Automated geographic context analysis for volunteered information

Several studies show the impacts of (geo)social media and Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) during crisis events, and have found intrinsic value for rescue teams, relief workers and humanitarian assistance coordinators, as well as the affected population. The main challenge is how emergency management and the public can capitalize on the abundance of this new source of information by reducing the volume to credible and relevant content.In this paper, we present the GeoCONAVI (Geographic CONtext Analysis for Volunteered Information) approach and a prototype system, designed to retrieve, process, analyze and evaluate social media content on forest fires, producing relevant, credible and actionable VGI usable for crisis events. The novelty of the approach lies in the enrichment of the content with additional geographic context information, and use of spatio-temporal clustering to support scoring and validation. Thus, the system is focusing on integrating authoritative data sources with VGI. Evaluation in case studies shows that the prototype system can handle large amounts of data with common-off-the-shelf hardware, produces valuable results, and is adaptable to other types of crisis events.     

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.     

The development and applications of geographic information systems for urban and regional planning in the developing countries

Abstract

In the past 10 years, geographic information systems (GIS) have been widely used in urban and regional planning in the developed countries in Australia, North America and Europe. However, the use of GIS in urban and regional planning in the developing countries is limited and still at an early stage of development. This paper examines the current use of GIS in urban and regional planning in the developing countries in Asia. The major hindrances in the use of GIS in the developing countries is related not so much to the technology of GIS but more to data availability, leadership, organization structure and planning practice. For GIS to be more useful to urban and regional planning in the developing countries the development of a sustainable strategy in developing GIS and staff training is needed. International assistance agencies and GIS software companies can play an active role in making GIS available and usable to the planners in the developing countries.     

Ontologies of geographic information

This article explores the notion of a system of ontologies specifically designed for the needs of an information science. A framework for geographic information ontologies is outlined that focuses on geographic information constructs rather than on the direct representation of real-world entities or on linguistic terms. The framework takes the form of a generative hierarchy anchored by the notion of intentionality at one end and of a spatiotemporal field of potentially relevant information at the other. Two theoretical notions are used in the generation of the hierarchy. The first is the principle of semantic contraction, whereby, starting from a level of geographic information constructs specified so as to reflect user intentionality, semantically coherent domains of properties are removed over several steps until only the rudiments of a spatiotemporal information system are left. The second notion is that of object of discourse, which allows entities to be represented as the composites of geographic information constructs at the higher levels of the hierarchy, explicitly reflecting the connections between the purpose, function, appropriate internal constitution, and ensuing categorization of the entities represented. The framework's main contribution is thus twofold: first, it allows the notions of user purpose and object function to be directly built into geographic representations; second, it proposes a hierarchy of ontological levels that are linked by systematic semantic relations. Further, the framework presents an integrated view of object and field representations. It may also provide a novel perspective on a number of issues of ongoing interest in geographic information science.     

Developing a geographic expert system for regional mapping of volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit potential

A personal computer-based geographic information system (GIS) is used to develop a geographic expert system (GES) for mapping and evaluating volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit potential. The GES consists of an inference network to represent expert knowledge, and a GIS to handle the spatial analysis and mapping. Evidence from input maps is propagated through the inference network, combining information by means of fuzzy logic and Bayesian updating to yield new maps showing evaluation of hypotheses. Maps of evidence and hypotheses are defined on a probability scale between 0 and 1. Evaluation of the final hypothesis results in a mineral potential map, and the various intermediate hypotheses can also be shown in map form.The inference net, with associated parameters for weighting evidence, is based on a VMS deposit model for the Chisel Lake deposit, a producing mine in the Early Protoerzoic Snow Lake greenstone belt of northwest Manitoba. The model is applied to a small area mapped at a scale of 1:15,840. The geological map, showing lithological and alteration units, provides the basic input to the model. Spatial proximity to contacts of various kinds are particularly important. Three types of evidence are considered: stratigraphic, heat source, and alteration. The final product is a map showing the relative favorability for VMS deposits. The model is implemented as aFortran program, interfaced with the GIS. The sensitivity of the model to changes in the parameters is evaluated by comparing predicted areas of elevated potential with the spatial distribution of known VMS occurrences.     

OutDet: an algorithm for extracting the outer surfaces of building information models for integration with geographic information systems

The integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and geographic information systems (GIS) is a promising but challenging topic to solve problems in construction industry. However, loading and rendering rich BIM geometric data and large-scale GIS spatial information in a unified system is still technologically challenging. Current efforts mainly simplify the geometry in BIM models, or convert BIM geometric data to a lower level of detail (LOD). By noticing that only exterior features of BIM models are visible from outdoor observation points, culling BIM interior facilities can dramatically reduce the computational burden when visualizing BIM models in GIS. This study explores the outline detection problem and presents the OutDet algorithm, which selects representative observation points, transforms & projects the BIM geometric data into the same coordinate system, and detects the visible facilities. Empirical study results show that OutDet can cull a large portion of unnecessary features when rendering BIM models in GIS. The use of outlines of BIM models is not an alternative but rather a supplementary approach for current solutions. Jointly using LOD and outer surface can help improve the efficiency of integrated BIM-GIS visualization.Because OutDet retains BIM geometry and semantics, it can be applied to more BIM-GIS applications..     

