2021 QUARTER 03

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W
CV-07 - Visual Hierarchy and Layout

Mapmaking, by digital or manual methods, involves taking complex geographic information and building a visual image with many components. Creating effective maps requires an understanding of how to construct the elements of the map into a coherent whole that executes the communicative purpose of the map. Visual hierarchy and layout are the cartographer’s tools for organizing the map and completing the map construction. The cartographer layers the mapped geography in an image into a visual hierarchy emphasizing some features and de-emphasizing others in vertical ordering of information. Likewise, the cartographer arranges the components of a map image—title, main map, inset map, north arrow, scale, legend, toolbar, etc.—into a layout that guides the reader’s eye around the horizontal plane of the map. The visual hierarchy and layout processes work together to create the structure of the map image.

PD-28 - Visual Programming for GIS Applications

Visual programming languages (VPLs) in GIS applications are used to design the automatic processing of spatial data in an easy visual form. The resulted visual workflow is useful when the same processing steps need to be repeated on different spatial data (e.g. other areas, another period). In the case of visual programming languages, simple graphical symbols represent spatial operations implemented in GIS software (tools, geoalgorithms). Users can create a sequence of operation in a simple visual form, like a chain of graphical symbols. Visual programs can be stored and reused. The graphical form is useful to non-programmers who are not familiar with a textual programming language, as is the case with many professionals such as urban planners, facility managers, ecologists and other users of GIS. VPLs are implemented not only in GIS applications but also in remote sensing (RS) applications. Sometimes both types of applications are bundled together in one geospatial application that offers geoalgorithms in a shared VPL environment. Visual programming languages are an integral part of software engineering (SE). Data flow and workflow diagrams are one of the oldest graphical representations in informatics.

DC-29 - Volunteered Geographic Information

Volunteered geographic information (VGI) refers to geo-referenced data created by citizen volunteers. VGI has proliferated in recent years due to the advancement of technologies that enable the public to contribute geographic data. VGI is not only an innovative mechanism for geographic data production and sharing, but also may greatly influence GIScience and geography and its relationship to society. Despite the advantages of VGI, VGI data quality is under constant scrutiny as quality assessment is the basis for users to evaluate its fitness for using it in applications. Several general approaches have been proposed to assure VGI data quality but only a few methods have been developed to tackle VGI biases. Analytical methods that can accommodate the imperfect representativeness and biases in VGI are much needed for inferential use where the underlying phenomena of interest are inferred from a sample of VGI observations. VGI use for inference and modeling adds much value to VGI. Therefore, addressing the issue of representativeness and VGI biases is important to fulfill VGI’s potential. Privacy and security are also important issues. Although VGI has been used in many domains, more research is desirable to address the fundamental intellectual and scholarly needs that persist in the field.

AM-66 - Watersheds and Drainage Networks

This topic is an overview of basic concepts about how the distribution of water on the Earth, with specific regard to watersheds, stream and river networks, and waterbodies are represented by geographic data. The flowing and non-flowing bodies of water on the earth’s surface vary in extent largely due to seasonal and annual changes in climate and precipitation. Consequently, modeling the detailed representation of surface water using geographic information is important. The area of land that collects surface runoff and other flowing water and drains to a common outlet location defines a watershed. Terrain and surface features can be naturally divided into watersheds of various sizes. Drainage networks are important data structures for modeling the distribution and movement of surface water over the terrain.  Numerous tools and methods exist to extract drainage networks and watersheds from digital elevation models (DEMs). The cartographic representations of surface water are referred to as hydrographic features and consist of a snapshot at a specific time. Hydrographic features can be assigned general feature types, such as lake, pond, river, and ocean. Hydrographic features can be stored, maintained, and distributed for use through vector geospatial databases, such as the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) for the United States.

CP-14 - Web GIS

Web GIS allows the sharing of GIS data, maps, and spatial processing across private and public computer networks. Understanding web GIS requires learning the roles of client and server machines and the standards and protocols around how they communicate to accomplish tasks. Cloud computing models have allowed web-based GIS operations to be scaled out to handle large jobs, while also enabling the marketing of services on a per-transaction basis.

A variety of toolkits allow the development of GIS-related websites and mobile apps. Some web GIS implementations bring together map layers and GIS services from multiple locations. In web environments, performance and security are two concerns that require heightened attention. App users expect speed, achievable through caching, indexing, and other techniques. Security precautions are necessary to ensure sensitive data is only revealed to authorized viewers.

Many organizations have embraced the web as a way to openly share spatial data at a relatively low cost. Also, the web-enabled expansion of spatial data production by nonexperts (sometimes known as “neogeography”) offers a rich field for alternative mappings and critical study of GIS and society.

PD-16 - Web GIS Programming

Web GIS programming involves creating, extending, utilizing, Web GIS or web mapping solutions to solve specific problems, build complete applications, or consume or produce data and geospatial processing services. With the expansion of the internet and availability of Web GIS or Web mapping options, web GIS programming is becoming a commonly required skill set in many organizations. Web GIS programming is a type of software development that provides a means of handling internet, browser-based software application development tasks which require unique solutions to web GIS or web mapping problems. In addition, a number of Web GIS software options offer application programming interfaces (APIs) that provide a means by which developers can leverage the published data and processing services of others to build and customize applications through standardized interfaces with external web GIS software, data, and services. Web GIS programming applies to mobile as well as desktop application development. A browser typically runs software applications by submitting Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) requests to a server hosting resources the application user wishes to access available through a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), and the server replies by providing resources or performing functions requested by the user. This entry reviews the fundamentals of web GIS programming, accompanying the Web Mapping and other entries in the Programming and Development section, the Web GIS entry in the Computing Platforms section, and the User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX) Design entry in the Cartography and Visualization section (Sack, 2017; Quinn, 2018; Roth, 2017).

CV-15 - Web Mapping

As internet use has grown, many paper maps have been scanned and published online, and new maps have increasingly been designed for viewing in a web browser or mobile app. Web maps may be static or dynamic, and dynamic maps may either be animated or interactive. Tiled web maps are interactive maps that use tiled images to allow for fast data loading and smooth interaction, while vector web maps support rendering a wide variety of map designs on the client. Web maps follow a client-server architecture, with specialized map servers sometimes used to publish data and maps as geospatial web services. Web maps are composed of data from a database or file on the server, style information rendered on either server or client, and optionally animation or interaction instructions executed on the client. Several graphic web platforms provide user-friendly web mapping solutions, while greater customization is possible through the user of commercial or open source web mapping APIs. When designing web maps, cartographers should consider the map’s purpose on a continuum from exploratory and highly interactive to thematic and less interactive or static, the constraints of desktop and/or mobile web contexts, and accessibility for disabled, elderly, and poorly connected users.

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