Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs): A Novel Paradigm for GIS

In recent years, an increasing amount of effort has gone into the design of GIS user interfaces. On the one hand, Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) with a high degree of sophistication have replaced line‐driven commands of first‐generation GIS. On the other hand, a number of alternative approaches have been suggested, most notably those based on Virtual Environments (VEs). In this paper we discuss a novel interface for GIS, which springs from recent work carried out in the field of Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs). The philosophy behind TUIs is to allow people to interact with computers via familiar tangible objects, therefore taking advantage of the richness of the tactile world combined with the power of numerical simulations. Two experimental systems, named Illuminating Clay and SandScape, are described here and their applications to GIS are examined. Conclusions suggest that these interfaces might streamline the landscape design process and result in a more effective use of GIS, especially when distributed decision‐making and discussion with non‐experts are involved.     

Seamless integration of spatial statistics and GIS: The S-PLUS for ArcView and the S+Grassland Links

The extension of the functional capacity of geographic information systems (GIS) with tools for statistical analysis in general and exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) in particular has been an increasingly active area of research in recent years. In this paper, two operational implementations that combine the functionality of spatial data analysis software with a GIS are considered more closely. They consist of linkages between the S-PLUS software for data analysis and two different GIS implementations, the ArcView desktop system, which is mostly vector-oriented, and the primarily raster-based Grassland open GIS environment. We emphasize conceptual and technical issues related to the software implementation of these approaches and suggest future directions for linking spatial statistics and GIS. Received: 14 January 1999 / Accepted: 11 May 1999     

Mobile Wireless GRASS GIS for Handheld Computers Running GNU/Linux

Recent developments of the communication technologies in the last years opened a new dimension to Geographical Information Systems and Geoinformation Techno‐logies. This new dimension is mobility. It is simplifying data gathering, processing and presentation independent from the area of application. A new branch, Mobile Geoinformation Technologies, is based on wireless communication systems, mobile personal computers, positioning systems and GIS. There are some proprietary GIS software solutions for mobile or handheld devices available on the market, but they are more focused on data logging tasks than providing full powered GIS support or data processing functions. In this paper, we propose a mobile implementation of the free and easily expandable GRASS GIS software in combination with the GNU/Linux operating system run on handheld devices. This approach supports real time in the field computations, data processing and cooperation of several active mobile clients using wireless networking.     

Application of geographical information system for mapping/monitoring seismological hazards in Pakistan

This study attempts to use the geographic information system (GIS) technique to map and understand the tectonics and crustal structures of Pakistan. Maps of surficial tectonic features and seismological parameters including Moho depth, P_n velocity and P_g velocity are complied. Based on the seismological data-set of the country the earthquake hazard map of Pakistan is also presented by applying regression technique on seismological, geological and topographical parameters. A case study of 8 October 2005 earthquake is used to validate the hazard map. It is envisaged that the developed GIS database would help policy-makers and scientists in natural hazard evaluation, seismic risk assessment and understanding of earthquake occurrences in Pakistan.     

GIS in Participatory Research: Assessing the Impact of Landmines on Communities in North-west Cambodia

The view of GIS, adopted by many, as an undemocratic and divisive technology is perhaps most poignant in settings where financial and skills‐based resources are limited, notably in lower‐income countries. Where those countries are also recovering from a period of military conflict there would at first sight seem to be little opportunity for employing GIS as part of a socially‐sensitive approach to ‘development’. This paper explores the potential for using GIS in participatory approaches to gathering and analysing geographical information on human‐environment interactions in post‐conflict settings. We discuss empirical work from northwest Cambodia where GIS and participatory methods have been integrated to assess risk to local communities from landmines and to develop priorities for landmine clearance. In juxtaposing ‘official’, spatially‐referenced data with indigenous geographical knowledge in this study we seek to privilege meaningful geographical understandings over conventional notions of spatial ‘accuracy’. In so doing we carry out a Participatory Mine Impact Assessment (PMIA) to explore spatial activities among local populations in mine‐contaminated communities and to help identify improved strategies for returning refugees in re‐establishing livelihoods.     

