A natural language processing and geospatial clustering framework for harvesting local place names from geotagged housing advertisements

Local place names are frequently used by residents living in a geographic region. Such place names may not be recorded in existing gazetteers, due to their vernacular nature, relative insignificance to a gazetteer covering a large area (e.g. the entire world), recent establishment (e.g. the name of a newly-opened shopping center) or other reasons. While not always recorded, local place names play important roles in many applications, from supporting public participation in urban planning to locating victims in disaster response. In this paper, we propose a computational framework for harvesting local place names from geotagged housing advertisements. We make use of those advertisements posted on local-oriented websites, such as Craigslist, where local place names are often mentioned. The proposed framework consists of two stages: natural language processing (NLP) and geospatial clustering. The NLP stage examines the textual content of housing advertisements and extracts place name candidates. The geospatial stage focuses on the coordinates associated with the extracted place name candidates and performs multiscale geospatial clustering to filter out the non-place names. We evaluate our framework by comparing its performance with those of six baselines. We also compare our result with four existing gazetteers to demonstrate the not-yet-recorded local place names discovered by our framework.     

Toward an inclusive semantic interoperability: the case of Cree hydrographic features

There has been ample work in GIScience on the formalization of ontologies but a relatively neglected area is the influence of language and culture on ontologies of geography. Although this subject has been investigated for conceptual ontologies using indigenous words denoting geographic features, this article represents the first attempt to develop a logical ontology with an indigenous group. The process of developing logical ontologies is here referred to as formalization. A methodology for formalizing ontologies with indigenous peoples is presented. A conceptual (human readable) ontology and a logical (axioms specified in mathematical logic) ontology were developed using this methodology. Research was conducted with the Cree, the largest indigenous language grouping in Canada. Results show that the geospatial ontology developed from Cree geographic concepts possesses unique design considerations: no superordinate classes were found from archival sources or Cree speakers so ontologies are structurally flat; the ontology contains some unique classes of water bodies; and the ontology challenges our notions of the generalizability of ontologies within indigenous groups. Whereas these difficulties are not insurmountable to the establishment of a cross-cultural Geospatial Semantic Web, the current plans of the World Wide Web Consortium do not adequately address them. We suggest future directions toward an inclusive semantic interoperability.     

基于场所的GIS中的不确定性问题及分类框架

基于场所的GIS直接表达人类地理空间知识的管理和加工过程,而不确定性是人类智能的基本特点,因此GIS的智能化需要研究其中的不确定性问题。与传统的GIS相比,基于场所的GIS中的不确定性问题更为丰富,既包括随机性,也包括含糊性,而不确定性的主体既可以是地理要素、场所和空间关系,也包括命题和规则。该文介绍该领域相关的研究成果,基于不确定性主体、类型、表达手段及相关的活动4个视角,建立了基于场所的GIS中所涉及的不确定性框架,从而为相关的不确定性建模提供指导。     

转型期京津冀城市群空间扩展格局及其动力机制研究——基于夜间灯光数据方法

针对中西方城市群空间扩展路径研究的争论,以京津冀城市群为例,运用夜间灯光数据,采取扩展强度指数、空间关联模型、多维驱动力分析模型,定量揭示了城市群时空扩展路径及其动力机制。结果表明：① 1992-2012年,京津冀城市群时空扩展呈现以京津唐为核心的中心集聚扩展模式,保定—衡水—石家庄之间的“三角地带”成为城市群空间扩展的冷点区;② 城市群空间扩展虽然已经出现了扩散势头,但向心集聚的惯性作用力依然强大;③ 城市群时空扩展的动力机制表现出以市场力为主要驱动因子的特征,行政力、外向力和内源力对城市群空间扩展的影响作用依次递减,从城市群空间扩展的驱动力演化趋势看,市场力、行政力、外向力的影响呈现上升趋势,而内源力的影响系数则呈现下降趋势。最后,提出降低行政干预、构建市场主导机制、强化内外双向开放、推动产业升级政策建议,促进城市群空间结构持续优化。     

Flood pattern and weather determine Populus leaf litter breakdown and nitrogen dynamics on a cold desert floodplain

