The role of volunteered geographic information in land administration systems in developing countries

PhD ThesisDeveloping countries, especially in Africa are faced with a lack of formally registered land. Available limited records are outdated, inaccurate and unreliable, which makes it a challenge to properly administer and manage land and its resources. Moreover, limited maintenance budgets prevalent in these countries make it difficult for organizations to conduct regular systematic updates of geographic information. Despite these challenges, geographic information still forms a major component for effective land administration. For a land administration system (LAS) to remain useful, it must reflect realities on the ground, and this can only be achieved if land information is reported regularly. However, if changes in land are not captured in properly administered land registers, LAS lose societal relevance and are eventually replaced by informal systems. Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) can address these LAS challenges by providing timely, affordable, up-to-date, flexible, and fit for purpose (FFP) land information to support the limited current systems. Nonetheless, the involvement of volunteers, who in most cases are untrained or non-experts in handling geographic information, implies that VGI can be of varying quality. Thus, VGI is characterised by unstructured, heterogeneous, unreliable data which makes data integration for value-added purposes difficult to effect. These quality challenges can make land authorities reluctant to incorporate the contributed datasets into their official databases. This research has developed an innovative approach for establishing the quality and credibility of VGI such that it can be considered in LAS on an FFP basis. However, verifying volunteer efforts can be difficult without reference to ground truth, which is prevalent in many developing countries. Therefore, a novel Trust and Reputation Modelling (TRM) methodology is proposed as a suitable technique to effect such VGI validation. TRM relies on a view that the public can police themselves in establishing ‘proxy’ measures of VGI quality and credibility of volunteers, thus facilitating VGI to be used on an FFP basis in LAS. The output of this research is a conceptual participatory framework for an FFP land administration based on VGI. The framework outlines major aspects (social, legal, technical, and institutional) necessary for establishing a participatory FFP LAS in developing countries.University of Botswan

Visualisation of trust and quality information for geospatial dataset selection and use:Drawing trust presentation comparisons with B2C e-Commerce

The evaluation of geospatial data quality and trustworthiness presents a major challenge to geospatial data users when making a dataset selection decision. Part of the problem arises from the inconsistent and patchy nature of data quality information, which makes intercomparison very difficult. Over recent years, the production and availability of geospatial data has significantly increased, facilitated by the recent explosion of Web-based catalogues, portals, standards and services, and by initiatives such as INSPIRE and GEOSS. Despite this significant growth in availability of geospatial data and the fact that geospatial datasets can, in many respects, be considered commercial products that are available for purchase online, consumer trust has to date received relatively little attention in the GIS domain. In this paper, we discuss how concepts of trust, trust models, and trust indicators (largely derived from B2C e-Commerce) apply to the GIS domain and to geospatial data selection and use. Our research aim is to support data users in more efficient and effective geospatial dataset selection on the basis of quality, trustworthiness and fitness for purpose. To achieve this, we propose a GEO label – a decision support mechanism that visually summarises availability of key geospatial data informational aspects. We also present a Web service that was developed to support generation of dynamic GEO label representations for datasets by combining producer metadata (from standard catalogues or other published locations) with structured user feedback

Usability of VGI for validation of land cover maps

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) represents a growing source of potentially valuable data for many applications, including land cover map validation. It is still an emerging field and many different approaches can be used to take value from VGI, but also many pros and cons are related to its use. Therefore, since it is timely to get an overview of the subject, the aim of this article is to review the use of VGI as reference data for land cover map validation. The main platforms and types of VGI that are used and that are potentially useful are analysed. Since quality is a fundamental issue in map validation, the quality procedures used by the platforms that collect VGI to increase and control data quality are reviewed and a framework for addressing VGI quality assessment is proposed. A review of cases where VGI was used as an additional data source to assist in map validation is made, as well as cases where only VGI was used, indicating the procedures used to assess VGI quality and fitness for use. A discussion and some conclusions are drawn on best practices, future potential and the challenges of the use of VGI for land cover map validation

