Brandon Plewe

The Nature of Uncertainty in Historical Geographic Information

While the presence of uncertainty in the geometric and attribute aspects of geographic information is well known, it is also present in temporal information. In spatiotemporal GIS databases and other formal representations, uncertainty in all three aspects of geography (space, time, and theme) must often be modeled, but a good data model must first be based on a sound theoretical understanding of spatiotemporal uncertainty. The nature of both uncertainty inherent in a phenomenon (often termed indeterminacy) and uncertainty in assertions of that phenomenon can be better understood through the Uncertain Temporal Entity Model, which characterizes the cause, type, and form of uncertainties in the spatial, temporal, and attribute aspects of geographic information. These uncertainties are the result of complexities and problems in two processes: the process of conceptualization, by which humans make sense of an infinitely complex reality, and measurement, by which we create formal representations (e.g. GIS) of those conceptual models of reality. Based on this framework, the nature and form of uncertainty is remarkably consistent across various situations, and is approximately equivalent in the three aspects, which will enable consistent solutions for representation and processing of spatiotemporal data.

Web Cartography in the United States

ably the most revolutionary technology of the latter part of the 20th Century, has fundamentally changed the world of maps. Web mapping sites likely number in the thousands; people use web mapping services much more often than paper maps to find their way; federal and local government agencies have been freed from answering basic “where is . . .?” questions all day; mainstream technology companies have “discovered” the geospatial market and have become major players; and the very definition of a map (and cartography for that matter) needs to be reconsidered (Wood 2003). Harrower (2004) lists four ways in which the internet has revolutionized cartography: 1) cheap map distribution; 2) easier retrieval of maps (especially obscure maps); 3) increased public awareness and demand for maps and geographic information; and 4) ability to create new kinds of maps. In recent years, these impacts have increased greatly. Change is not consistent across the entire field; different types of services have seen different changes. The web mapping services in the United States (and globally) can be grouped into three categories: • Consumer-oriented applications, such as Microsoft Live Local and Google Earth, geared for a widespread, general purpose audience. Traditionally, the focus of these services has been on finding locations and the optimal routes to get to them, but there have been promising experiments with higher-order practical applications, as well as informal education. • Citizen-oriented applications, such as the parcel mapping sites run by hundreds of county recorder’s offices, designed for communication between governments and their constituencies. Typically, this communication has been in only one direction, allowing citizens to browse (and/ or download) agency data sets. However, one of the foci of research into public participation in GIS (PPGIS) has been enabling the public

A Representation-Oriented Taxonomy of Gradation

Gradation, the presence of gradual rather than abrupt boundaries around geographic entities, is one of the many complexities of geography which is beginning to be investigated for representation and analysis informal models. Much of the research to date has been focused on specific applications, but some are starting to look at the underlying theory behind this phenomenon, leading toward better understanding and better models. This work extends this theory with a taxonomy which describes and explains gradational situations, focusing on issues related to formal representation. This taxonomy has been beneficial in developing methods of representing this phenomenon in GIS and maps.

Assessment and Evaluation of GIScience Curriculum using the Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge

Academic institutions are increasingly being held accountable for the quality of education which is, in turn, leading to an increased emphasis on curriculum assessment. This is especially true of geographic information science & technology (GIS&T), in which a rapidly growing profession demands that educational programs produce highly qualified graduates. In response to these demands, the University Consortium of Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) has developed the Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge, to identify the broad spectrum of knowledge, skills and techniques that make up the GIS&T domain. An intended use of this document is to support the development and assessment of GIS&T curricula. The authors address the potential benefits of using the Body of Knowledge through an evaluation of the learning objectives and curriculum of sample courses at two universities. They find that the Body of Knowledge enables robust specification of objectives and curricula, and provides the platform for reproducible and consistent evaluation of both curriculum and, ultimately, student outcomes. It is also flexible in allowing programmes to evaluate curricula based on their own goals and missions, rather than against a single standard curriculum.

