GI_Forum 2016, Volume 4, Issue 1

Recent advances in technology have greatly transformed how geographic information is produced and have led to the phenomenon of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). VGI allows people with little geographical knowledge to contribute in the creation of maps and other kinds of geographic information. Because VGI is gathered by individuals who often have no formal training, the credibility and reliability of VGI is challenging. In this paper, we study what kinds of things might contribute to an assessment of the trustworthiness of data and the reputation of contributors in a VGI system. We present a model for analysing these characteristics and a method for automatically creating trustworthiness and reputation scores in order to assess the quality of VGI features.

Schlagworte: Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), data quality, trustworthiness, user’s reputation

This paper summarizes the research conducted to improve the automatic generalization of man-made water networks for topographic maps by context-dependent pruning (Altena, 2014). The aim of this study was to improve existing thinning methods for map generalization by accounting for landscape types. The results show that it is possible to improve the thinning of water networks by taking into account separate landscape types. On a more abstract level, the study delivers a methodology for the pruning of man-made networks with regard to landscape typology. In addition, it provides a method for evaluating the quality of generalization results for networks. First, previous research on both thinning and evaluation of thinning results is described. Secondly, a selection of existing algorithms are implemented and evaluated by several experiments: identification of landscape variation based on feature morphology and humidity; selection of representative test areas; and geometric network improvement. Results show that the connectivity of the network can be significantly increased. This is important to obtain better generalization results. The final experiments investigated the effectiveness on various landscape types of three different thinning algorithms. The results are evaluated in terms of the amount of thinning, the resemblance of the results to the input data, and the deviation in connectivity. The findings of this research can be used to improve the thinning of artificial networks by applying a customized thinning method to each unique landscape type. In addition, the proposed metrics to measure the effectivity of thinning algorithms – reduction, resemblance and connectivity – have been proved to be appropriate criteria for the comparison of results of alternative thinning approaches.

Schlagworte: automated generalization, cartography, evaluation metrics, hydrographic network

In this research, we calculate the probability and scale of population losses that may occur due to earthquake hazard in Bucharest. Losses are quantified in direct relation to the social vulnerability of people who are exposed to an earthquake event. Social vulnerability is based on index construction, using spatial decision rules to assess weights in a criteria tree using the SMCE-module of Ilwis software. To estimate building vulnerability, we used the Improved Displacement Coefficient analytical method in the SELENA software. For the earthquake loss estimation, we used the percentage of severely damageable residential buildings in each census unit (CU). The population loss estimation for the selected earthquake scenarios was obtained by multiplying the complex social vulnerability index with the estimated ratio of severely damageable buildings, for three selected earthquake scenarios and using the population numbers in each census unit. The maps represent the maximum affected population values, per census unit, in percentages. We provide useful estimates of the scale and severity of injuries, and link these with current levels of medical preparedness. In all scenarios, the CUs forming the Rahova neighbourhood revealed high loss values, due to significant problems in terms of the built environment and social vulnerability.

Schlagworte: index construction, Improved Displacement Coefficient analytical method, quantitative loss estimation on urban population, seismic hazard, earthquake injuries

Advances in sensor technology have triggered the development of model-sensor frameworks that integrate real-time sensor data into simulation models. Successful implementations include sensor streams of physical properties of the environment, and traces of human mobility as captured by mobile devices. Implementation of real-time sensor-data streams from tagged animals is not yet in place. However, these are anticipated in the near future. In this research, we explore a model-sensor framework with a novel agent-based flocking model for homing pigeons and an emulated sensor stream that is derived from a previously recorded GPS track. Results point to conceptual shortcomings but also opportunities in transferring conventional models to an integrated model-sensor framework. From these insights, directions for further research towards automatic model-calibration and adaptive rulesets were identified.

