Search

The construction and modulation of cognitive maps relies on spatial information. Their analysis is essential to understand the orientation and navigation behavior in humans. Empirical studies within the interdisciplinary cooperation of Professor Dickmann at Ruhr-University Bochum and Professor Kuchinke at the International Psychoanalytical University Berlin focus on the investigation of spatial memory and navigation performance, from a cognitive and a geographic perspective. Several studies found out that the design of topographic maps has a systematical influence on spatial memory performance. Within the frame of the Priority Programme SSP 1894 'Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI): Interpretation, Visualisation and Social Computing', which is funded by the German Research Foundation with a term of 3 years, similar effects of landmarks and landmarks configurations will be investigated. Selected landmarks and, in particular, patterns of landmarks building geometric shapes are expected to guide spatial attention and support individual wayfinding strategies. Identifying landmark patterns will lay the foundations for automatic extraction processes and mobile map design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Volunteered geographic information (VGI) phenomenon offers an alternative mechanism for the acquisition of geospatial information. It has shown its effectiveness in various applications such as disaster management. However VGI suffers from a general lack of metadata quality assurance. This paper proposes an approach that aims to enhance VGI process by evaluating geospatial metadata quality. We introduce a set of indicators for geospatial metadata quality and we propose a method to evaluate them with respect to the context of VGI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individualization of tenure through title registration programmes introduced in many African countries after independence with the promise of security of tenure and increased agricultural productivity has, instead, had the opposite effect. Informal land arrangements continue to emerge as a result of the slow pace of land adjudication (formalization) and updating of land information systems. The trend towards computerization of land information systems has only put focus on already existing formal land tenure arrangements, leaving out the informal social tenure arrangements. As a result, there are now many efforts worldwide motivated by the introduction of the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM), and freely-available and easy-to-use technology tools to identify, document and map land in support of informal land administration arrangements. Actions are made towards the use of community-generated information to support land administration. Using theories from the interplay between formal and informal institutions, this paper discusses the potential outcomes in adopting Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) in land administration in Kenya. Two case studies are presented that demonstrate the complementary-accommodating, versus the substitutive-competing approaches. These are then compared with the formal land adjudication process in Kenya. It is established that because of the direct involvement of the national mapping agency in land adjudication where VGI is utilized, the outcome is a case of formal adoption of VGI, while in the other case, where there is little or no involvement by the national mapping agency, the outcome is more of competition and substitution. The latter is an example in which the VGI is used just like any other information to inform policy making, rather than taking it as the authoritative source. We argue that since informality is – and will always be – part and parcel of land administration in many African countries as a result of ingrained social relations and power structures, adopting crowdsourced land information into existing formal land administration systems should consider the particular land administration process, satisfying innate demands and requirements, thus re-engineered to accommodate VGI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relevance of local knowledge in cultural heritage is by now acknowledged. It helps to determine many community-based projects by identifying the material to be digitally maintained in multimedia collections provided by communities of volunteers, rather than for-profit businesses or government entities. Considering that the search and browsing of texts, images, video, and 3D models related to places is more essential than using a simple text-based search, an interactive multimedia map was implemented in this study. The map, which is loaded on a single HyperText Markup Language (HTML) page using AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), with a client-side control mechanism utilising jQuery components that are both freely available and ad-hoc developed, is updated according to user interaction. To simplify the publication of geo-referenced information, the application stores all the data in a Geographic JavaScript Object Notation (GeoJSON) file rather than in a database. The multimedia contents--associated with the selected Points of Interest (PoIs)--can be selected through text search and list browsing as well as by viewing their previews one by one in a sequence all together in a scrolling window (respectively: "Table", "Folder", and "Tile" functions). PoIs--visualised on the map with multi-shape markers using a set of unambiguous colours--can be filtered through their categories and types, accessibility status and timeline, thus improving the system usability. The map functions are illustrated using data collected in a Comenius project. Notes on the application software and architecture are also presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dwindling animal habitat and burgeoning human settlements have made managing human-animal conflict a critical problem in conservation of protected areas, particularly in the biodiversity-rich tropics. In this paper, we present a system aimed at leveraging public participation from affected communities to help effectively manage the conflict in both the short and long term. However, deploying a system that depends on volunteered information has its challenges in the unique settings of a national park where Information Communication Technologies infrastructure is sparse. The specific requirements of the system being easy to use and having automatic geocoding, coupled with the lack of internet access, made it impossible to deploy traditional crisis mapping software such as Ushahidi. We highlight the unique challenges of deploying a system that relies on volunteered information for managing human-animal conflict in a