Multimodal and multidimensional geodata interaction and visualization

This PhD proposes the development of a Science Data Visualization System, SdVS, that analyzes and presents different kinds of visualizing and interacting techniques with Geo-data, in order to deal with knowledge about Geo-data using GoogleEarth. After that, we apply the archaeological data as a case study, and, as a result, we develop the Archaeological Visualization System, ArVS, using new visualization paradigms and Human-Computer-Interaction techniques based on SdVS. Furthermore, SdVS provides guidelines for developing any other visualization and interacting applications in the future, and how the users can use SdVS system to enhance the understanding and dissemination of knowledge

Automated generation of geometrically-precise and semantically-informed virtual geographic environnements populated with spatially-reasoning agents

La Géo-Simulation Multi-Agent (GSMA) est un paradigme de modélisation et de simulation de phénomènes dynamiques dans une variété de domaines d'applications tels que le domaine du transport, le domaine des télécommunications, le domaine environnemental, etc. La GSMA est utilisée pour étudier et analyser des phénomènes qui mettent en jeu un grand nombre d'acteurs simulés (implémentés par des agents) qui évoluent et interagissent avec une représentation explicite de l'espace qu'on appelle Environnement Géographique Virtuel (EGV). Afin de pouvoir interagir avec son environnement géographique qui peut être dynamique, complexe et étendu (à grande échelle), un agent doit d'abord disposer d'une représentation détaillée de ce dernier. Les EGV classiques se limitent généralement à une représentation géométrique du monde réel laissant de côté les informations topologiques et sémantiques qui le caractérisent. Ceci a pour conséquence d'une part de produire des simulations multi-agents non plausibles, et, d'autre part, de réduire les capacités de raisonnement spatial des agents situés. La planification de chemin est un exemple typique de raisonnement spatial dont un agent pourrait avoir besoin dans une GSMA. Les approches classiques de planification de chemin se limitent à calculer un chemin qui lie deux positions situées dans l'espace et qui soit sans obstacle. Ces approches ne prennent pas en compte les caractéristiques de l'environnement (topologiques et sémantiques), ni celles des agents (types et capacités). Les agents situés ne possèdent donc pas de moyens leur permettant d'acquérir les connaissances nécessaires sur l'environnement virtuel pour pouvoir prendre une décision spatiale informée. Pour répondre à ces limites, nous proposons une nouvelle approche pour générer automatiquement des Environnements Géographiques Virtuels Informés (EGVI) en utilisant les données fournies par les Systèmes d'Information Géographique (SIG) enrichies par des informations sémantiques pour produire des GSMA précises et plus réalistes. De plus, nous présentons un algorithme de planification hiérarchique de chemin qui tire avantage de la description enrichie et optimisée de l'EGVI pour fournir aux agents un chemin qui tient compte à la fois des caractéristiques de leur environnement virtuel et de leurs types et capacités. Finalement, nous proposons une approche pour la gestion des connaissances sur l'environnement virtuel qui vise à supporter la prise de décision informée et le raisonnement spatial des agents situés

Agent-based modeling and simulation to assess flood preparedness and recovery of manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises

Severe flooding has caused major damage and disruption to households, communities, businesses, and organizations in many parts of the world. In the United Kingdom (UK), flooding has been responsible for significant losses to the economy due to its impact on businesses, 99.9% of which are Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). This paper reports on how agent-based modeling and simulation has been developed and used to assess the effectiveness of a range of physical/structural and social preparedness adaptation measures that can be implemented by manufacturing SMEs to reduce the impact of and expedite recovery from a major flood event. Results indicate the effectiveness of combinations of these adaptation measures in relation to a one in 1000 year flood event that has been modeled and simulated in a key industrial area of the UK which, in addition to having experienced severe flooding, has a high concentration of SMEs

Usability of Online Virtual Geographic Environment for Urban Design

Collaborative Virtual Geographic Environment (CVGE), a technology derived from Virtual Reality (VR), is today becoming widely and freely available. This technology has potential for use in the field of 3D urban planning and design. An example is the online tool OpenSimulator. Rigorous assessment of the usability of such tools is needed to determine their impact on the field of urban design. A previous study consulted with a small group of urban design professionals and concluded from a user satisfaction and usability standpoint that online VR had potential value as a 3D collaboration, remote communication and marketing tool. However, visual quality and geographic accuracy of the technology are downsides that need to be overcome. This research takes the investigation a step further than the previous study to also examine the usability aspects of efficiency (how quickly tasks are completed) and effectiveness (how successfully tasks are completed), relating to CVGE used in the design process. The comparative study tests a CVGE (with increased graphic fidelity and geographic content to address the feedback of the previous study) of a subdivision design in a suburb of Dunedin, New Zealand, against 3D models built with a Geographic Information System (GIS – ArcGIS) and Computer Aided Design (CAD – BricsCAD) tools, two types of software that are already widely adopted and well established in urban design professional practice. This research collected and analysed the experiences and results from 16 urban design professionals and students who attempted to perform timed tasks correctly in each of the environments, before being asked questions about the technologies involved and the importance they perceive the technologies to have to their professional work. The results support and reinforce the feedback for VR from the previous study, with the graphical and geographic data issues being somewhat addressed and a number of new issues identified which also require further refinement of the technology to suit the application. Ease-of-use, and the associated fastest speed of completion of tasks, were significant outcomes to emerge from the comparison with GIS and CAD, and the results point to the likely level of integration of CVGE technology in an urban planning and design context in the future

