On organizing and accessing geospatial and georeferenced web resources using the g-portal system

In order to organise and manage geospatial and georeferenced information on the web making them convenient for searching and browsing, a digital portal known as G-Portal has been designed and implemented. Compared to other digital libraries, G-Portal is unique for several of its features. It maintains metadata resources in XML with flexible resource schemas. Logical groupings of metadata resources as projects and layers are possible to allow the entire metadata collection to be partitioned differently for users with different information needs. These metadata resources can be displayed in both the classification-based and map-based interfaces provided by G-Portal. G-Portal further incorporates both a query module and an annotation module for users to search metadata and to create additional knowledge for sharing respectively. G-Portal also includes a resource classification module that categorizes resources into one or more hierarchical category trees based on user-defined classification schemas. This paper gives an overview of the G-Portal design and implementation. The portal features will be illustrated using a collection of high school geography examination-related resources.Published versio

Geoportals: an internet marketing perspective

A geoportal is a web site that presents an entry point to geo-products (including geo-data) on the web. Despite their importance in (spatial) data infrastructures, literature suggest stagnating or even declining trends in visitor numbers. In this paper relevant ideas and techniques for improving performance are derived from internet marketing literature. We tested the extent to which these ideas are already applied in practice through a survey among 48 geoportals worldwide. Results show in many cases positive correlation with trends in visitor numbers. The ideas can be useful for geoportal managers developing their marketing strateg

Investigating perceptions of a location-based annotation system

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A World Wide Web-Based Practice That Disseminates Photogrammetry. Inspiring secondary students to pursue geomatics careers

This is the accepted version of a manuscript published in IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine. ISSN: 2168-6831. https://doi.org/10.1109/MGRS.2018.2876565The D3MOBILE Metrology World League was established in 2013 with the aim of encouraging curiosity and interest in science, and particularly geoscience, in the secondary students of grades ISCED 1 and 2. Presented as an international championship, D3MOBILE introduces students to the discipline of photogrammetry through the e-learning methodology concept. The use of well-known technologies by the pupils, such as their own mobile devices (smartphones or tablets), allows us to develop educational procedures that are attractive and challenging for them. All the work that we propose for the participants is presented in a scientific, technical, and professional language but in a more interactive format than traditional textbooks or theoretical classes. The proposed challenges provide students with the opportunity to establish their own learning objectives, work as a team and take responsibility for their work. This paper addresses the experience, from an educational perspective, carried out by our research group CIGEO (Civil Engineering and Geomatics) during the organization of the first five editions of this international “concept submission competition”. During this period, we tried to create and improve a project-based learning (PBL) methodology that can be adapted to e-learning and daily classwork at the high school level, which can be easily implemented regardless of the number of participants and can be implemented anywhere in the world. The obtained results demonstrate the potential of alternative teaching methods combined with new technologies to engage students in science learning and improve the perception of the geosciences as a job opportunityWe thankfully acknowledge the financial support from FECYT—Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (FCT 12-3495; FCT 13-5961; FCT 14-8038; FCT 15-9481); and Xunta de Galicia (ED431B22016/030; ED341DR2016/023). We would also like to thank our large number of sponsors and collaborators: Universia, BQ, Autodesk, National Geographic Institute (IGN), City Council of Lugo, Provincial Council of Lugo, Spanish Center of Metrology (CEM), Fundación Vodafone, CEAPA, City Council of La Coruña, Fundación Barrié, ANPE, CSI-F, Fundación Comforp, PCE, Univ. Tecnológica Nacional (Argentina), Fundacion Mujeres, EDUCACION 3.0. and likely even more entities. Finally, we would like to thank the schoolteachers and students whose work and dedication allowed this project to achieve its objectivesS

Efficient Processing of Geospatial mHealth Data Using a Scalable Crowdsensing Platform

Smart sensors and smartphones are becoming increasingly prevalent. Both can be used to gather environmental data (e.g., noise). Importantly, these devices can be connected to each other as well as to the Internet to collect large amounts of sensor data, which leads to many new opportunities. In particular, mobile crowdsensing techniques can be used to capture phenomena of common interest. Especially valuable insights can be gained if the collected data are additionally related to the time and place of the measurements. However, many technical solutions still use monolithic backends that are not capable of processing crowdsensing data in a flexible, efficient, and scalable manner. In this work, an architectural design was conceived with the goal to manage geospatial data in challenging crowdsensing healthcare scenarios. It will be shown how the proposed approach can be used to provide users with an interactive map of environmental noise, allowing tinnitus patients and other health-conscious people to avoid locations with harmful sound levels. Technically, the shown approach combines cloud-native applications with Big Data and stream processing concepts. In general, the presented architectural design shall serve as a foundation to implement practical and scalable crowdsensing platforms for various healthcare scenarios beyond the addressed use case

Public health GIS news and information

I. Public health GIS (and related) events: special NCHS/CDC GIS lectures -- II. GIS news. A. General news and training opportunities -- GIS news. B. Department of Health and Human Services -- GIS news. C. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACUs), and other minority health news -- GIS news. D. Other related agency or GIS news -- III. GIS outreach -- IV. Public health GIS presentations and literature [NCHS/CDC Cartography and GIS Guest Lecture: \ue2\u20ac\u153Housing and urban development activities: a public health perspective,\ue2\u20ac? by Jonathan Sperling, Ph.D., Manager, Geographic Information Analysis, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.] -- V. Related Census, HHS, FGDC and other federal/state developments -- Final thoughts [The Growing importance of GIS and community health indicator data] -- Appendix: Mapping health inequalities: Youths five to 15 with disabilities , Cuyahoga County, Ohio, 2002 (by Joseph Ahern and Terry Lenahan) [Seventh in Series: See also May, July, September, November 2004, January and March 2005 editions].OtherOthe