technology resource sparse environment and how the challenges were surpassed. Our system aims at streamlining the process of reporting cases of elephant raiding to the forest officials so as to elicit quick support. The long-term aim is to use the data collected through the system for spatio-temporal analysis to better understand elephant raiding patterns so that the parks services can be effectively deployed. La lutte contre le braconnage d'éléphant à l'aide du service de messagerie SMS : les défis du déploiement de systèmes basés sur la participation publique dans un milieu disposant de peu de ressources en technologies de l'information et de la communication La perte de l'habitat faunique et l'expansion des établissements humains aggravent les enjeux de gestion des conflits entre les humains et les animaux pour la sauvegarde des aires protégées, notamment en zone tropicale de forte biodiversité. Dans cet article, nous présentons un système visant à tirer parti de la participation du public provenant des communautés touchées afin d'élaborer un mode de gestion plus efficace du conflit à court et à long terme. Cependant, l'exploitation d'un système qui dépend d'informations fournies sur une base volontaire soulève des défis dans le contexte particulier d'un parc national disposant de peu d'infrastructures en technologies de l'information et de la communication. Considérant que le système recherché devait être convivial et permettre le géocodage automatique, et que l'Internet n'était pas disponible, les logiciels traditionnels de cartographie des crises tels que Ushahidi ne pouvaient pas être utilisés. Nous soulignons les défis à relever dans l'exploitation d'un système reposant sur des informations fournies sur une base volontaire pour assurer la gestion des conflits entre les humains et les animaux dans un contexte marqué par la pénurie de ressources technologiques, et la manière dont ces défis ont été surmontés. Notre système vise à simplifier le processus de déclaration des incidents de braconnage d'éléphant aux agents forestiers en vue d'obtenir un soutien rapide. l'objectif à long terme est d'utiliser les données recueillies par le système d'analyse spatio-temporelle pour mieux comprendre les profils de braconnage d'éléphant, permettant ainsi aux directions des parcs de réaliser leur plein potentiel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a methodology for analysing the behaviour of vehicles on roads using data obtained from Volunteered Geographic Information and more specifically from GNSS traces. These data have a great potential for this goal due to their distribution, continuity and anonymity. The proposed methodology includes all possible stages, from traces selection and downloading, passing by filtering, matching and enrichment using official linestrings, to the final obtaining of results. The article also shows the main results obtained after applying this methodology to a real case that uses a large quantity of traces, distributed over a large zone of study, including several types of roads and conditions. These results allow us to analyse the behaviour of the implicated vehicles based on the speed and the acceleration or deceleration of each trackpoint which composes the traces and compare them with the general official data published by the traffic authorities. The analysis of the results has demonstrated the viability of this methodology and its possible implementation by traffic authorities in order to obtain information to improve traffic safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a decision-making process that evaluates the possible significant effects that a proposed project may exert on the environment. The EIA scoping and reviewing stages often involve public participation. Although its importance has long been recognized, public participation in the EIA process is often regarded as ineffective, due to time, budget, resource, technical and procedural constraints, as well as the complexity of environmental information. Geographic Information System (GIS) and Volunteer Geographic Information (VGI) have the potential to contribute to data collection, sharing and presentation, utilize local user-generated content to benefit decision-making and increase public outreach. This research integrated GIS, VGI, social media tools, data mining and mobile technology to design a spatially intelligent framework that presented and shared EIA information effectively to the public. A spatially intelligent public participative system (SIPPS) was also developed as a proof-of-concept of the framework. The research selected the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project (TRTP) as the pilot study area. Survey questionnaires were designed to collect feedback and conduct evaluation. Results show that SIPPS was able to improve the effectiveness of public participation, promote environmental awareness and achieve good system usability.

In large sporting events like the World Cup in 2014, there is an imminent demand for information systems that are able to deliver to the user, useful information such as the location of games, conferences, training or a particular physical structure for their accommodation and feeding, besides showing the best routes to these places. However, the huge volume of information, concerning the events and to the own infrastructure of the World Cup host cities, hamper the search for information that is directly related to a determined user in particular. The Spatial Data Infrastructures aimed at ensuring greater access, availability and exchange of geographic information. This approach, together with the mapping of ontological concepts of the environment where the user is, allow us to provide information relevant to their context. This paper presents a proposed union between these two approaches in order to offer the user an infrastructure that not only consider the simple input of a query, but also be able to refine it and even anticipate information, respecting their environment, interest, individuality and that uses your geographic knowledge as a source of new information.

Oggi la Volunteer Geographic Information (VGI) è onnipresente. Proviene da varie fonti e può essere trovata in molti aspetti tra cui toponimi, tracce GPS, foto geo-tag, applicazioni di social networking, blog, misurazioni dei sensori, mappe topografiche ecc. Può essere il frutto di un lavoro sul campo o di bulk data importati da un dataset autorevole, disponibile gratuitamente. E' ovvio che tutte queste fonti non possono solo cadere in un'unica categoria. Ci sono molti aspetti che possono essere esaminati qui, ma di particolare interesse, quando si esaminano le fonti e le tipologie di VGI, sono l'origine, la motivazione e lo scopo di chi contribuisce alla VGI.

