Geospatial Narratives and their Spatio-Temporal Dynamics: Commonsense Reasoning for High-level Analyses in Geographic Information Systems

The modelling, analysis, and visualisation of dynamic geospatial phenomena has been identified as a key developmental challenge for next-generation Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In this context, the envisaged paradigmatic extensions to contemporary foundational GIS technology raises fundamental questions concerning the ontological, formal representational, and (analytical) computational methods that would underlie their spatial information theoretic underpinnings. We present the conceptual overview and architecture for the development of high-level semantic and qualitative analytical capabilities for dynamic geospatial domains. Building on formal methods in the areas of commonsense reasoning, qualitative reasoning, spatial and temporal representation and reasoning, reasoning about actions and change, and computational models of narrative, we identify concrete theoretical and practical challenges that accrue in the context of formal reasoning about `space, events, actions, and change'. With this as a basis, and within the backdrop of an illustrated scenario involving the spatio-temporal dynamics of urban narratives, we address specific problems and solutions techniques chiefly involving `qualitative abstraction', `data integration and spatial consistency', and `practical geospatial abduction'. From a broad topical viewpoint, we propose that next-generation dynamic GIS technology demands a transdisciplinary scientific perspective that brings together Geography, Artificial Intelligence, and Cognitive Science. Keywords: artificial intelligence; cognitive systems; human-computer interaction; geographic information systems; spatio-temporal dynamics; computational models of narrative; geospatial analysis; geospatial modelling; ontology; qualitative spatial modelling and reasoning; spatial assistance systemsComment: ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information (ISSN 2220-9964); Special Issue on: Geospatial Monitoring and Modelling of Environmental Change}. IJGI. Editor: Duccio Rocchini. (pre-print of article in press

Coastal Resource Management in the Wider Caribbean: Resilience, Adaptation, and Community Diversity

The Caribbean Sea is the second largest sea in the world, including more than 30 insular and continental countries with an approximate population of 35 million. In addition to its highly fractionalized territory, it is characterized by a great linguistic and cultural diversity, a phenomenon enhanced by increasing internal migrations and the expansion of tourism. The implementation of coastal management programs, often embedded in top-down approaches, is therefore faced with a series of ecological and social constraints, explaining why they have had only limited success. This book presents an alternative look at existing coastal management initiatives in the North America (Caribbean); focusing on the need to pay more attention to the local community. Emphasizing the great heterogeneity of Caribbean communities, the book shows how the diversity of ecosystems and cultures has generated a significant resilience and capacity to adapt, in which the notion of community itself has to be re-examined. The concluding chapter presents lessons learned and a series of practical recommendations for decision-makers

African marine invertebrate data analysis and imaging: a dataset and digital platform for research, education and outreach