Patterns and processes involved in litter breakdown on desert river floodplains are not well understood. We used leafpacks containing Fremont cottonwood (Populus deltoides subsp. wislizenii) leaf litter to investigate the roles of weather and microclimate, flooding (immersion), and macroinvertebrates on litter organic matter (OM) and nitrogen (N) loss on a floodplain in a cool-temperate semi-arid environment (Yampa River, northwestern Colorado, USA). Total mass of N in fresh autumn litter fell by 20% over winter and spring, but in most cases there was no further N loss prior to termination of the study after 653 days exposure, including up to 20 days immersion during the spring flood pulse. Final OM mass was 10–40% of initial values. The pattern of OM and N losses suggested most N would be released outside the flood season, when retention within the floodplain would be likely. The exclusion of macroinvertebrates modestly reduced the rate of OM loss (by about 10%) but had no effect on N dynamics over nine months. Immersion in floodwater accelerated OM loss, but modest variation in litter quality did not affect the breakdown rate. These results are consistent with the concept that decomposition on desert floodplains progresses much as does litter processing in desert uplands, but with periodic bouts of processing typical of aquatic environments when litter is inundated by floodwaters. The strong dependence of litter breakdown rate on weather and floods means that climate change or river flow management can easily disrupt floodplain nutrient dynamics.     

The design and implementation of SPIRIT: a spatially aware search engine for information retrieval on the Internet

Much of the information stored on the web contains geographical context, but current search engines treat such context in the same way as all other content. In this paper we describe the design, implementation and evaluation of a spatially aware search engine which is capable of handling queries in the form of the triplet of ?theme??spatial relationship??location?. The process of identifying geographic references in documents and assigning appropriate footprints to documents, to be stored together with document terms in an appropriate indexing structure allowing real‐time search, is described. Methods allowing users to query and explore results which have been relevance‐ranked in terms of both thematic and spatial relevance have been implanted and a usability study indicates that users are happy with the range of spatial relationships available and intuitively understand how to use such a search engine. Normalised precision for 38 queries, containing four types of spatial relationships, is significantly higher (p<0.001) for searches exploiting spatial information than pure text search.     

GEO-Environmental Suitability Evaluation of Land for Urban Construction Based on A Back-Propagation Neural Network and GIS: A Case Study of Hangzhou

Evaluating the geo-environmental suitability of land for urban construction is an important step in the analysis of urban land use potential. Using geo-environmental factors and the land use status of Hangzhou, China, a back-propagation (BP) neural network model for the evaluation of the geo-environmental suitability of land for urban construction was established with a geographic information system (GIS) and techniques of grid, geospatial, and BP neural network analysis. Four factor groups, comprising nine separate subfactors of geo-environmental features, were selected for the model: geomorphic type, slope, site soil type, stratum steadiness, Holocene saturated soft soil depth, groundwater abundance, groundwater salinization, geologic hazard type, and geologic hazard degree. With the support of the model, the geo-environmental suitability of Hangzhou land for urban construction was divided into four suitability zones: zone I, suitable for super high-rise and high-rise buildings; zone II, suitable for multi-story buildings; zone III, suitable for low-rise buildings; and zone IV, not suitable for buildings. The results showed that a BP neural network can capture the complex non-linear relationships between the evaluation factors and the suitability level, and these results will support scientific decision-making for urban-construction land planning, management, and rational land use in Hangzhou.     

中国道路网络的通达性评价与演化机理

现代交通方式产生之前,传统道路设施及道路运输是主要交通方式,成为各历史时期社会经济联系的主要途径,本文力图探究道路设施网络的长期演化规律。为此,本文以具有国家意义的“国道”为研究对象,以商周以来3500年为时间尺度,设计了道路网发育指标和可达性—最短距离模型;刻画了中国道路网的拓展和演化过程,总结各时期的发展特征、空间格局及模式,揭示演变规律;评价了道路网的结构特征、成熟水平与连通性,分析各时期的可达性格局及演变,识别可达性优势与劣势区域;考察了道路网演变与中国社会—经济系统的关系机制。研究发现,中国道路网遵循了“内陆扩张”模式尤其从内陆向边疆拓展,可达性形成明显的“核心—边缘”中心圈层格局,并同国防建设和国家集权、邮驿系统、贸易运输有紧密关系。     

MODEL: a multicriteria ordinal evaluation tool for GIS

While the integration of geographical information systems (GIS) and multicriteria decision aiding (MCDA) has attracted increasing interest from researchers in recent years, due to the wide array of applications that can benefit from GIS as well as the different types of decision problems and various models that can be used through MCDA, plenty of opportunities of integrating GIS and MCDA remain. In this article, we present the result of such an opportunity in the form of a methodology and software that is currently used by the Naval Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service in France. Furthermore, this tool may be used in conjunction with other GIS–MCDA applications with a single decision maker, multiple decision makers or even where the decision has a hierarchical structure.     

