Geographic Phenomena Research Articles

Teaching of geographical space relations for cartography – Academic Outdoor Station in Poznan (Poland)

Abstract. The identification of geographical phenomena and relations between them are most frequently visualized, analyzed and interpreted indoor by the display screen. The difficulties with capturing basic spatial relations significant in the process of teaching cartography become the main problem. The objective of teachers from the Department of Cartography and Geomatics was to enrich typical classes carried out in computer rooms by adding the outdoor academic classes that would encourage students to observe those relations directly in the field. In October 2018 the outdoor station of the area of 15 × 20 m by the university campus next to Collegium Geographicum was handed over to the disposal of students. The projects of the elements of the station were created on the basis of the lecturers experience as a part of subjects on the following courses: topographical cartography, survey techniques, cartographic design, virtual and augmented reality in cartography, geovisualization and geomatics. Sets of several constructions that can be used either separately, as tools for explaining specific principles or together, as instruments for teaching subsequent measurement, location and visualization relations occurring in cartography and geomatics, were placed on the premises of the station.In order to study historical ways of marking borders, the erratic, a replica of the boundary stone from 1653 with the triangle engraved in the place in which three countries connect, was placed in the field. Contemporary ways of the stabilization of the border points and points of the grid reference are farther located. The point marked on the metal horizontal plate, on the spot in which the meridian and the parallel of latitude cross, inform about multiple ways of recording the exact location in space. The values of coordinates were calculated for that point and engraved on the board in several nation and global reference systems. Students, standing on other three plates with the points marked where meridians cross parallels of latitude, create basic elements of the grid of latitude and longitude of 0.2''.On a single plate three directions of the north, i.e. the geographic, topographic and magnetic one, are visible. One of the meridians marks the line of analemmatic sundial to 12:00 a.m. and the student standing on the area of the specific month becomes a gnomon whose shadow indicates the hour of the local meridian. Two surveyor's levelling rods with two values differing by approximately 16 cm demonstrate different values of contour lines on topographic maps worked out in Poland. Properly oriented topographic table shows the same fragment of space in four ways: on the classic, north-oriented topographic map, on the orthophotomap at 1 : 10 000 scale, on the simplified visualization of a few layers from the national topographic base at enlarged 1 : 2 000 scale and on the 3D printout on which the height of buildings was determined from the attribute table.Authors of the Academic Outdoor Station in Poznan prepared for the conference guests the multimedia presentation with the explanations of the aforementioned constructions and other elements, i.e. the wall of cartographic visualizations with perspective and optical illusions presented on 2D boards, virtual and augmented reality table, triangular signal, and others. We hope to receive feedback from cartographers and hear some ideas concerning new constructions for our station.

Research and implementation of big data visualization based on WebGIS

Abstract. With the development of geographic information technology, the way to get geographical information is constantly, and the data of space-time is exploding, and more and more scholars have started to develop a field of data processing and space and time analysis. In this, the traditional data visualization technology is high in popularity and simple and easy to understand, through simple pie chart and histogram, which can reveal and analyze the characteristics of the data itself, but still cannot combine with the map better to display the hidden time and space information to exert its application value. How to fully explore the spatiotemporal information contained in massive data and accurately explore the spatial distribution and variation rules of geographical things and phenomena is a key research problem at present. Based on this, this paper designed and constructed a universal thematic data visual analysis system that supports the full functions of data warehousing, data management, data analysis and data visualization. In this paper, Weifang city is taken as the research area, starting from the aspects of rainfall interpolation analysis and population comprehensive analysis of Weifang, etc., the author realizes the fast and efficient display under the big data set, and fully displays the characteristics of spatial and temporal data through the visualization effect of thematic data. At the same time, Cassandra distributed database is adopted in this research, which can also store, manage and analyze big data. To a certain extent, it reduces the pressure of front-end map drawing, and has good query analysis efficiency and fast processing ability.