The latest improvements in geo-informatics offer new opportunities in a wide range of territorial and environmental applications. In this general framework, a relevant issue is represented by earthquake early warning and emergency management. This research work presents the investigation and development of a simple and innovative geospatial methodology and related collaborative open source geospatial tools for predicting and mapping the vulnerability to seismic hazard in order to support the response planning to disastrous events. The proposed geospatial methodology and tools have been integrated into an open source collaborative GIS system, designed and developed as an integrated component of an earthquake early warning and emergency management system.

It has increasingly been recognised that the future developments in geospatial data handling will centre on geospatial data on the web: Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). The evaluation of VGI data quality, including positional and shape similarity, has become a recurrent subject in the scientific literature in the last ten years. The OpenStreetMap (OSM) project is the most popular one of the leading platforms of VGI datasets. It is an online geospatial database to produce and supply free editable geospatial datasets for a worldwide. The goal of this paper is to present a comprehensive overview of the quality assurance of OSM data. In addition, the credibility of open source geospatial data is discussed, highlighting the difficulties and challenges of VGI data quality assessment. The conclusion is that for OSM dataset, it is quite difficult to control its quality. It therefore makes sense to use OSM data for applications do not need high quality spatial datasets.

The usage of OpenStreetMap (OSM), one of the resources offered by Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), has rapidly increased since it was first established in 2004. In line with this increased usage, a number of studies have been conducted to analyze the accuracy and quality of OSM data, but many of them have constraints on evaluating the profiles of contributors. In this paper, OSM road data have been analyzed with the aim of characterizing the behavior of OSM contributors. The study area, Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, was evaluated with several network analysis methods, such as completeness, degree of centrality, betweenness, closeness, PageRank, and a proposed method measuring the activation of contributors in a bounded area from 2007–2017. An evaluation of the results was also discussed in this paper by taking into account the following indicators for each year: number of nodes, ways, contributors, mean lengths, and sinuosity values of roads. The results show that the experience levels of the contributors determine the contribution type. Essentially, more experience makes for more detailed contributions.

Effective transport infrastructure is an essential component of economic integration, accessibility to vital social services and a means of mitigation in times of emergency. Rural areas in Africa are largely characterized by poor transport infrastructure. This poor state of rural road networks contributes to the vulnerability of communities in developing countries by hampering access to vital social services and opportunities. In addition, maps of road networks are incomplete, and not up-to-date. Lack of accurate maps of village-level road networks hinders determination of access to social services and timely response to emergencies in remote locations. In some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, communities in rural areas and some in urban areas have devised an alternative mode of public transport system that is reliant on motorcycle taxis. This new mode of transport has improved local mobility and has created a vibrant economy that depends on the motorcycle taxi business. The taxi system also offers an opportunity for understanding local-level mobility and the characterization of the underlying transport infrastructure. By capturing the spatial and temporal characteristics of the taxis, we could design detailed maps of rural infrastructure and reveal the human mobility patterns that are associated with the motorcycle taxi system. In this study, we tracked motorcycle taxis in a rural area in Kenya by tagging volunteer riders with Global Positioning System (GPS) data loggers. A semi-automatic method was applied on the resulting trajectories to map rural-level road networks. The results showed that GPS trajectories from motorcycle taxis could potentially improve the maps of rural roads and augment other mapping initiatives like OpenStreetMap.

This paper presents the results of a study that explored if and how an OpenStreetMap (OSM) data import task can contribute to OSM community growth. Different outreach techniques were used to introduce a building import task to three targeted OSM user groups. First, existing OSM members were contacted and asked to join the data import project. Second, several local community events were organized with Maptime Miami to engage local mappers in OSM contribution activities. Third, the import task was introduced as an extra credit assignment in two GIS courses at the University of Florida. The paper analyzes spatio-temporal user contributions of these target groups to assess the effectiveness of the different outreach techniques for recruitment and retention of OSM contributors. Results suggest that the type of prospective users that were contacted through our outreach efforts, and their different motivations play a major role in their editing activity. Results also revealed differences in editing patterns between newly recruited users and already established mappers. More specifically, long-term engagement of newly registered OSM mappers did not succeed, whereas already established contributors continued to import and improve data. In general, we found that an OSM data import project can add valuable data to the map, but also that encouraging long-term engagement of new users, whether it be within the academic environment or outside, proved to be challenging.