Schlagworte: movement ecology, agent-based modelling, real-time sensors, spatial simulation

Technological progress with regard to various sensors and mobile devices is constant. In the field of movement data analysis in particular, this has led to new opportunities thanks to data sources such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS). In recent years, many research groups have developed new approaches for analysing this data. Most of these approaches are computationally intensive and unable to deliver results in a reasonable time when run on a mobile device. This paper presents a light-weight approach, called the “cookie-cutter”, which follows an alternative path by using an Eulerian model to determine stays of individuals within reasonable computation time. The quality measures used in this work show that the approach is promising with regard to both accuracy and computing requirements.

Schlagworte: movement, raster grid, cookie-cutter, stay

Stereo or even triple-stereo satellite imagery of very high spatial resolution is a versatile source for many applications and analyses. The aim of this short paper is to demonstrate the level of accuracy that can be calculated for digital surface models using triple-stereo data in urban areas. Urban planners benefit from such results thanks to the fast processing time and low cost in comparison to other data, such as LiDAR data. In addition, the data obtained using stereo or triple-stereo technology simultaneously acquire the requisite spectral information. This study used semi-global matching (SGM), which runs a pixel-wise matching of two image pairs. SGM outputs a point cloud for each pair, which is used for the generation of digital surface models (DSMs). The result of the study is a DSM which can be used in urban areas for the estimation of urban volumes such as the vegetation volume or building cubature. Results are evaluated with respect to the overall accuracy, the number of errors, and missing values due to shadows or dark homogeneous areas.

Schlagworte: remote sensing, triple-stereo, Pléiades, DSM, semi-global matching

Three-dimensional modelling using photogrammetric point clouds derived from UAV-based aerial imagery is currently a popular topic in the scientific community. In particular, the use of image-based point clouds to enhance and update LiDAR DSMs is of growing interest in forest environments, i.e. as a future forest inventory method. Thanks to very high resolution imagery acquired via low-altitude UAV optical sensor payloads, very dense and accurate photogrammetric point clouds can be reconstructed through a triangulation process by means of photogrammetry software. In order to validate the use of image-based point clouds for their potential use in operational forestry, further comparison studies with LiDAR DSMs are being carried out by various research institutions. The acquisition of UAV-based aerial imagery, with the aim of producing accurate photogrammetric point clouds, though cost-effective, is not without its challenges. Due to constraints regarding power capacity and fair weather windows, we came to develop an effective image acquisition workflow with an emphasis on precision flight planning. The aim of this paper is to explore the process of UAV-based aerial imagery acquisition for the purpose of producing photogrammetric point clouds, as well as to give an overview of the initial stages of our research. With the aid of an image acquisition workflow that is adaptable to various field conditions, technical failures and precision flight planning, we estimate that the acquisition of aerial imagery for point cloud production will become more efficient as well as more precise, and in turn influence the accuracy of the 3D-modelling of forested areas.

Schlagworte: UAV, point clouds, photogrammetry, forestry, flight planning

This presentation describes a new solution for geospatial Geiger-mode Avalanche Photodiode (GmAPD) LiDAR – a suite of sensors, processing tools and analytics born from a 15-year GmAPD legacy within certain DoD environments that will bring a significant increase in production efficiency to the commercial market. The objective of the sensor design was to support USGS LiDAR Quality Level 1 (and higher) data production over large areas from pressurized, fixed-wing aircrafts flying at altitudes of between 4 km and 10 km AGL. Topics to be covered include: 1) why GmAPD sensing is a significant advance in LiDAR collection efficiency, 2) how the ITI-1000 GmAPD LiDAR sensor supports cost-effective, wide-area, high-density collection, with coverage rates much greater than 1,000 km2/hr, and 3) how a high-volume production system, including noise reduction and photogrammetric registration techniques, is designed to reduce the production time for the GmAPD 3D point clouds while increasing data accuracy.