Modeling and Communicating the Conceptual Intent of Geo‐Analytical Tasks for Human‐GIS Interaction

One of the fundamental issues of geographical information science is to design GIS interfaces and functionalities in a way that is easy to understand, teach, and use. Unfortunately, current geographical information systems (including ArcGIS) remains very difficult to use as spatial analysis tools, because they organize and expose functionalities according to GIS data structures and processing algorithms. As a result, GIS interfaces are conceptually confusing, cognitively complex, and semantically disconnected from the way human reason about spatial analytical activities. In this article, we propose an approach that structures GIS analytical functions based on the notion of “analytical intent”. We describe an experiment that replaces ArcGIS desktop interface with a conversational interface, to enable mixed‐initiative user‐system interactions at the level of analytical intentions. We initially focus on the subset of GIS functions that are relevant to “finding what's inside” as described by Mitchell, but the general principles apply to other types of spatial analysis. This work demonstrates the feasibility of delegating some spatial thinking tasks to computational agents, and also raises future research questions that are key to building a better theory of spatial thinking with GIS.     

Human conceptions of spaces: Implications for GIS

The way people conceptualize space is an important consideration for the design of GIS, because a better match with people's thinking is expected to lead to easier-to-use information systems. Everyday space, the basis to GIS, has been characterized in the literature as being either small-scale (from table-top to room-size spaces) or large-scale (inside-of-building spaces to city-size spaces). While this dichotomy of space is grounded in the view from psychology that people's perception of space, spatial cognition, and spatial behaviour are experience-based, it is in contrast to current GIS, which enable us to interact with large-scale spaces as though they were small-scale or manipulable. We analyse different approaches to characterizing spaces and propose a unified view in which space is based on the physical properties of manipulability, locomotion, and size of space. Within the structure of our framework, we distinguish six types of spaces: manipulable object space (smaller than the human body), non-manipulable object space (greater than the human body, but less than the size of a building), environmental space (from inside-of-building spaces to city-size spaces), geographic space (state, country, and continent-size spaces), panoramic space (spaces perceived via scanning the landscape), and map space. Such a categorization is an important part of Naive Geography, a set of theories on how people intuitively or spontaneously conceptualize geographic space and time, because it has implications for various theoretical and methodological questions concerning the design and use of spatial information tools. Of particular concern is the design of effective spatial information tools that lead to better communication.     

Natural Conversational Interfaces to Geospatial Databases

Natural (spoken) language, combined with gestures and other human modalities, provides a promising alternative for interacting with computers, but such benefit has not been explored for interactions with geographical information systems. This paper presents a conceptual framework for enabling conversational human‐GIS interactions. Conversations with a GIS are modeled as human‐computer collaborative activities within a task domain. We adopt a mental state view of collaboration and discourse and propose a plan‐based computational model for conversational grounding and dialogue generation. At the implementation level, our approach is to introduce a dialogue agent, GeoDialogue, between a user and a geographical information server. GeoDialogue actively recognizes user's information needs, reasons about detailed cartographic and database procedures, and acts cooperatively to assist user's problem solving. GeoDialogue serves as a semantic ‘bridge’ between the human language and the formal language that a GIS understands. The behavior of such dialogue‐assisted human‐GIS interfaces is illustrated through a scenario simulating a session of emergency response during a hurricane event.     

Global and local spatial autocorrelation in bounded regular tessellations

This paper systematically investigates spatially autocorrelated patterns and the behaviour of their associated test statistic Moran's I in three bounded regular tessellations. These regular tessellations consist of triangles, squares, and hexagons, each of increasing size (n=64; 256; 1024). These tesselations can be downloaded at http://geo-www.sbs.ohio-state.edu/faculty/tiefelsdorf/regspastruc/ in several GIS formats. The selection of squares is particularly motivated by their use in raster based GIS and remote sensing. In contrast, because of topological correspondences, the hexagons serve as excellent proxy tessellations for empirical maps in vector based GIS. For all three tessellations, the distributional characteristics and the feasibility of the normal approximation are examined for global Moran's I, Moran's I ^(k) associated with higher order spatial lags, and local Moran's I _i. A set of eigenvectors can be generated for each tessellation and their spatial patterns can be mapped. These eigenvectors can be used as proxy variables to overcome spatial autocorrelation in regression models. The particularities and similarities in the spatial patterns of these eigenvectors are discussed. The results indicate that [i] the normal approximation for Moran's I is not always feasible; [ii] the three tessellations induce different distributional characteristics of Moran's I, and [iii] different spatial patterns of eigenvectors are associated with the three tessellations. Received: 2 July 1999 / Accepted: 9 November 1999     

The Development of the Chagas' Online Data Entry System (CODES-GIS)