Enhancing VGI application semantics by accounting for spatial bias

ABSTRACTVolunteered geographic information (VGI) is becoming an important source of geospatial big data that support many applications. The application semantics of VGI, i.e. how well VGI reflects the real-world geographic phenomena of interest to the application, is essential for any VGI applications. VGI observations often are spatially biased (e.g. spatially clustered). Spatial bias poses challenges on VGI application semantics because it may impede the quality of inferences made from VGI. Using species distribution modeling (SDM) as an example application, this article argues that spatial bias impedes VGI application semantics, as gauged by SDM model performance, and accounting for bias enhances application semantics. VGI observations from eBird were used in a case study for modeling the distribution of the American Robin (Turdus migratorius) in U.S. T. migratorius observations from the North American Breeding Bird Survey were used as independent validation data for model performance evaluation. A grid-based strategy was adopted to filter eBird species observations to reduce spatial bias. Evaluations show that spatial bias in species observations degrades SDM model performance and filtering species observations improves model performance. This study demonstrates that VGI application semantics can be enhanced by accounting for the spatial bias in VGI observations.

Towards a novel backdating strategy for creating built-up land time series data using contemporary spatial constraints

For retrospective land cover change analysis extending back in time earlier than approximately the year 2000, multispectral remote sensing data such as the Landsat archive are often the only available and systematically archived data source. However, the spatial resolution of such observations often impedes the change analysis of geographic phenomena that may occur at sub-pixel level, such as changes in built-up land. In such cases, the integration of these data products with increasingly available contemporary high resolution settlement data employed as spatial constraints can potentially mitigate this drawback. Little research has been done regarding the quantitative potential of such integrative approaches, often due to the lack of multi-temporal reference data about changes in built-up area at sufficient spatio-temporal granularity and extent. In this contribution, we present and evaluate a time-series based approach for built-up area change analysis using Landsat time series data, spatially constrained by contemporary building footprint data. We evaluate the potential of our approach using a highly accurate multi-temporal reference database of built-up areas created through integrating publicly available building footprint and cadastral data in selected regions of the United States of America.

Investigating urban heat island through spatial analysis of New York City streetscapes

Cities experience the urban heat island (UHI), which continue to pose challenges for humanity's increasingly urban population. Past research has revealed that land cover composition and configuration, along with other geographical phenomena (i.e., albedo), can explain much of the spatial pattern of UHI, yet advances await. In response, this research was made to: (i) assess the spatial pattern of mean ambient night temperature across 34 streetscapes in New York City (NYC); (ii) create and differentiate global and local regression models between-natural and built streetscape characteristics- and mean ambient night temperature; and (iii) use geographically weighted regression (GWR) to assess local patterns of correlated associations. Urban canopy layer (UCL) temperatures were recorded across 34 weather stations, and landscape metrics calculated from 0.914 m land cover data with 96% accuracy. Local Getis-Ord Gi* statistic exhibited significant spatial cold and hot spots of UHI in NYC. Global inferential tests revealed that sky-view factor, photosynthesis activity, elevation, and road configuration were the strongest predictors of mean ambient night temperature. Six multiple regression models were ultimately made with GWR fitting the UHI aptly (R2 = 65–74%). Important explanatory covariates were illustrated using local pseudo-t statistics and linked to mean ambient night temperature, supporting the importance of GWR for understanding local UHI interactions. Results also confirm that landscape configuration metrics are stronger predictors of UHI than composition measures. Streetscape design, particularly road patterns and process, requires more consideration when attempting to mitigate UHI during future sustainability planning, urban renewal projects, and research.

Flood evacuation simulations using cellular automata and multiagent systems -a human-environment relationship perspective

ABSTRACTA flood evacuation represents a complex geographic phenomenon that includes comprehensive interactions among humans, the flood and urban environments; thus, the simulation of flood evacuations requires crowd simulation models to be coupled with flood models. This paper studies the human-environment relationship during flooding and promotes a simulation model that combines cellular automata and a multiagent system to simulate crowd evacuations in flood disasters. A case study of Niaodao Island was used to evaluate the performance of flood evacuation experiments, and real-participant experiments based on the virtual reality (VR) environment were employed for bench-mark comparisons. The integrated model can provide a comprehensive solution to assist flood risk analysis.

