Open source environment to define constraints in route planning for GIS-T

Route planning for transportation systems is strongly related to shortest path algorithms, an optimization problem extensively studied in the literature. To find the shortest path in a network one usually assigns weights to each branch to represent the difficulty of taking such branch. The weights construct a linear preference function ordering the variety of alternatives from the most to the least attractive.Postprint (published version

The Early California Cultural Atlas

The Early California Cultural Atlas (ECCA) is envisioned as an interactive website that will integrate and manage historical resources, enable analysis of historical data related to the colonization and settlement of California, display research results in the form of maps and other visualizations, and educate students from elementary school to the university. This project is interdisciplinary and collaborative; it will draw upon the expertise of librarians, archivists, research scholars, software engineers, technical experts, California Indians, and primary school teachers. The ECCA represents a new partnership between existing programs, innovative scholars, and accomplished educators

Invisible geography on the internet

You do not need to have time to go surfing to use the Internet. With the right tools for the job and some useful addresses, even the busiest geographer can explore

Anchoring digital maps as rough guides : a practice-orientated digital sociology of map use

This thesis provides a theoretical contribution towards understanding how, and to what extent, people’s engagements with digital maps feature in the constitution of their social practices. Existing theory tends not to focus on people as active interpreters that engage with digital maps across a variety of contexts, or on the influence of their map use on wider sets of social practices. Addressing this, the thesis draws on practice theory, media studies, and internet studies to develop a conceptual framework, applying it to empirical findings to address three research questions: (1) How do people engage with digital maps; (2) How do people engage with the web-based affordances of digital maps, such as those for collaboration, sharing, and end-user amendment/generation of content; and (3) What influence does people’s engagement with digital maps have on the way they perform wider sets of social practices? The research provides insights from three contexts, each operating at a different temporal scale: home choice covers longer-term processes of selecting and viewing properties before buying or renting; countryside leisure-walking covers mid-term processes of route-planning and assessment; University orientation covers shorter-term processes of navigation and gaining orientation around campus. Those insights are gathered through: a scoping survey (N=260) to identify relevant contexts; 32 semi-structured interviews to initiate data analysis; and 3 focus groups to gather participant feedback (member validation) on the emerging analysis. The approach to data analysis borrows heavily from constructivist grounded theory (albeit sensitised by practice theory ontology) to generate seven concepts. Together, the concepts constitute a practicetheory oriented digital sociology of map use. Overall, this thesis argues that digital maps are engaged with as mundane technologies that partially anchor people’s senses of place and security (physical and ontological), their performance of practices and social positions, and more broadly, the movement and distribution of bodies in space

Visualizing the Historic Landscape of Montserrat: Social Justice Through Community Mapping in a Post-Colonial Environment

Scholars across the disciplines of geography, archaeology, and history argue for need to reconceptualize representations of history in post-colonial environments and to actively orientate scholarly research towards increasing the inclusion of local knowledge with \u27expert\u27 academic knowledge through participative methods. This thesis will show that the landscape surrounding the Little Bay Plantation contains cultural associations vital to a socially just interpretation of Montserrat culture that is not captured by existing archaeological research centered on ruins of the plantation infrastructure and European historical discourse. Through a participatory research methodology this thesis shows that there are many memories inscribed within and upon the landscape of Little Bay; the Cpt. Wm. Carr story is but one of them. To provide an alternative narrative this study incorporates qualitative and participatory methods to focus on geographic issues related to the non-elite community, their associative landscapes, and how the drama of human activity has been recorded in the landscape. The results of the study provide an example of how GIScience and geographic theory can be employed to include the knowledge and associations of local people intimately familiar with the landscape, thereby creating a richer, more nuanced representation of Montserrat cultural heritage at the Little Bay Plantation

Cartographic Efficacy: Histories of the Present, Participatory Futures

Throughout history, maps have held a particularly potent ability to inform and persuade their users. Recognizing the power maps and their modes of productions possess, participatory mapping has been celebrated for its capacity to empower systemically disenfranchised communities by way of establishing inclusive pathways for influencing collection and representation of spatial information. What has remained largely periphery to considerations of participatory mapping, however, has been discussions of map design. Decades of scholarship in both traditional and critical veins of cartography, however, argue that it’s the careful execution of design choices that grant the map its power. Without attention to design, cartographers warn, the map will not be able to successfully communicate its intended message. However, even with little direct discussion of map design being reported, participatory mapping has a proven track record in an expansive range of locations and contexts of successfully supporting communities in advocating for their rights. As such, this dissertation takes up this disciplinary dissonance to explore what, ultimately, makes a map effective. Through content analysis of cartographic education materials, interviews with leaders of participatory mapping projects, and participant observation at national and international professional gatherings for cartographers, this research reveals an underlying tension between what informs the established understandings of effectiveness and how that effectiveness is achieved. Such tension can result in instances of disciplinary shaming and gatekeeping which, in turn, limit exchange of information and consequently prevented an evolution of the understandings of effectiveness. This dissertation calls for an expansion of the discipline’s framework of cartographic efficacy. I ultimately invite cartographers to allocate resources for understanding forms of efficacy that expand beyond traditional modalities in addition to making space for those who are not professionally trained cartographers to assert their ability to make effective maps and explore design principles with aplomb

