Sketch Maps and Qualitative GIS: Using Cartographies of Individual Spatial Narratives in Geographic Research

Mental and sketch maps have a long tradition in modern geography. Little theoretical and methodological distinction has been made, however, between different hand mapping approaches. Mental maps emerged from behavioral geography of the spatial science tradition as a technique to understand human behaviors based on peoples’ perceptions of their spatial environment. More recently, sketch maps have been used in participatory and qualitative geographic information systems (QGIS) to develop cartographies of group and individual spatial narratives. They are a tool that helps achieve QGIS's objectives of collecting unique spatial data of individual experiences, visualizing socio-spatial processes, breaking down particular barriers of positionality in research, and developing new uses of GIS. Two case studies illustrate the use of sketch maps in research, including a project examining job accessibility among working poor individuals and a study of the experiences of fear and safety in public spaces among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community members. Sketch maps in QGIS have many methodological merits. They add an invaluable dimension to the qualitative interview process, offer countermapping perspectives, generate detailed spatial information of individuals, and facilitate data interpretation.     

Self-Organized Cognitive Maps

This paper argues cognitive mapping is a learning process that can be simulated by a self-organizing neural network. The learning of city locations was considered in two studies. One study focused on the learning of city locations on four continents. Results indicated the neural network aligned the cities producing systematic errors similar to those in human cognitive maps. A second study had a neural network learn a biased sample of city locations in the United States. Results indicated a non-linear relationship between cognitive and physical distances. Self-organized cognitive maps naturally produce this non-linear relationship when information from more than one scale is mapped into one space.     

COMMENTS ON “SPATIAL VARIATION OF HILLSLOPE PROFILES IN THE CUMBERLAND PLATEAU,KENTUCKY” BY EDMUND B. WOOOS

Book Reviewed in this article:

Main Street: Northeastern Oregon: The Founding and Development of Small Towns. Barbara Ruth Bailey.

Food Politics: The Regional Conflict. David N. Balaam and Michael J. Carey, eds.

The International Economy and Industrial Development: Trade and Investment in the Third World. R. Ballance, J. Ansari and H. Singer.

Neighborhoods in Urban America. Ronald H. Bayor, ed.

The English Heartland. By Robert Beckinsale and Monica Beckinsale.

Regional Dimensions of Industrial Policy. Michael E. Bell and Paul S. Lande, eds.

Tension Areas of the World. D. Gordon Bennett, ed.

Latin America: an Introductory Survey. B. W. Blouet and O. M. Blouet, eds.

Integration and Division: Geographical Perspectives on the Northern Ireland Problem. Frederick W. Boal and J. Neville H. Douglas, eds.

Energy and Land Use. Robert W. Burchell and David Listokin, eds.

Slopes and Weathering. Michael Clarke and John Small.

Alaska's Rural Development. Peter G. Cornwall and Gerald McBeath, eds.

The Politics of Park Design: A History of Urban Parks in America. Galen Cranz.

World Congress on Land Policy, 1980, Proceedings. Matthew Cullen and Sharon Woolery, eds.

Oregon Divided: A Regional Geography. Samuel N. Dicken and Emily F. Dicken.

Urban Food Marketing and Third World Rural Development. T. Scarlett Epstein.

South Africa: Spatial Frameworks for Development. T. J. D. Fair.

Institutions and Geographical Patterns. Robin Flowerdew, ed.

Industrialization of U.S. Agriculture, An Interpretive Atlas. Howard F. Gregor.

Planning Theory: Prospects for the 1980s. Patsy Healy, Glen McDougall and Michael J. Thomas, eds.

Neighborhood Mobilization: Redevelopment and Response. Jeffrey R. Henig.

The American Urban System: A Geographical Perspective. R. J. Johnston.

Climate, History and the Modern World. Hubert H. Lamb.

Climate and History: Studies in Past Climates and Their Impact on Man. T. M. L. Wigley, M. J. Ingram and G. Farmer.

China: Railways and Agricultural Development, 1875–1935. Ernest P. Liang.

A Desirable Energy Future—A National Perspective. Robert S. Livingston, T. D. Anderson, T. M. Besmann, M. Olszewski, A. M. Perry, and C. D. West.

Topothesia: Essays Presented to T. S. Ó Máille. B. S. Mac Aodha, ed.

Transportation for the Poor: Research in Rural Mobility. Hal S. Maggied.

Land Uses in American Cities. Harold M. Mayer and Charles R. Haves.

Industrial Organisation and Location. Philip McDermott and Michael Taylor.

Human Adaptability: an Introduction to Ecological Anthropology. Emilio F. Moran.

Regional Analysis and the New International Division of Labor. Frank Moulaert and Patricia W. Salinas, eds.

The Nuclear War Atlas. Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada:

Urbanization and Environmental Quality. Isao Orishimo.

The Garden of Eden: The Botanic Garden and the Re-Creation of Paradise. John Prest.

Earthfire, The Eruption of Mount St. Helens. Charles Rosenfeld and Robert Cooke.

Contest for the South China Sea. Marwyn S. Samuels.

The Future of the Wetlands: Assessing Visual-Cultural Values. Richard C. Smardon, ed.

Tucson: the Life and Times of An American City. C. L. Sonnichsen.

The Geography of Multinationals. Michael Taylor and Nigel Thrift, eds.

Impact of Marine Pollution on Society. Virginia Tippie and Dana Kester.

Reviving the Industrial City: the Politics of Urban Renewal in Lyon and Birmingham. Jerry A. Webman.

Andean Reflections: Letters from Carl O. Sauer While on a South American Trip under a Grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, 1942. Robert C. West, ed.