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.     

A tentative discussion on the method of comprehensive integration of geographic information

lintroductionGeographicinformahonSystem(GIS)hasbeendevelopedtosuchadegreethatitseemstobeakindofpanaceawhengeographicproblemsarediscussedwhereverinPapers,onclasses,inrePOrtSorinresearchplans.AtpresentitisasthoughthatgeographywasnotgeographywithoutmentioningGIS.Itremindsusofquanhtahvegeography1flatoncebroughtanewlookforgeogr'aphicresearchfromthe1960stothe1980s.DuringthatPeriod,quanhtahvegeographyhadthesimilargoodfortUnetoGIStodayasitwasfrequenhyappliedindiscussingconcernedgeognphicproblems…     

Community-based production of geographic information using open source software and Web 2.0

This article presents an innovative approach to citizen-led production of Web-based geographic information where new and/or existing digital map features are linked to annotations or commentary and citizens engage in synchronous and/or asynchronous discussion. The article discusses the relationship of the approach to public participation geographic information systems (PPGISs) and the emerging challenges associated with volunteered geographic information. A custom-developed, open source software tool named MapChat is used to facilitate the citizen inputs and discussions. The information generated from applying the approach through a series of community workshops is presented and discussed in light of current issues in PPGIS and volunteered geographic information research.     

信息时代移动社会理论构建与城市地理研究

以信息技术进步为核心的信息革命已经成为推动国家、区域与城市社会经济发展及其快速转型的重要动力,并持久、深刻地冲击和改变着工业革命以来人类对社会经济及其空间结构形成的固有认识。当前,移动通信技术的进步及其应用,与高速铁路的加快建设、城市区域化的加速和智慧城市的建设一起,正将世界带入一个全新的移动信息时代。由于时间和空间概念的重新定义,全新时空观的出现,使得以空间问题为核心内容的城市地理学面临着根本性的变革。在移动信息技术的支撑下,城市地理学的研究范式、方法和内容都开始发生巨大的变化,传统的理论框架已逐渐不能满足当前研究的需要。本文重点分析了移动信息技术影响下的地理空间与网络信息空间的变化,提出了基于移动信息技术的移动社会理论框架。进而对移动信息时代城市地理学的研究方法、研究重点进行了探讨,希望运用城市地理学的研究更好地服务于移动信息时代的城市与区域的发展、规划与管治。     

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.     

Investigating the system dynamics technique for the modeling and simulation of the development of spatial data infrastructures

Spatial data infrastructure (SDI) is a complex system for which huge investments are being made worldwide. These large-scale investments in the development of SDIs incontrovertibly require reliable design and planning that guarantee a successful outcome. One approach to deal with such an expectation is to model the development process of the SDI system over time. If the model can be translated into the computer-based environment to be used as a virtual world, then the real situation can also be simulated. Such a simulation will enable the SDI coordinators/managers to gain knowledge about the behavior of the system under different decisions and situations and eventually help them to better develop the SDI through the informed decision making. However, a limited number of tools and techniques are currently available in the SDI modeling history in terms of the modeling and simulation of such a complex system. The system dynamics technique based on systems theory is a method for modeling and managing the feedback systems that are complex, dynamic and nonlinear over time. This article addresses the applicability of the system dynamics technique for modeling and simulating the development process of SDIs. It is argued that the system dynamics technique is capable of modeling the interactions among the factors affecting the SDI, the feedback loops and the delays. It is also highlighted that an SDI model based on the system dynamics technique enables the SDI coordinators/managers to simulate the effect of different factors or decisions on various aspects of SDI and evaluate alternative decisions and/or policies prior to making any commitment.     

全球地理信息产业创新链结构分析

以地理信息产业为研究对象,使用授权发明专利数据,在地理信息产业链的基础上,提出产业创新链结构研究方法。进而,从总体结构角度和特定地域结构角度对创新链发展现状进行量化评估,对世界各国,特别是中国、美国和日本的创新链结构完整性和领先环节展开比较分析。结果表明：①从总体结构看,全球创新链因下游环节创新能力的弱势而呈“倒三角形”结构。从特定地域结构看,大多国家和地区的地理信息产业创新链并不完整,存在断环或孤环,除中国外的全球创新链因中游环节的相对弱势而使上下游间存在裂隙,呈上部宽、下部较窄,中部细窄的“沙漏形”结构;②相对而言,中国产业创新链较为完整,中游环节在全球市场中具有显著比较优势,但创新链的产学研合作薄弱,市场化程度低,技术竞争力与美国相比存在落差。     