Systematic monitoring of recreational use in vulnerable ecosystems is crucial to balance human needs and site capacities. Recently, publicly available digital data, including Global Navigation Satellite System-based Volunteered Geographic Information, gained attention as a potential resource depicting visitor movement. However, there is a need to critically assess its reliability for visitor monitoring across countries, regions and available databases. Our research evaluates the usability of GNSS-based VGI-data obtained from three common platforms: GPSies, Outdooractive, and Komoot for assessing the spatial distribution of hikers in the Bavarian Forest National Park. A total sample of 1742 GNSS-tracks uploaded between 2013 and 2018 were compared across data platforms. Additionally, available systematic field counts, carried out between 2013 and 2014 (11 Eco-Counter sensors), were compared to GNSS-based VGI data uploaded within the corresponding period. The comparisons at individual and collective levels (route lengths, kernel density, optimized hotspot analysis along with fishnet-based counts of GNSS-tracks) showed similarities between VGI data platforms. Data obtained from GPSies and Outdooractive displayed a higher correlation with each other than with those obtained from Komoot. Also, for GPSies, there was a significant positive correlation between VGI-data and field count data. Data sample of Outdooractive and Komoot within the specified spatio-temporal frame was too small to compare with available field count data. We highlight the necessity of systematic validation of GNSS-based VGI data resources, being complementary rather than the primary data source in visitor monitoring and recreation planning. Also, systematic long-term visitor monitoring using other methods is crucial to assess the validity of novel data resources, such as GNSS-based VGI. • This study evaluates usability of GNSS-based VGI-data for monitoring human spatial behaviour in outdoor recreational areas. • We compared data obtained from three platforms(GPSies, Outdooractive, Komoot) and field counts available for Bavarian Forest NP • There was a significant positive correlation in GNSS-tracks distribution across all investigated VGI platforms. • There was a significant positive correlation between VGI-data and field counts in case of GPSies. • We highlight the necessity of systematic validation of GNSS-based VGI data resources in recreation monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality of data is one of the key issues in the domain of Volunteered geographic information (VGI). To this purpose, in literature VGI data has been sometime compared with authoritative geospatial data. Evaluation of single contributions to VGI databases is more relevant for some applications and typically relies on evaluating reputation of contributors and using it as proxy measures for data quality. In this paper, we present a novel approach for reputation evaluation that is based on the well known PageRank algorithm for Web pages. We use a simple model for describing different versions of a geospatial entity in terms of corrections and completions. Authors, VGI contributions and their mutual relationships are modeled as nodes of a graph. In order to evaluate reputation of authors and contributions in the graph we propose an algorithm that is based on the personalized version of PageRank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A protocol for the collection of vector data in Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) projects is proposed. VGI is a source of crowdsourced geographic data and information which is comparable, and in some cases better, than equivalent data from National Mapping Agencies (NMAs) and Commercial Surveying Companies (CSC). However, there are many differences in how NMAs and CSC collect, analyse, manage and distribute geographic information to that of VGI projects. NMAs and CSC make use of robust and standardised data collection protocols whilst VGI projects often provide guidelines rather than rigorous data collection specifications. The proposed protocol addresses formalising the collection and creation of vector data in VGI projects in three principal ways: by manual vectorisation; field survey; and reuse of existing data sources. This protocol is intended to be generic rather than being linked to any specific VGI project. We believe that this is the first protocol for VGI vector data collection that has been formally described in the literature. Consequently, this paper shall serve as a starting point for on-going development and refinement of the protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased ease for individuals to create, share and map geographic information combined with the need for timely, relevant and diverse information has resulted in a new disaster management context. Volunteered geographic information (VGI), or geographic information voluntarily created by private citizens enabled through technologies like social media and web-based mapping, has changed the ways people create and use information for crisis events. Research has focussed on disaster response while largely ignoring prevention and preparedness. Preparing for disasters can reduce negative impacts on life and property, but despite strategies to educate communities, preparation remains low. This study assesses the application and value of VGI in bushfire risk reduction through a participatory mapping approach. It examines VGI as a social practice and not simply a data source by considering the user experience of contributing VGI and the potential for these activities to increase community connectedness for building disaster resilience. Participatory mapping workshops were held in bushfire-risk communities in Tasmania. Workshop activities included a paper-mapping exercise and web-based digital mapping. Survey results from 31 participants at three workshops indicated the process of mapping and contributing local information for bushfire preparation with other community members can contribute to increased social connectedness, understanding of local bushfire risk, and engagement in risk reduction. Local knowledge exchange was seen as valuable, but the social dimension appeared even more engaging than the specific information shared. Participants reported collaborative maps as effective for collating and sharing community bushfire information with a preference for digital mapping. Some limitations of online sharing of information were also reported by participants, however, including potential issues of privacy, data quality and source trustworthiness. Further work is needed to extrapolate findings from the study sample to the broader population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land administration systems assist citizens in identifying their rights, restrictions and responsibilities (RRRs) associated with land and property. However, delineating the spatial extent of all RRRs regulated in legislation remains a challenge. Approaches