International Cartographic Association Commission Research Articles

Expanding the ICA model of stakeholders in a spatial data infrastructure (SDI)

Expanding the ICA model of stakeholders in a spatial data infrastructure (SDI)

The Realization of ICA Commission Projects on Planetary Cartography

The International Cartographic Association (ICA) Commission on Planetary Cartography was officially established on the basis of the ICA Planetary Cartography Working Group at the ICA Congress in Ottawa in August 1999. Its goal is to develop materials and information intended to aid in the global dissemination of planetary cartographic information. The overall theme of this effort is the harmonization of international planetary cartographic activities. The commission's activities can help especially in those countries not actively involved in ongoing spacecraft missions, bringing together scientists from diverse backgrounds (planetary science, earth science, cartography) who have not interacted previously, along with map and atlas publishers. The Planetary Cartography Database, the Multilingual Planetary Maps, and the Multilingual Glossary can serve as a reliable resource for cartographers who wish to produce and study planetary maps.

The 4th ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop, Vall de Núria, Catalonia, Spain (30 September–2 October 2004)

The International Cartographic Association Commission on Mountain Cartography held its fourth Mountain Cartography Workshop in the Vall de Nuria of the Catalan Pyrenees. This location is situated in the north of Catalonia, at 2000m altitude, and is surrounded by mountains that reach nearly 3000m. The valley can be reached only via a silent cog railway and has a wealth of history and tradition, documented since 1087. It was a perfect meeting place to discuss and confer about current issues in the field of mountain cartography. The workshop, held biennially as part of the activities of the commission, covered many topics related to mountain cartography, such as avalanche and glacier mapping, relief presentation, tourist mapping, data capture, photogrammetry, remote sensing, geovisualization, and multimedia. The 40 participants from Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States spent three fruitful days together. The workshop was sponsored and perfectly organized by the Institut Cartografic de Catalunya (ICC) – special thanks go to Maria Pla and Blanca Baella – and covered the following topics:

Cognitive and Usability Issues in Geovisualization

We provide a research agenda for the International Cartographic Association's Commission on Visualization and Virtual Environment Working Group on Cognitive and Usability Issues in Geovisualization. Developments in hardware and software have led to (and will continue to stimulate) numerous novel methods for visualizing geospatial data. It is our belief that these novel methods will be of little use if they are not developed within a theoretical cognitive framework and iteratively tested using usability engineering principles. We argue that cognitive and usability issues should be considered in the context of six major research themes: 1) geospatial virtual environments (GeoVEs); 2) dynamic representations (including animated and interactive maps); 3) metaphors and schemata in user interface design; 4) individual and group differences; 5) collaborative geovisualization; and 6) evaluating the effectiveness of geovisualization methods. A key point underlying our use of theoretical cognitive principles is that traditional cognitive theory for static two-dimensional maps may not be applicable to interactive three-dimensional immersive GeoVEs and dynamic representations—thus new cognitive theory may need to be developed. Usability engineering extends beyond the traditional cartographic practice of "user testing" by evaluating software effectiveness throughout a lifecycle (including design, development, and deployment). Applying usability engineering to geovisualization, however, may be problematic because of the novelty of geovisualization and the associated difficulty of defining the nature of users and their tasks. Tackling the research themes is likely to require an interdisciplinary effort involving geographic information scientists, cognitive scientists, usability engineers, computer scientists, and others.

The Integration of Geographic Visualization with Knowledge Discovery in Databases and Geocomputation

This paper details the research agenda of the International Cartographic Association Commission on Visualization: Working Group on Database-Visualization Links. The paper stresses the need for the closer integration of three largely disparate technologies: geographic visualization, knowledge discovery in databases, and geocomputation. The introduction explains the meaning behind these terms, the ethos behind their practice, and their connections within the broad realm of knowledge construction activities. The state of the art is then described for different approaches to knowledge construction, concentrating where possible on visual and geographically oriented methods. From these sections, a research agenda is synthesized in the form of three sets of research questions addressing: (1) visual approaches to data mining; (2) visual support for knowledge construction and geocomputation; and (3) databases and data models that must be satisfied to make visually-led knowledge construction a reality in the geographic realm. Conclusions relate this agenda to issues of (1) data, (2) geographic knowledge, and (3) the visualization environment and pose significant challenges to the way we currently represent geographic information and knowledge within computational systems.

Dealing with time

Maps are involved as soon as one decides to understand spatial relationships and patterns. Most maps limit themselves to a single snapshot in time. However, the study of geographical processes cannot be successful without considering time as well, because these events only happen as time passes. When maps have to depict events, an inventive design approach is required to keep them clear and understandable. A classic example is the Minard map from 1861 showing Napoleon's ad ventures in Russia (Robinson 1967). Maps displaying events that stretch over time tend to become rather complex. The solution is to split the master map into a set of maps to be read as a comic. The maps in the set are less cluttered, but the reader needs greater skills to combine the information they provide into a event, especially when that event is a process (Kousoulakou and Kraak 1992). With advancing technology, animation seems to be the solution. To understand the process represented by animation the viewer should have interface tools available, for instance, to go back and forward, pause and stop. Without these tools the animation is even more limited then the set of maps where the reader has freedom to move from one image to another to retrieve information. Considerable (cartographic) research has been done on the application of animation to display time (DiBiase et al. 1992; Peterson 1995; Ormeling 1996; Dransch 1997). The new cartographic techniques do not stand isolated. Their development and use is an integral process of the spatial data handling process. We need an understanding of concepts and techniques to acquire the necessary data and model them, and we need powerful computer environments to structure and store the data (Snodgrass 1992; Jensen et al. 1994). We also need techniques to query and retrieve the data for further understanding and display (Kraak and MacEachren 1996) (see Figure 1). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Where do we stand? Despite the current advanced state of the art of geographic information systems (GIS) we still have only limited capabilities to model and manipulate temporal data, especially if we do not want to limit ourselves to the study of snapshots. Time in relation to geography has been a subject of study for some time now. In the sixties, the approach to time became more structured (Hagerstrand 1967). With respect to GIS, the serious study of time started at the beginning of the nineties with Langran's Time in Geographic Information Systems (1993). How far have we come since then? While a number of systems such as Tempest are under study (Peuquet 1994), and contrary to vendors' claims, real operational systems are still unavailable. Time is a complex topic; it is not tangible, and it is perceived and measured accordingly. One of the major problems is the understanding of its use in daily geo-life. The NCGIA's Initiative 10 on spatio-temporal reasoning in GIS and related activities in research attempted to tackle this problem, with the effort resulting in an interesting book edited by Egenhofer and Gollege (1998). However, the final words have not yet been said. This issue of Cartography and Geographical Information Science is an initiative of the International Cartographic Association's Commission on Visualization. It covers most aspects of the spatial data handling process related to time. The contributors share an interest in investigating the term but each contributor looks at movement from a different perspective. Not only do the particular phases of the spatial data handling process influence the view on movement, but so does also the background of the authors or the problems they try to solve. The different perspectives might confuse the reader because of the difference in terminology used when the focus is on pure geography or database building, or when the process of spatial data handling is described by a cartographer or a computer scientist. …