Take the edge off: A hybrid geographic food access measure

Measures of geographic food access overlook an important source of statistical biases, termed the edge effect. The edge effect refers to the fallacy that events contributing to the spatial pattern of an analysis unit may be outside of that unit; thus merely summarizing events within the unit may lead to distortion of the estimation. Food procurement activities can happen beyond existing administrative boundaries. Delineating food access using unit-based metrics may misrepresent the true space within which food stores are accessible. To overcome this problem, this paper proposes a gravity-based accessibility measure to improve unit-based statistical approaches in food access research. In addition, this method accounts for the spatial interaction between food supply (e.g., food items in stock) and demand (e.g., population) as well as how this interaction is mediated by the spatiotemporal separation (e.g., travel time, modality). The method is applied to the case of Franklin County, OH and has revealed the food access inequity for African Americans by modes of transport, including walking, biking, and driving. The analysis of the correlation between mode-specific food access and socioeconomic status (SES) variables reveals that using a single modality in food access research may not fully capture the travel behavior and its relationship with local food environments. With modifications, the proposed method can help evaluate food access for a target population group, such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) users or selected ethnic minorities who may face acute difficulties in procuring economically affordable and culturally appropriate foods.     

Mark on the globe: a quest for scientific bases of geographic information and its international influence

David M. Mark published his first journal article in 1970. Since then, he has written or coauthored more than 220 publications over a period of 40 years as of 28 May 2012. Based on data from Web of Science (WoS) and Google Scholar, Mark’s publications have been cited over 7410 times by researchers in more than 80 countries or regions as of 28 May 2012, when this paper was first prepared. The geographic extent of Mark’s scholarly influence is truly global. An examination of his 20 most cited articles reveals that his work in diverse areas as digital elevation models, geomorphology, geographic cognition, and ontology of the geospatial domain enjoyed a lasting impact worldwide.     

Reflections and speculations on the progress in Geographic Information Systems (GIS): a geographic perspective

Great strides have been made in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) research over the past half-century. However, this progress has created both opportunities and challenges. From a geographic perspective, certain challenges remain, including the modelling of geographic-featured environments with GIS data model, the enhancement of GIS’s analysis functions for comprehensive geographic analysis and achieving human-oriented geographic information presentation. Several basic theoretical and technical ideas that follow the workflow and processes of geographic information induction, geographic scenario modelling, geographic process analysis and geographic environment representation are proposed to fill the gaps between GIS and geography. We also call for designing methods for big geographic data-oriented analysis, making best use of videos and developing virtual geographic scenario-based GIS for further evolution.     

地理信息技术应用下的无人机云端管理系统发展

日益增长的无人机飞行需求与有限的低空空域之间的矛盾愈发激烈,世界各国都在推进无人机管控政策和技术手段研究,即便在最自由的美国G类非管制空域,管理当局也在制定更为严格的无人机管控措施。无人机云端管理系统作为一种新型的数字化监管手段,其系统建设框架和技术路线得到了国内外学者和监管部门的广泛关注与研究。地理信息技术作为云端管理系统的应用技术之一,具体体现在以下几方面:利用全球导航卫星系统(GNSS)实现无人机精准空间定位;通过遥感技术(RS)获取影响无人机飞行安全的地理约束要素信息;基于地理信息系统(GIS)对低空地理空间数据进行组织管理以及构建低空虚拟地理环境等。论文结合团队在无人机低空应用上的研究进展,指出地理信息技术可以在云端管理和航路规划方面为无人机运行管理提供解决方案。     

Volunteered geographic information research in the first decade: a narrative review of selected journal articles in GIScience

ABSTRACT

More than 10 years have passed since the coining of the term volunteered geographic information (VGI) in 2007. This article presents the results of a review of the literature concerning VGI. A total of 346 articles published in 24 international refereed journals in GIScience between 2007 and 2017 have been reviewed. The review has uncovered varying levels of popularity of VGI research over space and time, and varying interests in various sources of VGI (e.g. OpenStreetMap) and VGI-related terms (e.g. user-generated content) that point to the multi-perspective nature of VGI. Content-wise, using latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), this study has extracted 50 specific research topics pertinent to VGI. The 50 topics have been subsequently clustered into 13 intermediate topics and three overarching themes to allow a hierarchical topic review. The overarching VGI research themes include (1) VGI contributions and contributors, (2) main fields applying VGI, and (3) conceptions and envisions. The review of the articles under the three themes has revealed the progress and the points that demand attention regarding the individual topics. This article also discusses the areas that the existing research has not yet adequately explored and proposes an agenda for potential future research endeavors.     

Unmasking geographic polarization and clustering: A micro-scalar analysis of partisan voting behavior

“Geographic polarization”, the spatial concentration of “like” voting behavior, is a phenomenon closely related to “partisan polarization”, the intensification of diametrically ideological positions, is understudied, and is critical to the understanding of current American electoral behavior. To date, few studies have examined geographic polarization, and those that do have done so at the scales of regions, states, and counties. However, local influences operating within areas smaller than counties influence voting behavior and can produce geographic polarization. To address these scalar and methodological shortcomings, this research focuses on the smallest political units, precincts, using a case study of the Greater Cincinnati Metropolitan Area. Presidential election data from 1976 through 2008 were collected by precincts, analyzed using spatial statistics, and mapped to examine evolving geographic polarization over this 32-year period. The results measured at the precinct-scale, suggest an increased concentration of partisan behavior and emphasize a local residential spatial pattern of geographic polarization.