Assessing quality of volunteer crowdsourcing contributions: lessons from the Cropland Capture game

Volunteered geographic information (VGI) is the assembly of spatial information based on public input. While VGI has proliferated in recent years, assessing the quality of volunteer-contributed data has proven challenging, leading some to question the efficiency of such programs. In this paper, we compare several quality metrics for individual volunteers’ contributions. The data were the product of the ‘Cropland Capture’ game, in which several thousand volunteers assessed 165,000 images for the presence of cropland over the course of 6 months. We compared agreement between volunteer ratings and an image's majority classification with volunteer self-agreement on repeated images and expert evaluations. We also examined the impact of experience and learning on performance. Volunteer self-agreement was nearly always higher than agreement with majority classifications, and much greater than agreement with expert validations although these metrics were all positively correlated. Volunteer quality showed a broad trend toward improvement with experience, but the highest accuracies were achieved by a handful of moderately active contributors, not the most active volunteers. Our results emphasize the importance of a universal set of expert-validated tasks as a gold standard for evaluating VGI quality.     

全景图增强地理现实的空间认知问题

基于全景图的增强地理现实平台是一种新的空间认知工具,研究其空间认知问题是进行技术研究的基础。文中介绍全景图增强地理现实的主要技术流程和优势;阐述基于全景图增强地理现实进行空间认知的基础模型;分析全景图和地理信息数据的信息匹配问题,包括比例尺和位置匹配两个方面;介绍地理信息在全景图像上的表达方式,重点解决增强目标和属性信息的选择问题;最后通过与街景地图、虚拟现实平台进行空间认知比较,得出全景图增强地理现实平台的有效性和主要适用范围,表明该平台具有独特的空间认知优势。     

论虚拟地理环境对地理知识的表达与共享

地理知识是通过对地理科学领域独特的背景、过程和结果进行解释而得到的知识。如何有效表达和共享地理知识是地理学研究和应用中的重要问题。本文首先将地理知识划分为3个层次,事实型知识、规则及控制型知识和决策型知识,分析了不同阶段地理语言对地理知识表达与共享的支持能力。对比地图和GIS语言,发现新一代地理语言—虚拟地理环境VGEs(Virtual Geographic Environments)能够较为全面地支持3个层次的地理知识。针对VGEs,从多个角度分析了其服务于地理知识表达与共享的能力,包括虚实结合理论、地理模型库及管理系统、动态可视化表达和异地协同工作环境。结合面向珠江三角洲地区空气质量研究问题的虚拟地理环境平台,对上述各方面进行了阐述。最后从地理知识生成、管理与应用角度对未来研究提出展望。     

鄱阳湖生态环境动态监测服务系统

针对目前生态环境监测中多源多尺度数据获取、定量遥感模型半自动化条件制约海量数据的快速处理与分析以及静态的时空快照服务难以表达动态变化过程等问题,该文从基于传感网的数据多元化实时感知获取、基于数据仓库的生态信息主题化动态汇聚、基于多尺度WFS的智能化服务、基于动态数据驱动的仿真动态模拟知识化应用方面考虑,设计湖泊流域生态环境动态监测服务系统。以鄱阳湖为例进行验证,为鄱阳湖流域的生态监测以及江西省生态文明试验区建设提供服务。     

A hybrid approach to modeling territorial control in violent armed conflicts

Territorial control is central to the understanding of violent armed conflicts, yet reliable and valid measures of this concept do not exist. We argue that geospatial analysis provides an important perspective to measure the concept. In particular, measuring territorial control can be seen as an application of calculating service areas around points of control. The modeling challenge is acute for areas with limited road infrastructure, where no complete network is available to perform the analysis, and movements largely occur off road. We present a new geospatial approach that applies network analysis on a hybrid transportation network with both actual road data and hexagon‐fishnet‐based artificial road data representing on‐road and off‐road movements, respectively. Movement speed or restriction can be readily adjusted using various input data. Simulating off‐road movement with hexagon‐fishnet‐based artificial road data has a number of advantages including scalability to small or large study areas and flexibility to allow all‐directional travel. We apply this method to measuring territorial control of armed groups in Sub‐Saharan Africa where inferior transport infrastructure is the norm. Based on the Uppsala Conflict Data Program's (UCDP) Georeferenced Event Data (GED) as well as spatial data on terrain, population locations, and limited transportation networks, we enhance the delineation of the specific areas directly controlled by each warring party during civil wars within a given travel time.     