A representativeness-directed approach to mitigate spatial bias in VGI for the predictive mapping of geographic phenomena

ABSTRACTVolunteered geographic information (VGI) contains valuable field observations that represent the spatial distribution of geographic phenomena. As such, it has the potential to provide regularly updated low-cost field samples for predictively mapping the spatial variations of geographic phenomena. The predictive mapping of geographic phenomena often requires representative samples for high mapping accuracy, but samples consisting of VGI observations are often not representative as they concentrate on specific geographic areas (i.e. spatial bias) due to the opportunistic nature of voluntary observation efforts. In this article, we propose a representativeness-directed approach to mitigate spatial bias in VGI for predictive mapping. The proposed approach defines and quantifies sample representativeness by comparing the probability distributions of sample locations and the mapping area in the environmental covariate space. Spatial bias is mitigated by weighting the sample locations to maximize their representativeness. The approach is evaluated using species habit suitability mapping as a case study. The results show that the accuracy of predictive mapping using weighted sample locations is higher than using unweighted sample locations. A positive relationship between sample representativeness and mapping accuracy is also observed, suggesting that sample representativeness is a valid indicator of predictive mapping accuracy. This approach mitigates spatial bias in VGI to improve predictive mapping accuracy.

Specifications of Cartographic Symbols for Indonesian Tactile Map

Visual impairment people require a means of information transfer which different from normal people, it needs to be touched or amplified by audio, including maps that apprise them of the objects and events occurring on Earth. Cartographic Sciences have developed tactile maps that offers touchable symbols for supporting blind and partially sighted people in recognizing the spatial distribution of geographical phenomena and their intercorrelation. Creating an informative tactile maps need a specific design of symbol, ancillary information, and map reproduction that meets the need and the capacity of its users. Unfortunately, there has been no international standardization for these map features that could be used as a foundation to build a standardization for our national tactile map. Therefore, this research adopted and modified the designs of tactile symbols published by the National Mapping Council of Australia, the Guidelines for Design of Tactile Graphics by American Printing House, the use of tactile variables by Vasconcellos, the Specifications of Topographic Elements Mapping by Bakosurtanal, and the application of visual variables of Bertin for cartographic mapping. The resultant symbol designs from the modification were applied to develop the tactile maps of Yogyakarta City on swell paper. Then, through interviews with map users (visually impaired people in the city), we evaluated these symbols from two aspects, comprehension of tactile variables and the types of the tactile maps required.

Integrating Cellular Automata with Unsupervised Deep-Learning Algorithms: A Case Study of Urban-Sprawl Simulation in the Jingjintang Urban Agglomeration, China

An effective simulation of the urban sprawl in an urban agglomeration is conducive to making regional policies. Previous studies verified the effectiveness of the cellular-automata (CA) model in simulating urban sprawl, and emphasized that the definition of transition rules is the key to the construction of the CA model. However, existing simulation models based on CA are limited in defining complex transition rules. The aim of this study was to investigate the capability of two unsupervised deep-learning algorithms (deep-belief networks, DBN) and stacked denoising autoencoders (SDA) to define transition rules in order to obtain more accurate simulated results. Choosing the Beijing–Tianjin–Tangshan urban agglomeration as the study area, two proposed models (DBN–CA and SDA–CA) were implemented in this area for simulating its urban sprawl during 2000–2010. Additionally, two traditional machine-learning-based CA models were built for comparative experiments. The implementation results demonstrated that integrating CA with unsupervised deep-learning algorithms is more suitable and accurate than traditional machine-learning algorithms on both the cell level and pattern level. Meanwhile, compared with the DBN–CA, the SDA–CA model had better accuracy in both aspects. Therefore, the unsupervised deep-learning-based CA model, especially SDA–CA, is a novel approach for simulating urban sprawl and also potentially for other complex geographical phenomena.

