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

End-User Visual Design of Web-Based Interactive Applications Making Use of Geographical Information: the WINDMash Approach

International audienceVisual instructional design languages currently provide notations for representing the intermediate and final results of a knowledge engineering process. This paper reports on a visual framework (called WIND - Web INteraction Design) that focuses on both designers' creativity and model executability. It only addresses Active Reading Learning Scenarios making use of localized documents (travel stories, travel guides). Our research challenge is to enable the teachers to design by themselves interaction scenarios for such a domain, avoiding any programmer intervention. The WIND framework provides a conceptual model and its associated Application Programming Interface (API). The WIND interaction scenarios are encoded as XML documents which are automatically transformed into code thanks to the provided API, thus providing designers with a real application that they can immediately assess and modify (prototyping techniques). The WIND conceptual model only provides designers with an abstract syntax and a semantics. Users of such a Domain Specific Language (DSL) need a concrete syntax. Our choice is to produce a Web-Based Mashup Environment providing designers with visual functionality

The open source dynamics in geospatial research and education

Peer reviewing is one of the core processes of science. While the typical blind system helps to improve original submissions, there are opportunities for academic publishing to learn from open source practices (commits, bug reports, feature requests, documentation, etc.), which are entirely open and done in public view. But beyond, with greater significance, peer reviewing offers a good opportunity to illustrate how the characteristics of the open source model can favor simultaneously the acknowledgment of programming efforts, a high quality evaluation standard, but also reproducibility and transparency. Code has to be considered as a full research object in geospatial development. It should be made available in full and examined as part of any contribution, like the article going with it. A good example is the Journal of Statistical Software. Created in 1996, it publishes articles and code on statistics and algorithms. The contents are freely available on-line, code snippets and source code being published along with the paper. An advantage of this approach is to prevent the propagation of “black boxes”. The approach clearly also adds value to code by acknowledging programming efforts as scientific contributions. But publishing code along with a paper also results in the ability of subsequent research projects to build on this basis. This ability is even becoming a requirement for publicly funded research projects. In addition, we may notice that code malleability provides the researcher with the opportunity to adapt the software to the scientific questions, instead of being constrained by the limiting functionalities of the software. As regards education, there are two key freedoms inherent to open source software and practices that offer potential pedagogical wins for geospatial education. First, “free as in beer” allows students to indefinitely install software on computers without license limitations. A consequence of this unconstrained context is a greater degree of exploration and discovery by the students working by themselves and at their own pace. But there is still a long way to go before all the benefits are fully realized. Indeed, current demands and offerings are focusing on “buttonology”, which consists of learning how to use tools constrained by software licenses carefully negotiated over the years by universities. It raises then some important questions regarding the role of geospatial education. Is it not to train students to equip them with the skill sets and knowledge so that they are ready for, and can create, the future geospatial labor market? Therein, we can consider the second freedom, “free as in speech,” as able to empower the students by revealing the logic of particular algorithms and computational concepts. Open source code—as text—is available for reading, manipulating, and understanding. The expected advantage is that students’ engagement with fundamental concepts is deepened in a way that is per se not possible with closed source software. In other words, students come to see geospatial methods not only as tools they can use in their own research, but as possible subjects for research

The AVuPUR project (Assessing the Vulnerabiliy of Peri-Urbans Rivers): experimental set up, modelling strategy and first results

International audienceLe projet AVuPUR a pour objectif de progresser sur la compréhension et la modélisation des flux d'eau dans les bassins versants péri-urbains. Il s'agit plus particulièrement de fournir des outils permettant de quantifier l'impact d'objets anthropiques tels que zones urbaines, routes, fossés sur les régimes hydrologiques des cours d'eau dans ces bassins. Cet article présente la stratégie expérimentale et de collecte de données mise en ½uvre dans le projet et les pistes proposées pour l'amélioration des outils de modélisation existants et le développement d'outils novateurs. Enfin, nous présentons comment ces outils seront utilisés pour simuler et quantifier l'impact des modifications d'occupation des sols et/ou du climat sur les régimes hydrologiques des bassins étudiés. / The aim of the AVuPUR project is to enhance our understanding and modelling capacity of water fluxes within suburban watersheds. In particular, the objective is to deliver tools allowing to quantify the impact of anthropogenic elements such as urban areas, roads, ditches on the hydrological regime of suburban rivers. This paper presents the observation and data collection strategy set up by the project, and the directions for improving existing modelling tools or proposing innovative ones. Finally, we present how these tools will be used to simulate and quantify the impact of land use and climate changes on the hydrological regimes of the studied catchments

