Geovisualization
Encyclopedia
Geovisualization, short for Geographic Visualization, refers to a set of tools and techniques supporting geospatial data analysis through the use of interactive visualization
.
Like the related fields of scientific visualization
and information visualization
geovisualization emphasizes knowledge construction over knowledge storage or information transmission. To do this, geovisualization communicates geospatial information in ways that, when combined with human understanding, allow for data exploration and decision-making processes.
Traditional, static maps have a limited exploratory capability; the graphical representations are inextricably linked to the geographical information beneath. GIS and geovisualization allow for more interactive maps; including the ability to explore different layers of the map, to zoom in or out, and to change the visual appearance of the map, usually on a computer display. Geovisualization represents a set of cartographic technologies and practices that take advantage of the ability of modern microprocessors to render changes to a map in real time, allowing users to adjust the mapped data on the fly
.
geographer Allen K. Philbrick. New developments in the field of computer science prompted the National Science Foundation
to redefine the term in a 1987 report which placed visualization at the convergence of computer graphics, image processing, computer vision, computer-aided design, signal processing, and user interface studies and emphasized both the knowledge creation and hypothesis generation aspects of scientific visualization.
Geovisualization developed as a field of research in the early 1980s, based largely on the work of French graphic theorist Jacques Bertin
. Bertin’s work on cartographic design and information visualization share with the National Science Foundation report a focus on the potential for the use of “dynamic visual displays as prompts for scientific insight and on the methods through which dynamic visual displays might leverage perceptual cognitive processes to facilitate scientific thinking”.
Geovisualization has continued to grow as a subject of practice and research. The International Cartographic Association
(ICA) established a Commission on Visualization & Virtual Environments in 1995.
and information visualization
. Owing to its roots in cartography
, geovisualization contributes to these other fields by way of the map metaphor, which “has been widely used to visualize non-geographic information in the domains of information visualization and domain knowledge visualization. It is also related to urban simulation
.
) to visualize a large set of spatio-temporal data related to European forests, allowing the data to be explored by non-experts over the Internet. The report summarizing this effort “uncovers a range of fundamental issues relevant to the broad field of geovisualization and information visualization research”.
The research team cited the two major problems as the inability of the geovisualizers to convince the foresters of the efficacy of geovisualization in their work and the foresters’ misgivings over the dataset’s accessibility to non-experts engaging in “uncontrolled exploration”. While the geovisualizers focused on the ability of geovisualization to aid in knowledge construction, the foresters preferred the information-communication role of more traditional forms of cartographic representation.
The implications of geovisualization for archaeology are not limited to advances in archaeological theory and exploration but also include the development of new, collaborative relationships between archaeologists and computer scientists.
model to explore a complex set of environmental data, interrogating a number of scenarios or policy options to determine a best fit.
Planners use geovisualization as a tool for modeling the environmental interests and policy concerns of the general public. Jiang et al. mention two examples, in which “3D photorealistic representations are used to show urban redevelopment [and] dynamic computer simulations are used to show possible pollution diffusion over the next few years.” The widespread use of the Internet by the general public has implications for these collaborative planning efforts, leading to increased participation by the public while decreasing the amount of time it takes to debate more controversial planning decisions.
Interactive visualization
Interactive visualization is a branch of graphic visualization in computer science that involves studying how humans interact with computers to create graphic illustrations of information and how this process can be made more efficient....
.
Like the related fields of scientific visualization
Scientific visualization
Scientific visualization is an interdisciplinary branch of science according to Friendly "primarily concerned with the visualization of three-dimensional phenomena , where the emphasis is on realistic renderings of volumes, surfaces, illumination sources, and so forth, perhaps...
and information visualization
Information visualization
Information visualization is the interdisciplinary study of "the visual representation of large-scale collections of non-numerical information, such as files and lines of code in software systems, library and bibliographic databases, networks of relations on the internet, and so forth".- Overview...
geovisualization emphasizes knowledge construction over knowledge storage or information transmission. To do this, geovisualization communicates geospatial information in ways that, when combined with human understanding, allow for data exploration and decision-making processes.
Traditional, static maps have a limited exploratory capability; the graphical representations are inextricably linked to the geographical information beneath. GIS and geovisualization allow for more interactive maps; including the ability to explore different layers of the map, to zoom in or out, and to change the visual appearance of the map, usually on a computer display. Geovisualization represents a set of cartographic technologies and practices that take advantage of the ability of modern microprocessors to render changes to a map in real time, allowing users to adjust the mapped data on the fly
On the fly
-Colloquial usage:In colloquial use, on the fly means something created when needed. The phrase is used to mean:# something that was not planned ahead# changes that are made during the execution of same activity: ex tempore, impromptu.-Automotive usage:...
