Isovist Analyst - An Arcview extension for planning visual surveillance

7-11 August, 2006, San Diego, CA, USA. Visual Surveillance e.g. CCTV, is now an essential part of the urban infrastructure in modern cities. One of the primary aims in visual surveillance is to ensure a maximum visual coverage of an area with the least number of visual surveillance installations, which is a NP-Hard maximal coverage problem. The planning of visual surveillance is a highly sensitive and costly task that has traditionally been done with a gut-feel process of establishing sight lines in CAD software. This paper demonstrates the ArcView extension Isovist Analyst, which automatically identifies a minimal number of potential visual surveillance sites that ensure complete visual coverage of an area. The paper proposes a Stochastical Rank and Overlap Elimination (S-ROPE) method, which iteratively identifies the optimal visual surveillance sites. S-ROPE method is essentially based on a greedy search technique, which has been improved by a combination of selective sampling strategy and random initialisation

Use of plan curvature variations for the identification of ridges and channels on DEM

This paper proposes novel improvements in the traditional algorithms for the identification of ridge and channel (also called ravines) topographic features on raster digital elevation models (DEMs). The overall methodology consists of two main steps: (1) smoothing the DEM by applying a mean filter, and (2) detection of ridge and channel features as cells with positive and negative plan curvature respectively, along with a decline and incline in plan curvature away from the cell in direction orthogonal to the feature axis respectively. The paper demonstrates a simple approach to visualize the multi-scale structure of terrains and utilize it for semi-automated topographic feature identification. Despite its simplicity, the revised algorithm produced markedly superior outputs than a comparatively sophisticated feature extraction algorithm based on conic-section analysis of terrain

Fast approximation of visibility dominance using topographic features as targets and the associated uncertainty

An approach to reduce visibility index computation time andmeasure the associated uncertainty in terrain visibility analysesis presented. It is demonstrated that the visibility indexcomputation time in mountainous terrain can be reduced substantially,without any significant information loss, if the lineof sight from each observer on the terrain is drawn only to thefundamental topographic features, i.e., peaks, pits, passes,ridges, and channels. However, the selected sampling of targetsresults in an underestimation of the visibility index ofeach observer. Two simple methods based on iterative comparisonsbetween the real visibility indices and the estimatedvisibility indices have been proposed for a preliminary assessmentof this uncertainty. The method has been demonstratedfor gridded digital elevation models

Use of GIS for planning visual surveillance installations

11-14 September, 2005, Denver, CO, USA. Visual Surveillance is now commonplace in modern societies. Generally, the layout of observers in artificial visual surveillance (e.g., CCTV camera) involves an iterative, manual and gut-feel process of trying various layouts until a satisfactory solution has been found. This paper proposes how a GIS, can be used to identify the optimal number and locations of observers, ensuring complete visual coverage using an automated technique, namely Rank and Overlap Elimination (ROPE). The ROPE technique is a greedy-search method, which iteratively selects the most visibly dominant observer with minimum overlapping vistas. The paper also proposes measurements to characterise the shape of open spaces, relevant in assessing natural surveillance. The paper demonstrates an extension, called Isovist Analyst, to the popular ArcView for planning artificial and natural surveillance in indoor and outdoor open spaces, with arbitrary geometry and topology

Reformulating Space Syntax: The Automatic Definition and Generation of Axial Lines and Axial Maps

Space syntax is a technique for measuring the relative accessibility of different locations in a spatial system which has been loosely partitioned into convex spaces.These spaces are approximated by straight lines, called axial lines, and the topological graph associated with their intersection is used to generate indices of distance, called integration, which are then used as proxies for accessibility. The most controversial problem in applying the technique involves the definition of these lines. There is no unique method for their generation, hence different users generate different sets of lines for the same application. In this paper, we explore this problem, arguing that to make progress, there need to be unambiguous, agreed procedures for generating such maps. The methods we suggest for generating such lines depend on defining viewsheds, called isovists, which can be approximated by their maximum diameters,these lengths being used to form axial maps similar to those used in space syntax. We propose a generic algorithm for sorting isovists according to various measures,approximating them by their diameters and using the axial map as a summary of the extent to which isovists overlap (intersect) and are accessible to one another. We examine the fields created by these viewsheds and the statistical properties of the maps created. We demonstrate our techniques for the small French town of Gassin used originally by Hillier and Hanson (1984) to illustrate the theory, exploring different criteria for sorting isovists, and different axial maps generated by changing the scale of resolution. This paper throws up as many problems as it solves but we believe it points the way to firmer foundations for space syntax

Weighted and metric surface networks - new insights and an interactive application for their generalisation in Tcl/Tk

The idea of characterising the different forms of natural topographic surfaces by a topologicalmodel based on their fundamental surface features has attracted many proposals. In this paper, adetailed discussion and new proposals on various issues related to the concept, generation, andvisualisation of two graph theoretic based surface topology data structures ? Weighted SurfaceNetworks and their improved version, Metric Surface Networks - are presented. Also presented isan interactive Tcl/Tk application called Surface Topology Toolkit, which has been developed tosupport the discussion on aspects of their generalisation and visualisation. The highlight of theSurface Topology Toolkit is the utility to allow arbitrary contraction unlike the usual verteximportance based criterion. This paper proposes that effective automated surface topologymodelling based on these surface networks requires (a) further research in the development of?computing? algorithms that will accurately locate critical surface points, be able to establishtopological links, and also check topological consistency, (b) transforming their 2D straight linegraph like appearance to 3D to improve visualisation and contraction, and (c) assessment and userawarenessabout the effects of each type of contraction criterion on the topography

Techniques for augmenting the visualisation of dynamic raster surfaces

Despite their aesthetic appeal and condensed nature, dynamic raster surface representations such as a temporal series of a landform and an attribute series of a socio-economic attribute of an area, are often criticised for the lack of an effective information delivery and interactivity.In this work, we readdress some of the earlier raised reasons for these limitations -information-laden quality of surface datasets, lack of spatial and temporal continuity in the original data, and a limited scope for a real-time interactivity. We demonstrate with examples that the use of four techniques namely the re-expression of the surfaces as a framework of morphometric features, spatial generalisation, morphing, graphic lag and brushing can augment the visualisation of dynamic raster surfaces in temporal and attribute series

A methodology to investigate and visualise the geographical provenance of road traffic casualties in deprived areas

This paper demonstrates a methodology based on spatial overlay techniques, casualty data and national deprivation scores, to quantify and visualise the geographical provenance of road traffic casualties in deprived areas. A case study of four districts with varying deprivation in Greater Manchester, UK is presented. It is shown that most injuries to pedestrians and car occupants occur in areas of similar levels of affluence/deprivation to that of where the casualties live. Thus, it is proposed that the phenomenon underlying the cause of road traffic injuries are probably universal despite the differences in factors such as demography and level of deprivation