REVIEW ON THE MANIFESTATIONS OF RURAL HOLLOWING

Rural hollowing is a recent geographic phenomenon that has received significant attention in China, which experienced rapid urbanization. It is formed due to many houses was kept empty by the owner and a lot of new rural house were built outside the village and retaining the old ones in the inner village. It has led to the wasteful use of land resources and abandoned the houses. The purpose of this paper is to review recent research on the manifestation of rural hollowing phenomenon around the world. In this regard, is revise done based on two objectives: Firstly, to identify each manifestation of rural hollowing and secondly to examine the characteristics of each manifestation. The review made mainly in accordance with point researchers findings particularly on the Phenomenon of Rural Hollowing in rural China, Iran, Europe, and other developed countries or regions. The review found that the problems of rural hollowing manifest themselves in the following aspect: land hollowing (LH); population hollowing (PH); economic hollowing (EH); physical hollowing (PhH); hollowing of infrastructure and social services (IH); and cultural hollowing (CH). Each of the manifestations has its own characteristics in order to categorize each of the manifestations of rural hollowing. The review is particularly useful especially in Malaysia, and need for further research in Malaysia according to the problems of vacant and idle houses in the rural area.

Lugar e geografia humanista: uma proposição para a geografia escolar

Defendemos que o conceito lugar em uma perspectiva da Geografia humanista contribui para um processo de ensino-aprendizagem que conduz o aluno a compreender melhor a si mesmo e o mundo em que vive, sem menosprezar os aspectos cognitivos, afetivos, físicos, éticos e estéticos, que possam interferir no exercício da cidadania e, ainda, de uma atuação e inserção social mais consciente e humanista. Sendo assim, acreditamos que o mesmo contribui para que os discentes se reconheçam como sujeitos, com possibilidade concreta de atuação no espaço por meio do lugar, compreendam as aparências, ausências e múltiplas manifestações dos fenômenos geográficos, resignificados à luz de suas próprias experiências.

Vonoprazan and Helicobacter pylori Treatment: A Lesson From Japan or a Limited Geographic Phenomenon?

Within a short time after the discovery of Helicobacter pylori, its critical role in many gastroduodenal disorders became evident. Many in vitro and in vivo data have proven that infection should be treated in order to avoid lasting colonization which may lead to problematic gastroduodenal diseases. Probiotics, preventive and therapeutic vaccines and antibiotic therapy are the main options proposed to cure these disorders. 25 years ago, triple therapy including a traditional proton pump inhibitor (PPI) and two antibiotics (amoxicillin and clarithromycin or metronidazole) was defined as the best therapy formulation for the H. pylori infection. With the strongly decreased effectiveness of this scheme, many empirical therapeutic regimens have been developed. However, the prevalence of resistance is increasing worldwide and reveals important geographic differences and even the most recent and effective regimens show some critical points. Therefore, efficacy of vonoprazan-based therapy in regions with low rate of clarithromycin resistance may be limited. In this review, we attempt to open a new window to overcome the problem of antibiotic resistance to H. pylori. In fact, we focused our attention on the possibility that conventional PPI may be replaced by vonoprazan, thus giving rise to the beginning of a new era characterized by an improved therapeutic option for H. pylori infection. Therefore, we hypothesize that switching to vonoprazan as a novel acid blocker for H. pylori treatment might allow an unexpected reassessment of the triple therapy, at least in regions with low rate of clarithromycin resistance. Nevertheless, this optimistic view of the problem could be disproved by the possible failure of vonoprazan based therapeutic regimens outside of Japan in geographic areas characterized by different rates of antibiotic resistances.

Cartographic Symbol Design Considerations for the Space–Time Cube

ABSTRACTThe cartographic representation of geographic phenomena in the space–time cube comes with special challenges and opportunities when compared with two-dimensional maps. While the added dimension allows the display of attributes that vary with time, it is difficult to display rapidly varying temporal data given the limited display height. In this study, we adapt 2D cyclic point symbols to construct 3D surfaces designed along a helical path for the space–time cube. We demonstrate how these complex 3D helical surfaces can display detailed data, including data reported daily over 100 years and data reported in four-hour intervals over a year. To create the point symbols, each value is plotted along the curve of a helix, with each turn of the helix representing one year or week, respectively. The model is modified by varying the radii from the time axis to all points using the attribute value, in these cases maximum daily temperature and four-hourly ridership, and then creating a triangulated surface from the resulting points. Using techniques common to terrain representation, we apply hue and saturation to the surface based on attribute values, and lightness based on relief shading. Multiple surfaces can be displayed in a space–time cube with a consistent time interval facing the viewer, and the surfaces or viewer perspective can be rotated to display synchronized variations. We see this method as one example of how cartographic design can refine or enhance operations in the space–time cube.

