Participatory Mapping, E-Participation, and E-Governance: Applications in Environmental Policy

This chapter focuses on participatory mapping as an e-governance tool to facilitate public participation. Public participation is a key component of democratic governance, and there is a growing reliance on digital government tools such as the internet and social networking sites and geographic information systems (GIS). This chapter focuses on public engagement using information and communication technology, namely participatory mapping, known by a variety of terms such as participatory GIS (PGIS), public participation GIS (PPGIS), and voluntary GIS. While the analysis involves use of participatory mapping related to environmental issues, the chapter brings together seminal work from various fields of citizen engagement and participatory mapping. The idea is to create one common narrative for scholars and practitioners, bringing together various terminologies, practices, and studies in participatory mapping in the environmental arena that offers a beginner\u27s frame of reference

Augmented reality over maps

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia InformáticaMaps and Geographic Information System (GIS) play a major role in modern society, particularly on tourism, navigation and personal guidance. However, providing geographical information of interest related to individual queries remains a strenuous task. The main constraints are (1) the several information scales available, (2) the large amount of information available on each scale, and (3) difficulty in directly infer a meaningful geographical context from text, pictures, or diagrams that are used by most user-aiding systems. To that extent, and to overcome the aforementioned difficulties, we develop a solution which allows the overlap of visual information over the maps being queried — a method commonly referred to as Augmented Reality (AR). With that in mind, the object of this dissertation is the research and implementation of a method for the delivery of visual cartographic information over physical (analogue) and digital two-dimensional (2D) maps utilizing AR. We review existing state-of-art solutions and outline their limitations across different use cases. Afterwards, we provide a generic modular solution for a multitude of real-life applications, to name a few: museums, fairs, expositions, and public street maps. During the development phase, we take into consideration the trade-off between speed and accuracy in order to develop an accurate and real-time solution. Finally, we demonstrate the feasibility of our methods with an application on a real use case based on a map of the city of Oporto, in Portugal.Mapas e Sistema de Informação Geográfica (GIS) desempenham um papel importante na sociedade, particularmente no turismo, navegação e orientação pessoal. No entanto, fornecer informações geográficas de interesse a consultas dos utilizadores é uma tarefa árdua. Os principais dificuldades são (1) as várias escalas de informações disponíveis, (2) a grande quantidade de informação disponível em cada escala e (3) dificuldade em inferir diretamente um contexto geográfico significativo a partir dos textos, figuras ou diagramas usados. Assim, e para superar as dificuldades mencionadas, desenvolvemos uma solução que permite a sobreposição de informações visuais sobre os mapas que estão a ser consultados - um método geralmente conhecido como Realidade Aumentada (AR). Neste sentido, o objetivo desta dissertação é a pesquisa e implementação de um método para a visualização de informações cartográficas sobre mapas 2D físicos (analógicos) e digitais utilizando AR. Em primeiro lugar, analisamos o estado da arte juntamente com as soluções existentes e também as suas limitações nas diversas utilizações possíveis. Posteriormente, fornecemos uma solução modular genérica para uma várias aplicações reais tais como: museus, feiras, exposições e mapas públicos de ruas. Durante a fase de desenvolvimento, tivemos em consideração o compromisso entre velocidade e precisão, a fim de desenvolver uma solução precisa que funciona em tempo real. Por fim, demonstramos a viabilidade de nossos métodos com uma aplicação num caso de uso real baseado num mapa da cidade do Porto (Portugal)

MusA: Using Indoor Positioning and Navigation to Enhance Cultural Experiences in a museum

In recent years there has been a growing interest into the use of multimedia mobile guides in museum environments. Mobile devices have the capabilities to detect the user context and to provide pieces of information suitable to help visitors discovering and following the logical and emotional connections that develop during the visit. In this scenario, location based services (LBS) currently represent an asset, and the choice of the technology to determine users' position, combined with the definition of methods that can effectively convey information, become key issues in the design process. In this work, we present MusA (Museum Assistant), a general framework for the development of multimedia interactive guides for mobile devices. Its main feature is a vision-based indoor positioning system that allows the provision of several LBS, from way-finding to the contextualized communication of cultural contents, aimed at providing a meaningful exploration of exhibits according to visitors' personal interest and curiosity. Starting from the thorough description of the system architecture, the article presents the implementation of two mobile guides, developed to respectively address adults and children, and discusses the evaluation of the user experience and the visitors' appreciation of these application

PLUTO in Hand: Design and Implementation of a Location-Based Mobile Augmented Reality Application for Viewing Open Data

Immersive mobile augmented reality (AR) technology has improved while geolocational data volume has grown. City governments can utilize this technology to share their geospatial data with the public, promoting smart city aims. This research describes the design and implementation of a novel open-source ARGIS application to view property tax lot information in New York City. This proof-of-technology demonstrates web-based AR can visualize location-based spatial data

A characterization of Volunteered Geographic Information

This paper characterizes the Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) phenomenon and explores comprehensively its relation with SDI. The SDI component view is used as common framework for describing the main characteristics of VGI and as framework for exploring VGI and SDI relation. Openstreetmap, Wikiloc, 360.org, Wikimapia and Eye on earth are evaluated to indentify general characteristics of VGI initiatives and discuss differences and similarities between VGI and SDI. Despite differences between VGI and SDI similarities can be identified. Characteristics of all SDI components have been identified in the VGI case studies. Despite differences between VGI and SDI similarities can be identified. Characteristics of all SDI components have been identified in the VGI case studies

Global environmental sustainability: the role of Geography and its recent hybridations

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The Exploitation of Data from Remote and Human Sensors for Environment Monitoring in the SMAT Project

In this paper, we outline the functionalities of a system that integrates and controls a fleet of Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAVs). UAVs have a set of payload sensors employed for territorial surveillance, whose outputs are stored in the system and analysed by the data exploitation functions at different levels. In particular, we detail the second level data exploitation function whose aim is to improve the sensors data interpretation in the post-mission activities. It is concerned with the mosaicking of the aerial images and the cartography enrichment by human sensors—the social media users. We also describe the software architecture for the development of a mash-up (the integration of information and functionalities coming from the Web) and the possibility of using human sensors in the monitoring of the territory, a field in which, traditionally, the involved sensors were only the hardware ones.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

Managing Electric Utility Assets for the City of Aspen, Colorado

This project describes how an electric network can be modeled in GIS. In particular it will look at the City of Aspen’s electric distribution network. The City of Aspen, Colorado has a small underground electric network that has historically only been understood by a few individuals. These individuals are nearing retirement which has sparked a need for a transfer of knowledge. Over the last few years, the electric network has been slowly moved into a GIS database with a built in Geometric Network. The City of Aspen wants to move all of its utility assets, water, storm water and electric, into Esri’s Utility Network. Prior to this happening, the electric network needed additional work. This project looked at how to collect accurate electric data in the field, using Esri’s Survey123 mobile application. It also describes the cleanup process for the existing data, so that it would work correctly in a Geometric Network. Finally, it explored a unique way of viewing utility assets, through an augmented reality application called AuGEO. Limitations of this augmented reality application were discovered and discussed

Rural town geographical information systems : issues in integration

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1991.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-83).by Thomas Sly Van Buren.M.C.P