This article describes a web‐based data entry and GIS‐driven mapping system designed for an ethnographic and entomological survey of Chagas’ disease, an emerging zoonotic disease, and Triatoma dimidiata, a primary vector, in the Los Tuxtlas region of Veracruz, Mexico. To better understand this disease in the region, a collaborative, multi‐disciplinary study was initiated to conduct a spatial investigation of T. dimidiata and a community‐by‐community survey of local perceptions of the disease. In order to facilitate such a collaborative effort the CODES‐GIS was developed. This system allows for (near) real‐time mapping, analyses, disease reporting, and results sharing. CODES‐GIS provides a framework for a research team working in a remote area with limited technology, software, or GIS expertise to benefit from (near) real‐time spatial analyses performed at collaborating institutions. The system is bi‐directional, where field personnel can upload data to the system for field‐based map production. Likewise, laboratory personnel can upload diagnostics data for viewing by field personnel. In this way, the system provides a virtual link between the field and the laboratory to increase the speed at which results are returned to the local community. The CODES‐GIS is described along with a selection of study results.     

GISTARS: Elements of GIS on elementary computers 1

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology has had its genesis in the sophisticated computational context of research laboratories and commerical computing. Proprietary packages and a plethora of peripherals present problems in propagating GIS technology, both in developing countries and in conventional classroom settings. GISTARS (Geographic Information STARter System) is a training package developed under the auspices of the Office for Remote Sensing of Earth Resources at Penn State University by the author with support from USAID/India to promte interest in and understanding of GIS technology. It runs on generic PC‐compatible microcomputers having one or more diskette drives and a CGA card. A simple analog overlay device has been developed for converting source maps to digital form, so that training can be conducted without an electric digitizer. Documentation/tutorials are self‐contained. The software in executable form is non‐proprietary and may be freely copied and redistributed. It has served as the basis for a series of introductory GIS workshops given by the author in India.     

A SEMINAR ON GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

A paper describing the proceedings of a seminar on geographic information systems sponsored jointly by Tartu University and the USSR Academy of Sciences reveals major thrusts of Soviet research in this emerging field. Topics presented in the seminar include basic types of geographic information systems, the roles played by microcomputers and data base management systems in GIS, use of data from topographic maps in GIS, terrain modeling, remote sensing and GIS, GIS development based on Soviet-produced hardware and software, and the application of information systems in the solution of specific resource management problems. Translated from: Izvestiya AN SSSR, seriya geograficheskaya, 1986, No. 1, pp. 136–138.     

Soil resource assessment and mapping using remote sensing and GIS

In this study digital image processing for physiographic analysis and soil resource mapping of Solani watershed was carried out using satellite remote sensing data and GIS. Digital image processing of satellite data facilitated in accurately delineating and identifying various soil mapping units. The physiography of the study area is mainly influenced by denudational and colluvial processes in the upper part and by sedimentation processes in the lower part. Topography of the land and nature of parent material along with the time factor seemed to have played a vital role in the genesis of soils. Majority of the mapping units are Typic Haplustepts with Entisols and Inceptisols being the major soil orders. The soils of the Siwalik hills experiences severe erosion, which prevents the maturation of soil profile. The present study demonstrated that satellite remote sensing and GIS is a valuable tool for physiographic analysis and soil resource mapping.     

Construction and Visualization of a Three Dimensional Geologic Model Using GRASS GIS

The present work aims at introducing a basic theory, implementing methodology and algorithms for 3‐D modeling, and visualizing a geologic model using the Open Source Free GIS GRASS environment. A 3‐D geologic model is constructed from the boundary surfaces of geologic units and the logical model of geologic structure. The algorithms for construction and visualization of the proposed model are based on the geologic function g . The geologic function g assigns a unique geologic unit to every point in the objective 3‐D space. The boundary surface that divides the objective space into two subspaces is estimated using data from field survey. The logical model showing the hierarchical relationship between these boundary surfaces and geologic units can be automatically generated based on the stratigraphic sequence and knowledge of geologic structures. Based on these algorithms, a 3‐D geologic model can be constructed virtually in the GRASS GIS. Applying this model, various geologic surfaces and section models can be visualized in the GRASS GIS environment. “Nviz” was used for dynamic visualization of geologic cross‐sections and generation of animated image sequences. Further, the described algorithms and methods are applied and an online 3‐D geologic modeling system is developed.     

