Cartography/Geographic Information Systems at Southwest Texas State University

Australia and New Zealand are adopting the Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) as their transfer standard for geographic data. The standard requires a number of modifications to suit Australia/New Zealand requirements. These modifications primarily involve coordinate reference systems for each country, references to those standards applicable to each country and new spatial feature dictionaries. For other countries adopting SDTS, future revisions to the standard should emphasize a framework for required modifications. Australia/New Zealand have established a support body to ensure the smooth introduction of the standard within these countries. This commercial venture has been successful in promoting the standard, in providing training and in related consulting work. The US Geological Survey has been the maintenance authority for the standard. It is essential that this function continues to be provided through this body to guarantee a single interpretation of the standard.     

Recent literature in cartography and geographic information science

Tissot's Indicatrix and regular grids have been used for assessing map projection accuracies. Despite their broad applicability for accuracy assessment, they have limitations in quantifying resampling errors caused by map projections. This is due to the structural uncertainty with regard to the placement and pattern of grids. It is also difficult to calculate the absolute amount of resampling error in each projection. As an alternative to traditional testing methods, the use of random points was investigated. Specifically, random point generation, resampling with spherical block search algorithms, resampling accuracy with a perfect grid, and resampling accuracy with eight projections were investigated and are discussed here. Eight global referencing methods were tested: the equal-area cylindrical, sinusoidal, Mollweide, Eckert IV, Hammer-Aitoff, interrupted Goode homolosine, integerized sinusoidal projections, and the equal area global gridding with a fixed latitudinal metric distance. The resampling accuracy with a perfect grid is about 75 percent. Results showed the sinusoidal and the integerized sinusoidal projections and equal-area global gridding to achieve the highest accuracies.     

A Cartographic Animation of Average Yearly Surface Temperatures for the 48 Contiguous United States: 1897–1986

Animation is an important method of communicating information that lends itself to cartographic display. Cartographers may be delinquent in their utilization of this technique. Meteorologists, medical researchers, and physical scientists, employing mini-, mainframe, and supercomputers, are creating today's most sophisticated animated maps and continue to develop high-quality systems for data display. Though today's cartographers are concerned with the geometric accuracy and computer automation of their map products, they may be overlooking current developments in spatiotemporal display within other disciplines. Creating a method to bridge the current animation gap between cartography and these disciplines has been the primary goal of this research. Since personal computers are the platforms most commonly available to cartographers, development of animated cartographic displays is feasible with this technology. As a result of this research, an interactive microcomputer-based animated map of U.S. surface temperatures was designed to help understand the rapid climatic change occurring during the 20th century.     

Conformance Testing for the Spatial Data Transfer Standard

The Spatial Oata Transfer Standard (SOTS) was approved as Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 173, effective February 1993. Federal agencies and geographic information system vendors currently are developing SOTS encoding and decoding capabilities. A program is being developed to test encoders and decoders for conformance to the requirements of SOTS profiles. A series of test points will specify SOTS requirements that can be tested by software or by nonautomated methods. By certifying SOTS products, the conformance testing program will benefit both vendors and users of the SOTS.     

Simulating Complex Adaptive Geographic Systems: A Geographically Aware Intelligent Agent Approach

The objective of this paper is to present a spatially explicit agent-based simulation framework with a supporting software package to explore complex adaptive geographic systems. This framework is particularly suitable for modeling entities that are contextually aware, knowledge driven, and adaptive because it represents them as geographically aware intelligent agents. Fundamental advances in the explicit representation of contextual information, knowledge structures, and learning processes are needed for modeling intelligent agents situated within geographic systems. The representation of these agents requires the integration of agent-based models, machine learning, and GIS. Existing software packages for agent-based modeling, however, often provide insufficient support for this integration. The agent-based simulation package presented here is specifically designed to achieve such integration by assisting the development of agent-based models from the simulation framework. Object-oriented modeling techniques were used to implement this simulation package, which includes four modules: simulation, visualization, learning, and geoprocessing. In particular, the learning and geoprocessing modules facilitate the representation of adaptive behavior in agents within spatially explicit environments. The utility of the agent-based simulation package is illustrated using two simulation models: one of adaptive elk behavior and another of pedestrian movement. The successful design of the simulation models suggests that the modeling framework with the supporting software package is well suited to the resolution of complex adaptive geographic problems.     

Cartographic Notes

On a previously-digitized map, a series of 685 points were screen-digitized so as to represent major spatial features of each polygon composing 17 forest types having inherently uncertain boundaries; three forest types having precise boundaries were treated as such. From these points and three exact types, surfaces were generated which provided weights of the certainty of having each of the 20 forest types at a location. These surfaces were “reconstituted” into a thematic map by assigning each location to the type having the highest weight. When compared to the precisely digitized and rasterized map, areal and locational inaccuracy were 5% and 18%, respectively, for the reconstituted thematic map. For certain situations—such as the preparation of long-term forest management plans—these results show promise for adequately representing maps of natural features while reducing digitizing efforts.     

Volunteered Geographic Information: A Bicycling Enthusiast Perspective

Mapping technologies have made considerable strides in recent decades. Global positioning systems (GPS), remote sensing satellites, Web-based mapping services, and geographic information systems (GIS) have facilitated the collection, distribution, analysis, and ultimately interaction with geospatial information. In particular, portable GPS have altered how individuals participate in mapping. Individuals can use GPS to collect tracings of their personal interactions with the environment. These interactions can then be uploaded to one of many available Web-based mapping services. Once uploaded, the geospatial data can be mapped and shared among the broader community of users. Such volunteered geographic information (VGI) exemplifies the conceptualization of an individual collecting, mapping, and sharing personal geographic information. This paper focuses on challenges surrounding VGI. To help place these challenges in a broader context, specialized Web services and GPS technologies developed for the bicycling community will serve as examples of the current status and future prospects of VGI.     

Matrix Line Printer Maps

Areal gray tone symbols produced on standard line printers seldom adhere to acceptable cartographic design standards. The recent development of matrix line printers provides an alternative means of producing more effective map symbolization with a device also suitable for ordinary character output. Matrix printers permit a greater range of gray tones in a regular sequence, more uniform symbol configuration, and improved print quality