Tese de mestrado, Bioinformática e Biologia Computacional, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2019As espécies costeiras e marinhas e os seus respetivos habitats estão a ser adversamente perdidos ou danificados, reduzindo significativamente a biodiversidade marinha. Os invertebrados marinhos, incluindo crustáceos decápodes, constituem importantes fontes de alimento para as populações locais, especialmente para pessoas mais pobres, que dependem destes recursos para sustento e alimentação. Moçambique e São Tomé e Príncipe abrigam um grande número de espécies decápodes indígenas, que são usadas pelas populações locais para a sua subsistência e segurança alimentar. Existe uma grande quantidade de dados valiosos sobre a biodiversidade do mundo, armazenados em Coleções de História Natural, repositórios digitais, programas de vigilância climática, projetos de investigação e outros, que estão disponíveis para pesquisa. Em particular, as Coleções de História Natural albergam informação muito relevante para estudos de biodiversidade, incluindo séries espaciais e temporais, na medida em que são desenvolvidas desde o século XIX, e têm sido usadas em numerosos estudos, desde taxonómicos e sistemáticos até distribuição espacial e temporal e composição populacional. A quantidade de dados acessíveis online cresce diariamente e desta forma, métodos e técnicas das ciências da computação são essenciais para a gestão e análise dos mesmos. Os repositórios online são instrumentos úteis na pesquisa sobre biodiversidade, pois fornecem acesso rápido aos dados de enumeras coleções. Vários museus, organizações e universidades processam informações das suas coleções em diversas bases de dados digitais que disponibilizam em repositórios na internet. Um desses repositórios de dados e o Global Information Facility for Biodiversity (GBIF). O modelo de metadados Darwin Core (DwC), e usado pelo GBIF com o intuito de partilhar informação padronizada sobre biodiversidade, e desempenha um papel fundamental na interoperabilidade e integração destes dados. Esta dissertação faz parte do projeto COBIO-NET – Coastal biodiversity and food security in peri-urban Sub-Saharan Africa: assessment, capacity building and regional networking in contrasting Indian and Atlantic Ocean, financiado pela fundação FCT/AGA KHAN. O objetivo desta secção do projeto COBIO-NET é compilar conjuntos de dados de crustáceos decápodes, e informação associada, de Moçambique e São Tomé e Príncipe por meio da catalogação em um conjunto de dados e base de dados organizados em DwC, e torná-los acessíveis através de repositórios e de mapas interativos online. Neste contexto, o principal objetivo da dissertação foi a construção de um conjunto de dados e o uso de ferramentas digitais para compilar informações a fim de criar um conjunto de dados abrangente sobre crustáceos decápodes e respetivos habitats nas zonas costeiras de Moçambique e São Tomé e Príncipe. O trabalho foi repartido em 4 partes: 1) recolha de dados mundiais sobre biodiversidade em repositórios digitais globais relacionados com Coleções de História Natural, outros dados de biodiversidade e literatura científica para a construção de um conjunto de dados; 2) gestão e processamento de dados sobre biodiversidade a partir da compilação de estudos biológicos por meio de um sistema de gestão de bases de dados relacional (SGBDR) de código aberto; 3) armazenamento e representação de eventos e distribuição de dados geográficos na ferramenta de um sistema de informação geográfica de código aberto; 4) disseminação de dados online através da criação de um web map interativo usando uma biblioteca JavaScript de web mapping de código aberto. Nesta dissertação, a estrutura dos metadados e a base do projeto COBIO-NET, que será usada para armazenar os dados de invertebrados marinhos obtidos durante o projeto. O conjunto de dados piloto desenvolvido durante esta dissertação, apresenta um layout com 26 campos Darwin Core, e contém um conjunto de dados referente a 7486 ocorrências de crustáceos decápodes em mangais, pradarias marinhas, corais e outras áreas costeiras de Moçambique e São Tomé e Príncipe. Este modelo de metadados é adequado para a recolha de informação pré-estruturada de acordo com o formato de dados usado pelo GBIF. Ferramentas digitais tais como o software Open Refine e a linguagem de programação Python foram usadas para criar um conjunto de dados, através da compilação e limpeza de dados de ocorrências de biodiversidade obtidos a partir de repositórios digitais, dados obtidos diretamente de outras fontes e literatura científica, agregados em um conjunto de dados detalhado. De forma a poder realizar uma análise geográfica, é necessário que os dados incluam os locais de recolha na forma de coordenadas espaciais. Nos casos em que os registos obtidos não incluíam esta informação, a georreferenciação foi feita utilizando o software GEOLocate. A base de dados PostgreSQL construída durante este estudo e o suporte digital usado para gerir e processar informações sobre crustáceos decápodes de Moçambique e São Tomé e Príncipe. Os dados da base de dados podem ser filtrados por meio de consultas e a base de dados pode ser atualizada pelos investigadores do COBIO-NET com mais dados referentes a outros grupos taxonómicos de invertebrados marinhos. O QGIS foi o sistema de informação geográfica de código aberto utilizado para visualizar, processar e avaliar os dados e informações geográficas recolhidas. A avaliação geográfica, usando o QGIS, envolveu vários passos, como processamento de informações geográficas, mapeamento de diferentes habitats, combinação de camadas de informação e personalização da simbologia existente. O design do mapa QGIS foi projetado especificamente para o projeto COBIO-NET, oferecendo uma base para analisar informações sobre incidência e alocação de espécies. O projeto de mapeamento em QGIS permite a sua aplicação a outros conjuntos de dados mais amplos, incluindo informação sobre outros invertebrados marinhos. O plugin qgis2web para o QGIS foi utilizado para produzir um mapa interativo em JavaScript, tornado público na internet, personalizado através da biblioteca Leaflet que permite visualizar as ocorrências das espécies de crustáceos decápodes. O mapa fornece vários filtros para manipular os dados, permitindo a visualização de ocorrências de acordo com critérios específicos. Este mapa inclui 18 camadas que podem ser escolhidas ou não para filtrar as informações visualizadas, e são categorizadas em (1) ocorrência de espécies, (2) habitat, (3) áreas dos países e (4) zonas costeiras globais. Ao longo desta dissertação, foram usadas várias ferramentas e técnicas, que apresentaram vários desafios. A limpeza e validação de nomes científicos no conjunto de dados de biodiversidade foi um deles. O