The socio-technical production of GIS knowledges: the discursive construction of bodies and machines at Scottish Natural Heritage

This thesis focuses on the situated use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in one government organisation - Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) - in order to explore the mutually productive and complex relationships between the social and the technical. The account is located within science and technology studies (STS) and feminist theories, both of which challenge notions of technical determinism and the neutrality of science and technology, suggesting instead that technological artefacts are products of complementary and competing discourses, and their limits. These theories, which are reviewed in Chapter One, are utilised to illustrate that GIS is a boundary object that is co- constructed as an object of knowledge and as a technological artefact through the messy nexus of social relations in which it is practised, whilst it concurrently actively contributes to the production of the social. In -depth interviews were conducted with staff who had recently been trained to use GIS as part of a major GIS implementation strategy in SNH. The methodology is described in Chapter Two. The interview transcripts were subjected to discourse analysis, in order to explore how the practice of GIS co- constructs fluid technologies, bodies and subject positions, which gain only the appearance of stability through their iterative citation in discursive practice. The empirical data are explored in three substantive chapters. Chapter Three examines the discourses which enable GIS, through the operation of power, to (re)produce particular geographies. Drawing on theories of the visual, it is argued that GIS, as a technology of realist representation, relies not merely on discourses of rationality, but also on its own inexplicability, which enables it to function as a site of spectacle and magic. Chapter Four focuses on the GIS user, exploring the practice of GIS as a site for the multiple production of bodies and subject positions. Haraway's figure of the cyborg is utilised to explore how users relate their bodies to the machine, and three possible subjectivities are proposed: the magician, the apprentice and the inept. The final substantive chapter explores how GIS emerges through the agency of both users and the machine itself as they negotiate each other. It is argued that through these complex situated negotiations GIS is multiply embodied and constructed as a sentient other. The thesis concludes by examining the relevance of feminist geography to an understanding of these processes

Counter-mapping the material world of the bone clocks: A critical analysis through digital cartography

This project develops a reading strategy through mapping, using David Mitchell\u27s 2014 novel The Bone Clocks as a primary text. Through the methods of critical cartography and counter-mapping, this research insists that by making maps that counter the dominant narrative, readers can disrupt the author’s perspective and craft new interpretations that highlight their own experiences. Critical cartography, the reflexive how and why maps are made and used, is all about the awareness of the power dynamics and colonial influences involved in traditional map-making. Choosing to map against dominant power structures is called counter-mapping. To apply these theories to literature, then, is to interrogate existing worldviews provided by the author. Counter-mapping empowers readers to create new meanings within a text and to work with other readers to share ideas and experiences that de-center the author’s single perspective. The activity of mapping events, characters, locations and material conditions found in novels encourages self-reflection, challenges perspectives of power, and develops new ways of using existing digital platforms. This research offers a new approach to navigate literary criticism in a changing world and offers a way for readers to locate themselves on the map, better understand their own personal narrative, and practice critical cartography

Integration the Low Cost Camera Images with the Google Earth Dataset to Create a 3D Model

As known Close range photogrammetry represents one of the most techniques to create precise 3D model. Metric camera, digital camera, and Laser scanning can be exploited for the photogrammetry with variety level of cost that may be high. In this study, the cost level is taken in to consideration to achieve balance between the cost and the obtained accuracy. This study aims to detect potential of low cost tools for creating 3D model in terms of obtained accuracy and details and comparing it with corresponding studies. Smart phone camera is the most available for everyone; this gave the motivation for use in this study. In addition, Google Earth was used to integrate the 3D model produced from all sides including the roof.  Then, two different types of the mobile camera were used in addition to the DSLR camera (Digital Single Lens Reflex) for comparison and analysis purposes. Thus, this research gave flexibility in work and low cost resulting from replacement the metric camera with the smart camera and the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with Google Earth data. Mechanism of the work can be summarized in four steps. Firstly, photogrammetry planning to determine suitable baselines from object and location of targets that measured using GPS and Total station devices. Secondly, collect images using close range photogrammetry technique. Thirdly, processing step to create the 3D model and integrated with Google Earth images using the Agi Photoscan software. Finally, Comparative and evaluation stage to derive the accuracy and quality of the model obtained from this study using statistical analysis method. Regarding this Study, University of Baghdad, central library was selected as the case study. The results of this paper show that the low cost 3D model resulted from integrating  phone and Google Earth images gave suitable result with mean accuracy level reached to about less than 5 meters compared with DSLR camera result, this may be used for several applications such as  culture heritage and architecture documentation