Forest cover mask from historical topographic maps based on image processing

This study aimed to obtain accurate binary forest masks which might be directly used in analysis of land cover changes over large areas. A sequence of image processing operations was conceived, parameterized and tested using various topographic maps from mountain areas in Poland and Switzerland. First, the input maps were filtered and binarized by thresholding in Hue-Saturation-Value colour space. The second step consisted of a set of morphological image analysis procedures leading to final forest masks. The forest masks were then assessed and compared to manual forest boundary vectorization. The Polish topographical map published in the 1930s showed low accuracy which could be attributed to methods of cartographic presentation used and degradation of original colour prints. For maps published in the 1970s, the automated forest extraction performed very well, with accuracy exceeding 97%, comparable to accuracies of manual vectorization of the same maps performed by nontrained operators. With this method, we obtained a forest cover mask for the entire area of the Polish Carpathians, easily readable in any Geographic Information System software

Archaeological 3D GIS

Archaeological 3D GIS provides archaeologists with a guide to explore and understand the unprecedented opportunities for collecting, visualising, and analysing archaeological datasets in three dimensions. With platforms allowing archaeologists to link, query, and analyse in a virtual, georeferenced space information collected by different specialists, the book highlights how it is possible to re-think aspects of theory and practice which relate to GIS. It explores which questions can be addressed in such a new environment and how they are going to impact the way we interpret the past. By using material from several international case studies such as Pompeii, Çatalhöyük, as well as prehistoric and protohistoric sites in Southern Scandinavia, this book discusses the use of the third dimension in support of archaeological practice. This book will be essential for researchers and scholars who focus on archaeology and spatial analysis, and is designed and structured to serve as a textbook for GIS and digital archaeology courses

Archaeological 3D GIS

Archaeological 3D GIS provides archaeologists with a guide to explore and understand the unprecedented opportunities for collecting, visualising, and analysing archaeological datasets in three dimensions. With platforms allowing archaeologists to link, query, and analyse in a virtual, georeferenced space information collected by different specialists, the book highlights how it is possible to re-think aspects of theory and practice which relate to GIS. It explores which questions can be addressed in such a new environment and how they are going to impact the way we interpret the past. By using material from several international case studies such as Pompeii, Çatalhöyük, as well as prehistoric and protohistoric sites in Southern Scandinavia, this book discusses the use of the third dimension in support of archaeological practice. This book will be essential for researchers and scholars who focus on archaeology and spatial analysis, and is designed and structured to serve as a textbook for GIS and digital archaeology courses

Archaeological 3D GIS

"Archaeological 3D GIS provides archaeologists with a guide to explore and understand the unprecedented opportunities for collecting, visualising, and analysing archaeological datasets in three dimensions. With platforms allowing archaeologists to link, query, and analyse in a virtual, georeferenced space information collected by different specialists, the book highlights how it is possible to re-think aspects of theory and practice which relate to GIS. It explores which questions can be addressed in such a new environment and how they are going to impact the way we interpret the past. By using material from several international case studies such as Pompeii, Çatalhöyük, as well as prehistoric and protohistoric sites in Southern Scandinavia, this book discusses the use of the third dimension in support of archaeological practice. This book will be essential for researchers and scholars who focus on archaeology and spatial analysis, and is designed and structured to serve as a textbook for GIS and digital archaeology courses.

English for Geodesy and Land Management Students: tutorial.