campo da taxonomia está em constante mudança, dificultando a compreensão de quais termos descritos correspondem ao nosso conhecimento contemporâneo de uma espécie em particular. As limitações também se estendem aos shapefiles de habitat usados neste estudo. A maioria dos conjuntos de dados possui cobertura global e foi compilada a partir de várias fontes de dados de qualidade e a escalas variadas para as quais a interpretação da imagem foi realizada. Outra limitação foi o mapa em JavaScript gerado com o plugin qgis2web no QGIS. Embora o plugin possa simular muitos elementos do QGIS, incluindo símbolos e estilos de camada, não consegue replicar aspetos mais complexos. Os dados recolhidos no conjunto de dados podem ser partilhados através de repositórios online, a fim de serem usados, por exemplo, em estudos de distribuição de espécies e avaliar a composição de comunidades ecológicas distintas, para estimar a probabilidade de extinção e preservação da biodiversidade. Outra aplicação deste trabalho é permitir a criação de uma coleção de dados de referência alargada a outros invertebrados marinhos de Moçambique e São Tomé e Príncipe, que seja disponibilizada a comunidade cientifica e ao público em geral de forma a dar a conhecer a biodiversidade e história natural destes países africanos. Uma das ideias do projeto COBIO-NET é gerir e centralizar todos os conjuntos de dados de biodiversidade produzidos durante o projeto e a documentação associada com recursos a ferramentas multimédia, num repositório digital. Este repositório será usado para disseminar as informações e dados reunidos para a comunidade científica e o público em geral. Portanto, o conjunto de dados, mapas QGIS e mapas interativos produzidos durante esta dissertação serão incluídos no repositório digital COBIONET para maior disseminação da informação a investigadores e sociedade em geral. Além disso, as características do conjunto de dados desenvolvido, que integra um conjunto de dados de biodiversidade de invertebrados marinhos estruturado em DwC, a base de dados, os mapas e o mapa online serão publicados em artigos científicos, data papers e repositórios digitais (GBIF e COBIO-NET) no âmbito do COBIO-NET, em colaboração com outros investigadores do projeto. Adicionalmente, ao serem disponibilizados ao público, estes dados e ferramentas digitais podem ser usados por outros utilizadores como ferramentas de ensino ou divulgação, para escrever livros, artigos científicos, folhetos de divulgação, etc. Os crustáceos decápodes são elementos relevantes da dieta e meios de subsistência das populações locais de Moçambique e São Tomé e Príncipe. Neste contexto, os resultados obtidos nesta dissertação são relevantes na medida em que podem ser usados para ligar o conhecimento destes recursos naturais ao seu valor gastronómico nestes dois países, bem como aos Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS) das Nações Unidas, a saber, o ODS #2 (Erradicar a fome), que visa acabar com a fome, alcançar a segurança a alimentar e melhorar a nutrição; e o ODS #14 (Proteger a vida marinha), que se refere a biodiversidade marinha e costeira, sua conservação e uso sustentável para um desenvolvimento sustentável da sociedade humana.The quantity of biological data accessible in online repositories is exponentially growing, thus computer science methods are required for its management and analysis. Online, digital repositories are useful instruments for biodiversity research, as they provide fast access to data from different sources. Among these, large contributors are museums that hold a vast quantity of specimens in their collections. This dissertation was developed as part of the COBIO-NET project, funded by FCT/AGA KHAN Foundation, and its goals were to create a comprehensive dataset on the marine coastal biodiversity of decapod crustaceans through different habitats in Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe, and to use digital tools to disseminate the compiled information online, so that its available to the scientific community and the general public. These digital tools have been used to aggregate, georeference and clean up global biodiversity data retrieved from online digital repositories, biodiversity data and scientific literature into a detailed dataset; to manage and structure biodiversity data for the compilation of biological studies through a relational database management system; to manage and process data through, also to show the acquired spatial data in the geographic information system QGIS and an interactive web map. In this dissertation, a metadata structure was defined, which will be further used to store data collected during the COBIO-NET project. This metadata structure includes 26 fields defined by the Darwin Core metadata standard. A pilot dataset, based on this metadata structure was compiled, including 7486 decapod crustaceans occurrences records in Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe. The database PostgreSQL constructed during this study is the digital support to manage and process information on decapod crustaceans from Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe. The data from the database can be filtered through queries, and this database is ready to be updated by researchers enrolled in COBIO-NET with more data from different marine invertebrate taxonomic groups. The QGIS map design provides maps to visualize decapod crustacean occurrences, offering the foundation for the analysis of species incidence and allocation information. The map project is prepared in a way that it can be used to display information on larger datasets, including information on other marine taxonomic groups added during the COBIO-NET project. A web map was constructed using Leaflet and is an interactive digital platform, that allows the visualization of decapod crustacean occurrences through mangroves, seagrasses, corals and other coastal areas of Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe. The web map provides distinct filters concentrations to manipulate the data, allowing visualization of occurrences events according with specific demands. A dataset of biodiversity data, representing occurrence records, was compiled and the digital tools developed during this study will be published and disseminated through online digital repositories, that can be used in future studies to model crustacean species allocation studies. To evaluate species communities in an effort to estimate their probability of extinction and to preserve biodiversity. These data as well as the digital tools, and their following publication further adds and promotes our current knowledge on biodiversity of marine crustaceans in mangroves, seagrasses, corals and other coastal areas of Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe

