Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Spatial 2015, Werner Kuhn, Matt Duckham, Marcia Castro

Journal of Spatial Information Science

This report summarizes the first in a new series of interdisciplinary unconferences, called SPATIAL. SPATIAL 2015 was focused on applying spatial information to human health, and was held at the Center for Spatial Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, 9-11 December 2015.

Spatial Refinement As Collection Order Relations, Zhong Zhao

Journal of Spatial Information Science

An abstract examination of refinement (and conversely, coarsening) with respect to the involved spatial relations gives rise to formulated order relations between spatial coverings, which are defined as complete-coverage representations composed of regional granules. Coverings, which generalize partitions by allowing granules to overlap, enhance hierarchical geocomputations in several ways. Refinement between spatial coverings has underlying patterns with respect to inclusion—formalized as binary topological relations—between their granules. The patterns are captured by collection relations of inclusion, which are obtained by constraining relevant topological relations with cardinality properties such as uniqueness and totality. Conjoining relevant collection relations of equality and proper inclusion …

Routes Visualization: Automated Placement Of Multiple Route Symbols Along A Physical Network Infrastructure, Jules Teulade-Denantes, Adrien Maudet, Cécile Duchêne

Journal of Spatial Information Science

This paper tackles the representation of routes carried by a physical network infrastructure on a map. In particular, the paper examines the case where each route is represented by a separate colored linear symbol offset from the physical network segments and from other routes---as on public transit maps with bus routes offset from roads. In this study, the objective is to automate the placement of such route symbols while maximizing their legibility, especially at junctions. The problem is modeled as a constraint optimization problem. Legibility criteria are identified and formalized as constraints to optimize, while focusing on the case of …

Invariant Spatial Information In Sketch Maps — A Study Of Survey Sketch Maps Of Urban Areas, Jia Wang, Angela Schwering

Journal of Spatial Information Science

It is commonly recognized that free-hand sketch maps are influenced by cognitive impacts and therefore sketch maps are incomplete, distorted, and schematized. This makes it difficult to achieve a one-to-one alignment between a sketch map and its corresponding geo-referenced metric map. Nevertheless, sketch maps are still useful to communicate spatial knowledge, indicating that sketch maps contain certain spatial information that is robust to cognitive impacts. In existing studies, sketch maps are used frequently to measure cognitive maps. However, little work has been done on invariant spatial information in sketch maps, which is the information of spatial configurations representing correctly the …

Development And Evaluation Of A Geographic Information Retrieval System Using Fine Grained Toponyms, Damien Palacio, Curdin Derungs, Ross S. Purves

Journal of Spatial Information Science

Geographic information retrieval (GIR) is concerned with returning information in response to an information need, typically expressed in terms of a thematic and spatial component linked by a spatial relationship. However, evaluation initiatives have often failed to show significant differences between simple text baselines and more complex spatially enabled GIR approaches. We explore the effectiveness of three systems (a text baseline, spatial query expansion, and a full GIR system utilizing both text and spatial indexes) at retrieving documents from a corpus describing mountaineering expeditions, centred around fine grained toponyms. To allow evaluation, we use user generated content (UGC) in the …

Role Of Dignity In Rural Natural Resource Governance, Tora Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dignity is “an internal state of peace that comes with the recognition and acceptance of the value and vulnerability of all living things” (Hicks, 2011, p. 1). Dignity is a crucial element in effective governance arrangements. This study applies dignity theory, and related theories of natural resource governance and environmental communication, to understand and overcome barriers to effective governance of common pool resources in rural communities. Chapter 1 reviews relevant literature on natural resource governance and develops a theoretical framework for dignity. Chapter 2 applies dignity theory to a contentious comprehensive planning process in a small Maine town in order …

Spatiotemporal Wireless Sensor Network Field Approximation With Multilayer Perceptron Artificial Neural Network Models, François Neville

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As sensors become increasingly compact and dependable in natural environments, spatially-distributed heterogeneous sensor network systems steadily become more pervasive. However, any environmental monitoring system must account for potential data loss due to a variety of natural and technological causes. Modeling a natural spatial region can be problematic due to spatial nonstationarities in environmental variables, and as particular regions may be subject to specific influences at different spatial scales. Relationships between processes within these regions are often ephemeral, so models designed to represent them cannot remain static. Integrating temporal factors into this model engenders further complexity.

This dissertation evaluates the use …

An Analysis Of Spatio-Temporal Landscape Patterns For Protected Areas In Northern New England: 1099-2010, Spencer Meyer, Mary-Kate Beard-Tisdale, Christopher S. Cronan, Robert Lilieholm

Publications

Context: Landscape ecology theory provides insight about how large assemblages of protected areas (PAs) should be configured to protect biodiversity. We adapted these theories to evaluate whether the emergence of decentralized land protection in a largely private landscape followed the principles of reserve design. Objectives: Our objectives were to determine: (1) Are there distinct clusters of PAs in time and space? (2) Are PAs becoming more spatially clustered through time? and (3) Does the resulting PA portfolio have traits characteristic of ideal reserve design? Methods: We developed an historical dataset of the PAs enacted since 1900 in the northern New …

Iii: Small: A Theory Of Topological Relations For Compound Spatial Objects, Max J. Egenhofer Editor

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Spatial data collections with an incomplete coverage yield regions with holes and separations that often cannot be filled by interpolation. Geosensor networks typically generate such configurations, and with the proliferation of sensor colonies, there is now an urgent need to provide users with better information technologies of cognitively plausible methods to search for or compare available spatial data sets that may be incomplete. The objective of the investigations is to advance knowledge about qualitative spatial relations for spatial regions with holes and/or separations.

