Antoni Moore

The extraction and utilization of local and scientific geospatial knowledge within the Bluff oyster fishery, New Zealand.

This paper assesses the Bluff oyster fishery in New Zealand as a case study in common pool resource management. It discusses ways in which modern information technology, augmented by low-tech data gathering strategies and community ethnography, can be used to produce an integrated scientific and local knowledge-inspired fishery database that lends itself to fostering collaboration in resource management and planning. The specific context and state of the oyster fishery in Bluff are described. Issues regarding undocumented and ephemeral intergenerational knowledge, much of which is geospatial in nature, on the fishery, the current crisis that many see in the future of the fishery, and a lack of cohesion or common sense of purpose between the stakeholder groups are discussed. It is argued that the digital resource that results from the integration of local and scientific knowledge and the potential community building processes that can ensue from collaboration and dialogue around this centrepiece are of central importance in developing an oyster fishery management plan that is holistic in concept and sustainable in purpose.

The dynamic geometry of geographical vector agents

This paper introduces vector agents (VA), an approach to impose a systematic framework on the geometric element of Torrens and Benenson’s Geographic Automata System (GAS). Both schemes use vector geometry as an antidote to the geographically unrealistic regular tessellation cellular automata (CA). The work reported here explores the properties of irregular and dynamic VAs in particular, a subclass of geometry not hitherto covered in detail in a spatial agent modelling context. Three realisations of vector agent geometry change are reported in this paper: the Brownian motion algorithm (through midpoint displacement); edge displacement; and vertex displacement. Through these manipulators, it is shown that vector agents offer the ability to explicitly control geometric form through the alteration of simple parameters (with the potential for further generalisation and transformation operations). 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Personal, social and environmental correlates of active transport to school among adolescents in Otago, New Zealand.

OBJECTIVES With increasingly sedentary lifestyles, opportunities for physical activity such as active transport to school need to be promoted in adolescents. This study examines personal, social and environmental correlates of active transport to school among adolescents including sociodemographics, behavioural patterns, motivational factors, perceived barriers, peer support, family resources, school characteristics, urban/rural setting, distance to school and neighbourhood safety perceptions. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. METHODS In 2009 and 2011, 2018 secondary school students (age: 14.8±1.3 years; 73% urban; 53% boys) from 22 out of 24 schools from Otago, New Zealand completed the Otago School Students Lifestyle Survey. Multivariate binary logistic regression models were used to compare active transport to school correlates in students using active transport to school versus bus and car users (motorised transport). RESULTS Overall, 37% of students used active transport to school, 24% bus, and 39% car. Compared to motorised transport users, active transport to school users were more likely to live closer to school (1.4±1.4 active transport to school vs. 8.3±8.4km motorised transport; p<0.001). In a multivariate analysis, shorter distance to school (OR (95%CI) (0.03 (0.01-0.05)), younger age (0.85 (0.78-0.92)), fewer vehicles (0.66 (0.49-0.89)) and fewer screens (0.53 (0.35-0.82)) per household, meeting screen time guidelines (1.74 (1.22-2.50)), opportunity to chat with friends (2.26 (1.58-3.23)), nice scenery (1.69 (1.14-2.50)), and parental perceptions of active transport to school safety (2.32 (1.25-4.30)) were positively associated with active transport to school, while perceived time constraints (0.46 (0.29-0.72)) and attending girls-only school (0.51 (0.35-0.75)) had a negative association with active transport to school. CONCLUSIONS Future active transport to school interventions in adolescents should focus on encouraging active transport to school, reiterating its social benefits, and addressing parental safety concerns around active transport to school.

Mapping the environment through three-dimensional space and time

Abstract Traditional geographical information systems (GIS) employ a two-dimensional or at best 2.5-dimensional framework, suitable for many applications. However, mapping the environment introduces certain problems not easily managed within existing systems. The natural environment is constantly changing and this requires a more dynamic way of handling such data. Environmental media, such as the oceans and the atmosphere, complicate matters further as processes that occur within them vary through three-dimensional space and through time. In nearly all conventional GIS, time and depth have been handled as attributes to a geographical object (e.g. point, line, area). This can be very limiting, as there is no ready dimensional structure against which such objects can be displayed or manipulated relative to time and depth. This paper describes the Spatio-Temporal Environment Mapper (STEM), a GIS system that handles time or depth visualization of an entity in addition to mapping the entity horizontally. This treats time or depth as a dimension rather than an attribute, which is a prerequisite to effective multidimensional visualization and analysis. This is true three-dimensional data (xy with a time or depth dimension) and is not to be confused with the modelling of three-dimensional solids. STEM has been developed for Land–Ocean Interaction Study (LOIS), a UK research project investigating forms and processes in the coastal zone. STEM is a GIS data viewer fronting a database containing the highlights of LOIS. STEM owes its flexibility to two key design objectives: a simple yet powerful query expression, retrieval and visualization interface and, secondly, a generic database design that provides the core of the data-driven system. The database represents the real world in terms of objects (‘features’) and properties (‘attributes’). Features and attributes can vary in both space and time.