Choropleth Mapping with Uncertainty: A Maximum Likelihood–Based Classification Scheme

Choropleth mapping provides a powerful way to visualize geographical phenomena with colors, shadings, or patterns. In many real-world applications, geographical data often contain uncertainty. How to incorporate such uncertainty into choropleth mapping is challenging. Although a few existing methods attempt to address the uncertainty issue in choropleth mapping, there are limitations to widely applying these methods due to their strong assumption on the distribution of uncertainty and the way in which similarity or dissimilarity is assessed. This article provides a new classification scheme for choropleth maps when data contain uncertainty. Considering that in a choropleth map, units in the same class are assigned with the same color or pattern, this new approach assumes the existence of a representative value for each class. A maximum likelihood estimation–based approach is developed to determine class breaks so that the overall within-class deviation is minimized while considering uncertainty. Different methods—including linear programming, dynamic programming, and an interchange heuristic—are developed to solve the new classification problem. The proposed mapping approach has been applied to map the median household income data from the American Community Survey and simulated disease occurrence data. Test results show the effectiveness of the new approach. The linkage between the new approach and the existing methods is also discussed. Key Words: choropleth mapping, map classification, maximum likelihood estimation, uncertainty.

Management of water resource based on local wisdom: a develompment study of Kampung Naga as field laboratory of Geography Education in Tasikmalaya, West Java

Kampung Naga is a traditional village in Tasikmalaya, West Java which is unique in environmental management with a sustainable principle. The geography phenomenon in Kampung Naga can be developed through environmental conditioning as a geography education field laboratory. Field observations and field visits are the most basic needs of geography. The development of field laboratories can be developed by selecting locations that have the complexity of geographic phenomena. The purpose of this study was to study the management of water resources based on local wisdom as a study of the development of Kampung Naga as a Geography Education Field Laboratory. The method used in this study is qualitative descriptive. The steps of the research carried out are as follows: 1) delineation of Naga village area using satellite image data and maps, 2) data collection and inventory through surveys and interviews, 3) data processing by analyzing data to model water resource management based on the local wisdom of the indigenous people of Kampung Naga. The results showed that water management in Naga village had a pattern: water was used for rice irrigation, drinking, washing and bathing, and vegetation and animal habitat, the water source in Kampung Naga came from the Ciwulan river, and there was a pattern of water utilization by following the spatial pattern Kampung Naga village area with the concept of water conservation with forest conservation. Kampung Naga can be used as a field laboratory for Geography education, one of them is about the material of Hydrosphere in the material of water resources management.

Remoteness as a gendered construct

ABSTRACTThis article explores the potential of using children’s perceptions of distance to reflect a gendered understanding of remoteness. Data collected from 1,549 children in Tanzania concerning their perceptions of remoteness in relation to accessibility of school, health care, and water resources were analysed in reference to their impact on school attendance and performance. Gendered variability in perceived distances to services by children may indicate that remoteness is as much of a social issue as it is a geographic phenomenon, in that girls perceive distance and time between home and destination to be further than boys who travel approximately the same distance.

A Novel Process-Oriented Graph Storage for Dynamic Geographic Phenomena

There exists a sort of dynamic geographic phenomenon in the real world that has a property which is maintained from production through development to death. Using traditional storage units, e.g., point, line, and polygon, researchers face great challenges in exploring the spatial evolution of dynamic phenomena during their lifespan. Thus, this paper proposes a process-oriented two-tier graph model named PoTGM to store the dynamic geographic phenomena. The core ideas of PoTGM are as follows. 1) A dynamic geographic phenomenon is abstracted into a process with a property that is maintained from production through development to death. A process consists of evolution sequences which include instantaneous states. 2) PoTGM integrates a process graph and a sequence graph using a node–edge structure, in which there are four types of nodes, i.e., a process node, a sequence node, a state node, and a linked node, as well as two types of edges, i.e., an including edge and an evolution edge. 3) A node stores an object, i.e., a process object, a sequence object, or a state object, and an edge stores a relationship, i.e., an including or evolution relationship between two objects. Experiments on simulated datasets are used to demonstrate an at least one order of magnitude advantage of PoTGM in relation to relationship querying and to compare it with the Oracle spatial database. The applications on the sea surface temperature remote sensing products in the Pacific Ocean show that PoTGM can effectively explore marine objects as well as spatial evolution, and these behaviors may provide new references for global change research.

