James OBrien

Visual Semiotics a Uncertainty Visualization: An Empirical Study

This paper presents two linked empirical studies focused on uncertainty visualization. The experiments are framed from two conceptual perspectives. First, a typology of uncertainty is used to delineate kinds of uncertainty matched with space, time, and attribute components of data. Second, concepts from visual semiotics are applied to characterize the kind of visual signification that is appropriate for representing those different categories of uncertainty. This framework guided the two experiments reported here. The first addresses representation intuitiveness, considering both visual variables and iconicity of representation. The second addresses relative performance of the most intuitive abstract and iconic representations of uncertainty on a map reading task. Combined results suggest initial guidelines for representing uncertainty and discussion focuses on practical applicability of results.

Sustainable communities on a sustainable planet : the human-environment regional observatory project

1. Infrastructure for observing local human-environment interactions Brent Yarnal, John Harrington, Jr., Andrew C. Comrie, Colin Polsky, and Ola Ahlqvist 2. Theory: computing with knowledge to represent and share understanding Mark Gahegan, William A. Pike, and Junyan Luo 3. Infrastructure for collaboration Bill Pike, Alan MacEachren, and Brent Yarnal 4. Representing and reasoning with conceptual understanding Ola Ahlqvist and Chaoqing Yu 5. Establishing vulnerability observatory networks to coordinate the collection and analysis of comparable data Colin Polsky, Rob Neff, and Brent Yarnal 6. Comparative assessment of human-environment landscape change John Harrington, Jr., Brent Yarnal, Diana Liverman, Billie Lee Turner II and Brandi Nagle 7. Landsat mapping of local landscape change: the satellite-era context Rachel M. Kurtz, Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr., John Harrington, Jr., and Cynthia L. Sorrensen 8. Assessing local vulnerabilities: methodological approaches and regional contexts Colin Polsky, Cynthia Sorrensen, Jessica Whitehead, and Rob Neff 9. Rapid vulnerability assessments of exposures, sensitivities, and adaptive capacities of the HERO study sites Colin Polsky, Andrew Comrie, Jessica Whitehead, Cynthia Sorrensen, Lisa M. Butler Harrington, Max Lu, Rob Neff, and Brent Yarnal 10. Evaluating vulnerability assessments of the HERO study sites Colin Polsky, Cynthia Sorrensen, Jessica Whitehead, Lisa M. Butler Harrington, Max Lu, Rob Neff, and Brent Yarnal 11. The mounting risk of drought in a humid landscape: structure and agency in suburbanizing Massachusetts Colin Polsky, Sarah Assefa, Kate Del Vecchio, Troy Hill, Laura Merner, Isaac Tercero, and Gil Pontius 12. A diverse human-environment system: traditional agriculture, industrial agriculture, and service economy in central Pennsylvania Brent Yarnal 13. Fossil water and agriculture in southwestern Kansas Lisa M. Butler Harrington, Max Lu, and John A. Harrington, Jr. 14. Urbanization and hydroclimatic challenges in the Sonoran Desert border region Cynthia L. Sorrensen and Andrew C. Comrie 15. Lessons learned from the HERO project Brent Yarnal, John Harrington, Jr., Andrew C. Comrie, Colin Polsky, Ola Ahlqvist, and the HERO Team References Index.

Infrastructure for observing local human–environment interactions

Imagine a world where nature and society coexist in a healthy symbiosis, where human impacts on the environment are minimal, and where communities are safe from natural and technological hazards. Imagine a time when scientists can monitor such sustainable human–environment interactions, when they can interactively share and compare data, analyses, and ideas about those interactions from their homes and offices, and when they can collaborate with local, regional, and international colleagues and stakeholders in a global network devoted to the environmental sustainability of their communities and of the planet. We contend that to build the sustainable world portrayed above, it is necessary to develop an infrastructure that will support such an edifice. Consequently, this chapter introduces our ideas about the infrastructure needed to realize this vision and how the Human–Environment Regional Observatory project (HERO) attempted to take the initial steps to develop that infrastructure. The chapter also demonstrates that HERO addressed several major growth areas of twenty-firstcentury science – complex systems, interdisciplinary research, usable knowledge/ usable science, and transdisciplinarity – as integral parts of its infrastructure development. The chapter ends by laying out the rationale behind and structure of this book.