Abstract
Geospatial thinking is essential to the visualization–interpretation processes of three-dimensional geographic information. The design of strategies for the interpretation of the Earth’s surface which allow the development of students’ geospatial thinking poses a challenge in higher education. In geospatial education, we often see a practical approach where students are trained in specific GIS and/or geotechnologies. However, in the first stages of geospatial education, geographic literacy and geospatial thinking processes can be supported better through easy-to-use technologies. In this paper we show the results of two workshops performed with engineering students using visuospatial displays in an easy-to-use 3D software environment. This teaching approach improved students’ geospatial thinking, measured using the Topographic Map Assessment (TMA) test—a battery of seven tasks related to relief interpretation along with 18 exercises. Participants also completed a questionnaire relating to the following usability topics: operation (application), improvement, implications for education, and understanding of the concepts related to relief interpretation. The results showed mean gains between 10.7% and 12.6% of the highest score for the TMA. This, together with the results of the questionnaire, confirms the usefulness of this teaching approach using easy-to-use 3D technologies for developing geospatial thinking.
Highlights
For the characterization of landforms, traditional cartographic representations in 2D, in the form of topographic maps at different scales or aerial photographs, are used
These studies worked with the interpretation of the cartographic relief, but this research proposes a different approach: the generation of landforms using 3D design with two visuospatial displays
The activities related to the generation of landforms carried out in this research had a significant effect on the improvement of geospatial thinking
Summary
For the characterization of landforms (ridges, valleys, hills, etc.), traditional cartographic representations in 2D, in the form of topographic maps at different scales or aerial photographs, are used. The potential of visuospatial displays using georeferenced information processing applications (Geographical Information Systems, Spatial Data Infrastructures, and Virtual Globes) facilitates the geovisualization of terrain shapes in three dimensions These applications use different displays, such as Digital Elevation Models (DEM), image LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), Slope Maps, and Hillshades, to name the most commonly used ones. In the process of the identification and classification of landforms, the accuracy of the derived landscape map will depend on the subjective skills of the surveyor/analyst [4], there are automated unsupervised classification techniques, such as the geomorphons approach [5] This approach is based on the creation of a variety of possible types of morphological landscape generated using the elevation differences of a given environment, there are more approaches to address the recognition of landforms. There are specific applications in the field of automated geospatial analytics such as the Grasshopper’s Bison plugin [7] which features tools for terrain mesh creation, analysis, editing, and annotation. 3D modeling and terrain analysis software products such as Rhino [8], Vue [9], Terragen [10], Maya [11], 3dsMax [12], and World Machine [13] are used in landscape architecture curricula for building, rendering, and animating realistic natural environments
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