Schlagworte: point clouds, photogrammetry, production system, avalanche photodiode detector, Geiger-mode LiDAR sensor

We spend 90% of our time indoors. Buildings became larger and more complex (international airports, subway stations, shopping malls or hospitals for example). Our behaviour has changed. Given the possibilities of ubiquitous technology, we are used to finding out what our position is whenever we want – so far almost exclusively outdoors, however. We have little data on where and how people move indoors. There are various technologies for Indoor Positioning, but none of them dominates the market because of the very different requirements of the large range of applications. With Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE or Bluetooth Smart), a new technology has entered the market, and using it for Indoor Positioning is currently at the forefront of developments. Common positioning methods based on BLE include lateration, angulation, fingerprinting and proximity solutions. Most of them are based on the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI). The RSSI correlates with the distance between transmitter and receiver antenna. However, the link is not as continuous as mathematical models suggest. The RSSI is influenced by many variables, some of which can be controlled and others not. This paper sums up general BLE positioning methods and the challenges they face with RSSI.

Schlagworte: Indoor Positioning, Bluetooth Low Energy, Received Signal Strength Indicator, beacon

In many developing countries, smartphone and internet usage has become a revolution for the population and has opened up many possibilities to use new services for communication purposes. For researchers and development organizations, it is now possible to engage more directly with beneficiaries during the implementation phase of a project. However, many regions still face the problem of a non-existent or unreliable internet connection, which is why mobile applications have to be able to work offline as well as online. In order to achieve this, the new OGC standard Geopackage was used to create an offline mobile application. Geopackage can be integrated with a native Android mobile application and is especially useful for connecting with different GIS tools, since it is interoperable with various important platforms.

Schlagworte: geopackage, mobile application, offline, open

Increasingly, geospatial web applications such as www.fixmystreet.com or www.seeclickfix.com are being integrated within citizen participation processes in spatial planning and the provision of communal services. Recently, several of these platforms have been launched in Latin America and other countries of the Global South. This development raises the questions of whether citizens with low ICT-skills can fully access and use these tools, and hence whether they are empowered to participate in related community management processes. The GeoCitizen framework (www.geocitizen.org) has been designed specifically to address citizens who tend to be excluded from established planning processes, providing them with accessible and easy-to-use online tools to make their voice heard through the public space of the internet. This paper describes the set-up and results of a Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Evaluation carried out for the GeoCitizen-reporting application amongst members of marginalized communities in Cali, Colombia. It investigates whether spatially illiterate users with low ICT-skills can access and use this application to its full extent. It analyses the most common usability issues that were identified by the test user group and gives indications as to how geospatial web applications should be designed in order to meet the challenges that come along with its use.

Schlagworte: geospatial-web applications, PPGIS, HCI-evaluation, usability, marginalized communities

Disasters in relation to natural hazards continue to have a heavy toll on humans, ecosystems and economies. They therefore undermine efforts for sustainable development, particularly in transitional countries. The Philippines is amongst the most disaster-prone countries on the globe, due to its high exposure to natural hazards and considerable societal vulnerabilities. While a number of global risk assessments have helped to identify risk hotspots at the level of individual countries, sub-national and local risk assessments for informing disaster risk management on the ground are often lacking. To address this gap, we provide a down-scaled risk assessment, at the municipality level, for the Philippines. In the interests of coherency and scale hierarchy, we draw on the modular approach used in the World Risk Index, considering hazard exposure, susceptibility, lack of short-term coping capacity, and lack of long-term adaptive capacity. The paper aims not only to present the results but also to debate key methodological questions behind the development of sub-national multi-hazard risk indices. The outlook looks at the applicability, from the end-user’s perspective, of this level of risk assessment for decision-making at local and national levels.

Schlagworte: disaster risk, vulnerability, multi-hazard, usability, The Philippines

The Kerkennah archipelago is composed of low islands where the lithology is fragile. The coasts are also threatened by the rise in sea level (+17cm between 1946 and 2006) due to the subsidence in the north of the Gabes gulf and the increase of sea water temperatures. Tunisian society has changed in the last 50 years with, inter alia, a rise in the standard of living and the possibility of building houses and villas along the coast. In the Kerkennah archipelago, this has led to recent urbanization along the coastline. In this very fine-scaled example, we aim to assess the vulnerability linked with this socio-ecosystem that combines human and natural factors. We also take into account the spatial (and temporal) dynamic associated with the longshore drift. Our results show that (i) the spatial dynamic is a critical factor that needs consideration, and (ii) the assessment process requires excellent knowledge of the area being studied. Finally, we conclude that in the context of the development of systemic studies, both the territories themselves and the relations between the different areas that compose a territory must be studied as factors of vulnerability.

