GI-Forum WS 2012/13

Date	Title	Presenter	Affiliation
09.10.2012	Institute meeting and thesis
16.10.2012	Reaching Geonoema – Semantic research issues on concepts, objects, and other ambiguous geographic notions	Prof. Dr. Marinos Kavouras	OntoGEO Research Group, National Technical University of Athens
	Almost thirty years after the beginning of geographic information science (GIScience) as an interdisciplinary but distinct scientific field, new and deeper research questions have arisen, questions which make us return back to the fundamental issues of geographic concepts, knowledge representation, and semantically-aware approaches. The questions are very difficult to answer, yet this should not prevent us from always pursuing the very nature of geographic entities. It is evident that different understanding in the geospatial domain (thereinafter called “geonoema”) pivot around the connection between the central representational notions of concepts and objects. The different conceptualizations can be accounted for most problems in interoperability, non-universality of approaches, misinterpretation, and semantic conflicts. In this presentation, a number of open and promising research questions in great need for progress are identified.
23.10.2012	STARS: A New Method for Multitemporal Remote Sensing	Marcio Pupin Mello	INPE
	There is great potential for the development of remote sensing methods that integrate and exploit both multispectral and multitemporal information. I'm going to present a new image processing method: Spectral–Temporal Analysis by Response Surface (STARS), which synthesizes the full information content of a multitemporal–multispectral remote sensing image dataset to represent the spectral variation over time of features on the Earth’s surface. Depending on the application, STARS can be effectively implemented using a range of different models [e.g., polynomial trend surface (PTS) and collocation surface (CS)], exploiting data from different sensors, with varying spectral wavebands and acquiring data at irregular time intervals. A case study was used to test STARS, evaluating its potential to characterize sugarcane harvest practices in Brazil, specifically with and without preharvest straw burning. Although the CS model presented sharper and more defined spectral–temporal surfaces, abrupt changes related to the sugarcane harvest event were also well characterized with the PTS model when a suitable degree was set. Orthonormal coefficients were tested for both the PTS and CS models and performed more accurately than regular coefficients when used as input for three evaluated classifiers: instance based, decision tree, and neural network. Results show that STARS holds considerable potential for representing the spectral changes over time of features on the Earth’s surface, thus becoming an effective image processing method, which is useful not only for classification purposes but also for other applications such as understanding land-cover change.
30.10.2012	Stuck in the Stacks: Impacts of Architectural Intelligibility and Individual Differences on Indoor Wayfinding Behaviors	Dr. Rui Li	Spatial Intelligence Lab, ifgi
	To contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of indoor wayfinding behaviors, I propose that factors derived from both environments and individuals have to be incorporated in assessments. The assessments of indoor wayfinding behaviors are categorized in three aspects: the wayfinding performance, the acquisition of spatial knowledge, and the development of spatial awareness. The environmental factor, architectural intelligibility, is characterized using space syntax methods in terms of their visibility, connectivity, and layout complexity. The human factors, individual differences, are represented by the sex, spatial abilities, familiarity, and mobility of a person in this research. In this presentation, I present the results of two behavioral experiments to address the influential factors to each aspect of indoor wayfinding behaviors. In addition to investigating the different roles of environmental and human factors play on all aspects of wayfinding behaviors, this research contributes to the clarification of the conflicting roles of environmental and individual factors as presented in the literature. This research also presents a geographic perspective taken to categorize locations in an environment based on their spatial homogeneity and heterogeneity.
06.11.2012	Re-Framing Landscape: Artists as Cultural Catalysts in Rural Localities	Deirdre O'Mahony	Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Ireland
	The presentation is a critical account of a socially engaged, activist, arts practice that seeks to address the tension between differing perspectives on place and space in the karst landscape of the Burren in the West of Ireland. Two public art projects are given as case studies, Cross Land and X-PO. Both projects were catalytic actions that created or revived public space for exchange and collective interaction. The role that an expanded and inclusive definition of collaborative arts practice might play in producing new understandings of overlooked, often disregarded, local knowledge are presented in relation to two projects. Cross Land considers the effects of the implementation of recent regulation on landscape and agriculture in the socio-cultural context of the Burren. X-PO was established as an interstitial space in a defunct post office enabling new connections and collaborative exchange between various knowledge-making communities in the region. A particular focus is placed on the use of community mapping or ‘tracing’ by a group who formed at X-PO when it opened in 2007. During that time they have re-mapped the history of human occupancy through maps, in documents, the ruins of houses, and through the oral knowledge of place within the locality. In both case studies an interdisciplinary, aesthetic discourse between participants both activated and publicly articulated provisional understandings of (often contested) rural public space enabling different forms of knowledge; social, historical, agricultural and cultural to make unexpected and transcendent conjunctions.
13.11.2012	Validation of wind-prognosis tools - impossible?	Graciana Petersen	University of Hamburg - Meteorological Institute
	The modern conception of models as mediators between theories and reality (from philosophy of science) can be used as a foundation for methodological frameworks in quality assessment for wind prognosis tools. The model comparison needs to be accompanied by a qualitative (structural) analysis and comparison of the theories which are involved; comparison of “numbers” is insufficient since accuracy of models is not quantifiable. (Accuracy and precision can be strictly distinguished for the validation of models.) Data for model validation needs to be adequate with respect to the specific model. In this talk it will be shown why nowadays field data usually does not provide satisfyingly narrow “precision” translated to the theories which are implemented in the models. The fundamental findings are illustrated with concrete examples of wind tunnel and field studies.