Cartographic Drawing with Computers. P. Yoeli.     

A COGNITIVE SCALAR FOR THE PUBLIC TRANSPORT CONNECTION MATRIX

The degree to which people judge the change in transit service level as service connectivity changes is assumed to vary with total transfer waiting time. An experiment was devised to collect measures of cognized connectivity of intercity transit services in relation to transfer time, and cognitive scalar values were consequently derived. An inverse relationship was found between cognized service level and connectivity; cognized transit level decreased at a decreasing rate. An analysis of the bus-service network in the Israeli Galilee region suggests the appropriateness of cognitive scalars for measuring the internodal accessibility of public transport services.     

中国海陆1∶500万地质地球物理系列图与数据库研制

60年来,利用我国各种地质地球物理数据,结合野外考察,运用块体构造学说编制了中国海陆1∶500万地质地球物理系列图。其从理论基础、方法技术上,实现中国海陆地质地球物理数据的融合;系统地反映出我国海陆基础地质调查与研究现状及大地构造格架;同时展示古生代以来中国海陆各块体的发育、运移、拼接和联合大陆的形成过程,以及印支运动后中国大陆由"东高西低"转为目前"西高东低"的演化规律。另外,通过系列图件的编制与建库,为我国矿产资源勘探及资源环境效应研究提供了基础图件数据。     

Cognitive effects of long-term residence in the Antarctic environment

This study examined whether prolonged residence in the Antarctica had a significant impact on cognitive performance. Participants were members of the 24th and 25th Chinese National Antarctic Research Expeditions. Cognitive performance was measured with tests designed to evaluate short-term recognition, memory search and spatial cognition, measured four times： January, March, April, and June 2010. Age was controlled as a covariate, and data were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA. The results revealed that subjects＇ short-term memory and recognition ability remained stable, while 82% of team members exhibited improved scores on a spatial cognitive ability test. These findings have important implications for furthering our understanding of cognitive functioning in extreme environments.     

基于认知地图的中国国际游客旅游空间认知研究

空间认知是地理信息科学、认知心理学研究的重要科学命题,对于游客旅游决策也有很大的影响。研究表明不同尺度的游客所关注的旅游空间对象都有差异,而国际游客则具有空间活动范围尺度大、持续时间长等明显的空间认知特点。根据地理空间认知和认知心理学理论,运用实证调查的方法,进一步研究国际游客的旅游空间认知模式问题,着重探讨了国际游客旅游空间认知的基本过程、特征以及基于不同空间信息表达方式的游客空间认知效果等3个方面。研究发现国际游客旅游空间认知主要集中在旅游空间功能认知、旅游空间格局认知两个方面。     

Objective rapid delineation of areas at risk from block-and-ash pyroclastic flows and surges

Assessments of pyroclastic flow (PF) hazards are commonly based on mapping of PF and surge deposits and estimations of inundation limits, and/or computer models of varying degrees of sophistication. In volcanic crises a PF hazard map may be sorely needed, but limited time, exposures, or safety aspects may preclude fieldwork, and insufficient time or baseline data may be available for reliable dynamic simulations. We have developed a statistically constrained simulation model for block-and-ash type PFs to estimate potential areas of inundation by adapting methodology from Iverson et al. (Geol Soc America Bull 110:972–984, 1998) for lahars. The predictive equations for block-and-ash PFs are calibrated with data from several volcanoes and given by A = (0.05 to 0.1)V ^2/3, B = (35 to 40)V ^2/3, where A is cross-sectional area of inundation, B is planimetric area and V is deposit volume. The proportionality coefficients were obtained from regression analyses and comparison of simulations to mapped deposits. The method embeds the predictive equations in a GIS program coupled with DEM topography, using the LAHARZ program of Schilling (1998). Although the method is objective and reproducible, any PF hazard zone so computed should be considered as an approximate guide only, due to uncertainties on the coefficients applicable to individual PFs, the authenticity of DEM details, and the volume of future collapses. The statistical uncertainty of the predictive equations, which imply a factor of two or more in predicting A or B for a specified V, is superposed on the uncertainty of forecasting V for the next PF to descend a particular valley. Multiple inundation zones, produced by simulations using a selected range of volumes, partly accommodate these uncertainties. The resulting maps show graphically that PF inundation potentials are highest nearest volcano sources and along valley thalwegs, and diminish with distance from source and lateral distance from thalweg. The model does not explicitly consider dynamic behavior, which can be important. Ash-cloud surge impact limits must be extended beyond PF hazard zones and we provide several approaches to do this. The method has been used to supply PF and surge hazard maps in two crises: Merapi 2006; and Montserrat 2006–2007.     

Using eye tracking to evaluate the usability of animated maps

Cartographic animation has been developed and widely used in geo-visualisation and many other areas in recent years.The usability of animated maps is a key characteristic affecting map users’effectiveness and efficiency in accomplishing tasks.In this paper,an eye tracking approach was proposed as a visual analytics method to evaluate the usability of animated maps by capturing participants’eye movement data and quantitatively analysing the accuracy(effectiveness)and response time(efficiency)of users’task completion.In the study,a set of animated traffic maps represented by three important visual variables(colour hue,size and frequency)was used for the usability evaluation.The experimental results showed that the usability of these three visual variables for cartographic animation affects the usability of animated maps.Red,yellow,and aqua were found to convey map information more effectively than other colour hues.Size was found to be more usable than colour hues for both animated maps and static maps.Usability was not found to be proportional to the playback rate of animated maps.Furthermore,the usability of the frequency,colour hue,and size was found to be related to the display’s size.We hope that the analysis approach presented in this paper and the results of this study will be of help in the design of cartographic animation displays with better usability.