Citizen Science and Geospatial Capacity Building

This book is a collection of the articles published the Special Issue of ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information on “Citizen Science and Geospatial Capacity Building”. The articles cover a wide range of topics regarding the applications of citizen science from a geospatial technology perspective. Several applications show the importance of Citizen Science (CitSci) and volunteered geographic information (VGI) in various stages of geodata collection, processing, analysis and visualization; and for demonstrating the capabilities, which are covered in the book. Particular emphasis is given to various problems encountered in the CitSci and VGI projects with a geospatial aspect, such as platform, tool and interface design, ontology development, spatial analysis and data quality assessment. The book also points out the needs and future research directions in these subjects, such as; (a) data quality issues especially in the light of big data; (b) ontology studies for geospatial data suited for diverse user backgrounds, data integration, and sharing; (c) development of machine learning and artificial intelligence based online tools for pattern recognition and object identification using existing repositories of CitSci and VGI projects; and (d) open science and open data practices for increasing the efficiency, decreasing the redundancy, and acknowledgement of all stakeholders

Mapping and the Citizen Sensor

Maps are a fundamental resource in a diverse array of applications ranging from everyday activities, such as route planning through the legal demarcation of space to scientific studies, such as those seeking to understand biodiversity and inform the design of nature reserves for species conservation. For a map to have value, it should provide an accurate and timely representation of the phenomenon depicted and this can be a challenge in a dynamic world. Fortunately, mapping activities have benefitted greatly from recent advances in geoinformation technologies. Satellite remote sensing, for example, now offers unparalleled data acquisition and authoritative mapping agencies have developed systems for the routine production of maps in accordance with strict standards. Until recently, much mapping activity was in the exclusive realm of authoritative agencies but technological development has also allowed the rise of the amateur mapping community. The proliferation of inexpensive and highly mobile and location aware devices together with Web 2.0 technology have fostered the emergence of the citizen as a source of data. Mapping presently benefits from vast amounts of spatial data as well as people able to provide observations of geographic phenomena, which can inform map production, revision and evaluation. The great potential of these developments is, however, often limited by concerns. The latter span issues from the nature of the citizens through the way data are collected and shared to the quality and trustworthiness of the data. This book reports on some of the key issues connected with the use of citizen sensors in mapping. It arises from a European Co-operation in Science and Technology (COST) Action, which explored issues linked to topics ranging from citizen motivation, data acquisition, data quality and the use of citizen derived data in the production of maps that rival, and sometimes surpass, maps arising from authoritative agencies

Motivating and Sustaining Participation in VGI

Volunteers are the key component in the collection of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), so what motivates their participation, what strategies work in recruitment and how sustainability of participation can be achieved are key questions that need to be answered to inform VGI system design and implementation. This chapter reviews studies that have examined these questions and presents the main motivational factors that drive volunteer participation, as determined from empirical research. Some best practices from broader citizen science applications are also presented that may have relevance for VGI initiatives. Finally, a set of case studies from our experiences are used to illustrate how volunteers have been motivated to collect VGI through mapping parties, gamification and working with schools

Spatial and Temporal Sentiment Analysis of Twitter data

The public have used Twitter world wide for expressing opinions. This study focuses on spatio-temporal variation of georeferenced Tweets’ sentiment polarity, with a view to understanding how opinions evolve on Twitter over space and time and across communities of users. More specifically, the question this study tested is whether sentiment polarity on Twitter exhibits specific time-location patterns. The aim of the study is to investigate the spatial and temporal distribution of georeferenced Twitter sentiment polarity within the area of 1 km buffer around the Curtin Bentley campus boundary in Perth, Western Australia. Tweets posted in campus were assigned into six spatial zones and four time zones. A sentiment analysis was then conducted for each zone using the sentiment analyser tool in the Starlight Visual Information System software. The Feature Manipulation Engine was employed to convert non-spatial files into spatial and temporal feature class. The spatial and temporal distribution of Twitter sentiment polarity patterns over space and time was mapped using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Some interesting results were identified. For example, the highest percentage of positive Tweets occurred in the social science area, while science and engineering and dormitory areas had the highest percentage of negative postings. The number of negative Tweets increases in the library and science and engineering areas as the end of the semester approaches, reaching a peak around an exam period, while the percentage of negative Tweets drops at the end of the semester in the entertainment and sport and dormitory area. This study will provide some insights into understanding students and staff ’s sentiment variation on Twitter, which could be useful for university teaching and learning management