Digitizing and Visualizing Sketch Map Data: A Semi-Structured Approach to Qualitative GIS

Aux côtés des approches qualitatives de cueillette des données, le croquis cartographique constitue un moyen intuitif de récolter les impressions de participants et de participantes sur l’espace et les lieux. Mais les données recueillies sont souvent difficiles à traiter, en particulier à numériser et à visualiser. Après une description de ces difficultés, cet article présente une approche « semi-structurée » de la cueillette, de la numérisation et de l’analyse des données en vue d’un croquis cartographique, ainsi qu’un progiciel à code source ouvert, QualMap, qui offre des outils de numérisation de ces données en langage de programmation R. Cette approche conserve les cartes de base précises employées dans d’autres travaux préparatoires à des croquis cartographiques. Pour aider à la numérisation et à l’analyse, elle leur surimpose toutefois une unité spatiale, déterminée par la chercheuse ou le chercheur. L’utilisation d’une unité spatiale normée ouvre encore d’autres possibilités de cartographie et d’analyse. L’applicabilité de cette approche est illustrée par un projet d’échantillonnage qui analyse les perceptions de l’espace recueillies auprès d’un échantillon de commodité formé d’étudiants et d’étudiantes de niveau collégial. Le groupement sur les cartes ainsi produites montre, autour du campus, une « bulle » qui rend compte de l’essentiel des déplacements hebdomadaires de la population étudiante. Ces données sont appariées à des données sur la criminalité, ce qui suggère la possibilité d’étendre par des méthodes mixtes cette approche « semi-structurée » du croquis cartographique.

The Sketch Map Tool Facilitates the Assessment of OpenStreetMap Data for Participatory Mapping

A worldwide increase in the number of people and areas affected by disasters has led to more and more approaches that focus on the integration of local knowledge into disaster risk reduction processes. The research at hand shows a method for formalizing this local knowledge via sketch maps in the context of flooding. The Sketch Map Tool enables not only the visualization of this local knowledge and analyses of OpenStreetMap data quality but also the communication of the results of these analyses in an understandable way. Since the tool will be open-source and several analyses are made automatically, the tool also offers a method for local governments in areas where historic data or financial means for flood mitigation are limited. Example analyses for two cities in Brazil show the functionalities of the tool and allow the evaluation of its applicability. Results depict that the fitness-for-purpose analysis of the OpenStreetMap data reveals promising results to identify whether the sketch map approach can be used in a certain area or if citizens might have problems with marking their flood experiences. In this way, an intrinsic quality analysis is incorporated into a participatory mapping approach. Additionally, different paper formats offered for printing enable not only individual mapping but also group mapping. Future work will focus on advancing the automation of all steps of the tool to allow members of local governments without specific technical knowledge to apply the Sketch Map Tool for their own study areas.

Analysis of urban spatial cognition in Luzhou city based on city image theory

This paper uses the methods of picture recognition, sketch map and questionnaire to understand the citizens’ evaluation of Luzhou’s urban environment, obtain the overall city image and influencing factors to explore the spatial composition and city characteristics of Luzhou.Based on the analysis of the deficiencies in the process of urban development, this paper puts forward some appropriate suggestions to construct a good city image of luzhou city space.

ASSESSMENT OF NATURAL CONDITIONS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF LANDFALL OF TRANSITION OF THE BOVANENKOVO-UKHTA GAS PIPELINE THROUGH THE BAIDARATSKAYA GUBA (KARA SEA) ACCORDING TO REMOTE SENSING DATA

