Dynamic Styling For Thematic Mapping

Current web standards have facilitated the online production and publication of thematic maps as a useful aid to interpretation of spatial data and decision making. Patterns within the raw data can be highlighted with careful styling choices, which can be defined for online maps using tools such as Styled Layer Descriptor (SLD) XML schema. Dynamic generation of maps and map styles extends their use beyond static publication and into exploration of data which may require multiple styles and visualisations for the same set of data. This paper explores the application of thematic styling options to online data, including mapping services such as Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)-compliant Web Mapping and Web Feature Services. In order to be relevant for both user-specified and automated styling, a prototype online service was developed to explore the generation of styling schema when given data records plus the required output data type and styling parameters. Style choices were applied on-the-fly and to inform the styling characteristics of non-spatial visualisations. A stand-alone web service to produce styling definitions requires a mechanism, such as a RESTful interface, to specify its own capabilities, accept style parameters, and produce schema. The experiments in this paper are an investigation into the requirements and possibilities for such a system. Styles were applied using point and polygon feature data as well as spatially-contextual records (for example, data that includes postal codes or suburb names but no geographical feature definitions). Functionality was demonstrated by accessing it from an online geovisualisation and analysis system. This exploration was carried out as a proof of concept for generation of a map styling web service that could be used to implement automated or manual design choices

Distributed agents for online spatial searches

As the availability and utilisation of online data blossoms, automated online searches—whether to answer a simple question, seek specific sensor readings, or investigate research in a particular domain—have raised a number of issues. Simple search tools do not access the deep web of services and online forms, and cannot handle knowledge domain-specific search problems, but specialist search tools can have a narrow domain and applicability. Some online tools circumvent these problems by putting more filter controls into the hands of users, but this leads to more complex interfaces which can raise usability barriers. A distributed approach, where specialised search agents act autonomously to find contextualised information, can provide a useful compromise between a simple, general search interface and specialist searches. This paper outlines work in progress on design and use of specialist search agents, with a case study to find public transportation bus stops within a spatial region. The approach is demonstrated with a proof of concept web interface, developed to interpret a text query to find and show bus stop locations within a named boundary by coordinating multiple online search agents. Search agents were designed to follow a common model to allow for future development of agent types, including specialist agents used in the case study to search standard open web services and extract spatial features

Spatial epidemiological investigation of sport and leisure injuries in Victoria, Australia

Sport and leisure injuries are recognised as a public health issue in Australia. Despite the many health benefits associated with sport and leisure participation, there is a risk of sustaining injury during participation. To keep Australia active, there is a critical need to prevent injury occurrence. Epidemiological investigations in sport and leisure injuries have been largely examined by grouping of sports, age groups, sex and level of play. In addition, intrinsic (person-level) factors have been considered, such as strength, flexibility or previous injury history. These factors may not be sufficient to identify injury burden or prevent an increase in injury incidences. In the broader injury literature (e.g., road traffic crashes or drowning), it is known that injuries often cluster within specific places (i.e., road intersections or bodies of water). These specific geographic locations may also relate to sport and leisure injuries (e.g., sports grounds or facilities). Similarly, population-level factors such as socio-economic status or cultural groups within an area could influence the types of sports and leisure activities people participate in and consequently, the injuries that occur. A review presented in this PhD thesis revealed that there is very limited sport and leisure injury epidemiological information from a geographical perspective. To address this gap, and determine whether there is a spatial pattern in sport/leisure injuries, the aim of this PhD was to examine the geospatial distribution of sport/leisure injury hospitalisations and their association with a broad range of social and economic characteristics. This thesis uses spatial epidemiological methods to answer questions such as ‘Where do sports and leisure injuries occur?’ and ‘In whom do sports/leisure injuries occur?’ The main chapters present the results of the application of spatial epidemiological methods to describe the problem, to test hypotheses and to explore associations with possible explanatory variables. The findings showed a significant variation across metropolitan, regional and rural areas in the pattern and clustering of injuries when examining different sports, age groups and other variables such as education level. A secondary aim of this thesis was to consider the dissemination of sport and injury epidemiological data. As emphasised in the literature, there is limited spatial epidemiological information available to decision-makers and key stakeholders. At best, descriptive maps might be included in a report or research paper. However, these are static and limited to the results that the author chooses to present. Therefore, an important output from this PhD is a web-GIS application that has been specifically built to enable the exploratory analysis of sport/leisure injuries in Victoria. Sport and leisure injury prevention strategies and policy development relies on information about where, when, to whom and how sport/leisure injuries occur. This thesis demonstrates that a spatial epidemiological approach is an important and novel way to address epidemiological questions from a geographical perspective.Doctor of Philosoph