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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).

DC-11 - Street-level Imagery

Street-level imagery consists of collections of photographs taken from the perspective of moving pedestrians or vehicles. These collections are often stitched together digitally and georeferenced to create interactive and immersive landscapes that are virtually navigable by users. Such landscapes, sometimes called 360-degree panoramas, or bubbles, are uploaded onto web platforms, and linked with geographical databases, which allows users to search and explore the imagery in various ways. IT companies such as Google have created street-level imagery platforms that rely primarily on paid drivers, although they have begun to rely on contributor submissions to complement and expand their coverage. Recently services such as Mapillary and OpenStreetCam have advanced a model that relies primarily on volunteer contributors, leveraging community interest from projects such as OpenStreetMap. While street-level imagery has become a widespread tool with multiple commercial and non-commercial applications, it is also entangled various legal and public opinion controversies, due to its capabilities for private data collection and surveillance. 

DA-31 - GIS&T and Libraries, Archives, and Museums

Libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs) are an important part of the GIS&T ecosystem and they engage in numerous activities that are critical for students, researchers, and practitioners. Traditionally these organizations have been at the forefront of developing infrastructures and services that connect researchers and others to historical and contemporary GIS data, including print maps. More recently, as a result of greater interest in spatial thinking and research, these organizations and institutions have become a place for instruction, outreach, and practice. This entry will discuss the historical role that LAMs have played in supporting and developing GIS&T as well as focus on current trends.

CV-14 - Terrain Representation

Terrain representation is the manner by which elevation data are visualized. Data are typically stored as 2.5D grid representations, including digital elevation models (DEMs) in raster format and triangulated irregular networks (TINs). These models facilitate terrain representations such as contours, shaded relief, spot heights, and hypsometric tints, as well as automate calculations of surface derivatives such as slope, aspect, and curvature. 3D effects have viewing directions perpendicular (plan), parallel (profile), or panoramic (oblique view) to the elevation’s vertical datum plane. Recent research has focused on automating, stylizing, and enhancing terrain representations. From the user’s perspective, representations of elevation are measurable or provide a 3D visual effect, with much overlap between the two. The ones a user can measure or derive include contours, hypsometric tinting, slope, aspect, and curvature. Other representations focus on 3D effect and may include aesthetic considerations, such as hachures, relief shading, physiographic maps, block diagrams, rock drawings, and scree patterns. Relief shading creates the 3D effect using the surface normal and illumination vectors with the Lambertian assumption. Non-plan profile or panoramic views are often enhanced by vertical exaggeration. Cartographers combine techniques to mimic or create mapping styles, such as the Swiss-style.

DC-04 - Social Media Platforms

Social media is a group of interactive Web 2.0 Internet-based applications that allow users to create and exchange user-generated content via virtual communities. Social media platforms have a large user population who generate massive amounts of digital footprints, which are valuable data sources for observing and analyzing human activities/behavior. This entry focuses on social media platforms that provide spatial information in different forms for Geographic Information Systems and Technology (GIS&T) research. These social media platforms can be grouped into six categories: microblogging sites, social networking sites, content sharing sites, product and service review sites, collaborative knowledge sharing sites, and others. Four methods are available for capturing data from social media platforms, including Web Application Programming Interfaces (Web APIs), Web scraping, digital participant recruitment, and direct data purchasing. This entry first overviews the history, opportunities, and challenges related to social media platforms. Each category of social media platforms is then introduced in detail, including platform features, well-known platform examples, and data capturing processes.

AM-06 - Grid Operations and Map Algebra

Grid operations are manipulation and analytical computations performed on raster data. Map Algebra is a language for organizing and implementing grid operations in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, and is typically categorized into Local, Focal, and Zonal functions, where each function typically ingests one or more grids and outputs a new grid. The value of a specific grid cell in the output grid for Local functions is determined from the value(s) of the analogous cell position(s) in the input grid(s), for Focal functions from the grid cell values drawn from a neighborhood around the specific output grid cell, and for Zonal functions from a set of grid cells specified in a separate zone grid. Individual functions within a category vary by applying a different arithmetic, statistical, or other type of operator to the function. Map Algebra also includes Global and Block function categories. Grid operations can be categorized as data manipulation procedures or within domain-specific applications, such as terrain analysis or image processing. Grid operations are employed in a variety of GIS-based analyses, but are particularly widely used for suitability modeling and environmental analyses.

DA-18 - GIS&T and Disaster Management

Geographic Information Science and Technology (GIS&T) has a long-running tradition of using spatially-oriented methodologies and representational techniques such as cartography and mapping to address hazards and disasters. This tradition remains important as ever as global society faces newer and more complex challenges resulting from climate change and new challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic. GIS&T has become an invisible technology within the disaster management cycle of planning and preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. Spatial technologies such as geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing techniques, spatial data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are now widespread and pervasive. Despite these advancements, there is more that can be done to incorporate GIS&T perspectives into disaster management. In this article, we outline important conceptual ideas to consider on the use of GIS&T for disaster management, disaster management organizations that use GIS&T, and practical information to orient newcomers to this exciting and important interdisciplinary combination.

GS-26 - Mapping Spatial Justice for Marginal Societies

Marginal populations are those populations that are often overlooked by government, dependent upon non-governmental aid, and lack access to basic resources such as water, food, shelter, and security.  However, these groups are increasingly included in partnerships to map their resources (or lack thereof), develop basic applications in geospatial data collection, and devise innovative approaches to participatory mapping using geospatial technologies to address local and regional problems. Rapid technological changes and increased access to mobile geospatial tools enhance data creation efforts to map marginal populations and identify their needs. However, such mapping activities reveal fundamental inequities in collecting, disseminating, and visualizing spatial data.  This chapter defines marginal populations and provides an overview of data needs, geospatial tools, and ethical obligations necessary for these partnerships.

CV-20 - Raster Formats and Sources

Raster data is commonly used by cartographers in concert with vector data. Choice of raster file format is important when using raster data or producing raster output from vector data. Raster formats are designed for specific purposes and have limitations in color representation and data loss. The simplest raster formats are just a single two-dimensional array of pixels, where multi-band raster datasets use additional data values to represent color or other data. The article covers considerations for the intended use of raster formats. Formats and resolutions appropriate for the web may not be appropriate for print or higher resolution devices. Several types of raster sources are available including single band measures, imagery, and existing raster maps or basemaps. The future of raster will evolve as more formats, sources, and computational improvements are made.

CV-28 - Lesson Design in Cartography Education

This entry describes six general variables of lesson design in cartography education and offers some practical advice for the development of materials for teaching cartography. First, a lesson’s scope concerns the set of ideas included in a lesson and helps identify different types of lessons based on the kinds of knowledge that they contain. Second, learning objectives concern the things that students should be able to do following a lesson and relate to different cognitive processes of learning. Third, a lesson’s scheme deals with the organizational framework for delivering content. Fourth, a lesson’s guidance concerns the amount and quality of supportive information provided. Fifth, a lesson’s sequence may involve one or more strategies for ordering content. Sixth, a lesson’s activity concerns what students do during a lesson and is often associated with different learning outcomes. These six variables help differentiate traditions for teaching cartography, elucidate some of the recurring challenges in cartography education, and offer strategies for designing lessons to foster meaningful learning outcomes.

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