An overview of scale, pattern, process relationships in geomorphology: a remote sensing and GIS perspective

Satellite remote sensing and geographic information systems are emerging technologies in geomorphology. They offer the opportunity to gain fresh insights into biophysical systems through the spatial, temporal, spectral, and radiometric resolutions of remote sensing systems and through the analytical and data integration capability of GIS. The two technologies can be linked together into a synergistic system that is particularly well suited to the examination of landscape conditions through the interrelationships of scale, pattern, and process, a paradigm that has gained prominence in the fields of biogeography and landscape ecology. In this study, we apply optical and microwave remote sensing systems and GIS methodologies to case studies framed within the fluvial and alpine environments. We use the scale, pattern, and process paradigm to explore landscape relationships in those environments. Satellite image processing, change-detection analyses, digital elevation models, GIS-derived geomorphic indices and variables, composition and pattern metrics of landscape organization, and scale-dependent analyses are described and related to the study of river channel abandonment and the alpine treeline ecotone. We describe appropriate remote sensing and GIS techniques for geomorphic research, and demonstrate the use of such techniques in the application of the scale, pattern, and processes perspective in geomorphic studies.     

ŒDIPUS: a new tool to study the dynamics of planetary interiors

We present a new numerical method to describe the internal dynamics of planetary mantles through the coupling of a dynamic model with the prediction of geoid and surface topography. Our tool is based on the simulation of thermal convection with variable viscosity in a spherical shell with a finite-volume formulation. The grid mesh is based on the 'cubed sphere' technique that divides the shell into six identical blocks. An investigation of various numerical advection schemes is proposed: we opted for a high-resolution, flux-limiter method. Benchmarks of thermal convection are then presented on steady-state tetrahedral and cubic solutions and time-dependent cases with a good agreement with the few recent programs developed to solve this problem.
A dimensionless framework is proposed for the calculation of geoid and topography introducing two dimensionless numbers: such a formulation provides a good basis for the systematic study of the geoid and surface dynamic topography associated to the convection calculations. The evaluation of geoid and surface dynamic topography from the gridded data is performed in the spectral domain. The flow solver is then tested extensively against a precise spectral program, producing response functions for geoid as well as bottom and surface topographies. For a grid mesh of a reasonable size (6 × 64 × 64 × 64) a very good agreement (to within ∼1 per cent) is found up to spherical harmonic degree 15.     

Environmental magnetic and magnetic fabric studies in LakeWaynewood, northeastern Pennsylvania, USA: Evidence for changes inwatershed dynamics

An environmental magnetic and magnetic fabric study of sedimentscollected from Lake Waynewood, a post-glacial lake in the PoconoMountains of Pennsylvania, USA, provided a history of the lake's watersheddynamics over the past 3500 years. Two 5 m long, Mackereth coresof lake sediments and three watershed soil profiles were analyzed magnetically.Paleosecular variation and ¹⁴C measurements allowed timing ofchanges in the lake's watershed which are documented by changes in ARM,SIRM,, S-ratio, SIRM/, ARM/ and ARM/SIRMdowncore. Prior to 2900 years BP, there is little evidence for allogenicinflux. Dramatic changes in mineral magnetic properties and a strong AARmagnetic fabric appear approximately 2900 years BP, suggesting major changes inwatershed conditions, either in the hydrologic regime or in vegetative cover.Between 2900 and 1800 yrs BP, large variations in magnetic mineralogy areapparent, whereas about 1800 years BP, a single sediment source began todominate the magnetic mineralogy. About 100–200 years ago, conditionsagain changed, probably due to clearcutting and settlement of the watershed.Topsoil erosion appears to have dominated the magnetic signal. S and Mnconcentration downcore indicate that there is little evidence for reductiondiagenesis having caused the changes observed in magnetic mineral type andconcentration, except in the top 10 centimeters of the sediment column.     

