Qualitative spatial reasoning: cardinal directions as an example

ABSTRACT

Abstract. Geographers use spatial reasoning extensively in large-scale spaces, i.e., spaces that cannot be seen or understood from a single point of view. Spatial reasoning differentiates several spatial relations, e.g. topological or metric relations, and is typically formalized using a Cartesian coordinate system and vector algebra. This quantitative processing of information is clearly different from the ways human draw conclusions about spatial relations. Formalized qualitative reasoning processes are shown to be a necessary part of Spatial Expert Systems and Geographical Information Systems.

Addressing a subset of the total problem, namely reasoning with cardinal directions, a completely qualitative method, without recourse to analytical procedures, is introduced and a method for its formal comparison with quantitative formula is defined. The focus is on the analysis of cardinal directions and their properties. An algebraic method is used to formalize the meaning of directions. The standard directional symbols (N, W, etc.) are supplemented with a symbol corresponding to an undetermined direction between points too close to each other which greatly increases the power of the inference rules. Two specific systems to determine and reason with cardinal directions are discussed in some detail.

From this example and some other previous work, a comprehensive set of research steps is laid out, following a mathematically based taxonomy. It includes the extension of distance and direction reasoning to extended objects and the definitions of other metric relations that characterize situations when objects are not disjointed. The conclusions compare such an approach with other concepts.     

Tiers of ontology and consistency constraints in geographical information systems

Consistency constraints placed on a database to assure, that values incorporated in the database are consistent, are a well known foundation of Geographical Information Systems. Unfortunately in real situations rules for consistency constraints are not so clear, and inconsistent ontologies are common place, not least in geographical information, covering as it does a much wider realm than many other information systems I have suggested elsewhere 5-tiers of ontology for GIS. Such an ontology can integrate different ontological approaches in a unified system. In this paper the relation of the 5-tier ontology and consistency constraints is explored, and it is shown that different constraints are appropriate to different tiers.     

CLIMATE RESPONSE FUNCTIONS FOR BIGCONE SPRUCE: A MEDITERRANEAN CLIMATE CONIFER

Bigcone spruce is a conifer endemic to southern California. Two new tree-ring chronologies were developed utilizing individuals of this species growing at two sites in the San Rafael mountains of Santa Barbara County. Climate growth response functions were determined for these chronologies and for an existing bigcone spruce chronology from the San Bernardino mountains farther east. Bigcone spruce is particularly well suited for dendrochronological analysis given its longevity (800 years) and the strong relationship between growth and precipitation. Growth in the current year depends strongly on growth in the previous two years (22-46% of total chronology variance). After removing the effects of prior growth, response functions based on precipitation alone account for 43-51% of chronology variance, while those based on precipitation and temperature explain 52-76% of total variance. Response functions indicate a strong positive relationship between growth and winter and spring precipitation, and a negative relationship with early spring and early summer temperatures. The response functions for big-cone spruce are distinctive from those published for other western conifers, and are consistent with the unique characteristics of the mediterranean climatic regime.     

Mud and magnetism: records of late Pleistocene and Holocene environmental change recorded by magnetic measurements

The paper presents a personal summary of the role of magnetic measurements in lake sediment studies. Examples are used to illustrate the main variations in lake sediment magnetic properties and the processes controlling their variations. These are considered in terms of sediment sequences: (1) that are virtually devoid of magnetic minerals; (2) the magnetic properties of which are dominated by input of magnetic minerals from ‘primary’, unweathered catchment sources (3) with magnetic properties indicative of erosion of weathered material, mainly magnetically enhanced topsoil; (4) that have received minimal input of terrigenous ferrimagnetic minerals but are rich in biogenic magnetite (5) parts of which have experienced dissolution diagenesis (6) in which signals from erosion, biogenic magnetite and dissolution can all be detected and (7) that are dominated by the presence of authigenic greigite. Additional issues, including the importance of particle size variations as a control of magnetic properties, the under-representation of haematite and goethite in the magnetic record and the significance of atmospheric deposition are also considered. A concluding section briefly outlines the present status of environmental magnetism and its role in palaeoenvironmental research based on lake sediment studies.     