English for Geodesy and Land Management Students is the manual for the students majoring in this specialty «Geodesy and Land Management» at higher education institutions and aimed at mastering the English language for specific purposes in this domain. The manual consists of 2 parts comprising the key theoretical issues students study at their special classes. The 1st part consists of 11 units. The 2nd part consists of 14 units. Each unit is designed in the way to provide students with the possibility to practice all language skills giving them flexibility in the field of future professional sphere. In the last part of the tutorial students can find texts for supplementary reading useful for efficient independent work

The Development of a bi-level geographic information systems (GIS) database model for informal settlement upgrading

Bibliography : leaves 348-369.Existing Urban GIS models are faced with several limitations. Firstly, these models tend to be single-scale in nature. They are usually designed to operate at either metropolitan- or at the local-level. Secondly, they are generally designed to cater only for the needs of the formal and environmental sectors of the city system. These models do not cater for the "gaps" of data that exist in digital cadastres throughout the world. In the developed countries, these gaps correspond to areas of physical decay or economic decline. In the developing countries, they correspond to informal settlement areas. In this thesis, a new two-scale urban GIS database model, termed the "Bi-Ievel model" is proposed. This model has been specifically designed to address these gaps in the digital cadastre. Furthermore, the model addresses the short-comings facing current informal settlement upgrading models by providing mechanisms for community participation, project management, creating linkages to formal and environmental sectoral models, and for co-ordinating initiatives at a global-level. The Bi-Ievel model is comprised of a metropolitan-level and a series of local-level database components. These components are inter-linked through bi-directional database warehouse connections. While the model requires Internet-connectivity to achieve its full potential across a metropolitan region, it recognises the need for community participation-based methods at a local-level. Members of the community are actually involved in capturing and entering informal settlement data into the local-level database

Hazard mapping

Während wir die verheerenden Kräfte von Naturgefahren verstehen und wir davon ausgehen müssen, dass diese unvermeidbar sind, müssen wir auch bedenken, dass dies ein Problem ist, wo wir etwas tun können. Studien über Gefahren ebnen den Weg, um seinen Einfluss auf die Gesellschaft zu reduzieren. Da Katastrophen nur dann aus Naturgefahren entstehen, wenn diese mit menschlichen Systemen konfrontiert werden, sollte die Bereitschaft in den relevanten Gebieten steigen, um die Verluste in zukünftigen Ereignissen zu minimieren und somit eine nachhaltige Katastrophenvorsorge zu erlangen. Geographische Informationssysteme bieten dabei neue Möglichkeiten im interdisziplinären Ansatz in der Katastrophenvorsorge. Damit ist es möglich ein besseres Verständnis von den räumlichen Beziehungen und Prozesse zu erhalten. Außerdem können Geographische Informationssysteme verwendet werden, um neue Informationen zu gewinnen, die von unschätzbarem Wert für die Katastrophenvorbeugung sein können. Das Hauptziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, die Rolle von Gefahrenzonenkarten als wirksames Instrument und deren kartographischen Aspekte in der Risikokommunikation zu beleuchten. Ein konzeptioneller Rahmen, um das Gefahrenrisiko von Tsunamis in betroffenen Küstengebieten zu beurteilen und darzustellen, wird am Ende der Arbeit präsentiert.While we realize the devastating capacities of natural hazards and we presume that they are unavoidable, we also have to think that it is a problem that we could do something. Studies about hazards pave the way to minimize its impacts on our societies. As the hazards create disasters only when it is confronted with human use systems, the preparedness and capacity building measures for relevant communities would lead to reduce the losses in future events and sustainable disaster mitigation. Geographic information systems provide new possibilities in cross disciplinary approach in disaster mitigation. It enables better understanding of spatial relationships and processes. As well, geographic information systems could also be utilized to present new information in maps that are invaluable in disaster mitigation. The main objective of this work is to study the role of hazard maps as effective tools and their cartographic aspects in spatial risk communication. A conceptual framework to assess and present the tsunami hazard risk in an affected coastal area is discussed at the end of the study