Simulation of spatial population dynamics based on labor economics and multi-agent systems: a case study on a rapidly developing manufacturing metropolis

Spatial population dynamics affects resource allocation in urban planning. Simulation of population dynamics can provide useful information to urban planning for rapidly developing manufacturing metropolises. In such a metropolis with a concentration of immigrant labor forces, individual employment choices could have a significant effect on their residential decisions. There remains a need for an efficient method, which can simulate spatial population dynamics by considering the interactions between employment and residential choices. This article proposes an agent-based model for simulation of spatial population dynamics by addressing the influence of labor market on individual residential decisions. Labor economics theory is incorporated into a multi-agent system in this model. The long-term equilibrium process of labor market is established to define the interactions between labor supply and labor demand. An agent-based approach is adopted to simulate the economic behaviors and residential decisions of population individuals. The residential decisions of individuals would eventually have consequences on spatial population dynamics. The proposed model has been verified by the spatial dynamics simulation (2007 to 2010) of Dongguan, an emerging and renowned manufacturing metropolis in the Pearl River Delta, China. The results indicate that the simulated population size and spatial distribution of each town in Dongguan are close to those obtained from census data. The proposed model is also applied to predict spatial population dynamics based on two economic planning scenarios in Dongguan from 2010 to2015. The predicted results provide insights into the population dynamics of this fast-growing region.     

Long-term dynamics of a semiarid grass steppe under stochastic climate and different grazing regimes: A simulation analysis

We built a grid-based spatial explicit stochastic model that simulates grazing events and basic processes like seedling establishment, growth or mortality of the dominant species in the grass steppes of Patagonia. After evaluating the model with field data, we performed simulation experiments aimed to explore the interaction of precipitation and grazing regimes on vegetation dynamics. Grazing generated a reduction in tussock density which results in a decline in aboveground net primary production (ANPP). Both response variables presented a non-linear behavior including high temporal variability and delay effects, which may prolong for decades. There was a clear threshold in the response of the variables to stock density, though changes become evident only when a highly selective grazing scenario was used. Under high stock density conditions, precipitation use efficiency (PUE) was 82% lower than the values for non-grazed runs. The inter-annual variability of precipitation was more important than the grazing regime in explaining differences in tussock density. Simulation results highlight important issues regarding rangeland management: grazing regime might be as important as stocking density as a degradation agent, temporal lags might obscure degradation processes for decades, the definition of monitoring variables need to consider their response time constants.     

大河三角洲河口海岸演化机理模型研究:(II)模型构建与实证

本文以z坐标下的三维斜压海洋动力学数值模式为基本模式原型,在整理渤海基本数据并诊断计算风生环流和热盐环流作为背景环流场基础上,初步建立了渤海海域动力环境数值模式。模式采用了经校正的Bagnold型方程来计算渤海底移质沉积物输运,悬移质计算则是取二维深度平均悬移质输运方程和河床变形方程,计算含沙量分布以及由悬移物引起的冲淤厚度。利用这种方法建立的沉积物输运模式,定量模拟了渤海沿岸和海底的沉积物输运方向和冲淤分布。模拟结果与通过多年实测水深估算获得的渤海海底沉积物的冲淤变化分布相比较,两者之间在基本结论上是比较一致的     

大河三角洲河口海岸演化机理模型研究:(II)模型构建与实证

本文以z坐标下的三维斜压海洋动力学数值模式为基本模式原型 ,在整理渤海基本数据并诊断计算风生环流和热盐环流作为背景环流场基础上 ,初步建立了渤海海域动力环境数值模式。模式采用了经校正的Bagnold型方程来计算渤海底移质沉积物输运 ,悬移质计算则是取二维深度平均悬移质输运方程和河床变形方程 ,计算含沙量分布以及由悬移物引起的冲淤厚度。利用这种方法建立的沉积物输运模式 ,定量模拟了渤海沿岸和海底的沉积物输运方向和冲淤分布。模拟结果与通过多年实测水深估算获得的渤海海底沉积物的冲淤变化分布相比较 ,两者之间在基本结论上是比较一致的