A New GIScience Application for Visualized Natural Resources Management and Decision Support

This article presents two decision support plug‐ins in free GIS software: ArcGIS Explorer Desktop. The ubiquitous WebGIS Analysis Toolkit for Extensive Resources (uWATER) focuses on providing GIS analysis functions: spatial and attribute queries in the public services tool for users with limited access to commercial GIS software. The interface of uWATER is general enough to support decision‐making in numerous management issues in natural resources, economics and agriculture. The uWATER‐Pumping Assessment (uWATER‐PA) toolkit, on the other hand, is an extended package targeting the specific environmental issue of groundwater pumping impacts. The uWATER‐PA package is an excellent alternative to evaluating complex groundwater pumping assessment issues before investing significant time, labor, and funds in monitoring and detailed scientific study. It incorporates simulation of the physics of groundwater flow and user interaction into GIS software. A graphical user interface makes both data entry and interpretation of results intuitive to non‐technical individuals. Results are presented as colored drawdown maps and can be saved in GIS format for future dissemination. The impact of drawdown on existing wells can be characterized and mapped, through the use of uWATER's spatial query capabilities and the drawdown maps generated by uWATER‐PA.     

TimeBliography: A Dynamic and Online Bibliography on Temporal GIS

This article introduces an online bibliography on temporal GIS, a research area in which different scientific fields and researchers have provided substantial results and literature over the past few years. We first define the scientific domain of temporal GIS, its origin and recent evolution, and the context of this bibliography. Then, the components and functionalities of the web‐based application that support the online bibliography are described. The bibliography, entitled TimeBliography, is accessible on the Web at http://spaceandtime.wsiabato.info .     

Semantic typing of linked geoprocessing workflows

In Geographic Information Systems (GIS), geoprocessing workflows allow analysts to organize their methods on spatial data in complex chains. We propose a method for expressing workflows as linked data, and for semi-automatically enriching them with semantics on the level of their operations and datasets. Linked workflows can be easily published on the Web and queried for types of inputs, results, or tools. Thus, GIS analysts can reuse their workflows in a modular way, selecting, adapting, and recommending resources based on compatible semantic types. Our typing approach starts from minimal annotations of workflow operations with classes of GIS tools, and then propagates data types and implicit semantic structures through the workflow using an OWL typing scheme and SPARQL rules by backtracking over GIS operations. The method is implemented in Python and is evaluated on two real-world geoprocessing workflows, generated with Esri's ArcGIS. To illustrate the potential applications of our typing method, we formulate and execute competency questions over these workflows.     

Applying Cost/Benefit Analysis to Evaluate Investment in GIS: The Case of Ghana's Lands Commission Secretariat, Accra

One of the many reasons why GIS programmes in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world never get started is that top management are not fully persuaded to support such innovations. A favourable financial analysis of GIS investment will greatly enhance its chances of approval and continued funding if the computation is tied to the goals set by organisations. We argue that an approach provided by a score and weight process that is part of the Investment Evaluation Methodology (IEM) developed by Digital Equipment Corporation USA, for cost benefit analysis fulfils this objective as it is designed to assist top managers and policy‐makers in coming to an understanding of the nature and scope of the proposed GIS project. The methodology involves measuring benefits that are quantifiable (tangibles) and identifying those that are not (intangibles). A coherent and consistent framework for evaluating the GIS project is therefore made. The methodology is generic enough to be applied in any developing country context.     

Spatial analysis in epidemiology: Nascent science or a failure of GIS?

This paper summarizes contributions of GIS in epidemiology, and identifies needs required to support spatial epidemiology as science. The objective of spatial epidemiology is to identify disease causes and correlates by relating spatial disease patterns to geographic variation in health risks. GIS supports disease mapping, location analysis, the characterization of populations, and spatial statistics and modeling. Although laudable, these accomplishments are not sufficient to fully identify disease causes and correlates. One reason is the failure of present-day GIS to provide tools appropriate for epidemiology. Two needs are most pressing. First, we must reject the static view: meaningful inference about the causes of disease is impossible without both spatial and temporal information. Second, we need models that translate space-time data on health outcomes and putative exposures into epidemiologically meaningful measures. The first need will be met by the design and implementation of space-time information systems for epidemiology; the second by process-based disease models.     

Understanding spatial variations of malaria in Vietnam using remotely sensed data integrated into GIS and machine learning classifiers

Abstract

This study examines the potentials of remotely sensed data, GIS and some machine learning classifiers and ensemble techniques in the investigation of the non-linear relationship between malaria occurrences and socio-physical conditions in the Dak Nong province of Viet Nam. Accuracy assessment was determined with Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve and pair t-test. The results showed that the area under ROC of Random Subspace ensemble model performed better than the other models based on statistical indicators. Comparing pair t-test with Area Under Curve values showed a slight difference of about 1%. Therefore ensemble techniques had significantly improved the performance of the base classifier. However, the performances might vary according to geographic locations. It is concluded that the machine learning classifiers combined with remotely sensed data and GIS is promising for malaria vulnerability mapping, and the derived maps can be used as a fundamental basis for programmes on spatial disease control.