Drones, Virtual Reality, and Modeling: Communicating Catastrophic Dam Failure

Dam failures occur worldwide and can be economically and ecologically devastating. Communicating the scale of these risks to the general public and decision-makers is imperative. Two-dimensional (2D) dam failure hydraulic models inform owners and floodplain managers of flood regimes but have limitations when shared with non-specialists. This study addresses these limitations by constructing a 3D Virtual Reality (VR) environment to display the 1976 Teton Dam disaster case study using a pipeline composed of (1) 2D hydraulic model data (extrapolated into 3D), (2) a 3D reconstructed dam, and (3) a terrain model processed from UAS (Uncrewed Airborne System) imagery using Structure from Motion photogrammetry. This study validates the VR environment pipeline on the Oculus Quest 2 VR Headset with the criteria: immersion fidelity, movement, immersive soundscape, and agreement with historical observations and terrain. Through this VR environment, we develop an effective method to share historical events and, with future work, improve hazard awareness; applications of this method could improve citizen engagement with Early Warning Systems. This paper establishes a pipeline to produce a visualization tool for merging UAS imagery, Virtual Reality, digital scene creation, and sophisticated 2D hydraulic models to communicate catastrophic flooding events from natural or human-made levees or dams

Multi-agent geo-simulation of crowds and control forces in conflict situations : models, application and analysis

Peu de modèles et de simulations qui décrivent les comportements de foule en situations de conflit impliquant des forces de l’ordre et des armes non-létales (NLW) existent. Ce mémoire présente des modèles d’agents de la foule et des forces de l’ordre ainsi que des NLWs dans des situations de conflit. Des groupes ainsi que leurs interactions et actions collectives sont explicitement modélisés, ce qui repousse les approches de simulation de foule existantes. Les agents sont caractérisés par des profils d’appréciation de l’agressivité et ils peuvent changer leurs comportements en relation avec la Théorie de l’identité sociale. Un logiciel a été développé et les modèles ont été calibrés avec des scénarios réalistes. Il a démontré la faisabilité technique de modèles sociaux aussi complexes pour des foules de centaines d’agents, en plus de générer des données pour évaluer l’efficacité des techniques d’intervention.Few models and simulations that describe crowd behaviour in conflict situations involving control forces and non-lethal weapons (NLW) exist. This thesis presents models for crowd agents, control forces, and NLWs in crowd control situations. Groups as well as their interactions and collective actions are explicitly modelled, which pushes further currently existing crowd simulation approaches. Agents are characterized by appreciation of aggressiveness profiles and they can change their behaviours in relation with the Social Identity theory. A software application was developed and the models were calibrated with realistic scenarios. It demonstrated the technical feasibility of such complex social models for crowds of hundreds of agents, as well generating data to assess the efficiency of intervention techniques

Artificial intelligence and visual analytics in geographical space and cyberspace: Research opportunities and challenges

In recent decades, we have witnessed great advances on the Internet of Things, mobile devices, sensor-based systems, and resulting big data infrastructures, which have gradually, yet fundamentally influenced the way people interact with and in the digital and physical world. Many human activities now not only operate in geographical (physical) space but also in cyberspace. Such changes have triggered a paradigm shift in geographic information science (GIScience), as cyberspace brings new perspectives for the roles played by spatial and temporal dimensions, e.g., the dilemma of placelessness and possible timelessness. As a discipline at the brink of even bigger changes made possible by machine learning and artificial intelligence, this paper highlights the challenges and opportunities associated with geographical space in relation to cyberspace, with a particular focus on data analytics and visualization, including extended AI capabilities and virtual reality representations. Consequently, we encourage the creation of synergies between the processing and analysis of geographical and cyber data to improve sustainability and solve complex problems with geospatial applications and other digital advancements in urban and environmental sciences

Integrated platform to assess seismic resilience at the community level

Due to the increasing frequency of disastrous events, the challenge of creating large-scale simulation models has become of major significance. Indeed, several simulation strategies and methodologies have been recently developed to explore the response of communities to natural disasters. Such models can support decision-makers during emergency operations allowing to create a global view of the emergency identifying consequences. An integrated platform that implements a community hybrid model with real-time simulation capabilities is presented in this paper. The platform's goal is to assess seismic resilience and vulnerability of critical infrastructures (e.g., built environment, power grid, socio-technical network) at the urban level, taking into account their interdependencies. Finally, different seismic scenarios have been applied to a large-scale virtual city model. The platform proved to be effective to analyze the emergency and could be used to implement countermeasures that improve community response and overall resilience

Reflections and speculations on the progress in Geographic Information Systems (GIS): a geographic perspective

Great strides have been made in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) research over the past half-century. However, this progress has created both opportunities and challenges. From a geographic perspective, certain challenges remain, including the modelling of geographic-featured environments with GIS data model, the enhancement of GIS’s analysis functions for comprehensive geographic analysis and achieving human-oriented geographic information presentation. Several basic theoretical and technical ideas that follow the workflow and processes of geographic information induction, geographic scenario modelling, geographic process analysis and geographic environment representation are proposed to fill the gaps between GIS and geography. We also call for designing methods for big geographic data-oriented analysis, making best use of videos and developing virtual geographic scenario-based GIS for further evolution

Embodied geosensification-models, taxonomies and applications for engaging the body in immersive analytics of geospatial data

This thesis examines how we can use immersive multisensory displays and body-focused interaction technologies to analyze geospatial data. It merges relevant aspects from an array of interdisciplinary research areas, from cartography to the cognitive sciences, to form three taxonomies that describe the senses, data representations, and interactions made possible by these technologies. These taxonomies are then integrated into an overarching design model for such "Embodied Geosensifications". This model provides guidance for system specification and is validated with practical examples