splot - visual analytics for spatial statistics

We closed a total of 15 issues (enhancements and bug fixes) through 6 pull requests, since our last release on 2020-01-18. Issues Closed add permanent links to current version of no's to joss paper (#102) [BUG] set colors as list in _plot_choropleth_fig() (#101) Remove the links around figures in the JOSS paper (#99) Release prep for 1.1.2 (#98) Installation instructions; pip install fails on macOS (#88) Usage in readme is a fragment (#90) JOSS: missing figure captions (#92) [DOC] update installation instruction (#96) [DOC] add example links to README.md & figure captions in joss article (#97) Pull Requests add permanent links to current version of no's to joss paper (#102) [BUG] set colors as list in _plot_choropleth_fig() (#101) Remove the links around figures in the JOSS paper (#99) Release prep for 1.1.2 (#98) [DOC] update installation instruction (#96) [DOC] add example links to README.md & figure captions in joss article (#97) The following individuals contributed to this release: Stefanie Lumnitz Levi John Wolf Leonardo Uieda Serge ReyJoss paper releas

Characterising online museum users: a study of the National Museums Liverpool museum website

Museums are increasing access to their collections and providing richer user experiences via web-based interfaces. However, they are seeing high numbers of users looking at only one or two pages within 10 s and then leaving. To reduce this rate, a better understanding of the type of user who visits a museum website is required. Existing models for museum website users tend to focus on groups that are readily accessible for study or provide little detail in their definitions of the groups. This paper presents the results of a large-scale user survey for the National Museums Liverpool museum website in which data on a wide range of user characteristics were collected regarding their current visit to provide a better understanding of their motivations, tasks, engagement and domain knowledge. Results show that the frequently understudied general public and non-professional users make up the majority (approximately 77%) of the respondents

The changing culture of silviculture

Changing climates are altering the structural and functional components of forest ecosystems at an unprecedented rate. Simultaneously, we are seeing a diversification of public expectations on the broader sustainable use of forest resources beyond timber production. As a result, the science and art of silviculture needs to adapt to these changing realities. In this piece, we argue that silviculturists are gradually shifting from the application of empirically derived silvicultural scenarios to new sets of approaches, methods and practices, a process that calls for broadening our conception of silviculture as a scientific discipline. We propose a holistic view of silviculture revolving around three key themes: observe, anticipate and adapt. In observe, we present how recent advances in remote sensing now enable silviculturists to observe forest structural, compositional and functional attributes in near-real-time, which in turn facilitates the deployment of efficient, targeted silvicultural measures in practice that are adapted to rapidly changing constraints. In anticipate, we highlight the importance of developing state-of-the-art models designed to take into account the effects of changing environmental conditions on forest growth and dynamics. In adapt, we discuss the need to provide spatially explicit guidance for the implementation of adaptive silvicultural actions that are efficient, cost-effective and socially acceptable. We conclude by presenting key steps towards the development of new tools and practical knowledge that will ensure meeting societal demands in rapidly changing environmental conditions. We classify these actions into three main categories: reexamining existing silvicultural trials to identify key stand attributes associated with the resistance and resilience of forests to multiple stressors, developing technological workflows and infrastructures to allow for continuous forest inventory updating frameworks, and implementing bold, innovative silvicultural trials in consultation with the relevant communities where a range of adaptive silvicultural strategies are tested. In this holistic perspective, silviculture can be defined as the science of observing forest condition and anticipating its development to apply tending and regeneration treatments adapted to a multiplicity of desired outcomes in rapidly changing realities