Sexual Segregation in Juvenile New Zealand Sea Lion Foraging Ranges: Implications for Intraspecific Competition, Population Dynamics and Conservation

Sexual segregation (sex differences in spatial organisation and resource use) is observed in a large range of taxa. Investigating causes for sexual segregation is vital for understanding population dynamics and has important conservation implications, as sex differences in foraging ecology may affect vulnerability to area-specific human activities. Although behavioural ecologists have proposed numerous hypotheses for this phenomenon, the underlying causes of sexual segregation are poorly understood. We examined the size-dimorphism and niche divergence hypotheses as potential explanations for sexual segregation in the New Zealand (NZ) sea lion (Phocarctos hookeri), a nationally critical, declining species impacted by trawl fisheries. We used satellite telemetry and linear mixed effects models to investigate sex differences in the foraging ranges of juvenile NZ sea lions. Male trip distances and durations were almost twice as long as female trips, with males foraging over the Auckland Island shelf and in further locations than females. Sex was the most important variable in trip distance, maximum distance travelled from study site, foraging cycle duration and percent time at sea whereas mass and age had small effects on these characteristics. Our findings support the predictions of the niche divergence hypothesis, which suggests that sexual segregation acts to decrease intraspecific resource competition. As a consequence of sexual segregation in foraging ranges, female foraging grounds had proportionally double the overlap with fisheries operations than males. This distribution exposes female juvenile NZ sea lions to a greater risk of resource competition and bycatch from fisheries than males, which can result in higher female mortality. Such sex-biased mortality could impact population dynamics, because female population decline can lead to decreased population fecundity. Thus, effective conservation and management strategies must take into account sex differences in foraging behaviour, as well as differential threat-risk to external impacts such as fisheries bycatch.

The Visualisation of Uncertainty for Spatially Referenced Census Data Using Hierarchical Tessellations

This paper explains why it is vital to account for uncertainty when utilising socioeco-nomic data in a GIS, focusing on a novel and intuitive method to visually represent the uncertainty. In common with other data, it is not possible to know exactly how far from the truth socioeconomic data are. Therefore, when such data are used in a decision-making environment an approximate measure given for correctness of data is an essential component. This is illustrated, using choropleth mapping techniques on census data as an example. Both attribute and spatial uncertainty are considered, with Monte Carlo statistical simulations being used to model attribute uncertainty. An appropriate visualisation technique to manage certain choropleth issues and uncer-tainty in census type data is introduced, catering for attribute and spatial uncertainty simultaneously. This is done using the output from hierarchical spatial data structures, in particular the region quadtree and the HoR (Hexagon or Rhombus) quadtree. The variable cell size of these structures expresses uncertainty, with larger cell size indicating large uncertainty, and vice versa. This technique is illustrated using the New Zealand 2001 census data, and the TRUST (The Representation of Uncertainty using Scale-unspecific Tessellations) software suite, designed to show spatial and attribute uncertainty whilst simultaneously displaying the original data.

Geospatial big data and cartography : research challenges and opportunities for making maps that matter

ABSTRACT Geospatial big data present a new set of challenges and opportunities for cartographic researchers in technical, methodological and artistic realms. New computational and technical paradigms for cartography are accompanying the rise of geospatial big data. Additionally, the art and science of cartography needs to focus its contemporary efforts on work that connects to outside disciplines and is grounded in problems that are important to humankind and its sustainability. Following the development of position papers and a collaborative workshop to craft consensus around key topics, this article presents a new cartographic research agenda focused on making maps that matter using geospatial big data. This agenda provides both long-term challenges that require significant attention and short-term opportunities that we believe could be addressed in more concentrated studies.

Aggregation and dispersion of female New Zealand sea lions at the Sandy Bay breeding colony, Auckland Islands: How unusual is their spatial behaviour?

We investigated the spatial behaviour adopted by female New Zealand sea lions, Phocarctos hookeri, at the Sandy Bay breeding colony in 2002 and 2003. Each breeding female exhibited a spatio-temporal behaviour based on two phases: breeding and dispersion. The breeding phase, typical of all otariids, led to the formation of the breeding aggregation where all pupping took place. Each female later moved outside the breeding area and entered a dispersion phase. The female population spread inland, and progressively decreased as females took their pups away from Sandy Bay. Pup survival was not affected by this spatial behaviour though the year had an effect. A larger population size during one year may have created a dilution of male aggressiveness and resulted in fewer movements of females. Females that had to move more during the pupping day were found to be more likely to lose their pups. Although a few studies have shown that mother and pup pairs of other species may exhibit dispersal after breeding, the observed terrestrial dispersion phase of the female New Zealand sea lions has never been reported for any other pinniped species and is likely unusual.

Using geomorphological rules to classify photogrammetrically-derived digital elevation models

An object-orientated expert system is used to identify beach and cliff landforms from Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) on the basis of topological and morphometric rules. The ord landform of the Holderness coast, north-east England, is interpreted as an indicator of enhanced cliff erosion and consists of various beach, till shore platform and associated steep/stable cliff constituents. Each of these are characterised by expert rules through their topological relationship with other constituents and typical values of height, slope, aspect and convexity. Two DEMs (1996 and 1997) are derived from the application of digital photogrammetry to stereo aerial photography provided from the LOIS (Land-Ocean Interaction Study) project. A rule-based classification of landforms is performed using COAMES (COAstal Management Expert System), producing results that conform to historical ground estimations and which identify zones of intense erosion and their commensurate movement with the ord landform over time. The result is achieved through the intelligent storage and operation of classification techniques, which should facilitate non-specialist usage.

Ambulance Dispatch Complexity and Dispatcher Decision Strategies: Implications for Interface Design

The domain of ambulance command and control is complex due to dispatchers being required to make potentially hazardous decisions, often based on uncertain data, received from distributed sources in an environment that is extremely dynamic. These complexities were established after observing and interviewing fourteen ambulance command and control dispatchers located in two communications centres in New Zealand. In addition to the identification of complexities, the interviews resulted in the formulation of decision strategies utilised by the dispatchers when working in the communication centres. This research has implications for display design and provides avenues of research regarding how best to display the decision-making data required by ambulance dispatchers to overcome the complexities they encounter.