in general.     

试论地图学发展与技术创新

概念了技术创新的内涵以及我国20多年来地图学发展中的技术创新，根据制图实践及典型范例，总结了制图工艺创新及地图产品创新的优势，认为加强地图学与“GIS，RS，GPS”技术的集成和应用研究，网络地图发布与浏览技术研究，是今后地图学技术创新的重要方向。     

论区域经济开发型地图模式化研究的几个基本问题

本文就区域经济开发型地图模式化研究的几个基本问题－区域的概念与划分，研究的本底与基础，研究工作的理论与方法，区域类型的造反等发作者的观点。     

中国古代世界地图主要成就与特色初探

世界地图的编辑出版一直被认为是文明国家的标志之一。在《中国近代地图志》世界地图篇的编写基础上,首先系统地梳理了明清两代近600年间（公元1368-1911年）的25余种代表性世界地图,着重地分析了这些世界地图的历史背景,探讨了明清世界地图特色、贡献和作用。主要结论为：① 中国古代文明与经济水平长期领先于世界,自然成就了先于西方完成世界地图之创举;② 受制于多个皇权实施“闭关锁国”保守政策,中国古代世界地图呈现出集中于5个相对开放繁荣时段轨迹,即“自主传统、中西融合、康乾盛世、自主创新和近代化发展”时段;③ 中国古代世界地图具有5个鲜明的成就与特色,即“先于西方成图、资料积累丰富、传统制图优势、图文并茂模式、中西融合先河”;④ 诠释了中国古代世界地图在传播世界地理知识与推动社会进步中的重要作用。总之,中国古代世界地图具有重要的史料价值和现实意义。     

The World's Import Trade and the United States' Share Therein

Abstract

Many student geography organizations or clubs associated with colleges and universities undertake community service projects each year to meet local needs and to gain recognition within the community. A uniquely geographical project of playground map painting provides a great community service and goes one step further by incorporating elements of quality service-learning for the geography club members. Painting projects for large school playground maps of the world, United States, or home state are student-planned and student-run. The final painted map can be used for geographic education in elementary schools by conveying basic spatial and geographic relationships. This article will detail a proven method of producing a colorful, useful playground map that can be employed by geography clubs as a service-learning activity and used by educators in elementary schools.     

近现代时期若干北京古旧地图研究与数字化处理

本文介绍了若干幅 1 90 7年至 1 948年间由陆地测量总局等不同权威机构测绘、编制的古旧北京地图 ,为开展近现代时期北京城市地理、土地覆盖变迁研究、为古地图研究与利用提供参考。对古旧地图的应用及数字化技术处理进行了探讨。     

Computation and visualisation of the accuracy of old maps using differential distortion analysis

The accuracy of old maps can hold interesting historical information, and is therefore studied using distortion analysis methods. These methods start from a set of ground control points that are identified both on the old map and on a modern reference map or globe, and conclude with techniques that compute and visualise distortion. Such techniques have advanced over the years, but leave room for improvement, as the current ones result in approximate values and a coarse spatial resolution. We propose a more elegant and more accurate way to compute distortion of old maps by translating the technique of differential distortion analysis, used in map projection theory, to the setting where an old map and a reference map are directly compared. This enables the application of various useful distortion metrics to the study of old maps, such as the area scale factor, the maximum angular distortion and the Tissot indicatrices. As such a technique is always embedded in a full distortion analysis method we start by putting forward an optimal analysis method for a general-purpose study, which then serves as the foundation for the development of our technique. Thereto, we discuss the structure of distortion analysis methods and the various options available for every step of the process, including the different settings in which the old map can be compared to its modern counterpart, the techniques that can be used to interpolate between both, and the techniques available to compute and visualise the distortion. We conclude by applying our general-purpose method, including the differential distortion analysis technique, to an example map also used in other literature.     

Attribute error and sensitivity analysis of map operations in geographical informations systems: suitability analysis

The theory and methods for attribute error and sensitivity analysis associated with map-based suitability analysis are developed. In particular, this paper delineates the underlying types of sensitivities for suitability analysis and derives ways to measure these sensitivities. Additionally, it shows how to undertake geographical sensitivity analyses given a generic geographical information system. The uses of these methods include understanding the relationship of the attribute errors in the output map generated by errors in the input maps for a given geographical analysis. This information provides a means to assess the quality and reliability of conclusions inferred from the output map created by such an analysis.     

Beyond the epsilon band: polygonal modeling of gradation/uncertainty in area-class maps

A spatial modeling technique is proposed to represent boundary uncertainty or gradation on area-class maps using a simple polygon tessellation with designated zones of indeterminacy or transition zones. The transition zone can be conceptualized as a dual of the epsilon band, but is more flexible and allows for a wide range of polygonal configurations, including polygons with sinuous boundaries, spurs, three-way transition zones, and null polygons. The model is specified using the medial axis to capture the general shape characteristics of a transition zone. Graph theoretic representation of an extended version of the medial axis captures key junctions in both shape and classification and is used to identify well-formed transition zones that can be logically and unambiguously handled by the model. A multivariate classification surface is specified by first defining degrees or probabilities of membership at every point on the medial axis and transition zone boundary. Degrees or probabilities of membership at all other points are defined by linear interpolation. The technique is illustrated with an example of a complex transition zone, and a simple isoline representation that can be derived from the model is presented. The proposed modeling technique promises to facilitate expert characterization of soil formations, ecological systems, and other types of areal units where gradation and/or boundary uncertainty are prevalent.     