The changing culture of silviculture

Changing climates are altering the structural and functional components of forest ecosystems at an unprecedented rate. Simultaneously, we are seeing a diversification of public expectations on the broader sustainable use of forest resources beyond timber production. As a result, the science and art of silviculture needs to adapt to these changing realities. In this piece, we argue that silviculturists are gradually shifting from the application of empirically derived silvicultural scenarios to new sets of approaches, methods and practices, a process that calls for broadening our conception of silviculture as a scientific discipline. We propose a holistic view of silviculture revolving around three key themes: observe, anticipate and adapt. In observe, we present how recent advances in remote sensing now enable silviculturists to observe forest structural, compositional and functional attributes in near-real-time, which in turn facilitates the deployment of efficient, targeted silvicultural measures in practice that are adapted to rapidly changing constraints. In anticipate, we highlight the importance of developing state-of-the-art models designed to take into account the effects of changing environmental conditions on forest growth and dynamics. In adapt, we discuss the need to provide spatially explicit guidance for the implementation of adaptive silvicultural actions that are efficient, cost-effective and socially acceptable. We conclude by presenting key steps towards the development of new tools and practical knowledge that will ensure meeting societal demands in rapidly changing environmental conditions. We classify these actions into three main categories: re-examining existing silvicultural trials to identify key stand attributes associated with the resistance and resilience of forests to multiple stressors, developing technological workflows and infrastructures to allow for continuous forest inventory updating frameworks, and implementing bold, innovative silvicultural trials in consultation with the relevant communities where a range of adaptive silvicultural strategies are tested. In this holistic perspective, silviculture can be defined as the science of observing forest condition and anticipating its development to apply tending and regeneration treatments adapted to a multiplicity of desired outcomes in rapidly changing realities

Revenir aux fondamentaux pour mieux se projeter dans l'avenir

L’époque actuelle est marquée par de nombreux et profonds changements au niveau du climat, de la société et de la technologie qui impactent fortement les écosystèmes forestiers et leur gestion. Cet article propose de revenir sur les fondamentaux de la planification forestière pour mieux se projeter dans le futur. Il invite à s'interroger sur les bases sur lesquelles s'appuyer pour bien comprendre les instruments de planification et ce qui contribue à leur pertinence, leur efficacité et la possibilité de les faire évoluer relativement facilement.Die gegenwärtige Zeit ist geprägt von zahlreichen und tiefgreifenden Veränderungen in Klima, Gesellschaft und Technologie, die sich stark auf die Waldökosysteme und ihre Bewirtschaftung auswirken. Dieser Artikel schlägt vor, sich auf die Grundlagen der Forstplanung zu besinnen, um besser in die Zukunft blicken zu können. Er lädt dazu ein, sich zu fragen, auf welche Grundlagen man sich stützen kann, um die Planungsinstrumente richtig zu verstehen. Zudem sollten die Gründe für ihre Relevanz, ihre Effizienz und die Möglichkeiten, sie relativ leicht weiterzuentwickeln, untersucht werden.The current era is marked by many profound changes in climate, society and technology, all of which are having a major impact on forest ecosystems and their management. This article takes a look at the fundamentals of forestry planning in order to better plan for the future. It invites us to look at the foundations on which we can build a good understanding of planning instruments and what contributes to their rele vance, effectiveness and the possibility of making them evolve relatively easily

Feasibility study of using virtual reality for interactive and immersive semantic segmentation of single tree stems

Forest digitisation is one of the next major challenges to be tackled in the forestry domain. As a consequence of tremendous advances in 3D scanning technologies, broad areas of forest can be mapped in 3D dramatically faster than 20 years ago. Consequently, capturing 3D forest point clouds with the use of 3D sensing technologies – such as lidar – is becoming predominant in the field of forestry. However, the processing of 3D point clouds to bring semantics to the 3D forestry data – e.g. by linking them with ecological values – has not seen similar advancements. Therefore, in this paper we consider a novel approach based on the use of VR (Virtual reality) as a potential solution for deriving biodiversity from 3D point clouds acquired in the field. That is, we developed a VR labelling application to visualise forest point clouds and to perform the segmentation of several biodiversity components on tree stems e.g., mosses, lichens and bark pockets. Furthermore, the VR segmented point cloud was analysed with standard accuracy and precision metrics. Namely, the proposed VR application managed to achieve an IoU (Intersection over Union) rate value of 98.74% for the segmentation of bark pockets and resp. 93.71% for the moss and lichen classes. These encouraging results reinforce the potential for the proposed VR labelling method for other purposes in the future, for example for AI (Artificial Intelligence) training dataset creation.ISSN:1682-1750ISSN:2194-9034ISSN:1682-177

Combining aerial photos and LiDAR data to detect canopy cover change in urban forests

