The phenomenon of volunteered geographic information is part of a profound transformation in how geographic data, information, and knowledge are produced and circulated. By situating volunteered geographic information (VGI) in the context of big-data deluge and the data-intensive inquiry, the 20 chapters in this book explore both the theories and applications of crowdsourcing for geographic knowledge production with three sections focusing on 1). VGI, Public Participation, and Citizen Science; 2). Geographic Knowledge Production and Place Inference; and 3). Emerging Applications and New Challenges. This book argues that future progress in VGI research depends in large part on building strong linkages with diverse geographic scholarship. Contributors of this volume situate VGI research in geography’s core concerns with space and place, and offer several ways of addressing persistent challenges of quality assurance in VGI. This book positions VGI as part of a shift toward hybrid epistemologies, and potentially a fourth paradigm of data-intensive inquiry across the sciences. It also considers the implications of VGI and the exaflood for further time-space compression and new forms, degrees of digital inequality, the renewed importance of geography, and the role of crowdsourcing for geographic knowledge production.

Geographic data is a valuable source of information in modern society. By utilizing alternative sources of this data, the availability and potential applications of geographic information systems can be increased. Volunteered Geographic Information and the Future of Geospatial Data is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly research on information gathering from volunteers, as opposed to official agencies and private companies, to compile geospatial data. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics such as regional landscape mapping, road safety, and land usage, this book is ideally designed for researchers, academics, students, professionals, and practitioners interested in the growing area of volunteered geographic information.

With the growth of information technology, many new communication channels and platforms have emerged. This growth has advanced the work of crowdsourcing, allowing individuals and companies in various industries to coordinate efforts on different levels and in different areas. Providing new and unique sources of knowledge outside organizations enables innovation and shapes competitive advantage. Crowdsourcing: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is a collection of innovative research on the methods and applications of crowdsourcing in business operations and management, science, healthcare, education, and politics. Highlighting a range of topics such as crowd computing, macrotasking, and observational crowdsourcing, this multi-volume book is ideally designed for business executives, professionals, policymakers, academicians, and researchers interested in all aspects of crowdsourcing.

Maps are a fundamental resource in a diverse array of applications ranging from everyday activities, such as route planning through the legal demarcation of space to scientific studies, such as those seeking to understand biodiversity and inform the design of nature reserves for species conservation. For a map to have value, it should provide an accurate and timely representation of the phenomenon depicted and this can be a challenge in a dynamic world. Fortunately, mapping activities have benefitted greatly from recent advances in geoinformation technologies. Satellite remote sensing, for example, now offers unparalleled data acquisition and authoritative mapping agencies have developed systems for the routine production of maps in accordance with strict standards. Until recently, much mapping activity was in the exclusive realm of authoritative agencies but technological development has also allowed the rise of the amateur mapping community. The proliferation of inexpensive and highly mobile and location aware devices together with Web 2.0 technology have fostered the emergence of the citizen as a source of data. Mapping presently benefits from vast amounts of spatial data as well as people able to provide observations of geographic phenomena, which can inform map production, revision and evaluation. The great potential of these developments is, however, often limited by concerns. The latter span issues from the nature of the citizens through the way data are collected and shared to the quality and trustworthiness of the data. This book reports on some of the key issues connected with the use of citizen sensors in mapping. It arises from a European Co-operation in Science and Technology (COST) Action, which explored issues linked to topics ranging from citizen motivation, data acquisition, data quality and the use of citizen derived data in the production of maps that rival, and sometimes surpass, maps arising from authoritative agencies.

For generations, the map has been central to how societies function all over the world. Cybercartography is a new paradigm for maps and mapping in the information era. Defined as "the organization, presentation, analysis and communication of spatially referenced information on a wide variety of topics of interest to society, cybercartography is presented in an interactive, dynamic, multisensory format with the use of multimedia and multimodal interfaces. Cybercartography: Theory and Practice examines the major elements of cybercartography and emphasizes the importance of interaction between theory and practice in developing a paradigm which moves beyond the concept of Geographic Information Systems and Geographical Information Science. It argues for the centrality of the map as part of an integrated information, communication, and analytical package.This volume is a result of a multidisciplinary team effort and has benefited from the input of partners from government, industry and other organizations. The international team reports on major original cybercartographic research and practice from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including the humanities, social sciences including human factors psychology, cybernetics, English literature, cultural mediation, cartography, and geography. This new synthesis has intrinsic value for industries, the general public, and the relationships between mapping and the development of user-centered multimedia interfaces.* Discusses the centrality of the map and its importance in the information era * Provides an interdisciplinary approach with contributions from psychology, music, and language and literature * Describes qualitative and quantitative aspects of cybercartography and the importance of societal context in the interaction between theory and practice* Contains an interactive CD-Rom containing color images, links to websites, plus other important information to capture the dynamic and interactive elements of cybercartography

