From taxonomies to ontologies: formalizing generalization knowledge for on-demand mapping

Automation of the cartographic design process is central to the delivery of bespoke maps via the web. In this paper, ontological modeling is used to explicitly represent and articulate the knowledge used in this decision-making process. A use case focuses on the visualization of road traffic accident data as a way of illustrating how ontologies provide a framework by which salient and contextual information can be integrated in a meaningful manner. Such systems are in anticipation of web-based services in which the user knows what they need, but do not have the cartographic ability to get what they want.     

Forest fragmentation in Massachusetts,USA: a town-level assessment using Morphological spatial pattern analysis and affinity propagation

Forest fragmentation has been studied extensively with respect to biodiversity loss, disruption of ecosystem services, and edge effects although the relationship between forest fragmentation and human activities is still not well understood. We classified the pattern of forests in Massachusetts using fragmentation indicators to address these objectives: 1) characterize the spatial pattern of forest fragmentation in Massachusetts towns using Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA); and (2) identify regional trends using archetypal towns in relation to town history, geography and socioeconomic characteristics. Six fragmentation indicators were calculated using MSPA for each town to represent patterns and processes of fragmentation. We then used these indicators and the proportion of forested land to group towns across Massachusetts with similar patterns of fragmentation. Six representative towns typify different types of forest fragmentation, and illustrate the commonalities and differences between different fragmentation types. The objective selection of representative towns suggests that they might be used as the target of future studies, both in retrospective studies that seek to explain current patterns and in analyses that predict future fragmentation trends.     

First results of U–Pb dating of detrital zircons from the Upper Ordovician sandstones of the Bashkir uplift (Southern Urals)

The first results of U–Pb dating of detrital zircons from Upper Ordovician sandstones of the Bashkir uplift in the Southern Urals and U–Pb isotopic ages available for detrital zircons from six stratigraphic levels of the Riphean–Paleozoic section of this region are discussed. It is established that the long (approximately 1.5 Ga) depositional history of sedimentary sequences of the Bashkir uplift includes a peculiar period lasting from the Late Vendian to the Emsian Age of the Early Devonian (0.55–0.41 Ga). This period is characterized by the following features: (1) prevalence of material from eroded Mesoproterozoic and Early Neoproterozoic crystalline complexes among clastics with ages atypical of the Volga–Urals segment of the East European Platform basement; (2) similarity of age spectra obtained for detrital zircons from different rocks of the period: Upper Vendian–Lower Cambrian lithic sandstones and Middle Ordovician substantially quartzose sandstones.