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AM-46 - Location-allocation modeling

Location-allocation models involve two principal elements: 1) multiple facility location; and 2) the allocation of the services or products provided by those facilities to places of demand. Such models are used in the design of logistic systems like supply chains, especially warehouse and factory location, as well as in the location of public services. Public service location models involve objectives that often maximize access and levels of service, while private sector applications usually attempt to minimize cost. Such models are often hard to solve and involve the use of integer-linear programming software or sophisticated heuristics. Some models can be solved with functionality provided in GIS packages and other models are applied, loosely coupled, with GIS. We provide a short description of formulating two different models as well as discuss how they are solved.

FC-04 - Perception and Cognitive Processing of Geographic Phenomena: a Choropleth Map Case Study

The near ubiquity of maps has created a population the is well adept at reading and understanding maps.  But, while maps are familiar, understanding how the human brain processes that information is less known.  Discussing the processing of geographic phenomena could take different avenues: specific geospatial thinking skills, general perception and cognition processes, or even different parts of the human brain that are invoked when thinking geographically.  This entry focuses on tracing the processing of geographic phenomena using a choropleth map case study, beginning from perception — the moment the phenomena enter the human brain via our senses, to cognition — how meaning and understanding are generated. 

DM-01 - Spatial Database Management Systems

A spatial database management system (SDBMS) is an extension, some might say specialization, of a conventional database management system (DBMS).  Every DBMS (hence SDBMS) uses a data model specification as a formalism for software design, and establishing rigor in data management.  Three components compose a data model, 1) constructs developed using data types which form data structures that describe data, 2) operations that process data structures that manipulate data, and 3) rules that establish the veracity of the structures and/or operations for validating data.  Basic data types such as integers and/or real numbers are extended into spatial data types such as points, polylines and polygons in spatial data structures.  Operations constitute capabilities that manipulate the data structures, and as such when sequenced into operational workflows in specific ways generate information from data; one might say that new relationships constitute the information from data.  Different data model designs result in different combinations of structures, operations, and rules, which combine into various SDBMS products.  The products differ based upon the underlying data model, and these data models enable and constrain the ability to store and manipulate data. Different SDBMS implementations support configurations for different user environments, including single-user and multi-user environments.  

DM-51 - Vertical (Geopotential) Datums

The elevation of a point requires a reference surface defining zero elevation. In geodesy, this zero-reference surface has historically been mean sea level (MSL) – a vertical datum. However, the geoid, which is a particular equipotential surface of Earth’s gravity field that would coincide with mean sea level were mean sea level altogether unperturbed and placid, is the ideal datum for physical heights, meaning height associated with the flow of water, like elevations. Tidal, gravimetric, and ellipsoidal are common vertical datums that use different approaches to define the reference surface. Tidal datums average water heights over a period of approximately 19 years, gravimetric datums record gravity across Earth’s surface, and ellipsoidal datums use specific reference ellipsoids to report ellipsoid heights. Increasingly, gravity measurements, positional data from GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System), and other sophisticated measurement technologies GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment – Follow On) are sourced to accurately model the geoid and its geopotential surface advancing the idea of a geopotential datum. Stemming from these advancements, a new geopotential datum for the United States will be developed: North American-Pacific Geopotential Datum 2022 (NAPGD2022).

DM-35 - Logical Data Models

A logical data model is created for the second of three levels of abstraction, conceptual, logical, and physical. A logical data model expresses the meaning context of a conceptual data model, and adds to that detail about data (base) structures, e.g. using topologically-organized records, relational tables, object-oriented classes, or extensible markup language (XML) construct  tags. However, the logical data model formed is independent of a particular database management software product. Nonetheless such a model is often constrained by a class of software language techniques for representation, making implementation with a physical data model easier. Complex entity types of the conceptual data model must be translated into sub-type/super-type hierarchies to clarify data contexts for the entity type, while avoiding duplication of concepts and data. Entities and records should have internal identifiers. Relationships can be used to express the involvement of entity types with activities or associations. A logical schema is formed from the above data organization. A schema diagram depicts the entity, attribute and relationship detail for each application. The resulting logical data models can be synthesized using schema integration to support multi-user database environments, e.g., data warehouses for strategic applications and/or federated databases for tactical/operational business applications.