.
History
The term visualization is first mentioned in the cartographic literature at least as early as 1953, in an article by University of ChicagoUniversity of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
geographer Allen K. Philbrick. New developments in the field of computer science prompted the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
to redefine the term in a 1987 report which placed visualization at the convergence of computer graphics, image processing, computer vision, computer-aided design, signal processing, and user interface studies and emphasized both the knowledge creation and hypothesis generation aspects of scientific visualization.
Geovisualization developed as a field of research in the early 1980s, based largely on the work of French graphic theorist Jacques Bertin
Jacques Bertin
Jacques Bertin was a French cartographer and theorist, known from his book Semiologie Graphique , edited in 1967...
. Bertin’s work on cartographic design and information visualization share with the National Science Foundation report a focus on the potential for the use of “dynamic visual displays as prompts for scientific insight and on the methods through which dynamic visual displays might leverage perceptual cognitive processes to facilitate scientific thinking”.
Geovisualization has continued to grow as a subject of practice and research. The International Cartographic Association
International Cartographic Association
The International Cartographic Association , French Association Cartographique Internationale , is an organization formed of national member organizations, to provide a forum for issues and techniques in cartography...
(ICA) established a Commission on Visualization & Virtual Environments in 1995.
Related Fields
Geovisualization is closely related to other visualization fields, such as scientific visualizationScientific visualization
Scientific visualization is an interdisciplinary branch of science according to Friendly "primarily concerned with the visualization of three-dimensional phenomena , where the emphasis is on realistic renderings of volumes, surfaces, illumination sources, and so forth, perhaps...
and information visualization
Information visualization
Information visualization is the interdisciplinary study of "the visual representation of large-scale collections of non-numerical information, such as files and lines of code in software systems, library and bibliographic databases, networks of relations on the internet, and so forth".- Overview...
. Owing to its roots in cartography
Cartography
Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.The fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to:*Set the map's...
, geovisualization contributes to these other fields by way of the map metaphor, which “has been widely used to visualize non-geographic information in the domains of information visualization and domain knowledge visualization. It is also related to urban simulation
UrbanSim
UrbanSim is an Open Source urban simulation system designed by Paul Waddell and developed with numerous collaborators to support metropolitan land use, transportation, and environmental planning. It has been distributed on the web since 1998, with regular revisions and updates, from...
.
Practical Applications
Geovisualization has made inroads in a diverse set of real-world situations calling for the decision-making and knowledge creation processes it can provide. The following list provides a summary of some of these applications as they are discussed in the geovisualization literature.Forestry
Geovisualizers, working with European foresters, used CommonGIS and Visualization Toolkit (VTKVTK
The Visualization Toolkit is an open-source, freely available software system for 3D computer graphics, image processing and visualization. VTK consists of a C++ class library and several interpreted interface layers including Tcl/Tk, Java, and Python. Kitware, whose team created and continues to...
) to visualize a large set of spatio-temporal data related to European forests, allowing the data to be explored by non-experts over the Internet. The report summarizing this effort “uncovers a range of fundamental issues relevant to the broad field of geovisualization and information visualization research”.
The research team cited the two major problems as the inability of the geovisualizers to convince the foresters of the efficacy of geovisualization in their work and the foresters’ misgivings over the dataset’s accessibility to non-experts engaging in “uncontrolled exploration”. While the geovisualizers focused on the ability of geovisualization to aid in knowledge construction, the foresters preferred the information-communication role of more traditional forms of cartographic representation.
Archaeology
Geovisualization provides archaeologists with a potential technique for mapping unearthed archaeological environments as well as for accessing and exploring archaeological data in three dimensions.The implications of geovisualization for archaeology are not limited to advances in archaeological theory and exploration but also include the development of new, collaborative relationships between archaeologists and computer scientists.
Environmental Studies
Geovisualization tools provide multiple stakeholders with the ability to make balanced environmental decisions by taking into account the “the complex interacting factors that should be taken into account when studying environmental changes”. Geovisualization users can use a georeferencedGeoreference
To georeference something means to define its existence in physical space. That is, establishing its location in terms of map projections or coordinate systems. The term is used both when establishing the relation between raster or vector images and coordinates, and when determining the spatial...
model to explore a complex set of environmental data, interrogating a number of scenarios or policy options to determine a best fit.
