Geomatics in physiognomic landscape research: A Dutch view

Geomatics is a technology and service sector focussing on the acquisition, storage, analysis and management of geographically referenced information for improved decision-making. Landscape physiognomic and research –and its GI science application. The geomatics developments since 40 years confront us with many new algorithms and a variety of geo data. Due to these the interest in physiognomic research has been increased. This article links the variety of geodata and its processing functions to the landscape physiognomic research framework. This link is based on an overview of the geo data, the intended applications in landscape physiognomic research and the functions to perform. The article provides an overview of geographical data using/driving methods and applications that may support physiognomic landscape research that longs from methods that rely on geo-data that ranges from a administratively defined (INSPIRE), professional experiment acquired  up to collected by volunteers. These methods may act manifold: describe, proof and project of space as could be perceived, imagined and created from both perspectives affectively and cognitively. Besides to communicate results the methods include persistently also analysis by visualization. Other findings are the interest in changing objects of the landscape and perception via moving subjects

Exploring the Visual Landscape: Advances in Physiognomic Landscape Research in the Netherlands

Exploring the Visual Landscape is about the combination of landscape research and planning, visual perception and Geographic Information Science. It showcases possible ways of getting a grip on themes like: landscape openness, cluttering of the rural landscape, high-rise buildings in relation to cityscape, historic landscapes and motorway panoramas. It offers clues for visual landscape assessment of spaces in cities, parks and rural areas. In that respect, it extends the long tradition in the Netherlands on physiognomic landscape research and shows the state of the art at this moment. Exploring the Visual Landscape offers important clues for theory, methodology and application in research and development of landscapes all over the world, from a specifically Dutch academic context. It provides a wide range of insights into the psychological background of landscape perception, the technical considerations of geomatics and methodology in landscape architecture, urban planning and design. Furthermore, there are some experiences worthwhile considering, which demonstrate how this research can be applied in the practice of landscape policy making

Automated Enrichment of Routing Instructions

Commonly used navigation instructions are based on metric turn descriptions (e.g. “turn left onto Nienburger Straße in 100 m”). For the user it is easy to follow the route, but later it is typically hard to remember how s/he got there. Orientation is based on remarkable objects or locations called landmarks. They are then linked and combined to so-called survey knowledge in the psychological model of a cognitive map. Some of today’s navigation systems also contain landmarks – they are, however, only used at decision points of the route. The goal of this research is to enhance the user's own sense of orientation by enriching common routing instructions with relational hints to landmarks. First, potential landmark objects are defined, extracted from OpenStreetMap and assigned an importance weight. The landmarks are then used to enrich the given routes: In the enrichment process, the influence of the landmarks is modeled as a decline of the weight by distance. Afterwards the most influential landmark is selected for each route segment. The 9-Intersection-Model and an adapted Direction-RelationMatrix are the core methods that are used to analyse and determine the relations between the route and the chosen landmarks. The automatic description of relevant landmarks along a route is implemented as an interactive web-map. The main goal of this paper is the development of the system. Still, a first evaluation was conducted, in order to test the users’ ability of orientation after using enriched instructions compared to users using the classic ones

Sensing Landscape History with an Interactive Location Based Service

This paper introduces the STEAD approach for interpreting data acquired by a “human sensor”, who uses an informal interactive location-based service (iLBS) to sense cultural-historic facts and anecdotes of, and in the landscape. This user-generated data is collected outdoors and in situ. The approach consists of four related facets (who, what, where, when). Three of the four facets are discussed and illustrated by user generated data collected during a Dutch survey in 2008. These data represent the personal cultural-historic knowledge and anecdotes of 150 people using a customized iLBS for experiencing the cultural history of a landscape. The “who” facet shows three dominant mentality groups (cosmopolitans, modern materialists and post modern hedonists) that generated user content. The “what” facet focuses on three subject types of pictures and four picture framing classes. Pictures of the place type showed to be dominant and foreground framing class was slightly favourite. The “where” facet is explored via density, distribution, and distance of the pictures made. The illustrations of the facets indirectly show the role of the “human sensor” with respect to the domain of interest. The STEAD approach needs further development of the when-facet and of the relations between the four facets. Finally the results of the approach may support data archives of iLBS applications

Sensing Landscape History with an Interactive Location Based Service

This paper introduces the STEAD approach for interpreting data acquired by a “human sensor”, who uses an informal interactive location-based service (iLBS) to sense cultural-historic facts and anecdotes of, and in the landscape. This user-generated data is collected outdoors and in situ. The approach consists of four related facets (who, what, where, when). Three of the four facets are discussed and illustrated by user generated data collected during a Dutch survey in 2008. These data represent the personal cultural-historic knowledge and anecdotes of 150 people using a customized iLBS for experiencing the cultural history of a landscape. The “who” facet shows three dominant mentality groups (cosmopolitans, modern materialists and post modern hedonists) that generated user content. The “what” facet focuses on three subject types of pictures and four picture framing classes. Pictures of the place type showed to be dominant and foreground framing class was slightly favourite. The “where” facet is explored via density, distribution, and distance of the pictures made. The illustrations of the facets indirectly show the role of the “human sensor” with respect to the domain of interest. The STEAD approach needs further development of the when-facet and of the relations between the four facets. Finally the results of the approach may support data archives of iLBS applications

Exploring visual landscapes: Introduction

Visual landscape research is an interdisciplinary approach important for landscape and urban planning. This field of research integrates: (1) landscape planning, design and management concepts, (2) landscape perception approaches, and (3) GISc-based methods and techniques in order to map the visual landscape. It offers possible ways of getting a grip on themes like: landscape openness, cluttering of the rural landscape, high-rise buildings in relation to cityscape, historic landscapes and motorway panoramas. This article is an introduction to the field of visual landscape research and provides an overview of the different perspectives on the subject. It provides, from a specific Dutch academic context, important clues for theory, methodology and application in research and development of landscapes all over the world. It offers clues for visual landscape assessment of spaces in cities, parks and rural areas. This article provides a wide range of insights into the psychological background of landscape perception, the technical considerations of geomatics and methodology in landscape architecture, urban planning and design