РЕАЛІЗАЦІЯ КОМПЕТЕНТНІСНОГО ПІДХОДУ В СУЧАСНІЙ ШКОЛІ ШЛЯХОМ ВСТАНОВЛЕННЯ МІЖПРЕДМЕТНИХ ТА КУЛЬТУРОЛОГІЧНИХ ЗВ’ЯЗКІВ ЗАСОБАМИ ХУДОЖНЬОЇ ЛІТЕРАТУРИ

The article is devoted to the description of a methodology for the implementation of interdisciplinary and cultural links with fiction in contemporary school during the study of basic disciplines on an example of a geography course. The advantages of using literary works in class are determined; the expediency of their systematic use is substantiated; the general methodical features of the fiction usage at geography lessons are revealed. Scilicet: the directions of the literary works usage at the lessons, the methodical features of the use of large volume of works, their separate plot lines, types of tasks for the activization of cognitive activity and interest, development of analytical and logical thinking, the formation of cartographic culture are described. The tasks for the development of analytical thinking on the basis of literary works are aimed at the selection and structuring of geographical information, the explanation of the properties of geographical objects and phenomena, the identification of factors that influence their formation, the compilation of characteristics. For the development of logical thinking the tasks to the artistic works are applied; their content allows to link geographic phenomena and patterns that have already been studied or to discover the new ones. The tasks aimed at the formation of cartographic culture include: tracking the route of on the map according to the plot of the work; the self-made possible routing for the literary heroes; the search of the locations of the described objects and their coordinates on the map.

Mining spatiotemporal association patterns from complex geographic phenomena

ABSTRACTSpatiotemporal association pattern mining can discover interesting interdependent relationships among various types of geospatial data. However, existing mining methods for spatiotemporal association patterns usually model geographic phenomena as simple spatiotemporal point events. Therefore, they cannot be applied to complex geographic phenomena, which continuously change their properties, shapes or locations, such as storms and air pollution. The most salient feature of such complex geographic phenomena is the geographic dynamic. To fully reveal dynamic characteristics of complex geographic phenomena and discover their associated factors, this research proposes a novel complex event-based spatiotemporal association pattern mining framework. First, a complex geographic event was hierarchically modeled and represented by a new data structure named directed spatiotemporal routes. Then, sequence mining technique was applied to discover the spatiotemporal spread pattern of the complex geographic events. An adaptive spatiotemporal episode pattern mining algorithm was proposed to discover the candidate driving factors for the occurrence of complex geographic events. Finally, the proposed approach was evaluated by analyzing the air pollution in the region of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach can well address the geographic dynamic of complex geographic phenomena, such as the spatial spreading pattern and spatiotemporal interaction with candidate driving factors.

Powerful knowledge and the significance of teaching geography for in-service upper secondary teachers – a case study from Northern Finland

The aim of this research is to ask what kind of geography is taught in Finnish upper secondary schools and whether this knowledge is powerful knowledge. This is achieved by analysing 11 in-service geography teachers’ concept maps and in-depth interviews with qualitative data analysis. The results indicate the dominance of three terms: spatiality, phenomena and a holistic approach running through the teachers’ conceptions of geographical knowledge, skills and assessment. Geography is described by the teachers as a science which studies extensive spatial phenomena with the help of concepts and a holistic approach and in which values and students’ own lived experiences play a major role. We conclude that the in-service Finnish upper secondary teachers’ perceptions of geography are a form of powerful knowledge because they: (1) urge students to form new geographical thinking about the world, (2) give possibilities for students to study geographical phenomena and (3) evaluate their own knowledge, (4) encourage students to follow topical debates in different scales, (5) open up the students’ world views and (6) support the general objectives of Finnish upper secondary schools by applying four of the six cross-curricular themes to a great extent in teaching geography, particularly sustainable development.