A platform to integrate crowdsourced, physical sensor and official geographic information to assist authorities in emergency response

In this work, a prototype GIS-based platform to integrate Volunteered Geographic Information from various sources with other spatial data is presented, aiming at assisting civil protection authorities in emergency response situations. The platform is now in the implementation phase, and this paper covers some aspects about its development and preliminary results to demonstrate the potentialities of the approach proposed

CONSISTENCY AND RELEVANCE OF VGI AVAILABLE FROM SOCIAL NETWORKS FOR EMERGENCY MITIGATION AND MUNICIPAL MANAGEMENT

Volunteered geographical information (VGI) is an increasing source of data for many applications. In order to explore some of these sources of data, an algorithm was conceived and implemented in the ExploringVGI platform enabling the collection of georeferenced data from collaborative projects that provide an Application Programming Interface (API). This paper presents a preliminary study to evaluate the consistency and relevance of VGI extracted from Flickr platform for emergency mitigation and municipal management. The study carried out was based on data extraction and analysis with keywords related to emergency events (“Accident”, “Flood” and “Fire apartment”), and municipal management (“Graffiti” and “Homeless”) in four European cities (Frankfurt, Lisbon, London, and Rome). The proposed approach sets up a region of interest on a map, selects one or more keywords for the search, and carries out a search using the Flickr API. Data detected and extracted were then loaded into a database and further analysed to verify whether they were consistently obtained through consecutive searches at different locations. A statistical analysis performed on data collected for each case provided us with: the total number of data collected for each keyword and location; their relevance in terms of search goal; and the quality of the associate geolocation of the post. Results obtained illustrate the effectiveness of the approach when applied to different scenarios, which contributes to assess the role that VGI available on the Web may have in different events depending on the specific context of a geolocation/keyword(s) combination

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

SIGLuz-EE: aplicação WebSIG para gestão de uma rede de iluminação pública camarária, desenvolvida num contexto de aprendizagem baseada em projectos

As redes de iluminação pública camarárias encontram-se mal cadastradas, com duplicação de informação pelos vários actores da sua gestão. Neste artigo descreve-se o desenvolvimento de uma aplicação SIG para gestão deste tipo de infraestruturas para um dos concelhos líderes no sector da iluminação (Águeda), que permite a caracterização e localização dos seus elementos de cadastro. A aplicação é baseada no paradigma de software aberto, em ambiente Web, desenvolvida num contexto de aprendizagem baseada em projectos.The city council public lighting networks are barely registered, with duplication of information by various actors in their management. This paper describes the development of a GIS application for managing such an infrastructure for the county leaders in the lighting sector (Aveiro), which allows the characterization and localization of its elements of registration. The application is based on the paradigm of open source software in the Web environment, developed in the context of projectbased learning

Crowdsourcing, Citizen Science or Volunteered Geographic Information? The Current State of Crowdsourced Geographic Information

Citizens are increasingly becoming an important source of geographic information, sometimes entering domains that had until recently been the exclusive realm of authoritative agencies. This activity has a very diverse character as it can, amongst other things, be active or passive, involve spatial or aspatial data and the data provided can be variable in terms of key attributes such as format, description and quality. Unsurprisingly, therefore, there are a variety of terms used to describe data arising from citizens. In this article, the expressions used to describe citizen sensing of geographic information are reviewed and their use over time explored, prior to categorizing them and highlighting key issues in the current state of the subject. The latter involved a review of ~100 Internet sites with particular focus on their thematic topic, the nature of the data and issues such as incentives for contributors. This review suggests that most sites involve active rather than passive contribution, with citizens typically motivated by the desire to aid a worthy cause, often receiving little training. As such, this article provides a snapshot of the role of citizens in crowdsourcing geographic information and a guide to the current status of this rapidly emerging and evolving subject

Seaweed polysaccharide-based hydrogels used for the regeneration of articular cartilage

This manuscript provides an overview of the in vitro and in vivo studies reported in the literature focusing on seaweed polysaccharides based hydrogels that have been proposed for applications in regenerative medicine, particularly, in the field of cartilage tissue engineering. For a better understanding of the main requisites for these specific applications, the main aspects of the native cartilage structure, as well as recognized diseases that affect this tissue are briefly described. Current available treatments are also presented to emphasize the need for alternative techniques. The following part of this review is centered on the description of the general characteristics of algae polysaccharides, as well as relevant properties required for designing hydrogels for cartilage tissue engineering purposes. An in-depth overview of the most well known seaweed polysaccharide, namely agarose, alginate, carrageenan and ulvan biopolymeric gels, that have been proposed for engineering cartilage is also provided. Finally, this review describes and summarizes the translational aspect for the clinical application of alternative systems emphasizing the importance of cryopreservation and the commercial products currently available for cartilage treatment.Authors report no declarations of interest. Authors thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for the PhD fellowship of Elena G. Popa (SFRH/BD/64070/2009) and research project (MIT/ECE/0047/2009). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no REGPOT-CT2012-316331-POLARIS