Robustness and uncertainties of seismic damage estimates at urban scale: a methodological comparison on the example of the city of Oran (Algeria)

The city of Oran is exposed to a significant seismic hazard, as almost all the northern Algeria territory, where numerous casualties and severe damage occurred in the last decades due to several moderate to large earthquakes. A mitigation policy should include the establishment of priorities to reduce the vulnerability of existing buildings based on the knowledge of the actual urban fabrics. The complexity of vulnerability assessment requires a gradual approach from the urban scale to the building scale. The study reported in this paper corresponds to the first step of such an approach, i.e., a preliminary study of the seismic vulnerability and expected damage within an urban district of the city of Oran, based on a non-dedicated data base from a building survey previously performed for other purposes. The main goals of this study are twofold: (1) an assessment of the degree of uncertainty and robustness of such results through a comparison of the results derived from different urban vulnerability methods (GNDT 2; RISK-UE LM1; and VULNERALP 2.0) and (2) an assessment of the actual level of seismic risk in the city of Oran. Cross-method comparisons and correlations highlight a satisfactory agreement between mean damage estimates at the urban scale, despite significant scattering at the single building scale, and uncertainty levels which vary significantly from one method to the other. For a given scenario, the three methods provide damage estimates lying within half an EMS damage degree of one another, with some systematic positive bias for VULNERALP and negative bias for RISK-UE LM1, especially for masonry buildings. The expected mean damage is very important for intensities 9 and 10, with an average damage grade around 3–4 for intensity 9 and 4–5 for intensity 10. The spatial distribution of damage systematically exhibits larger values in the northern, older, commercial area, than in the southern, more recent and more residential area, in relation to the building typology and the existence of several aggravating factors. Some areas of higher vulnerability / damage can be distinguished, which should receive particular attention for retrofitting priorities or urban planning decisions, also taking into account their cultural heritage value.     

Comment on “Head-on collision of electron acoustic solitary waves in a plasma with nonextensive hot electrons”

In a recent paper “Head-on collision of electron acoustic solitary waves in a plasma with nonextensive hot electrons” (Astrophys. Space Sci. 338:271–278, 2012) Eslami, Mottaghizadeh and Pakzad deal with the problem of the head-on collisions between two weakly nonlinear electron-acoustic solitary waves. Unfortunately, their treatment is deficient and leads to erroneous conclusions.     

Photometry of meteorites

We have measured the bi-directional reflectance phase function on selected meteorite samples (1 howardite, 1 eucrite, 1 diogenite, Orgeuil (CI), Tagish Lake (CC), Allende (CV), Lunar meteorite (MAC 88105), Forest Vale (H4)) covering part of the geochemical and petrologic diversity expected for asteroid surfaces. Samples were measured as powders, for which we achieved reflectance measurements from phase angles down to 3°, and up to 150°, at five different wavelengths covering the VIS–NIR spectral region. The data were fitted by the photometric model of Hapke (Hapke, B. [1993]. Theory of reflectance and emittance spectroscopy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge). The physical sense of the retrieved Hapke’s parameters seems unclear but they permit to interpolate the data to any observation geometry. Strong opposition effects were observed for all samples. The absolute intensity of this effect appears moderately variable among our sample suite, and is not correlated with the average sample reflectance. We interpret this observation as Shadow-Hiding Opposition Effect (SHOE). In the case of samples presenting intense absorption bands (the Fe crystal field band at 1 μm of HED and the ordinary chondrite), we observe significant dependence of band depth to phase angle, up to 70°, even for moderate variation of phase angle. In addition, a general trend of spectral reddening with phase angle is observed. This reddening, linear with phase angle, is present in all meteorites studied. This behavior is not predicted by classical radiative theories. We propose that small-scale roughness (of the order of or below the wavelength) may induce such a behavior.     

Thermospheric/mesospheric temperatures on Venus: Results from ground-based high-resolution spectroscopy of CO2 in 1990/1991 and comparison to results from 2009 and between other techniques

We report temperatures in Venus’ upper mesosphere/lower thermosphere, deduced from reanalyzing very high resolution infrared spectroscopy of CO₂ emission lines acquired in 1990 and 1991. Kinetic temperatures at ～110 km altitude (0.15 Pa) are derived from the Doppler width of fully-resolved single line profiles measured near 10.4 μm wavelength using the NASA GSFC Infrared Heterodyne Spectrometer (IRHS) at the NASA IRTF on Mauna Kea, HI, close to Venus inferior conjunction and two Venus solstices. Measured temperatures range from ～200 to 240 K with uncertainty typically less than 10 K. Temperatures retrieved from similar measurement in 2009 using the Cologne Tuneable Heterodyne Infrared Spectrometer (THIS) at the NOAO McMath Telescope at Kitt Peak, AZ are 10–20 K lower. Temperatures retrieved more recently from the SOIR instrument on Venus EXpress are consistent with these results when the geometry of observation is accounted for. It is difficult to compare ground-based sub-mm retrievals extrapolated to 110 km due to their much larger field of view, which includes the night side regions not accessible to infrared heterodyne observations. Temperature variability appears to be high on day-to-day as well as longer timescales. Observed short term and long term variability may be attributed to atmospheric dynamics, diurnal variability and changes over solar activity and seasons. The Venus International Reference Atmosphere (VIRA) model predicts cooler temperatures at the sampled altitudes in the lower thermosphere/upper mesosphere and is not consistent with these measurements.