LACO-Wiki: A land cover validation tool and a new, innovative teaching resource for remote sensing and the geosciences

The validation of land cover products is an important step in the workflow of generating a land cover map from remotely-sensed imagery. Many students of remote sensing will be given exercises on classifying a land cover map followed by the validation process. Many algorithms exist for classification, embedded within proprietary image processing software or increasingly as open source tools. However, there is little standardization for land cover validation, nor a set of open tools available for implementing this process. The LACO-Wiki tool was developed as a way of filling this gap, bringing together standardized land cover validation methods and workflows into a single portal. This includes the storage and management of land cover maps and validation data; step-by-step instructions to guide users through the validation process; sound sampling designs; an easy-to-use environment for validation sample interpretation; and the generation of accuracy reports based on the validation process. The tool was developed for a range of users including producers of land cover maps, researchers, teachers and students. The use of such a tool could be embedded within the curriculum of remote sensing courses at a university level but is simple enough for use by students aged 13-18. A beta version of the tool is available for testing at: http://www.lacowiki.net

Assessing the quality of crowdsourced in-situ land-use and land cover data from FotoQuest Austria application

With the proliferation of mobile phones and the rise of citizen science, the question of whether citizens can be used to complement traditional land surveys, e.g. the Land Use / Cover Area frame statistical Survey (LUCAS), needs further consideration. LUCAS is the European reference dataset for land use and land cover statistics. It is produced every three years using paid surveyors to collect information on land cover and land use at more than 270,000 point locations across all EU states. LUCAS has very strict protocols on data collection and a two-step system to ensure the quality of the data collected. To complement LUCAS, IIASA has developed the FotoQuest Austria (http://fotoquest.at/) app, which aims to engage citizens in exploring Austrian landscapes, geo-tagging land use and land cover across the country using a simplified version of the LUCAS protocol. The app shows the location of nearby points, and once at the location, volunteers take pictures in four cardinal directions and at the point location, recording the type of land use and land cover from a list of options in the app. Implementation of the simplified protocol uses the mobile technology to record the location, the angles of inclination of the phone when taking the pictures, the compass directions and the precision of the GPS to restrict when users can take photographs. These measures were employed to ensure high quality data collection. FotoQuest Austria has been running since the summer of 2015 with more than 2500 points on the ground and more than 12500 pictures collected by volunteers. Advantages of such an approach include the collection of a denser sample and a more frequent revisit time than the 3 year update cycle of LUCAS, which may then be used to detect ongoing change. Additionally, the involvement of citizens in getting to know their surrounding landscapes is a very valuable process and can be a positive vehicle for raising awareness of possible environmental conflicts and issues. This paper compares the results from this ongoing campaign with data from LUCAS. The presentation also outlines the lessons learned and highlights the minimum requirements needed to collect high quality data from volunteers. Recommendations for use of the app to complement LUCAS surveying and its application to other domains will also be discussed

Communication Research

Contains reports on nine research projects.Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporate

The political geography of religious radicalism. A compendium of selected case studies from around the globe

Religion has neither gone away nor remained irrelevant in our world today. There is no day that we do not hear news about religion in the media. The news we hear about religion and violence, however, appears to dominate the headlines. Although the history of religions and violence is not a new one, since September 11, 2001 there has been a growing concern about religious extremism and terrorism. At the same time, there is a corresponding interest in the subject of religion and violence among many disciplines. In the course GEO-83 “Political Geography of Religious Radicalism”, we offered students an excursion into the ambivalent world of religion and conflict through an exploration of different theoretical perspectives and approaches, case studies, seminal and class discussions and extensive literature review. The unique angle of interrogation that political geography offers in terms of the spatial dimensions and the power relations between different actors as well as the discursive aspects of interreligious conflicts and extremism has proved very valuable in generating insights on this subject matter. This volume is an attempt by students of the M.A. “Human Geography – Global Studies” programme of the University of Tübingen to demonstrate acquaintance with the approach of political geography to the study of religious violence and extremism. The students took on some of the most challenging conflicts and religious insurgencies confronting the world and offered insights using diverse theoretical and analytical frameworks. The analysis contained in each chapter was based on secondary data. Thus, limitations are set based on the availability of and access to data. Given the contested nature of religious conflicts and extremism, the reader is invited to consider all the articles in this volume as primarily an academic exercise with no intention to promote a certain narrative or to take sides. Knowledge is always incremental. Therefore, what is presented here is intended to increase our understanding of the phenomenon and to stimulate further research and efforts at finding solutions to the various conflicts. No doubt, this exercise has exposed the students to the rigour of scientific writing. This experience will remain invaluable to them in their continuing academic pursuit as well as in their future endeavours. The lecturers also found this experience to be highly rewarding. The process was quite daunting, but the commitment and the dedication of the students paid off