Malay sound arts::Reimagining biophony and geophony materials. Commentary of original composition portfolio 2019-2023

This PhD takes the research theme of Nada Bumi or Voice of the Earth: exploring andaccentuating hidden Malaysia biophonic and geophonic materials, for expressing self-cultural identity and narrative through sound arts practice. The portfolio and accompanying commentary present eleven sound-art works ranging from instrumental electroacoustic music to Web-Audio API based sound installation. The main idea for this portfolio research is to explore the association of folklore, tales, myths, legends and art cultural narrative of the Malay race and the ancestors of Malay (proto-Malay), with the selected hidden and unheard Malaysia natural soundscape, in producing new sound art works. Therefore, I proposed two major compositional themes each comprising several works; Miroirs of Malay Rebab (MiMaR), and Seed of Life (SoL). The works in Miroirs of Malay Rebab reimagine selected unheard biophonic and geophonic materials as mirrors of several Malay performing art-cultural narrative and their stories, such as Makyung theater dance, Malay Gamelan music dance, Ulek Mayang dance and their stories that I have been exposed to during my undergraduate music studies in Malaysia. The works in Seed of Life (SoL) take a similar approach but focused more on local Malay and proto-Malay folklores, tales, legends and myths associated with my childhood experience. Furthermore, as I delved into the conceptual and compositional aspects of creating the Miroirs of Malay Rebab (MiMaR) set and Seed of Life I (SoL) set, I had the privilege to engage in an enriching journey of (self-) exploration through the creation of sound art within the vibrant Bristol soundscape with support from the local sound art community. This experience was part of my involvement in the Hidden Bristol Soundwalks project, which provided a unique platform for my creative endeavors. I have decided to include this project in this portfolio, which has similar compositional approach with Seed of Life (SoL). Both the major cycles, Miroirs of Malay Rebab (MiMaR) and Seed of Life (SoL), include Western classical music instrumentations with electronics; fixed media; and interactive media. This portfolio was composed and developed at the Studio One, Department of Music in the Faculty of Arts, University of Bristol; the Bristol Interaction Group (B.I.G.) Lab in the Faculty of Engineering, University of Bristol; and my home studios in Clevedon, UK, during the period of October 2019 until September 2022. The portfolio consists of scores, studio-audio production recordings, and several live performance recordings. The commentary comprises a set of philosophical considerations about my compositions and intent for creation based on the Nada Bumi theme and sub themes. Further chapters are dedicated to compositional techniques, related traditions and piece-specific documentations. The portfolio is supplied as a set of digital media, containing pdf files of musical scores in notation, associated software or media components of the works, recordings of the studio-based music, and recordings of several live public performances made in mid-2022 after the period of covid-19 lock-downs