Schlagworte: Kerkennah, vulnerability assessment, coastline dynamics

his paper reports on the findings developed by a funded project within the UK Rural Economy and Land Use Programme: ‘Managing borderlands: adaptive decision making amongst specialists and non-specialists’. The project focuses specifically on the development of a nested-scale participatory GIS (PGIS) method to identify spatially local perceptions and experiential knowledge of the risk and vulnerability of two catchments in the Scottish–English Borders. The method attempts to move beyond mapping risk towards the co-design of possible solutions. This will highlight the potential for improved inclusion of local perspectives on risk afforded by using PGIS mapping approaches in the UK context. The potential of the approach to generate co-designed community preferences leading to more resilient solutions (particularly in terms of social and economic consequences) to environmental change will also be discussed.

Schlagworte: co-design solutions, participatory planning, adaptive flood management

Within the scope of the German Adaptation Strategy (DAS), a standardized, cross-sector assessment of current and future climate change impacts and vulnerabilities for Germany was carried out from 2011to 2015. For this assessment, an institutional Vulnerability Network was established, composed of sixteen Federal agencies and institutes. Supported by a scientific consortium, the Vulnerability Network developed a collaborative scientific concept for an integrative and spatially explicit assessment. For each pre-defined action field, impact chains were generated as the basis for the selection, prioritization and assessment of indicators. Exposure, sensitivities and adaptive capacities were described by means of quantitative and semi-quantitative approaches, leading to a variety of products at different conceptual levels of aggregation. This paper introduces the methodology pursued for the assessment and then presents some examples illustrating the variety of outcomes produced. The conclusions drawn are based on critical procedural and methodological reflection.

Schlagworte: co-production of knowledge, integrated vulnerability assessment, Climate change, vulnerability mapping

Mauritania is vulnerable to climate change due to its location along the Sahel, the desert climate of the Sahara, and its socio-economic characteristics. To support the identification of climate change adaptation measures in Brakna and Assaba in Mauritania, a spatial assessment of vulnerability to climate change targeting the livelihood sectors of agriculture and pastoralism was carried out. Based on the identification of relevant drivers of climate change vulnerability in a broad consultation process among national and local stakeholders, a variety of geospatial indicators were identified and integrated in the assessments based on a standardized vulnerability assessment approach. In this paper, we provide a reflection on the methodology applied and identify lessons to be learnt on data quality, spatial scales, aggregation and visualizations. The primary conclusion is that users of the assessment results and stakeholders need to be engaged in the entire assessment process in order to reflect local characteristics more fully, and to ensure that the results are reflected in informed decision-making.

Schlagworte: composite indicators, spatial analysis, visualization, integrative assessments

Green infrastructure serves as a critical no-regret strategy to address climate change mitigation and adaptation in climate action plans. Climate justice refers to the distribution of climate change-induced environmental hazards (e.g., increased frequency and intensity of floods) among socially vulnerable groups. Yet no index has addressed both climate justice and green infrastructure planning jointly in the USA. This paper proposes a spatial climate justice and green infrastructure assessment framework to understand social-ecological vulnerability under the impacts of climate change. The Climate Justice Index ranks places based on their exposure to climate change-induced flooding, and water contamination aggravated by floods, through hydrological modelling, GIS spatial analysis and statistical methodologies. The Green Infrastructure Index ranks access to biophysical adaptive capacity for climate change. A case study for the Huron River watershed in Michigan, USA, illustrates that climate justice hotspots are concentrated in large cities; yet these communities have the least access to green infrastructure. This study demonstrates the value of using GIS to assess the spatial distribution of climate justice in green infrastructure planning and thereby to prioritize infrastructure investment while addressing equity in climate change adaptation.