The results of multi-temporal aerospace imagery of the coast of the Baydaratskaya Bay (Kara Sea) interpretation are presented. In order to draw up a sketch map for the estimated zoning of the territory according to the construction conditions of the onshore sections of the Bovanenkovo-Ukhta gas pipeline, studies were carried out. The methods, consisting of 3 stages, was used: 1) sequential of aerial photographs and satellite images interpretation of different scales; 2) spatial comparison of the obtained interpretation results with the available cartographic materials of geotechnical surveys; 3) drawing up maps and sketch maps of various contents, including the final sketch map of the estimated zoning according to the degree of favorableness of the territory for the construction of gas pipelines. Landsat satellite images (1999–2000) with a resolution of 30 m, as well as aerial photographs of 1949–1950, scale 1:60 000, covering the southern part of the coast of the Baydaratskaya Bay were used for interpretation. The retreat of the gulf coasts, changes in the configuration of the coastline, river channels in their deltaic parts, changes in the size of thermokarst lakes have been discovered over the past 50 years in the course of analysis and interpretation of Earth remote sensing data. The amount of coastal retreat varies in different parts of the coast of the Baydaratskaya Bay from 30 to 90 m, i.e. the rate of retreat of the coastline is between 0.6 and 1.8 m / year has been established. The places of development of thermokarst and polygonal wedge ice, as well as active river erosion, have been identified by deciphering signs. At the third, final stage of the studies performed, based on the analysis of natural factors that determine the patterns of distribution of the studied hazardous processes and phenomena, a schematic assessment zoning of the studied territory was carried out according to the degree of its favorableness for the construction of onshore sections of the gas pipeline. Three types of areas: unfavorable, relatively unfavorable and favorable are noted on the sketch map

A Multilevel Road Alignment Model for Spatial-Query-by-Sketch

A sketch map represents an individual’s perception of a specific location. However, the information in sketch maps is often distorted and incomplete. Nevertheless, the main roads of a given location often exhibit considerable similarities between the sketch maps and metric maps. In this work, a shape-based approach was outlined to align roads in the sketch maps and metric maps. Specifically, the shapes of main roads were compared and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively in three levels pertaining to an individual road, composite road, and road scene. An experiment was performed in which for eight out of nine maps sketched by our participants, accurate road maps could be obtained automatically taking as input the sketch and the metric map. The experimental results indicate that accurate matches can be obtained when the proposed road alignment approach Shape-based Spatial-Query-by-Sketch (SSQbS) is applied to incomplete or distorted roads present in sketch maps and even to roads with an inconsistent spatial relationship with the roads in the metric maps. Moreover, highly similar matches can be obtained for sketches involving fewer roads.

A Systematic Review into Factors Influencing Sketch Map Quality

Spatial perception is formed throughout our entire lives. Its quality depends on our individual differences and the characteristics of the environment. A sketch map is one way of visualising an individual’s spatial perception. It can be evaluated like a real map, in terms of its positional accuracy, content frequency and choice of cartographic methods. Moreover, the factors influencing the sketch map and/or its individual parameters can be identified. These factors should be of interest to geographers, cartographers and/or (geography) educators. The aim of this paper is to identify and describe the factors that clearly affect sketch map quality, by conducting a systematic review of 90 empirical studies published since 1960. Results show that most empirical studies focus on individual differences more than on environmental characteristics or information sources, even though the importance of these overlooked factors, especially source map characteristics and geographical education, has been proven in most analysed studies. Therefore, further research is needed in the field of sketch map quality parameters, especially in the use of cartographic methods. This paper could serve as a framework for such research.

A Semi-Structured Approach to Sketch Mapping and Qualitative GIS

Sketch mapping provides an intuitive means for collecting respondents’ impressions about space and place alongside qualitative data collection approaches. However, the data collected are often challenging to work with, particularly with digitization and visualization. After reviewing these challenges, this article introduces a “semi-structured” approach to sketch map data collection, digitization, and analysis as well as an open source software package, “qualmap,” that implements tools for digitizing these data in the programming language R. This approach retains the cartographically accurate base maps used in other sketch map research. However, it superimposes an areal unit of the researchers’ choice to aid in digitization and analysis. This use of a standard areal unit opens up additional cartographic and analytic possibilities with sketch map data. After describing this approach and the accompanying software, this article illustrates its applicability with a sample project that analyzes perceptions of space collected from a convenience sample of college students. The resulting maps’ clustering identifies the presence of a “bubble” around their campus that captures much of the travel activity students engage in every week. These data are paired with crime data, which illustrates possible mixed methods extensions of this “semi-structured” approach to sketch mapping.