that have been used so far are mainly based on accurate surveying processes, which are untimely and too expensive. Previous studies proposed Volunteered Geographical Information (VGI) as a practical and low-cost method for fast acquisition of spatial data from volunteered contributions, mostly for countries where a limited number of land rights records exist. However, VGI could be beneficial for advanced and developing land administration systems in terms of collecting a range of RRRs which are not spatially well recorded and represented. A multidisciplinary review of the literature on VGI and land administration reveals the lack of a comprehensive conceptual framework for utilising VGI in land administration for the purpose of collecting a range of RRRs related to land and property. This paper investigates the main aspects of utilising VGI in land administration based on qualitative content analysis of available resources. The outcome of this research suggests that using VGI in land administration requires a comprehensive understanding of the complexities and interconnections of legal, institutional, technical and social aspects within each jurisdiction. These findings are merged to formulate a generic and innovative conceptual framework which serves as a basis for the process of collecting land and property RRRs from volunteer contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extremadura (Spain), being one of the less-developed EU regions, is also eligible for European funds, including those related with the development of tourism activities in rural areas. To assess the spatial distribution of rural tourism potential (RTP), a methodological approach was followed by combining the synergetic use of geographic information systems (GIS) and the analytical hierarchical process (AHP). For the evaluation model, six factors were examined and hierarchized by a panel of eighteen experts: tourism accommodation offer, activities in natural areas, gastronomic offer, cultural activities, bath offer in natural environments, and activities in active tourism. These factors were then decomposed into thirty-two evaluation criteria and the relative importance of their weights was estimated using pairwise judgments. Using publicly available data and volunteered geographic information (VGI) platforms, the related spatial and non-spatial data were collected, collated, and standardized, employing appropriate tools developed with open-source GIS software. The results, represented by a series of intensity maps, indicate the RTP scores, highlight the strengths and weaknesses in each county, and could serve as a planning tool for public and/or private investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial data by using public knowledge is the most popular way to gather data in terms of social media within the last decade. Literature defines, public or volunteers are accepted bionic sensors detecting their surroundings and share what they detect in terms of their social media applications or microblogs. Besides being cheapest and fastest and easy way of spatial data acquisition, public or volunteers provides not only spatial data but also attribute data which makes the data more valuable. To understand and interpret those data have some difficulties according to locality. Although some difficulties like difference of languages, society structure and the time period would affect tweets depending on locality, gathering public knowledge or volunteered data contribute many scientific or private researches like Urban, Environmental, and Market side. To extract information, data should be reviewed locally according to main aim of research. In this study, our aim is to draw a perspective for a PhD research about volunteered data in the case of Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographic information has been traditionally produced by mapping agencies and corporations, using highly skilled professionals as well as expensive precision equipment and procedures, in a very costly approach. The production of land use and land cover databases is just one example of such traditional approaches. At the same time, the amount of Geographic Information created and shared by citizens through the web has been increasing exponentially during the last decade as a result of the emergence and popularization of technologies such as theWeb 2.0, cloud computing, global positioning systems (GPS), smart phones, among others. This vast amount of free geographic data might have valuable information to extract. Combining data from several initiatives might further increase the value of such data. We propose a conceptual model to integrate data from suitable user generated spatial content initiatives. A prototype to demonstrate the ability of the model to perform such integration, based on two identified use cases, was also developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Availability of up-to-date geographic datasets, including the information voluntarily created by ordinary people, is crucial for disaster management in areas affected by catastrophic events and humanitarian crises. OpenStreetMap (OSM) is the most popular Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) project that has been extensively used for collaborative mapping in areas affected by natural disasters. This article provides an overview on how OSM data are exploited in disaster response scenarios and illustrates their specific application during the recent Italian earthquakes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Due to the advent of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), large datasets of user-generated Points of Interest (POI) are now available. As with all VGI, however, there is uncertainty concerning data quality and fitness-for-use. Currently, the task of evaluating fitness-for-use of POI is left to the data user, with no guidance framework being available which is why this research proposes a generic approach to choose appropriate measures for assessing fitness-for-use of crowdsourced POI for different tasks. (2) Methods: POI are related to the higher-level concept of geo-atoms in order to identify and distinguish their two basic functions, geo-referencing and object-referencing. Then, for each of these functions, suitable measures of positional and thematic quality are developed based on existing quality indicators. (3) Results: Typical use cases of POI are evaluated with regards to their use of the two basic functions of POI, and allocated appropriate measures for fitness-for-use. The general procedure is illustrated on a brief practical example. (4) Conclusion: This research addresses the issue of fitness-for-use of POI on a higher conceptual level by relating it to more fundamental notions of geographical information representation. The results are expected to assist users of crowdsourced POI datasets in determining an appropriate method to evaluate fitness-for-use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates research using VGI and