Schlagworte: climate change adaptation, climate change-induced environmental hazards, green infrastructure, Climate justice

Twitter and Instagram are social networking services that allow users to share images. To some extent, both platforms provide means for the user to annotate images with geographic location information. Using a selection of images shared through these two platforms, this study compares the photographer’s position, which is manually estimated from the scene in the image, with the annotated location information associated with the image and the position of the object being photographed. This approach provides an initial insight into the Twitter user’s movement between the location where a picture is taken and the place from where it is uploaded to Twitter. Furthermore, the distance between the photographer’s position and the location of the object shown in a Twitter or Instagram photograph can be used to assess the visual prominence of a photographed urban object in relation to its surroundings. Finally, the dataset generated in the research allows us to assess the positional accuracy of location labels in Instagram through comparison of the label position and the true position of the referenced object. For each of the different analyses, this paper discusses sources that could potentially lead to positional errors of images in Twitter and Instagram, and provides a comprehensive set of illustrative examples from different cities.

Schlagworte: volunteered geographic information, social media image, positional accuracy, data quality

Even though much research has been conducted on the safety of cycling infrastructures, most previous approaches only make use of traditional and proven methods based upon datasets such as accident statistics, road infrastructure data, or questionnaires. Apart from typical surveys, which are known to face numerous limitations from a psychological and sociological viewpoints, the question of how perceived safety can best be assessed is still widely unexplored. Thus, this paper presents an approach for bio-physiological sensing to identify places in urban environments which are perceived as unsafe by cyclists. Specifically, a number of physiological parameters like ECG, skin conductance, skin temperature and heart rate variability are analysed to identify moments of stress. Together with data gathered through a People as Sensors app, these stress levels can be mapped to specific emotions. This method was tested in a pilot study in Cambridge, MA (USA), which is presented in this paper. Our findings show that our method can identify places with emotional peaks, particularly fear and anger. Although our results can be qualitatively interpreted and used in urban planning, more research is necessary to quantitatively and automatically generate recommendations from the measurements for urban planners.

Schlagworte: people as sensors, physiological parameters, emotions, bicycle safety, mapping

Map data for pedestrian routing and navigation provided by OpenStreetMap is getting more and more detailed, but current approaches often fail to take advantage of available information. This paper addresses the issue of integrating open spaces, such as squares and plazas, into pedestrian routing graphs to support realistic crossing behaviour. We evaluate different approaches to solving this issue, including skeletonization algorithms as well as approaches for wayfinding in digital worlds, and recommend that – for pedestrian navigation applications – the visibility graph approach should be preferred over the commonly-used medial axis or straight skeleton approaches, since it provides direct routes, which are more realistic and better suited for pedestrian routing applications.

Schlagworte: pedestrian, routing, navigation, open spaces, OpenStreetMap

While common digital road network graphs are able to represent real-world street network topology relations quite adequately, they are highly generalized with regard to the composition of a road. Irrespective of their actual number of lanes, roads are shown as just one single line. As many intelligent transportation systems (ITS) applications require or provide lane-specific data and services, this is no longer sufficient from a short- to medium-term perspective. In particular, automated driving requires high-accuracy graphs both in topology and in geometry to localize positions not only on the correct road, but also in the correct lane. In the following paper, a cost-effective methodology for deriving such lane-level road network graphs will be described. The methodology is applied to standard GNSS trajectories collected for three different road types (urban, interurban, motorway) by vehicles participating in real-world traffic situations (Floating Car Data). The methodology extracts the number and position of lane centrelines from pre-processed GNSS trajectories using a kernel density estimation (KDE) and distance relations. Results show that the proposed method can, depending on the quality of the input data, reliably model lane centrelines for different road settings.

Schlagworte: GNSS-data, Automated driving, high accuracy street maps

Round-trip carsharing services, particularly when integrated with other transport options, have been proven to represent a viable means to mitigate the negative impacts of individual motorized traffic in dense urban areas. An increasing number of cities, therefore, aim to integrate carsharing with local public transport as an additional mobility option which promotes sustainable transport patterns. However, selecting appropriate sites for carsharing pods remains a difficult task for decision-makers since both integration with public transport as well as maximization of coverage of potential customers/market share have to be achieved. In this context, we present a GIS-based site-selection model that includes criteria from both the demand and the supply sides at the local level. On the demand side, the spatial distribution of demand is addressed by incorporating the spatial accessibility of local amenities and transport options, as well as socio-demographic and behavioural criteria. On the supply side, the key aspect is the integration of carsharing pods with public transport. Potential sites were assessed at the level of individual buildings, based on their proximity to public transport infrastructure, their centrality, and the residential locations of regular public transport users.