Defining GeoDesign and the emergent role of the sustainable sites initiative (SITES) for integrative project management

textThis report is a discussion of the multifarious applications of the modern day geographic information system and how the universal merit of the technology across disciplines has led to the emergence of GeoDesign. The purpose of this Master’s Professional Report was to retrace the core conceptual framework and landmark events occurring in the evolution GIS technology, and how these factors have led to recent creation of new performance based rating systems and evidence-based design techniques. The Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES), a new performance based rating system that has emerged in response to the call for increased knowledge and best practices lacking in LEED, is discussed; along with integrated project management. This professional report was intended to be an exploratory discussion of the larger theoretical implications fueling the shift towards mandating greater standards for sustainable design. It offers some ideas for how we should continue evolving GeoDesign moving into the next century; and outlines the importance of all new rating systems needing to acknowledge the growing importance of GeoDesign and ever advancing imagery technologies in understanding complex system processes in the future.Community and Regional Plannin

Proceedings of the 3rd Open Source Geospatial Research & Education Symposium OGRS 2014

The third Open Source Geospatial Research & Education Symposium (OGRS) was held in Helsinki, Finland, on 10 to 13 June 2014. The symposium was hosted and organized by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Aalto University School of Engineering, in partnership with the OGRS Community, on the Espoo campus of Aalto University. These proceedings contain the 20 papers presented at the symposium. OGRS is a meeting dedicated to exchanging ideas in and results from the development and use of open source geospatial software in both research and education.  The symposium offers several opportunities for discussing, learning, and presenting results, principles, methods and practices while supporting a primary theme: how to carry out research and educate academic students using, contributing to, and launching open source geospatial initiatives. Participating in open source initiatives can potentially boost innovation as a value creating process requiring joint collaborations between academia, foundations, associations, developer communities and industry. Additionally, open source software can improve the efficiency and impact of university education by introducing open and freely usable tools and research results to students, and encouraging them to get involved in projects. This may eventually lead to new community projects and businesses. The symposium contributes to the validation of the open source model in research and education in geoinformatics

An Evolutionary Approach to Adaptive Image Analysis for Retrieving and Long-term Monitoring Historical Land Use from Spatiotemporally Heterogeneous Map Sources

Land use changes have become a major contributor to the anthropogenic global change. The ongoing dispersion and concentration of the human species, being at their orders unprecedented, have indisputably altered Earth’s surface and atmosphere. The effects are so salient and irreversible that a new geological epoch, following the interglacial Holocene, has been announced: the Anthropocene. While its onset is by some scholars dated back to the Neolithic revolution, it is commonly referred to the late 18th century. The rapid development since the industrial revolution and its implications gave rise to an increasing awareness of the extensive anthropogenic land change and led to an urgent need for sustainable strategies for land use and land management. By preserving of landscape and settlement patterns at discrete points in time, archival geospatial data sources such as remote sensing imagery and historical geotopographic maps, in particular, could give evidence of the dynamic land use change during this crucial period. In this context, this thesis set out to explore the potentials of retrospective geoinformation for monitoring, communicating, modeling and eventually understanding the complex and gradually evolving processes of land cover and land use change. Currently, large amounts of geospatial data sources such as archival maps are being worldwide made online accessible by libraries and national mapping agencies. Despite their abundance and relevance, the usage of historical land use and land cover information in research is still often hindered by the laborious visual interpretation, limiting the temporal and spatial coverage of studies. Thus, the core of the thesis is dedicated to the computational acquisition of geoinformation from archival map sources by means of digital image analysis. Based on a comprehensive review of literature as well as the data and proposed algorithms, two major challenges for long-term retrospective information acquisition and change detection were identified: first, the diversity of geographical entity representations over space and time, and second, the uncertainty inherent to both the data source itself and its utilization for land change detection. To address the former challenge, image segmentation is considered a global non-linear optimization problem. The segmentation methods and parameters are adjusted using a metaheuristic, evolutionary approach. For preserving adaptability in high level image analysis, a hybrid model- and data-driven strategy, combining a knowledge-based and a neural net classifier, is recommended. To address the second challenge, a probabilistic object- and field-based change detection approach for modeling the positional, thematic, and temporal uncertainty adherent to both data and processing, is developed. Experimental results indicate the suitability of the methodology in support of land change monitoring. In conclusion, potentials of application and directions for further research are given