Enhancing Volunteered Geographical Information (VGI) Visualization with Open Source Web-Based Software

Volunteered Geographic Information;PPGIS;Open Source;Geovisualization;Usability;Web 2.0;Geography

Deparday, Vivien

University of Waterloo

关键词: Volunteered Geographic Information;    PPGIS;    Open Source;    Geovisualization;    Usability;    Web 2.0;    Geography;   

Others  :  https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/10012/5709/1/Deparday_Vivien.pdf

瑞士|英语

来源: UWSPACE Waterloo Institutional Repository

【 摘 要 】

Recent advances in information technology such as Web mapping and location-aware mobile deviceshave enabled non-experts to create, use and share volumes of spatial data in an increasinglyaccessible fashion. Such user-generated spatial data is usually referred to as Volunteered GeographicInformation (VGI). Two of the fundamental challenges associated with the exploitation of VGI relateto information overload and extraction of meaning. In order to deal with these challenges andimprove the utility of VGI, this thesis investigates the potential of several interactive geovisualizationtechniques including filtering, dynamic spatial aggregation, linking and brushing, and tag-basedvisualizations. As a preliminary work to explore and structure the new research field of VGI, aframework of the different types of VGI is elaborated and followed by a review of the challenges andcurrent solutions related to the utilization of VGI. Based on this review, a web-based prototype isdeveloped to serve as a platform for the evaluation of selected geovisualization techniques. Theprototype is then used in a series of workshops with rich citizen-generated data related to place-basedcommunity assets. The results of the case study show that the implemented geovisualizationtechniques enable users to find relevant subsets of information and to gain new insights on the data.Based on the potential shown by these results, future research directions are suggested.