Schlagworte: carsharing, site selection, suitability modelling

Geographies of everyday life are subject to constant change. Social utilization and appro-priation, attachment of meanings and negotiation, decay and restoration, planning and modification, artefacts and architectural alteration develop these spaces. In this paper, we regard spatial planning not only as an institutional category but as the intended alteration of geographies and as a core domain of geography with the strongest future-oriented impetus. People are agents and objects of spatial planning, being influenced and being potentially influential at the same time. We have to ask how people can participate in these changes, bringing in (and improving) creative approaches, thus innovating geographies and societies. This question emphasizes innovativeness, i.e. the ability to create innovations, as an educational aim. For this, we have to define the fuzzy term ‘innovation’ more clearly for an educational and a geographical context. In this regard, we enrich approaches such as Spatial Citizenship in which geomedia are used as tools to communicate about spaces in order to appropriate and change them.

Schlagworte: Innovation, innovativeness, geography education, planning, spatial citizenship

The concept of Spatial Citizenship was established to provide a framework for the engagement of citizens in processes of reflexive geomedia prosumption and emancipatory participation within different cooperative decision-making pro-cesses. Although initially aimed at a (post-)secondary target group, Spatial Citizenship has recently also been applied in the context of primary education to ask whether it can help provide spaces for the participation of children. Going beyond this point, this paper seeks to provide a first step in interrelating Spatial Citizenship with approaches from inter-sectionality and critical migration research in order to help further research along intersectionality axes such as age, ethnicity and class. The aim is to create a framework as a basis for epistemological insight into the interrelations be-tween the appropriation of space in the context of everyday life and the aforementioned intersectionality axes

Schlagworte: spatial citizenship, Children, mapping, participation, intersectionality, primary education

At the University of Salzburg, a new module links science topics, pedagogy and school practice for students in teacher-training. In a pilot project within this module, an iterative process of curriculum development for the topic of gendered spaces in the city was developed. The approach is based on everyday geomedia use and its implications for the construction of feminine/masculine spaces. This paper reports on the process of linking scientists, student teachers and secondaryschool students, both showing the feasibility of the approach and giving indications of its effectiveness with regard to diversity-sensitive learning.

Schlagworte: automated geomedia, education, Gender, spatial citizenship, teacher training

In this article, we explore the relationship between location-dependent hashtags and the con-struction of space, as well as the implications that their interplay has for geography education. Hashtags referring to a specific place, e.g. #Frankfurt, acquire spatial impact when they are combined with certain traits of that place in a single post. We argue that social media activities combined with statements about places or spaces are becoming increasingly important for the understanding of digital geographies. Thus, geography education must respond to changes in the field of media culture that generate new practices of spatial construction. This means in particular that geographical media education should focus on reflective and reflexive analyses instead of a technical-based approach. To this end, we present a case study based on two ur-ban districts of Frankfurt am Main, where we traced and interpreted the process of spatial construction via hashtags in social media, and define its pedagogical potential for geography education.

Schlagworte: construction of space, Social Media, hashtag, geomedia, geography educationd

Web 2.0 technologies enable users to produce and distribute their own content. The variety of motives for taking part in these communication processes leads to considerable differences in levels of quality. While social media contexts have developed features for evaluating contributions, user-generated maps frequently do not offer tools to question or examine the origin and elements of user-generated content. This paper discusses the effects of the integration of Web 2.0 features with web maps for critical and reflective map reading. The initial findings of a content analysis study of user-generated web maps show evidence of a lack of assessment tools. Based on this, I characterize a framework of debatable maps that might encourage critical map reading.