OGRS2012 Symposium Proceedings

Do you remember the Open Source Geospatial Research and Education Symposium (OGRS) in Nantes? "Les Machines de l’Île", the Big Elephant, the "Storm Boat" with Claramunt, Petit et al. (2009), and "le Biniou et la Bombarde"? A second edition of OGRS was promised, and that promise is now fulfilled in OGRS 2012, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, October 24-26, 2012. OGRS is a meeting dedicated to sharing knowledge, new solutions, methods, practices, ideas and trends in the field of geospatial information through the development and the use of free and open source software in both research and education. In recent years, the development of geospatial free and open source software (GFOSS) has breathed new life into the geospatial domain. GFOSS has been extensively promoted by FOSS4G events, which evolved from meetings which gathered together interested GFOSS development communities to a standard business conference. More in line with the academic side of the FOSS4G conferences, OGRS is a rather neutral forum whose goal is to assemble a community whose main concern is to find new solutions by sharing knowledge and methods free of software license limits. This is why OGRS is primarily concerned with the academic world, though it also involves public institutions, organizations and companies interested in geospatial innovation. This symposium is therefore not an exhibition for presenting existing industrial software solutions, but an event we hope will act as a catalyst for research and innovation and new collaborations between research teams, public agencies and industries. An educational aspect has recently been added to the content of the symposium. This important addition examines the knowledge triangle - research, education, and innovation - through the lens of how open source methods can improve education efficiency. Based on their experience, OGRS contributors bring to the table ideas on how open source training is likely to offer pedagogical advantages to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in tomorrow’s geospatial labor market. OGRS brings together a large collection of current innovative research projects from around the world, with the goal of examining how research uses and contributes to open source initiatives. By presenting their research, OGRS contributors shed light on how the open-source approach impacts research, and vice-versa. The organizers of the symposium wish to demonstrate how the use and development of open source software strengthen education, research and innovation in geospatial fields. To support this approach, the present proceedings propose thirty short papers grouped under the following thematic headings: Education, Earth Science & Landscape, Data, Remote Sensing, Spatial Analysis, Urban Simulation and Tools. These papers are preceded by the contributions of the four keynote speakers: Prof Helena Mitasova, Dr Gérard Hégron, Prof Sergio Rey and Prof Robert Weibel, who share their expertise in research and education in order to highlight the decisive advantages of openness over the limits imposed by the closed-source license system

GeoStream: Spatial Information Indexing Within Textual Documents Supported by a Dynamically Parameterized Web Service

International audienceCultural heritage content is everywhere on the web: digital libraries, archives, and portals of museums or galleries. Cultural heritage document collections are characterized by contents related to a territory and its land's history. In this context, the GeoTopia project is supported by the CNRS-TGE-Adonis and focuses on archive data sharing and interpretation. It consists in a Content Management System (CMS) that aims to manage a repository of multimedia digital documents: it exploits information like origin, theme, period, area, etc. to index and/or query documents. Our contribution is dedicated to spatial information contained in non structured textual documents. More specifically, we have developed a process flow that can extract the spatial information contained in textual documents. This process flow indexes spatial information and computes precise geolocalized representations. We propose to encapsulate it into the GeoStream specific web service and to make its behavior dynamically customizable for easier integration into such platforms used for the management of cultural heritage electronic document

Modèle pour l’évaluation et l’amélioration de la lisibilité d’une carte géographique

We focus on the design and the visualization of custom geographical maps by executing different steps of automatic evaluation and improvement of these maps. In the most recent mapping tools (such as Google Maps or GeoPortail) it is possible for the user to build himself a map that suits his needs using different layers of data which can come from several sources. However, the manipulation and the edition of these kinds of maps by non-experts can cause errors in the representation that affects the understanding of the maps by their readers.That’s why our research focus on improving the representation of maps created by non-expert users. We propose a model that assesses the visibility of a map using a system of five “visibility indices”. This model then provides four methods for modifying the objects symbolization. Between the evaluation and the improvement of the visibility of these objects, an analysis step is performed in order to determine whether an improvement of symbolization is necessary, and if so, which of these four methods should be executed.This model takes as input a map in the form of (1) a set of layers each one of them consisting of cartographic objects, (2) and the legend used to represent these cartographic objects. It will generate as an output (1) a set of XML files that contain the values calculated by the indicators of visibility, (2) one or more final maps with a new representation that improves the value of these indicators of visibility. This process then provides readers with a more readable map.This work, implemented as a prototype based on the open-source library Geoxygene, is then concluded by two tests that validate our assumptions as well as the propositions made to evaluate and improve the maps.Nous nous intéressons à la conception et à la visualisation de cartes personnalisées en passant par des étapes d’évaluation et d’amélioration automatiques de cette carte. Dans la plupart des outils cartographiques récents (comme le GeoPortail ou Google Maps) il est possible pour l’utilisateur de construire lui-même une carte adaptée à ses besoins à partir couches de données pouvant provenir de plusieurs sources. Cependant, la manipulation et l’édition de cartes par des non-experts peuvent engendrer des erreurs de représentation qui entravent la compréhension de cette carte par ses lecteurs.Notre recherche concerne donc l’amélioration de la représentation de cartes créées par des utilisateurs non-experts. Nous proposons un modèle qui évalue la visibilité des objets cartographiques en utilisant un système de cinq indices de visibilité. Ce modèle prévoit ensuite quatre méthodes de modification de la symbolisation des objets cartographiques. Entre l’étape d’évaluation et celle de l’amélioration de la visibilité de ces objets, une phase d’analyse est effectuées dans le but de décider si une amélioration de la symbolisation est nécessaire, et si oui, lesquelles parmi ces modifications pourront être réalisées.Ce modèle prendra comme entrée une carte géographique sous la forme (1) d’un ensemble de couches composées chacune d’objets cartographiques, (2) et de la légende utilisée pour la symbolisation de ces objets cartographiques. Il donnera en sortie (1) un ensemble de fichiers xml qui contiennent les valeurs calculés des indicateurs de visibilité, (2) une (ou des) carte(s) finale(s) avec de nouvelles symbolisations qui améliorent la valeur des indicateurs de visibilité. Ce processus offre alors aux lecteurs le choix de cartes plus lisibles.Ce travail, implémenté en prototype basé sur la librairie open-source Geoxygene, est ensuite conclu par deux tests qui valident les hypothèses de base et les propositions avancées pour évaluer et améliorer les cartes géographiques