Object-Based Similarity Assessment Using Land Cover Meta-Language (LCML): Concept, Challenges, and Implementation

Land cover (LC) is an essential variable for environmental monitoring in many application domains. The detection of changes in LC can support the understanding of environmental dynamics. However, LC legends present a high degree of inconsistencies that significantly reduce their usability. This study investigates the effectiveness of ISO standard 19144-2, better known as Land Cover Meta-Language (LCML), to improve the standardization and harmonization of different LC taxonomies and maps. LCML vocabulary and syntactic rules facilitate the integration of natural resources information. LC classes are represented by a sequence of "Basic Elements" and attributes defined as "Properties" and "Characteristics." Such elements are formalized in a Unified Modeling Language class diagram. This study presents first, a method to evaluate and score the "similarity" of different LCML legends, second, an application of the similarity assessment criteria to an area located in Bangladesh for translating its specific LCML legend into a different taxonomy, i.e., the System of Environmental Economic Accounting, and third, a Python implementation to be incorporated in new or already existing tools. The results obtained show that when class similarity assessment is carried out by Basic Elements only, the process performs well for simple classes. When classes are characterized by similar basic elements (e.g., biotic elements) structure, the introduction of class properties is needed to disambiguate complex situations. The findings indicate that the proposed methodology can exploit LCML land feature semantic representation. Moreover, it can be used for translating LCML classes into different taxonomies, for facilitating class comparison and change detection

A framework for semantic web implementation based on context-oriented controlled automatic annotation.

The Semantic Web is the vision of the future Web. Its aim is to enable machines to process Web documents in a way that makes it possible for the computer software to "understand" the meaning of the document contents. Each document on the Semantic Web is to be enriched with meta-data that express the semantics of its contents. Many infrastructures, technologies and standards have been developed and have proven their theoretical use for the Semantic Web, yet very few applications have been created. Most of the current Semantic Web applications were developed for research purposes. This project investigates the major factors restricting the wide spread of Semantic Web applications. We identify the two most important requirements for a successful implementation as the automatic production of the semantically annotated document, and the creation and maintenance of semantic based knowledge base. This research proposes a framework for Semantic Web implementation based on context-oriented controlled automatic Annotation; for short, we called the framework the Semantic Web Implementation Framework (SWIF) and the system that implements this framework the Semantic Web Implementation System (SWIS). The proposed architecture provides for a Semantic Web implementation of stand-alone websites that automatically annotates Web pages before being uploaded to the Intranet or Internet, and maintains persistent storage of Resource Description Framework (RDF) data for both the domain memory, denoted by Control Knowledge, and the meta-data of the Web site¿s pages. We believe that the presented implementation of the major parts of SWIS introduce a competitive system with current state of art Annotation tools and knowledge management systems; this is because it handles input documents in the ii context in which they are created in addition to the automatic learning and verification of knowledge using only the available computerized corporate databases. In this work, we introduce the concept of Control Knowledge (CK) that represents the application¿s domain memory and use it to verify the extracted knowledge. Learning is based on the number of occurrences of the same piece of information in different documents. We introduce the concept of Verifiability in the context of Annotation by comparing the extracted text¿s meaning with the information in the CK and the use of the proposed database table Verifiability_Tab. We use the linguistic concept Thematic Role in investigating and identifying the correct meaning of words in text documents, this helps correct relation extraction. The verb lexicon used contains the argument structure of each verb together with the thematic structure of the arguments. We also introduce a new method to chunk conjoined statements and identify the missing subject of the produced clauses. We use the semantic class of verbs that relates a list of verbs to a single property in the ontology, which helps in disambiguating the verb in the input text to enable better information extraction and Annotation. Consequently we propose the following definition for the annotated document or what is sometimes called the ¿Intelligent Document¿ ¿The Intelligent Document is the document that clearly expresses its syntax and semantics for human use and software automation¿. This work introduces a promising improvement to the quality of the automatically generated annotated document and the quality of the automatically extracted information in the knowledge base. Our approach in the area of using Semantic Web iii technology opens new opportunities for diverse areas of applications. E-Learning applications can be greatly improved and become more effective