Schlagworte: GeoWeb 2.0, Neogeography, critical map reading, Geomedia Literacy, ICT Literacy

The learning module “Drought in California” presented here is part of an adaptive web-based learning platform developed in the framework of the Space4Geography project, funded by the German Aerospace Centre (Space Administration). The project seeks to facilitate the application of satellite images in schools and to enable students to work with original remote-sensing data on geographic questions. The development process of the module was informed scientifically by Educational Design Research. The research approach involves practitioners and scientists in the development process and aims to (1) ensure the practice-oriented, motivating and learning-efficient character of the learning module, and (2) contribute to educational theory in the field of remote-sensing education. This paper presents the prototype of the adaptive learning module, the development of which was based on results from an analysis of national curricula and an online survey on requirements for a learning environment. This prototype will be evaluated and developed further in several test cycles before being implemented in school practice.

Schlagworte: remote-sensing education, adaptive learning platform, satellite images, Educational Design Research, design-based research

World maps are among the most widely used geomedia products for visualizing global phenomena. Since there are, theoretically, infinite ways to portray Earth’s spherical surface on a plane, the question of the most appropriate world map design has been widely discussed in recent decades. However, this discussion has focused mainly on different projections, while another basic characteristic of any map, i.e. the presence of map edges, has been largely ignored so far. In view of this gap in cartographic research, this article examines empirically whether spatial relations are memorized differently by learners when these are presented on maps that have differently positioned edges. Distance estimations between locations learnt on Eurocentric and Americentric world maps are compared for this purpose. In line with previous spatial cognition research on barrier effects, our results indicate that distances are memorized more exactly when relevant inter-object relations are not being cut by map edges. Hence, designing an appropriate world map does not seem to be a problem purely of map projection; the position of the map’s edges shapes the knowledge that users may acquire when reading a map.

Schlagworte: world maps, map projections, map edges, distance estimation, barrier effects

Geographic Information System (GIS) skills are increasingly marketable across a wide range of industries, subject areas and specialized fields. As a result, GIS courses draw students from a plethora of disciplines beyond geography, including business, social sciences, agriculture, geology, natural resources and computer science. At advanced teaching levels, this disciplinary diversity generates questions about how complex GIS skills are being taught to students who do not necessarily have a background in geography or the spatial sciences. This study compares undergraduate and graduate course curricula to determine what topics, techniques and theory are being addressed and prioritized in GIS courses across pedagogical levels. We surveyed 1,698 courses being taught at 126 research universities in the United States. Our findings point towards a shift in pedagogy that favours technique- or application-centred lessons at advanced levels that require less background knowledge in geography than more theory-centred teaching methods. Our findings also suggest that a large number of graduate courses, even introductory courses ones, fail to address many fundamental GIS concepts and theories. Together, the results suggest a need for standards to ensure that students enrolled in GIS classes are properly trained to enter the workforce with appropriate skills.

Schlagworte: GISandT BoK, GIScience, course content analysis, GISandT curriculum design

In this paper we analyse numerous Minor programs in GIScience & Technology (GIS&T) / Spatial Sciences offered worldwide as secondary subjects complementing Major programs at BSc and MSc level. The objectives are the identification of core contents and qualifications/competencies related to GI, and their respective weights measured in terms of credit points. The information derived provides a framework for the comparison of Minors at undergraduate and graduate levels, and serves as a basis for curriculum design of a Minor in GIS. The study draws upon and complements the recent activities of UCGIS to redesign the main reference document for curriculum design, GIS&T Body of Knowledge BoK2, as well as the European initiative GI-N2K, which analysed workforce demand in GIS&T.

Schlagworte: GIS Minor, Zusatzstudium, GISandT BoK, BoK2 project, curriculum design, GI-N2K

This paper outlines the idea of storing descriptions of courses or curricula in the geographic information domain on the web as Linked Data. For this to become possible, each educational course offered should use standard terminology, as provided by a Body of Knowledge. This would facilitate course-finding on the web. The suitability of courses located for the needs of students could be assessed by data quality assessment from a fitness-for-use perspective.

Schlagworte: geographic information, body of knowledge, course description, linked data, data quality