Artificial Intelligence in geospatial analysis: applications of self-organizing maps in the context of geographic information science.

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Information Management, specialization in Geographic Information SystemsThe size and dimensionality of available geospatial repositories increases every day, placing additional pressure on existing analysis tools, as they are expected to extract more knowledge from these databases. Most of these tools were created in a data poor environment and thus rarely address concerns of efficiency, dimensionality and automatic exploration. In addition, traditional statistical techniques present several assumptions that are not realistic in the geospatial data domain. An example of this is the statistical independence between observations required by most classical statistics methods, which conflicts with the well-known spatial dependence that exists in geospatial data. Artificial intelligence and data mining methods constitute an alternative to explore and extract knowledge from geospatial data, which is less assumption dependent. In this thesis, we study the possible adaptation of existing general-purpose data mining tools to geospatial data analysis. The characteristics of geospatial datasets seems to be similar in many ways with other aspatial datasets for which several data mining tools have been used with success in the detection of patterns and relations. It seems, however that GIS-minded analysis and objectives require more than the results provided by these general tools and adaptations to meet the geographical information scientist‟s requirements are needed. Thus, we propose several geospatial applications based on a well-known data mining method, the self-organizing map (SOM), and analyse the adaptations required in each application to fulfil those objectives and needs. Three main fields of GIScience are covered in this thesis: cartographic representation; spatial clustering and knowledge discovery; and location optimization.(...

Propuesta cartográfica para la representación y análisis de la variable población mediante Sistemas de Información Geográfica: el caso español

Esta tesis doctoral se centra en la cartografía de variables geodemográficas entendiendo que las mismas explican procesos territoriales significativos en materia de Ordenación del Territorio. La línea argumental surge vinculada a la inquietud de que tres aspectos (la necesidad de adecuación del proceso cartográfico a los contenidos temáticos que refleja, la existencia de aplicaciones que facilitan la elaboración de mapas como los SIG y los cambios demográficos acaecidos en los últimos tiempos) hayan condicionado de tal modo los procesos cartográficos que sea necesario redefinir los parámetros y sobre todo ajustarlos a las características propias de las variables que se representan, en este caso las relacionadas con la población. Para lograr esta redefinición se ha elaborado un marco conceptual que integra las teorías cartográficas tradicionales con conceptos nuevos generando un esquema de trabajo que permite adaptar el proceso cartográfico. Finalmente se comprueba que este esquema es efectivo aplicándolo sobre el estudio demográfico del territorio español. This thesis focuses on mapping variables related to population, since we understand they guide relevant territorial processes in terms of space management. It is especially important to study people, their distribution in territory as well as analize their members and behaviors that generate functional differences. This thesis emerges from a the concern that three issues (the need for adaptation of the mapping process to thematic content, the existence of applications that facilitate mapping (GIS), and demographic changes occurring in recent times) have affected the cartographic processes so much that it is necessary to redefine the parameters and especially to adjust the specific characteristics of the variables that are being represent, in this case related to population. The thesis expounds a theory frame which is original. It organizes the traditional ideas in a new way. In the final chapter this frame is checked trough the particular case of Spain