Development Crises and Peasants Survival Mechanisms in the Niger Delta: the Effects of Illegal Oil Bunkering

Despite the fact that the Niger Delta region contributes a significant amount to the nations GDP its rural communities are still grossly underdeveloped and her inhabitants considered among the poorest in the country With an official oil production figure of 2 4 million barrels per day Nigeria ranks as Africa s biggest petro-state after South Africa it ranks in billions of dollars in petroleum revenue However as noted by scholars there is one indication that the nation may be producing more than the official figure while the rest is lost through the illegal activities and manipulations of criminal cartels who engage in oil theft Using the queer ladder theory as a theoretical roadmap for the study the research revealed those factors that have engendered the growing incidence of oil bunkering in the region Based on the findings of the research the research made recommendations which included that government should clean up the environment as a matter of urgency so that those that depend on it to survive can have a means of livelihood while also contributing to the nation s economy as the development crisis in the region has been linked to the production of crud

ChatGPT and Other Large Language Models as Evolutionary Engines for Online Interactive Collaborative Game Design

Large language models (LLMs) have taken the scientific world by storm, changing the landscape of natural language processing and human-computer interaction. These powerful tools can answer complex questions and, surprisingly, perform challenging creative tasks (e.g., generate code and applications to solve problems, write stories, pieces of music, etc.). In this paper, we present a collaborative game design framework that combines interactive evolution and large language models to simulate the typical human design process. We use the former to exploit users' feedback for selecting the most promising ideas and large language models for a very complex creative task - the recombination and variation of ideas. In our framework, the process starts with a brief and a set of candidate designs, either generated using a language model or proposed by the users. Next, users collaborate on the design process by providing feedback to an interactive genetic algorithm that selects, recombines, and mutates the most promising designs. We evaluated our framework on three game design tasks with human designers who collaborated remotely.Comment: (Submitted

Residual infrastructures: colonialisms in waste management and catador politics

O artigo explora a relação entre resíduos e cidade a partir do prisma das infraestruturas urbanas e propõe o conceito de “infraestruturas residuais” como estratégia para analisar a dimensão residual, não hegemônica, que se constitui nos sistemas de gestão, enfocando processos de mudança que reconfiguram a infraestrutura operando a exclusão de elementos considerados à margem, apesar de sua centralidade prática. O foco etnográfico se volta para o “fechamento” do aterro de Jardim Gramacho, no Rio metropolitano, pensado como um “evento infraestrutural”, que mobiliza uma arena de disputa entre distintos atores e repertórios tecnológicos, configurando uma política dos resíduos. A noção de “pessoas como infraestruturas corporificadas” qualifica os catadores como sistemas sociotécnicos e descortina a persistência de colonialismos nos sistemas de gestão de resíduos modernos, que continuam moldando as geografias urbanas e (re)produzindo estruturas racializadas de desigualdade. A política catadora é então pensada como um socioambientalismo popular capaz de forjar modelos de cidadania e projetos de cidade alternativos.The article explores the relationship between waste and cities through the prism of urban infrastructures, and proposes the concept of “residual infrastructure” as a strategy to analyze the residual, not hegemonic, dimension of waste management systems, focusing on change processes that reconfigure the infrastructure excludes elements deemed marginal, despite their actual centrality. The ethnographic focuses the “closure” of the Jardim Gramacho landfill, in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan region, considered as an “infrastructural event” that mobilized a contentious arena between different actors and technological repertoires, configuring the waste policies. The notion of “people as embodied infrastructures” qualifies the waste pickers that collect recyclable material as socio-technical systems and reveals the persistence of colonialisms in modern waste management, which continue to shape urban geographies and (re)produce racialized structures of inequality. Waste-picking policies are thought of as a kind of popular socio-environmentalism capable of forging citizenship models and alternative projects for the city