基于GIS的青海高寒区矿山地质环境影响程度模糊评价

青海省的矿产资源主要分布于青藏高原高寒区,处于生态环境脆弱地区,具有独特的地质环境条件,生态环境保护与矿业的开发之间矛盾突出。本文以青海省东部大通河上游的江仓煤矿四井田为例,将影响矿山地质环境质量的主要矿山地质环境地质要素概括为自然因子和人为因子二大类。为尽可能实现多因素的影响和评价因子的量化,将评价因子划分为三级,建立了矿山地质环境影响程度评价指标体系。在GIS支持下,建立影响程度评价因子数据库。利用GIS空间栅格叠加分析功能,采用三级模糊综合评判方法对矿山地质环境影响程度进行了综合评价,编制了矿山地质环境影响程度评价图。基于GIS的矿山地质环境影响程度模糊评价方法将GIS技术和模糊数学理论引入矿山地质环境影响程度评价研究之中,达到了定性、定量以及定位相结合,从而可为受损的矿山地质环境实施科学保护与治理提供更加精确的信息。     

基于地理格网分级法提取的中国传统村落空间分布

中国传统村落真实地记录了建筑、民俗民风和较原始的民居空间形态,是千百年来人类与自然和谐共存的生活基础。随着城市化进程加快,传统村落的存续受到了很大的挑战,为了更好地保护利用传统村落,对其进行多视角的研究尤为重要,除了微观层面的具体保护措施外,还应加强宏观层面的空间分布研究。地理格网是表达复杂地理现象、综合分析自然与人文数据、模拟地理系统功能与行为的基本方法。本文从百度影像地图提取村落坐标,并截取遥感影像作为村落点数据的判断补充,在此基础上,运用地理格网的分级法,对国家公布的三批中国传统村落(2555个)数据进行空间格局分析,结果表明：这些村落主要分布在中国东南部,如落在一级格网Ⅰ18、Ⅰ19就分别有586、781个村落,占三批传统村落总数的96.6%。通过对二级和三级格网的村落分布离散性进行分析,使传统村落的空间分布数据结构更加系统和清晰有序,为合理构建其数据库提供了框架基础。     

Estimating spatial efficiency using cyber search,GIS, and spatial optimization: a case study of fire service deployment in Los Angeles County

ABSTRACT

The efficiency of public investments and services has been of interest to geographic researchers for several decades. While in the private sector inefficiency often leads to higher prices, loss of competitiveness, and loss of business, in the public sector inefficiency in service provision does not necessarily lead to immediate changes. In many cases, it is not an entirely easy task to analyze a particular service as appropriate data may be difficult to obtain and hidden in detailed budgets. In this paper, we develop an integrative approach that uses cyber search, Geographic Information System (GIS), and spatial optimization to estimate the spatial efficiency of fire protection services in Los Angeles (LA) County. We develop a cyber-search process to identify current deployment patterns of fire stations across the major urban region of LA County. We compare the results of our search to existing databases. Using spatial optimization, we estimate the level of deployment that is needed to meet desired coverage levels based upon the location of an ideal fire station pattern, and then compare this ideal level of deployment to the existing system as a means of estimating spatial efficiency. GIS is adopted throughout the paper to simulate the demand locations, to conduct location-based spatial analysis, to visualize fire station data, and to map model simulation results. Finally, we show that the existing system in LA County has considerable room for improvement. The methodology presented in this paper is both novel and groundbreaking, and the automated assessments are readily transferable to other counties and jurisdictions.     

省市级基础地理信息框架数据联动更新探究

基于潍坊市寿光基础地理信息数据库建设更新工程与省地理信息公共服务平台框架数据更新工程,探索了省市基础地理信息框架数据联动更新的工作模式,提出了通过建立多比例尺基础框架数据的方式,建立省市基础框架数据库的联系,通过增量更新的模式完成省市两级基础框架数据库联动更新的方法。     

John Turnbull Thomson,Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society: An early New Zealand geographer

John Turnbull Thomson is more known in New Zealand for his work as Chief Surveyor of Otago Province (1856–1876) and first Surveyor General of New Zealand (1877–1879). He was also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of London from 1848 until his death in 1884. Thomson was an important and early self‐declared ‘does’ of geographer in New Zealand, prior to the establishment of university geography in 1937. Thomson's contribution included survey and mapping but he also gave public lectures on geography and contributed to debates about glaciation.