Urban Planning
Both planners and the general public can use geovisualization to explore real-world environments and model ‘what if’ scenarios based on spatio-temporal data. While geovisualization in the preceding fields may be divided into two separate domains—the private domain, in which professionals use geovisualization to explore data and generate hypotheses, and the public domain, in which these professionals present their “visual thinking” to the general public—planning relies more heavily than many other fields on collaboration between the general public and professionals.Planners use geovisualization as a tool for modeling the environmental interests and policy concerns of the general public. Jiang et al. mention two examples, in which “3D photorealistic representations are used to show urban redevelopment [and] dynamic computer simulations are used to show possible pollution diffusion over the next few years.” The widespread use of the Internet by the general public has implications for these collaborative planning efforts, leading to increased participation by the public while decreasing the amount of time it takes to debate more controversial planning decisions.
See also
- Animated mappingAnimated mappingAnimated mapping is the application of animation, either computer or video, to add a temporal component to a map displaying change in some dimension. Most commonly the change is shown over time, generally at a greatly changed scale...
- CartographyCartographyCartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.The fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to:*Set the map's...
- Computer-aided designComputer-aided designComputer-aided design , also known as computer-aided design and drafting , is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation. Computer Aided Drafting describes the process of drafting with a computer...
- Computer graphicsComputer graphicsComputer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
- Computer visionComputer visionComputer vision is a field that includes methods for acquiring, processing, analysing, and understanding images and, in general, high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical or symbolic information, e.g., in the forms of decisions...
- Exploratory data analysisExploratory data analysisIn statistics, exploratory data analysis is an approach to analysing data sets to summarize their main characteristics in easy-to-understand form, often with visual graphs, without using a statistical model or having formulated a hypothesis...
- Geographic information scienceGeographic Information ScienceGeographic information science is the academic theory behind the development, use, and application of geographic information systems...
- GeoinformaticsGeoinformaticsGeoinformatics is the science and the technology which develops and uses information science infrastructure to address the problems of geography, geosciences and related branches of engineering.-Overview:...
- Image processingImage processingIn electrical engineering and computer science, image processing is any form of signal processing for which the input is an image, such as a photograph or video frame; the output of image processing may be either an image or, a set of characteristics or parameters related to the image...
- Signal processingSignal processingSignal processing is an area of systems engineering, electrical engineering and applied mathematics that deals with operations on or analysis of signals, in either discrete or continuous time...
Further reading
- Cartwright, W. 1997. New media and their application to the production of map products. Computers & Geosciences, 23(4), pp. 447-456.
- Dykes, J., A. M. MacEachren, and M.-J. Kraak eds. 2005. Exploring Geovisualization. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
- Kraak, M.-J., and A. M. MacEachren. 1999. Visualization for exploration of spatial data (editorial introduction to special issue). International Journal of Geographical Information Science 13 (4):285-287.
- Kraak, M. J., and A. M. MacEachren. 2005. Geovisualization and GIScience. Cartography and Geographic Information Science 32 (2):67-68.
- MacEachren, A. M., and M. J. Kraak. 1997. Exploratory cartographic visualization: Advancing the agenda. Computers & Geosciences 23 (4):335-343
- MacEachren, A. M., and M.-J. Kraak. 2001. Research challenges in geovisualization. Cartography and Geographic Information Science 28 (1):3-12.
- MacEachren, A. M., M. Gahegan, W. Pike, I. Brewer, G. Cai, E. Lengerich, and F. Hardisty. 2004. Geovisualization for knowledge construction and decision-support. IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications 24 (1):13-17.
- Philbrick, A.K. 1953. Toward a unity of cartographical forms and geographical content. Professional Geographer, 5(5), pp. 11-15.
- Taylor, D.R.F. 1994. Geographic Information Systems: the microcomputer and modern cartography. In Geographic Information Systems: The Microcomputer and Modern Cartography, D.R.F. Taylor and A.M. MacEachren (Eds.). Oxford: Pergamon, pp. 333-342.
External links
- International Cartographic Association (ICA), the world body for mapping and GIScience professionals
- ICA Commission on GeoVisualization (since 2007)
- ICA Commission on Visualization and Virtual Environments (1995-2007)
- Geovisualization at the National Cancer Institute
- GeoViz Toolkit -- Open Source Toolkit for Geovizualization
- Penn State GeoVISTA Center
- Avizo Visualization Software -- software framework for geosciences