The advancement and accessibility of high-resolution remotely sensed data has made it feasible to detect tree canopy cover (TCC) changes over small spatial scales. However, the short history of these high-resolution collection techniques presents challenges when assessing canopy changes over longer time scales (> 50 years). This research shows how using high-resolution LiDAR data in conjunction with historical aerial photos can overcome this limitation. We used the University of British Columbia’s Point Grey campus in Vancouver, Canada, as a case study, using both historical aerial photographs from 1949 and 2015 LiDAR data. TCC was summed in 0.05 ha analysis polygons for both the LiDAR and aerial photo data, allowing for TCC comparison across the two different data types. Methods were validated using 2015 aerial photos, the means (Δ 0.24) and a TOST test indicated that the methods were statistically equivalent (±5.38% TCC). This research concludes the methods outlined is suitable for small scale TCC change detection over long time frames when inconsistent data types are available between the two time periods.ISSN:1932-620

Evaluation of Azure Kinect Derived Point Clouds to Determine the Presence of Microhabitats on Single Trees Based on the Swiss Standard Parameters

In the last few years, a number of low-cost 3D scanning sensors have been developed to reconstruct the real-world environment. These sensors were primarily designed for indoor use, making them highly unpredictable in terms of their performance and accuracy when used outdoors. The Azure Kinect belongs to this category of low-cost 3D scanners and has been successfully employed in outdoor applications. In addition, this sensor possesses features such as portability and live visualization during data acquisition that makes it extremely interesting in the field of forestry. In the context of forest inventory, these advantages would allow to facilitate the task of tree parameters acquisition in an efficient manner. In this paper, a protocol was established for the acquisition of 3D data in forests using the Azure Kinect. A comparison of the resulting point cloud was performed against photogrammetry. Results demonstrated that the Azure Kinect point cloud was of suitable quality for extracting tree parameters such as diameter at breast height (DBH, with a standard deviation of 2.2cm). Furthermore, the quality of the visual and geometric information of the point cloud was evaluated in terms of its feasibility to identify microhabitats. Microhabitats represent valuable information on forest biodiversity and are included in Swiss forest inventory measurements. In total, five different microhabitats were identified in the Azure Kinect Point cloud. The measurements were therefore comparable to sensors such as terrestrial laser scanning and photogrammetry. Therefore, we argue that the Azure Kinect point cloud can efficiently identify certain types of microhabitats and this study presents a first approach of its application in forest inventories.ISSN:1682-1750ISSN:2194-9034ISSN:1682-177

Assessing forest recreational potential from social media data and remote sensing technologies data

Conventionally, forest management plans have focused on ensuring a continuous provision of wood. In recent years, political agendas worldwide have recognized the importance of forests’ cultural ecosystem services, such as recreation. However, the inclusion of such values in management plans is challenging, and forest managers require novel methodologies and indicators to characterize forest recreation demand and provision. To this end, in this study, we combine remote sensing technologies and crowdsourced social media data to map and value the forest recreational potential of BC’s provincial parks system. We trained and deployed convolutional neural networks to automatically classify the content of over 60,000 Flickr images, we then created a random forest model to identify the variables that influence the visitors’ choice of recreational activity. These models allowed us to map the most likely recreational activities to occur in BC’s provincial parks and perform a spatially explicit assessment of the consumer surplus that these activities generate with a benefit transfer approach. Our findings suggest that the most influential variables in determining the choice of forest recreational activities are topographic, while anthropogenic impacts and forest biometrics variables have less effect. Furthermore, the outcomes of our study support the proposition that the integration of social media and remote sensing technologies allow, in the future, park managers to tailor the management of recreational services to forest visitors’ needs.ISSN:1470-160XISSN:1872-703

Virtual forests: a review on emerging questions in the use and application of 3D data in forestry

Digital 3D technologies are emerging methods for recording and visualizing forests. Therefore, it is not surprising that these technologies have seen many applications and developments in recent years. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive review of existing 3D technologies within the context of forestry and how they interact with users and stakeholders. We present a summary of the requirements, visualization, and application of virtual forests. This includes an overview of state-of-the-art 3D reconstruction and visualization tools, which have seen a major increase in interest in the past few years, as evidenced by a preliminary analysis on research keywords. Based on the reviewed studies, we present the current trend and emerging questions, as well as challenges in the field of virtual forests. Further, we discuss the identified trends and challenges related to data acquisition, along with existing and potential future interactions between the 3D data and more specific demands from the forestry sector. We conclude that the use of digital 3D data in forestry is on the rise and that such novel methods show great potential and merit further attention.ISSN:1494-2119ISSN:1913-222