Re-engineering the GIS&T Body of Knowledge

A computational framework is presented for re-engineering the Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge (GIS&T BoK). At its core is an ontology that is meant to simplify and extend the original BoK hierarchical structure to better capture relationships existing among concepts. Our approach builds on several key ideas. First is the notion of a knowledge corpus, an aggregate of both the internal cognitive forms of knowledge held by domain actors and the content of external artifacts that are produced and consumed by domain activities. Second is the notion of a reference system within which such artifacts are located and relationships among artifacts can be expressed. Third is the idea that by structuring the GIS&T concepts through the use of semantic web standards for formal ontologies and envisaging it as a reference system for GIS&T artifacts, activities, and actors, a fundamentally different approach to the redesign, content generation, and maintenance of the GIS&T BoK is enabled. This new approach affords replacing the top-down strategies used to generate the original GIS&T BoK, with a bottom-up strategy that combines analytical and participatory components. On the analytical side, computational and visual techniques are used to provide alternative means for accessing BoK content, examining the semantic consistency of current BoK structures, transforming the existing hierarchy into a semantic network, identifying overlaps and gaps in the current BoK, and performing projection of knowledge artifacts onto the BoK to inform its maintenance and update. Participatory approaches to bottom-up restructuring and maintenance of the BoK will support authoring, editing, and validation of concepts using a wiki-like community editing service. The system we describe is deployed as a web service that can be accessed by a range of applications for visualization, analysis, exploration, and contextualization of concepts and their related classes in the new GIS&T Body of Knowledge. The goal is for the new GIS&T BoK2 to evolve into the centerpiece of a cyberinfrastructure ecosystem for the GIS&T domain.

Toward an Immersive 3D Virtual BoK Exploratorium: A Proof of Concept

The UCGIS GIS&T Body of Knowledge document provided an opportunity for the GIS educational com- munity to link course content and curricular sequencing to a catalog of subject matter. Focusing on learn- ing objectives, a selection of relevant citations, and basic background for each topic, it has been used to a limited degree for both course topic selection and curriculum development. However, the static format of the document, lack of an index, and dated nature of the material limit its utility for education. Based on the success of our research team in developing a virtual platform for a new, more interactive, and collabo- rative environment to catalogue and interactively add to the body knowledge (Ahearn et al. 2013), this article describes efforts to develop a multi-user virtual user environment that will add social presence to the experience. It describes the successes and failures of using Second Life as the initial platform for this work, illustrates the available interactions and limitations, and depicts ongoing efforts to move beyond Second Life for this development. Finally it discusses a possible methodology to leverage the power of virtual crowd sourcing within competitive gaming environments such as Unity to allow for the creation of on-demand virtual 3-D visualizations of GIS&T concepts in a digital Exploratorium.

The Use of Weighted Ternary Histograms for the Visualizationof Segregation

Assessing the level and patterns of residential segregation is an important part of understanding many problems of todays cities. Traditional statistical measures of segregation, such as the exposure indices and the dissimilarity index, are useful but incomplete indicators. This study introduces a new graphical technique, the weighted ternary histogram, which visualizes complex patterns in the location of two or three subgroups of a population. The resultant graphs complement the common indices and expand on their descriptive power in the processes of assessment and hypothesis formulation. When the residential locations of different races in three midsize American cities are compared, the graphs show subtle differences in the pattern of residential segregation among the three cities.

Automated Metadata Interpretation to Assist in the Use of Unfamiliar Gis Data Sources

Geography is by its nature interdisciplinary, and almost any geographic task involves the integration of a wide variety of information about the world. The primary advantage of geographic information systems (GIS) over other methods of analysis has been their ability to overlay various types of geographic information visually; however, the primary drawback of GIS has been the difficulty of collecting the necessary data before one can do anything interesting. Because obtaining data directly from the field usually requires considerable time and financial resources, one would prefer to obtain existing data from another source if possible.

The Effectiveness of Interactive Maps in Secondary Historical Geography Education

Social Studies, including history and geography, is a core part of most state curriculum standards for K-12 education, and for the most part is in need of improvement. Among the technological solutions that have been developed, interactive maps show promise in making the complexities of the social sciences (especially historical geography) more interesting to students, and easier to visualize and understand, without demanding significant investments by schools. A two-group experiment examined this potential for the 7th Grade Utah Studies curriculum. After completing an exercise to analyze possible historical and geographical causes of settlement patterns in Utah, students using interactive maps showed significantly better improvement between a pretest and posttest than students using paper maps. Although some of the test results were inconclusive and highlighted technological and resource obstacles to the widespread adoption of interactive mapping in the classroom, it has been shown to help students learn social studies in a deeper, more engaging manner.