20.11.2012	Institute meeting and thesis
27.11.2012	The impact of gestures on explicit and implicit learning about the surface orientation of liquids	Prof. Dr. Miriam Leuchter	WWU Münster
	In this study, we examine whether and to which extent gestures by teachers and self-produced gestures support explicit and implicit spatial learning within an early science context. In particular, we examined the development of children.s understanding of the horizontality of the water level during a short-term intervention. The micro-genetic study included 164 first-graders which were randomly distributed on four experimental groups and one control group. Instructions of the experimental groups differed along two dimensions: support by the teacher (verbally and gestures vs. only verbally) and actions by the child (hands-on action vs. observation). Explicit and implicit knowledge was tested before and after the intervention and children.s self-produced gestures during the intervention were recorded.
04.12.2012	Spatial Information Management at Fraunhofer IGD	Dr. Eva Klien	IGD Darmstadt
	In my talk, I will give a brief overview of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft for Applied Sciences and the opportunities for working there. Further I will give insight into my daily work as Head of the Competence Center Spatial Information Managment at the Frauhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research (IGD) in Darmstadt. Our work is dedicated to increase the use and usability of spatial information for industry, public authorities, research and citizens. We will have a closer look at some of the products and projects we are developing in the area of 3D-GIS and Spatal Information Infrastructures.
11.12.2012	Institute meeting and thesis
18.12.2012	Mapping the world's linguistic diversity: The World Atlas of Linguistic Structures	Prof. Dr. Bernard Comrie
	The World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS; wals.info) is the first attempt to provide broad coverage of the geographical distribution of the structural diversity of the world's languages, answering on the basis of samples of languages such questions as the distribution of languages with large, medium, and small inventories of vowels or of languages which have distinct terms for 'hand' and 'arm' versus those that do not. I will first introduce the project, including discussion of some of the problems that arose in transferring our knowledge of linguistic diversity to map form and presentation of some of the maps as illustrative material. I will then look at ways in which the atlas can be used as a research tool, both within linguistics (e.g. testing correlations between different structural parameters) and in cooperation with other disciplines (such as prehistory).
08.01.2013	Institute meeting and thesis
15.01.2013	no forum
22.01.2013	Dynamic Visualization and Individual Differences in Environmental Spatial Cognition	Prof. Dr. Stefan Münzer
	Successful spatial orientation in real outdoor and indoor environments requires appropriate mental representations of environmental space (i.e., spatial knowledge). Spatial knowledge is acquired through a variety of sources. Traditionally, spatial learning is based on direct navigational experience and paper maps. Nowadays, computers and mobile devices provide flexible, dynamic and interactive visual-spatial representations (e.g., navigation assistance systems, animations and virtual environments). A key finding in spatial cognition research is that individuals differ largely in spatial learning, navigational performance and orientation tasks. The talk will address (1) factors that might explain individual differences in spatial cognition and (2) possibilities for dynamic and flexible visualizations of spatial information that support understanding and learning. Spatial abilities, self-reported competencies and gender (stereotypes) will be considered as individual differences factors. Indoor and outdoor navigation situations as well as virtual environments will be considered as situations in which dynamic visualizations can support spatial learning and potentially adapt to aptitudes of individuals.
29.01.2013	Classification and clustering in spatial and spatio-temporal point patterns	Prof. Dr. Jorge Mateu	UJI
	A wide range of contributions in the context of spatial and spatio-temporal point patterns has been developed in many scientific fields, such as environmental sciences, engineering, physics or biology, providing several methods and procedures which accomplish different objectives. In particular, in the study of complex spatial systems, the comprehension of the internal connections, which define the hierarchical structure of the process, turns out to play a key role in fully understanding its dynamics. We focus in this presentation on two motivating problems. We first consider the problem of detecting features or clusters in spatial point patterns in the presence of substantial clutter. One example is the detection of minefields using reconnaissance aircraft images that identify many objects that are not mines, or the detection of faults along which earthquakes rise. This problem can also be thought of as searching for regions of higher density of the point pattern. We review recent literature on this topic, and propose and develop new local second-order characteristics to classify points belonging to a feature of interest (cluster) or to clutter. These local indicators of spatial association have been used as exploratory data analytic tools to examine individual points in a point pattern in terms of how they relate to their neighbouring points. We extend the notion of spatial dependence to spatio-temporal structures defining local functions derived from spatio-temporal product densities. We also consider the problem of detection of spatio-temporal clustering in inhomogenous populations using global second-order characteristics.
30.01.2013	On the Ontology of Massive Planned Social Action	Prof. Dr. Barry Smith	Department of Philosophy, University at Buffalo
	Philosophers and others who study the phenomena of social action tend to base their theories on small-scale actions involving just a few individuals who share common goals. Taking as our starting point the work on massively shared agency of the legal theorist Scott Shapiro, we will address the question of how to understand complex actions, drawing our examples from science, law, and warfare.