Towards the development and verification of a 3D-based advanced optimized farm machinery trajectory algorithm

Efforts related to minimizing the environmental burden caused by agricultural activities and increasing economic efficiency are key contemporary drivers in the precision agriculture domain. Controlled Traffic Farming (CTF) techniques are being applied against soil compaction creation, using the on-line optimization of trajectory planning for soil-sensitive field operations. The research presented in this paper aims at a proof-of-concept solution with respect to optimizing farm machinery trajectories in order to minimize the environmental burden and increase economic efficiency. As such, it further advances existing CTF solutions by including (1) efficient plot divisions in 3D, (2) the optimization of entry and exit points of both plot and plot segments, (3) the employment of more machines in parallel and (4) obstacles in a farm machinery trajectory. The developed algorithm is expressed in terms of unified modeling language (UML) activity diagrams as well as pseudo-code. Results were visualized in 2D and 3D to demonstrate terrain impact. Verifications were conducted at a fully operational commercial farm (Rostenice, the Czech Republic) against second-by-second sensor measurements of real farm machinery trajectories

Humanitarian Mapping as a Contribution to Achieving Sustainable Development Goals: Research into the Motivation of Volunteers and the Ideal Setting of Mapathons

Missing Maps is a humanitarian mapping project that maps vulnerable places in the developing world. Its outcomes are used to target aid in affected areas and to help achieve Sustainable Development Goals. A mapathon is an event in which a group of volunteers maps a defined location. The presented communication answers the following questions: What is the motivation of different contributors in the Missing Maps community in Czechia and Slovakia? How can a mapathon be set up to attract as many participants as possible? How exactly can the contributors to humanitarian mapping subjectively evaluate their contribution so far? A questionnaire about the motivation of contributors and the analysis of statistics from eighteen public mapathons in Brno (Czechia) were used as the primary research methods. The analysis of motivation found six strong motivators. Half of them concern altruism and half of them relate to the importance of the OpenStreetMap project and the mapping community. Analysis of the characteristics of 18 mapathons found that the month of the mapathon had a significant influence on the number of attendants. Statistical analysis confirmed a significant correlation between the number of edits and participants’ self-assessment. This means that humanitarian mappers evaluate their overall contribution very realistically. Analyses with an identical scope are planned for future years

Health statistics in international databases and their cartographic visualization

For health system management, relevant data and information are necessary. The first part of the paper describes databases of the important health data providers WHO, OECD, IARC and Eurostat. It analyses whether they are in discrepancy and whether it is possible to combine data from different databases. Cartographic visualization can be used for the analysis of situations and also for the publishing of statistics and other information. Selected international providers offering health maps are evaluated in the second part of the paper. There are differences in the possibilities offered to the user and in the quality of the provided maps

Metody kartografické vizualizace dat zdravotního stavu obyvatelstva

The presented article deals with an interdisciplinary research of health status data analysis and so called “health cartography” mapping approaches. After giving a brief summary of cartographic peculiarities dealing with the health data presentation, the issues of recommendation on map design and reliability representation is discussed. Special attention is then given to the current trends in cartographic visualization (geovizualization), non traditional methods and exploratory cartography. Following part methodically describes utilization of modern cartographic tools for dynamic presentation, publication and analysis of health data. The terms “dynamic presentation and publication” are used to describe mainly the possibility to select required scale, interactive creative communication of users and map authors, and also presence of active cartometric and statistical tools

Automated generation of tactile maps

<p>The Support Centre for Students with Special Needs at Masaryk University (the Teiresias Centre) in Brno, Czech Republic asked the team at the Department of Geography at the Faculty of Science to develop a technological procedure for the preparation of tactile maps from available sources of data. Most users would be blind and visually impaired students of Masaryk University. A set of scripts in Python language was prepared for the ArcGIS environment. The scripts prepare the source data, modify the layers, generate the layout of map sheets and export map sheets. The grid of map sheets covers the whole area of Brno City. Printed map sheets are combinable into larger areas. The scale of each map sheet is 1:2500.</p

Humanitarian Mapping as a Contribution to Achieving Sustainable Development Goals: Research into the Motivation of Volunteers and the Ideal Setting of Mapathons

Missing Maps is a humanitarian mapping project that maps vulnerable places in the developing world. Its outcomes are used to target aid in affected areas and to help achieve Sustainable Development Goals. A mapathon is an event in which a group of volunteers maps a defined location. The presented communication answers the following questions: What is the motivation of different contributors in the Missing Maps community in Czechia and Slovakia? How can a mapathon be set up to attract as many participants as possible? How exactly can the contributors to humanitarian mapping subjectively evaluate their contribution so far? A questionnaire about the motivation of contributors and the analysis of statistics from eighteen public mapathons in Brno (Czechia) were used as the primary research methods. The analysis of motivation found six strong motivators. Half of them concern altruism and half of them relate to the importance of the OpenStreetMap project and the mapping community. Analysis of the characteristics of 18 mapathons found that the month of the mapathon had a significant influence on the number of attendants. Statistical analysis confirmed a significant correlation between the number of edits and participants’ self-assessment. This means that humanitarian mappers evaluate their overall contribution very realistically. Analyses with an identical scope are planned for future years

Cross-cultural differences in figure–ground perception of cartographic stimuli

This article reports on an empirical study investigating cultural differences in the visuospatial perception and cognition of qualitative point symbols shown on reference maps. We developed two informationally equivalent symbol sets depicted on identical reference maps that were shown to Czech and Chinese map readers. The symbols varied in visual contrast with respect to the base map. Our empirical results suggest the existence of cultural influences on map reading, but not in the predicted direction based on the previous cross-cultural studies. Our findings stress the importance of considering the cultural background of map readers, especially when designing reference maps aimed for global online use

Population distribution modelling at fine spatio-temporal scale based on mobile phone data

Population distribution modelling can benefit many different domains, for example, transportation, urban planning, ecology or emergency management. Information about the location and number of people in an affected area is crucial for decision-makers during emergencies and crises. Mobile phone data represents relatively reliable and time accurate information on real-time population distribution, movement and behaviour. In this study, we evaluate the spatio-temporal distribution of population derived from phone data of the selected pilot area (City of Brno, Czech Republic). Analysis is based on the dataset describing the estimated human presence (EHP) with two values – visitors and transiting persons. The temporal change of data is first analysed and further processed using two methodological approaches. First, the dasymetric method is used where the building geometry and technical attributes served as a target layer. Second, the results of building level analysis are transformed into a regular grid zone of both visitors and the general EHP. Resulting spatio-temporal patterns are compared to the census data. Results demonstrate how the proposed building level dasymetric approach can improve the spatial granularity of EHP. Potential use of proposed methodology within selected emergency situations is further discussed