基于SOM的流域分类和无资料区径流模拟

无资料区的径流模拟问题是国内外水文研究的难点之一。基于相似流域的参数移植法是常用的解决方法之一,但如何判断相似流域是制约此类方法发展的难点。本文以滇池流域为例,采用自组织映射神经网络(SOM)和层次聚类分析(HCA)联合模式,选取16个流域物理特征为指标进行子流域分类,以确定相似流域。运用无分层的K-means分类的SOM法将整个滇池流域划分为7类具有水文属性的子流域组,分类情景与HCA基本一致,两者实现相互验证。采用HBV水文模型模拟子流域径流过程,并选择部分子流域进行组内参数移植交叉检验。结果显示,HBV模型可较好的模拟滇池流域径流过程;此外,子流域交叉检验结果优良,表明同组内参数可以相互移植。本文不仅为解决滇池流域无资料问题提供了可靠手段,而且由于SOM实现了高维流域特征可视化展示,有助于管理者全面、深入的把握滇池流域水文属性的空间分布特征,为进行水资源管理提供指导。     

Automatic alignment of contemporary vector data and georeferenced historical maps using reinforcement learning

ABSTRACT

With large amounts of digital map archives becoming available, automatically extracting information from scanned historical maps is needed for many domains that require long-term historical geographic data. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) are powerful techniques that can be used for extracting locations of geographic features from scanned maps if sufficient representative training data are available. Existing spatial data can provide the approximate locations of corresponding geographic features in historical maps and thus be useful to annotate training data automatically. However, the feature representations, publication date, production scales, and spatial reference systems of contemporary vector data are typically very different from those of historical maps. Hence, such auxiliary data cannot be directly used for annotation of the precise locations of the features of interest in the scanned historical maps. This research introduces an automatic vector-to-raster alignment algorithm based on reinforcement learning to annotate precise locations of geographic features on scanned maps. This paper models the alignment problem using the reinforcement learning framework, which enables informed, efficient searches for matching features without pre-processing steps, such as extracting specific feature signatures (e.g. road intersections). The experimental results show that our algorithm can be applied to various features (roads, water lines, and railroads) and achieve high accuracy.     

Identifying strengths and limitations of pan-European forest cover maps through spatial comparison

Detailed and harmonized information on spatial forest distribution is an essential input for forest-related environmental assessments, in particular, for biomass and growing stock modeling. In the last years, several mapping approaches have been developed in order to provide such information for Europe in a harmonized way. Each of these maps exhibits particular properties and varies in accuracy. Yet, they are often used in parallel for different modeling purposes. A detailed spatial comparison seemed necessary in order to provide information on the advantages and limitations of each of these forest cover maps in order to facilitate their selection for modeling purposes.

This article confronts the high-resolution forest cover map recently developed by the Joint Research Centre for the year 2000 (FMAP2000) with previously existing maps for the same time period: the CORINE Land Cover 2000 (CLC2000) and the Calibrated European Forest Map 1996 (CEFM1996). The spatial comparison of these three maps was carried out based on forest proportion maps of 1 km derived from the original maps. To characterize differences according to biogeographic regions, two criteria were used: detail of thematic content within each map and local spatial agreement.

Concerning thematic content, CLC2000 displayed a surfeit of non-forested areas at the cost of low forest proportions, while FMAP2000 showed a more balanced distribution likely to preserve more detail in forest spatial pattern. Good spatial agreement was found for CLC2000 and FMAP2000 within about 70% of the study area, while only 50% agreement was found when compared with CEFM1996. The largest spatial differences between all maps were found in the Alpine and Mediterranean regions. Reasons for these might be different input data and classification techniques and, in particular, the calibration of CEFM1996 to reported national statistics.     

认知地图的地理学研究进展与展望

认知地图作为人对人地关系复杂系统进行抽象化和秩序化的内在表征,是个体空间行为决策、空间认知与空间规划的理论基础,也是地理学的重要研究领域之一。论文通过CiteSpace文献学分析方法并结合经典文献回顾,从多学科视角系统梳理认知地图1948—2020年共70余年的发展脉络与研究热点。研究认为,认知地图在地理学的学科发展过程中扮演了重要角色,特别是在认知空间与城市意象、空间扭曲与空间偏好、空间知识与决策行为等方面丰富了地理学内涵。近期与地理学有关的认知地图跨学科研究出现3大转向：大数据时代重新定义认知空间与城市意象的数字转向,以特定群体或事件的空间偏好为切入点的情感转向,以第一人称视角解译空间知识与决策行为的神经转向。最后指出认知地图空间分析的地理学在跨学科融合发展中的角色与应用前景。     

Toward a Cartography of the Commons: Constituting the Political and Economic Possibilities of Place

Competing with the cartography of capitalism, undermining its power to fix resources as open to capitalist appropriation and space as enclosed, will require a cartography of the commons that makes visible community and commons processes; it will require a shift in strategy from explicating and defending existing commons to mapping spaces into which a commons future might be projected. The “Buffalo Commons” and a map-based project in New England fisheries link new spatial imaginaries with desires for and enactments of alternative economic initiatives. Each project rereads economic and environmental processes relative to the potential of the commons rather than the potential of capitalism.