geo-social media in the disaster management context. Relying on the method of systematic mapping, it develops a classification schema that captures three levels of main category, focus, and intended use, and analyzes the relationships with the employed data sources and analysis methods. It focuses the scope to the pioneering field of disaster management, but the described approach and the developed classification schema are easily adaptable to different application domains or future developments. The results show that a hypothesized consolidation of research, characterized through the building of canonical bodies of knowledge and advanced application cases with refined methodology, has not yet happened. The majority of the studies investigate the challenges and potential solutions of data handling, with fewer studies focusing on socio-technological issues or advanced applications. This trend is currently showing no sign of change, highlighting that VGI research is still very much technology-driven as opposed to theory- or application-driven. From the results of the systematic mapping study, the authors formulate and discuss several research objectives for future work, which could lead to a stronger, more theory-driven treatment of the topic VGI in GIScience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is much interest in being able to combine crowdsourced data. One of the critical issues in information sciences is how to combine data or information that are discordant or inconsistent in some way. Many previous approaches have taken a majority rules approach under the assumption that most people are correct most of the time. This paper analyses crowdsourced land cover data generated by the Geo-Wiki initiative in order to infer the land cover present at locations on a 50 km grid. It compares four evidence combination approaches (Dempster-Shafer, Bayes, Fuzzy Sets and Possibility) applied under a geographically weighted kernel with the geographically weighted average approach applied in many current Geo-Wiki analyses. A geographically weighted approach uses a moving kernel under which local analyses are undertaken. The contribution (or salience) of each data point to the analysis is weighted by its distance to the kernel centre, reflecting Tobler's 1 law of geography. A series of analyses were undertaken using different kernel sizes (or bandwidths). Each of the geographically weighted evidence combination methods generated spatially distributed measures of belief in hypotheses associated with the presence of individual land cover classes at each location on the grid. These were compared with GlobCover, a global land cover product. The results from the geographically weighted average approach in general had higher correspondence with the reference data and this increased with bandwidth. However, for some classes other evidence combination approaches had higher correspondences possibly because of greater ambiguity over class conceptualisations and / or lower densities of crowdsourced data. The outputs also allowed the beliefs in each class to be mapped. The differences in the soft and the crisp maps are clearly associated with the logics of each evidence combination approach and of course the different questions that they ask of the data. The results show that discordant data can be combined (rather than being removed from analysis) and that data integrated in this way can be parameterised by different measures of belief uncertainty. The discussion highlights a number of critical areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We live in a society in which instant gratification is expected: we demand constantly up-to-date information, which is reflected in our reliance on maps for navigation. Volunteered geographical information (VGI) and geocrowdsourcing make this demand attainable, with popular examples being Waze and OpenStreetMap, where maps are updated quickly by citizen contributors with current base data and features. At George Mason University (in Fairfax, Virginia), the Office of Disability Services releases a traditional paper accessibility map once annually. Owing to its production methods and format, this accessibility map does not capture the transient obstacles that occur frequently throughout campus, rendering it less useful to disabled pedestrians. To fix this dilemma and establish a more useful accessibility system, we have created an application in which contributors report transient obstacles that may impede pedestrian navigation, including sidewalk obstructions, construction detours, and other obstacles that may affect pathway walkability. One of the concerns associated with VGI and geocrowdsourced information is quality assurance, which is imperative when the usage scenarios (including blind, visually impaired, and mobility-impaired navigation) depend on positional accuracy. This study attempts to address the concerns related to the quality assurance of VGI, specifically quality assessment of the positional accuracy of the geocrowdsourced spatial data. We present our quality assessment techniques and novel methods for assessing the consistency of positional characteristics of geocrowdsourced spatial data related to accessibility. These methods rely on moderated positional assessments, geotags extracted from contributed images, and gazetteer-based geoparsing of location descriptions. Finally, we base our methods and approaches on research contributions and best practices from past and current efforts in accessibility mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of volunteered geographical information (VGI) has contributed to the growth of the amount of user-contributed spatial data around the world. Spatial data acquired from crowdsourcing environments may contain valuable information which can be useful in other research fields, such as Digital gazetteers, commonly used in Geographic Information Retrieval. Digital gazetteers have a powerful role in the geoparsing process. They need to be kept up-to-date and as comprehensive as possible to enable geoparsers to perform lookup and then resolve toponym recognition precisely over digital documents. The detection of toponyms in digital texts such as social media posts is a bottom line for discovering useful spatially related information such as complaints regarding urban areas. In this context, this article proposes a method for gazetteer enrichment leveraging VGI data sources. Indeed VGI environments are not originally developed to work as gazetteers, however, they often contain more detailed and up-to-date information than gazetteers. Our method is applied within a geoparser environment by adapting its heuristics set besides enriching the corresponding gazetteer. A case study was performed by geoparsing Twitter posts focusing solely on the messages aiming at evaluating the performance of the enriched system. The obtained results were encouraging and have provided a good basis for discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volunteered geographic