DA-39 - GIS&T and Recreation Planning and Management

Human interactions with each other and the environment are intrinsically connected to the opportunities and limitations of where we live and where we are able to go. The connections between places of origin, destinations, and travel routes mean that recreation and tourism inherently rely on spatial concepts of place and human-environment interactions. Tourism and recreation are major economic drivers, yet these sectors are constantly evolving as people embrace different ways to travel and recreate and environmental and socio-economic conditions change. Advances in GIS technology and computing ability are shaping the questions asked and tools used by researchers to understand the drivers and impacts of recreation. In this entry, we highlight current research and approaches used to characterize access to green spaces in urban areas, to understand recreational behaviors and tourist preferences through social media, to map landscape aesthetics and cultural ecosystem services, and to quantify the impacts of tourism and recreation on protected areas. Starting with urban areas and local extents and moving to protected areas and regional processes, we summarize scholarship focused on different types of places and occurring across different extents and scales to provide a digest of current research.

AM-17 - Intervisibility, Line-of-Sight, and Viewsheds

The visibility of a place refers to whether it can be seen by observers from one or multiple other locations. Modeling the visibility of points has various applications in GIS, such as placement of observation points, military observation, line-of-sight communication, optimal path route planning, and urban design. This chapter provides a brief introduction to visibility analysis, including an overview of basic conceptions in visibility analysis, the methods for computing intervisibility using discrete and continuous approaches based on DEM and TINs, the process of intervisibility analysis, viewshed and reverse viewshed analysis. Several practical applications involving visibility analysis are illustrated for geographical problem-solving. Finally, existing software and toolboxes for visibility analysis are introduced.

FC-17 - Proximity and Distance Decay

Distance decay is an essential concept in geography. At its core, distance decay describes how the relationship between two entities generally gets weaker as the separation between them increases. Inspired by long-standing ideas in physics, the concept of distance decay is used by geographers to analyze two kinds of relationships. First, the term expresses how measured interactions (such as trade volume or migration flow) generally decrease as the separation between entities increases, as is analyzed by spatial interaction models. Second, the term is used to describe how the implicit similarity between observations changes with separation, as measured by variograms. For either type of relationship, we discuss how "separation" must be clearly articulated according to the mechanism of the relationship under study. In doing this, we suggest that separation need not refer to positions in space or time, but can involve social or behavioral perceptions of separation, too. To close, we present how the "death of distance" is transforming distance decay in uneven ways.

DM-66 - Spatial Indexing

A spatial index is a data structure that allows for accessing a spatial object efficiently. It is a common technique used by spatial databases.  Without indexing, any search for a feature would require a "sequential scan" of every record in the database, resulting in much longer processing time. In a spatial index construction process, the minimum bounding rectangle serves as an object approximation. Various types of spatial indices across commercial and open-source databases yield measurable performance differences. Spatial indexing techniques are playing a central role in time-critical applications and the manipulation of spatial big data.

DM-62 - Database Administration

Organizations with a responsibility for maintaining large-scale, multi-user spatial databases often turn to server-based relational database management systems to achieve their goals.  The administration of such databases has many dimensions.  Industry standards in the areas of data storage and services should be researched and applied to ensure a sound, comprehensive database design as well as to promote interoperability with external entities.  Data validation tools should be implemented to improve the accuracy and efficiency of data maintenance activities.  Metadata should be maintained according to industry standards to protect the organization’s investment in data and to increase the likelihood of the data being located by clearinghouse and portal search tools.  Database security strategies can prevent unauthorized access to data and lessen the chances of data loss due to accidental data corruption.  Database performance should be monitored and strategies implemented to ensure that data can be retrieved from the system with acceptable response times.  Finally, trends in the field such as the increasing need to manage large volumes of data call for spatial database managers to be knowledgeable of non-relational data models as well, such as NoSQL data models.

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