This textbook presents the main principles of visual analytics and describes techniques and approaches that have proven their utility and can be readily reproduced. Special emphasis is placed on various instructive examples of analyses, in which the need for and the use of visualisations are explained in detail. The book begins by introducing the main ideas and concepts of visual analytics and explaining why it should be considered an essential part of data science methodology and practices. It then describes the general principles underlying the visual analytics approaches, including those on appropriate visual representation, the use of interactive techniques, and classes of computational methods. It continues with discussing how to use visualisations for getting aware of data properties that need to be taken into account and for detecting possible data quality issues that may impair the analysis. The second part of the book describes visual analytics methods and workflows, organised by various data types including multidimensional data, data with spatial and temporal components, data describing binary relationships, texts, images and video. For each data type, the specific properties and issues are explained, the relevant analysis tasks are discussed, and appropriate methods and procedures are introduced. The focus here is not on the micro-level details of how the methods work, but on how the methods can be used and how they can be applied to data. The limitations of the methods are also discussed and possible pitfalls are identified. The textbook is intended for students in data science and, more generally, anyone doing or planning to do practical data analysis. It includes numerous examples demonstrating how visual analytics techniques are used and how they can help analysts to understand the properties of data, gain insights into the subject reflected in the data, and build good models that can be trusted. Based on several years of teaching related courses at the City, University of London, the University of Bonn and TU Munich, as well as industry training at the Fraunhofer Institute IAIS and numerous summer schools, the main content is complemented by sample datasets and detailed, illustrated descriptions of exercises to practice applying visual analytics methods and workflows.

This edited volume presents a collection of lessons learned with, and research conducted on, OpenStreetMap, the goal being to promote the project’s integration. The respective chapters address a) state-of-the-art and cutting-edge approaches to data quality analysis in OpenStreetMap, b) investigations on understanding OpenStreetMap contributors and the nature of their contributions, c) identifying patterns of contributions and contributors, d) applications of OpenStreetMap in different domains, e) mining value-added knowledge and information from OpenStreetMap, f) limitations in the analysis OpenStreetMap data, and g) integrating OpenStreetMap with commercial and non-commercial datasets. The book offers an ideal opportunity to present and disseminate a number of cutting-edge developments and applications in the field of geography, spatial statistics, GIS, social science, and cartography.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.tandfebooks.com/doi/view/10.1201/9781315146638, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. GIS is used today to better understand and solve urban problems. GIS in Sustainable Urban Planning and Management: A Global Perspective, explores and illustrates the capacity that geo-information and GIS have to inform practitioners and other participants in the processes of the planning and management of urban regions. The first part of the book addresses the concept of sustainable urban development, its different frameworks, the many ways of measuring sustainability, and its value in the urban policy arena. The second part discusses how urban planning can shape our cities, examines various spatial configurations of cities, the spread of activities, and the demands placed on different functions to achieve strategic objective. It further focuses on the recognition that urban dwellers are increasingly under threat from natural hazards and climate change. Written by authors with expertise on the applications of geo-information in urban management, this book showcases the importance of GIS in better understanding current urban challenges and provides new insights on how to apply GIS in urban planning. It illustrates through real world cases the use of GIS in analyzing and evaluating the position of disadvantaged groups and areas in cities and provides clear examples of applied GIS in urban sustainability and urban resilience. The idea of sustainable development is still very much central in the new development agenda of the United Nations, and in that sense, it is of particular importance for students from both the Global South and Global North. Professionals, researchers, and students alike will find this book to be an invaluable resource for understanding and solving problems relating to sustainable urban planning and management.

Developments in the Theory and Practice of Cybercartography—awarded an Honorable Mention in Earth Science at the Association of American Publishers' 2015 PROSE Awards—examines some of the recent developments in the theory and practice of cybercartography and the substantial changes which have taken place since the first edition published in 2005. It continues to examine the major elements of cybercartography and emphasizes the importance of interaction between theory and practice in developing a paradigm which moves beyond the concept of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Geographical Information Science.Cybercartography is a new paradigm for maps and mapping in the information era. Defined as "the organization, presentation, analysis and communication of spatially referenced information on a wide variety of topics of interest to society," cybercartography is presented in an interactive, dynamic, multisensory format with the use of multimedia and multimodal interfaces.The seven major elements of cybercartography outlined in the first edition have been supplemented by six key ideas and the definition of cybercartography has been extended and expanded. The new practice of mapping traditional knowledge in partnership with indigenous people has led to new theoretical understanding as well as innovative cybercartographic atlases. Featuring more than 90% new and revised content, this volume is a result of a multidisciplinary team effort and has benefited from the input of partners from government, industry and aboriginal non-governmental organizations. - Honorable Mention in the the 2015 PROSE Awards in Earth Science from the Association of American Publishers - Highlights the relationship between cybercartography and critical geography - Incorporates several new cybercartographic atlases produced in cooperation with Inuit and First Nations groups - Showcases legal, ethical, consent and policy implications of mapping local and traditional knowledge - Features an interactive companion web site containing links to related sites, additional color images and illustrations, plus important information to capture the dynamic and interactive elements of cybercartography: http://booksite.elsevier.com/9780444627131/

The concept of resilience has been gaining momentum in various fields in recent years and has been used in various ways from a catch phrase to a cornerstone in theoretic development or practical operation. No matter how it is used, it does contribute one way or another to the refinement and application of the concept. This book focuses on the application of the resilience concept to flood disaster management. This book is a collection of research works conducted across the world and across sectors. Therefore, it is a good example of how different perspectives can catalyze our insight into complex flood-related issues. It can be considered valuable reading material for students, researchers, policymakers and practitioners, because it provides both the fundamentals and new development of resilience-based approaches and delivers a message that the goal of resilience-based flood management goes beyond disaster reduction.