information (VGI) refers to the widespread creation and sharing of geographic information by private citizens, often through platforms such as online mapping tools, social media, and smartphone applications. VGI has shifted the ways information is created, shared, used and experienced, with important implications for applications of geospatial data, including emergency management. Detailed interviews with 13 emergency management professionals from eight organisations across five Australian states provided insights into the impacts of VGI on official emergency management. Perceived opportunities presented by VGI included improved communication, acquisition of diverse local information, and increased community engagement in disaster management. Identified challenges included the digital divide, data management, misinformation, and liability concerns. Significantly, VGI disrupts the traditional top-down structure of emergency management and reflects a culture shift away from authoritative control of information. To capitalise on the opportunities of VGI, agencies need to share responsibility and be willing to remain flexible in supporting positive community practises, including VGI. Given the high accountability and inherently responsive nature of decision making in disaster management, it provides a useful lens through which to examine the impacts of VGI on official authoritative systems more broadly. This analysis of the perceptions of emergency management professionals suggests changes to traditional systems that involve decentralisation of power and increased empowerment of citizens, where value is increasingly recognised in both expert and citizen-produced information, initiatives and practises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we present a routing approach avoiding relatively dangerous areas within a city. The information of how dangerous some urban areas are is derived using volunteered geographic information (VGI), governmental open data for detecting properties and functionalities of the urban infrastructure and historical crime data from police departments for detecting crime hot spots. Therefore, we present the basics of crime mapping and analysis with GIS, the practical use of VGI for routing and describe our contribution within the field of routing solutions. Afterwards, we explore our test data in detail. For the practical use, we simplify all the urban infrastructure information and propose a safety index, which represents the relative safety in the investigation area. Additionally, historical crime hot spots are detected and used as routing obstacles. The arcs in the road network are weighted by our safety index and the historical crime hot spots are introduced as obstacle polygons. We test our safety-aware routing design on Los Angeles (LA) and assume its use during night times. In this regard, from two relatively far away situated origin and destination points, we calculate the least dangerous path and compare it with the calculated shortest path. Vehicle drivers without knowledge about the dangerous areas in the city may use the least dangerous path, which is based on our calculated safety index. Finally, we discuss the effectiveness of our method and consider further extensions using freely available geodata. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the past several years, volunteered geographic information (VGI) has expanded rapidly. VGI collection has been proven to serve as a highly successful means of acquiring timely and detailed global spatial data. However, VGI includes several special properties. For example, the contributor's reputation affects the quality of objects edited, and a geographic object may have multiple versions. The existing spatio-temporal data model cannot describe the unique properties of VGI. Therefore, a spatio-temporal VGI model considering trust-related information is presented in this paper. In this model, central elements of the VGI environment, e.g., geographic entity, entity state, state version, contributor, reputation, geographic event, and edit event, and their interaction mechanisms are analysed. Major VGI objects and relations are determined using the object-oriented method and trust-related operations, and their relationships are analysed, and nine linkage rules among trust-related operations are found to maintain the consistency of corresponding data. A prototype system for the spatio-temporal VGI model is presented, and the effectiveness of the model is verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Car navigation system devices provide today with an easy and simple solution to the basic concept of reaching a destination. Although these systems usually achieve this goal, they still deliver a limited and poor sequence of instructions that do not consider the human nature of using landmarks during wayfinding. This research paper addresses the concept of enriching navigation route instructions by adding supplementary route information in the form of landmarks. We aim at using a contributed source of landmarks information, which is easy to access, available, show high update rate, and have a large scale of information. For this, Wikipedia was chosen, since it represents the world's largest free encyclopaedia that includes information about many spatial entities. A survey and classification of available landmarks is implemented, coupled with ranking algorithms based on the entries' categories and attributes. These are aimed at retrieving the most relevant landmark information required that are valuable for the enrichment of a specific navigation route. The paper will present this methodology, together with examples and results, showing the feasibility of using this concept and its potential of enriching navigation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the world of Volunteered Geographic Information from birth until today, observing the actors, the sources and the problems inherent the data quality according to ISO standards. The author underline the potential of this social phenomenon in constant evolution and the impact this could have, in the very near future, in the various fields of geospatial information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landmark representations play an important role in map-based orientation and navigation. By matching these representations, usually in the form of pictograms, to the represented real-world landmarks, people are able to self-localize themselves within real-world space (Kiefer et al., 2014). However, successful map matching has been found to be affected by the spatial accuracy of landmark representations in a map (Keil et al., 2022). Spatially inaccurate landmark representations evoke uncertainty in the map reader whether map representations match the represented 3D space. These findings imply that, despite the spatially accurate representation of other map elements, a single spatially inaccurate map representation might compromise self-localization. Especially in the context of maps based