The core activity is the study of the interplay between topological spatial relations with holed regions and …

Visualizing Patterns In Spatially Ambiguous Point Data, Jonny Huck, Duncan Whyatt, Paul Coulton

Journal of Spatial Information Science

As technologies permitting both the creation and retrieval of data containing spatial information continue to develop, so do the number of visualizations using such data. This spatial information will often comprise a place name that may be "geocoded" into coordinates, and displayed on a map, frequently using a "heatmap-style" visualization to reveal patterns in the data. Across a dataset, however, there is often ambiguity in the geographic scale to which a place-name refers (country, county, town, street etc.), and attempts to simultaneously map data at a multitude of different scales will result in the formation of "false hotspots" within the …

Knowledge Formalization For Vector Data Matching Using Belief Theory, Ana-Maria Olteanu-Raimond, Sebastien Mustière, Anne Ruas

Journal of Spatial Information Science

Nowadays geographic vector data is produced both by public and private institutions using well defined specifications or crowdsourcing via Web 2.0 mapping portals. As a result, multiple representations of the same real world objects exist, without any links between these different representations. This becomes an issue when integration, updates, or multi-level analysis needs to be performed, as well as for data quality assessment. In this paper a multi-criteria data matching approach allowing the automatic definition of links between identical features is proposed. The originality of the approach is that the process is guided by an explicit representation and fusion of …

A Comparative Study Of Linear And Region Based Diagrams, Björn Gottfried

Journal of Spatial Information Science

There are two categories of objects spatial information science investigates: actual objects and their spatial properties, such as in geography, and abstract objects which are employed metaphorically, as for visual languages. A prominent example of the latter are diagrams that model knowledge of some domain. Different aspects of diagrams are of interest, including their formal properties or how human users work with them, for example, with diagrams representing sets. The literature about diagrammatic systems for the representation of sets shows a dominance of region-based diagrams like Euler circles and Venn diagrams. The effectiveness of these diagrams, however, is limited because …

Editorial, Matt Duckham

Journal of Spatial Information Science

No abstract provided.

Toward A Commons Of Geographic Data, Joseph J. Campbell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Making scientific data openly accessible and available for re-use is desirable to encourage validation of research results, and/or economic development. A significant body of spatially-referenced, locally-produced data produced by individual researchers, non-profit groups, private associations, small companies, universities, and non-governmental organizations across the United States is not online and therefore not generally available to professional scientists and to the general public. If there were an online environment, a "Commons of Geographic Data," where that data could be deposited or registered, and where users could access and re-use it, what infrastructure characteristics might potential contributors find desirable in order for them …

Enhanced Place Name Search Using Semantic Gazetteers, Nagalakshmy Vijayasankaran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the increased availability of geospatial data and efficient geo-referencing services, people are now more likely to engage in geospatial searches for information on the Web. Searching by address is supported by geocoding which converts an address to a geographic coordinate. Addresses are one form of geospatial referencing that are relatively well understood and easy for people to use, but place names are generally the most intuitive natural language expressions that people use for locations. This thesis presents an approach, for enhancing place name searches with a geo-ontology and a semantically enabled gazetteer. This approach investigates the extension of general …

Town Of Winter Harbor Property Maps, James W. Sewall Company

Maine Town Documents

No abstract provided.

Town Of Westport Island Property Maps, Westport Island (Me.).

Maine Town Documents

No abstract provided.

High-Precision Land-Cover-Land-Use Gis Mapping And Land Availability And Suitability Analysis For Grass Biomass Production In The Aroostook River Valley, Maine, Usa., Chunzeng Wang, Jason Johnston, David Vail, Jared Diskinson, David Putnam

Publications

High-precision land-cover-land-use GIS mapping was performed in four major townships in Maine’s Aroostook River Valley, using on-screen digitization and direct interpretation of very high spatial resolution satellite multispectral imagery (15–60 cm) and high spatial resolution LiDAR data (2 m) and the field mapping method. The project not only provides the first-ever high-precision land-use maps for northern Maine, but it also yields accurate hectarage estimates of different land-use types, in particular grassland, defined as fallow land, pasture, and hay field. This enables analysis of potential land availability and suitability for grass biomass production and other sustainable land uses. The results show …

Mobility In The Mangroves: Catch Rates, Daily Decisions, And Dynamics Of Artisanal Fishing In A Coastal Commons, Christine M. Beitl

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

This paper integrates institutional theories of the commons with insights from geography and human behavioral ecology to explore the spatial and temporal dynamics of artisanal fishing in Ecuador’s coastal mangrove swamps. The focus is on the cockle fishery commons characterized by a mixture of formal institutional arrangements and an informal division of fishing space that partially influences fisher decisions about where and when to fish. Individual decisions are further explained to a certain degree by the patch choice model since fishers often move on to new grounds when their catch rates fall below average. These optimizing strategies requiring rotation within …

Property Maps Waldoboro Maine, 2015, John E. O'Donnell & Associates, Darryl L. Mckenney

Maine Town Documents

No abstract provided.

Mapping The History Of The State: The Historical Atlas Of Maine, Stephen J. Hornsby

Maine Policy Review

This article describes the creation of the Historical Atlas of Maine, one of the most significant scholarly achievements in the humanities to come out of the University of Maine. Conceived in the late 1990s, the atlas was published by the University of Maine Press in 2015. It represents an enormously ambitious attempt to map the historical geography of the state from the end of the last ice age to the end of the millennium in 2000.

Weld Maine Property Maps, James W. Sewall Company

Maine Town Documents

No abstract provided.

Property Maps Weston Maine, James W. Sewell Co., Weston (Me.).

Maine Town Documents

No abstract provided.