on volunteered geographic information (VGI), it is important to address issues of potential spatial inaccuracies and the resulting uncertainty. VGI data quality can be very heterogenous, as it depends on the equipment, motivation and skills of the volunteers involved in the data acquisition process (van Exel et al., 2010; Girres & Touya, 2010). According to Pang et al. (1997), visualizing uncertainty of data leads to more informed decision making. In the context of map matching, we argue that visualizing uncertainty concerning the correct spatial representation of landmarks helps to sustain successful self-localization. If map users are informed about potential spatial inaccuracies, they could adapt to discrepancies between the real-world landmark locations and landmark representations in the map or focus on other (less uncertain) map representations. Thus, visualizing spatial uncertainty should decrease the likelihood of a perceived mismatch between maps and represented 3D spaces due to single spatially inaccurate landmark representations. We investigated this assumption by expanding the experimental approach applied by Keil et al. (2022). Participants were asked whether displayed maps matched simultaneously displayed virtual 3D environments containing a visually salient landmark. The use of a virtual 3D environment allowed us to fully control the displayed stimuli and the location of landmarks. Responses were given by selecting a value on a continuous scale ranging from a certain mismatch to a certain match. Random spatial inaccuracies were applied to a landmark representation in the maps. Additionally, we used different visualizations to communicate spatial uncertainty concerning the locations of the landmark representations. In addition to a control condition, size and transparency of landmark pictograms as well as circular transparent uncertainty areas were used to represent spatial uncertainty. Size and transparency were chosen based on suggestions of Padilla et al. (2014) and Kinkeldey et al. (2014). Uncertainty areas were investigated due to their use in Google Maps as a visualization for spatial uncertainty of GPS information. The results demonstrate that participants were significantly more likely to perceive a match between the maps and the corresponding 3D environments when uncertainty areas or pictogram size modifications were used to visualize potential spatial inaccuracies. However, applying transparency to the landmark pictograms did not lead to significant differences compared to the control condition. According to MacEachren et al. (2012), transparency can only be perceived if background elements are visible through the transparent element. Thus, as the map background behind transparent pictograms was a monochrome green, participants might only have perceived transparency based on different transparency values from previous trials. Taken together, the findings support our assumption that the visualization of uncertainty can help to sustain successful self-localization in the context of spatially inaccurate map information. Uncertainty areas and pictogram size modifications were identified as effective means to communicate spatial inaccuracy of map representations and to improve map matching. Concerning the use of transparency, more research is required, as its effectiveness might depend on an interaction with the underlying map elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pedestrians, contrasting with vehicles, do not take routes only over defined linear features. Routing networks have historically ignored that pedestrians have a higher degree of freedom, and can naturally move through open spaces (Graser, 2016). On top of that, our real world is not static, it changes dynamically. Routing apps also fail in most cases to portray the varying character of the reality on the ground. Combining both time dependent, and open areas we can define a complex scenario called Time Dependent Open Areas (TDOAs). There are no routing services we are aware of that can handle TDOAs. Figure 1. Example of a TDOA. A pedestrian square is fully traversable from Monday to Thursday. From Friday to Sunday, there is a weekly market that changes the areas that can be walked over, so a pedestrian would have to walk around the market stalls to reach the opposite end of the square. When commercial solutions do not exist, Volunteered Geographical Information (VGI), that is edited by individual users, can fill the gap in the availability of digital geographical information (Goodchild, 2007). OpenStreetMap (OSM) is the most renown actor of VGI, being a free editable spatial database of the world, which data can also be downloaded and reused with an open license (OpenStreetMap Wiki contributors, 2022a). This openness, in both data and specification, helped with the development of a whole range of applications around it, creating a sort of "ecosystem". The ecosystem of OSM applications provides a starting point for our solution, and paves the way for the development of derived work on an already established base. This work in progress aims to develop a standard way (schema) of mapping TDOAs, deriving from the current OSM time dependent (OpenStreetMapWiki contributors, 2022c) and pedestrian open areas (OpenStreetMapWiki contributors, 2022b,d) schemas. After that, combine time dependent (Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur, 2019, Rylov et al., 2022) and open area (Hahmann et al., 2018, GIScienceHD, 2017) routing algorithms to create a single unified routing service for TDOAs. The unified routing service uses OSM data and the new schema to generate the routing graph. A web client is also being developed from previous work (Butzer et al., 2021). It acts as a graphical interface to interact with the unified routing service. This web client has the options to set a start and end points, and a time. It also incorporates a map to visualize the route. The tagging schema and the unified routing service is set to be proven in a real world example. The surveyed data is then incorporated and merged into the existing OSM database, and therefore openly shared for other uses. After that, the adequateness and effectiveness of the results obtained are analyzed, comparing the unified routing service with a routing service that cannot handle TDOAs. The analysis focuses on measurable variables like computing time for generating the routing graph and routes, needed memory for the graph and distance variability with the most efficient route. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution addresses the phenomenon of Voluntereed Geographic Information explaining these new and burgeoning sources of information offers multidisciplinary scientists an unprecedented opportunity to conduct research on a variety of topics at multiple spatial and temporal scales. In particular the contribution refers to two COST Actions which have been recently activated on the subject which are particularly relevant for the growing of the European scientific community.