GeoAI: a review of Artificial Intelligence approaches for the interpretation of complex Geomatics data

Researchers have explored the benefits and applications of modern artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms in different scenario. For the processing of geomatics data, AI offers overwhelming opportunities. Fundamental questions include how AI can be specifically applied to or must be specifically created for geomatics data. This change is also having a significant impact on geospatial data. The integration of AI approaches in geomatics has developed into the concept of Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI), which is a new paradigm for geographic knowledge discovery and beyond. However, little systematic work currently exists on how researchers have applied AI for geospatial domains. Hence, this contribution outlines AI-based techniques for analysing and interpreting complex geomatics data. Our analysis has covered several gaps, for instance defining relationships between AI-based approaches and geomatics data. First, technologies and tools used for data acquisition are outlined, with a particular focus on RGB images, thermal images, 3D point clouds, trajectories, and hyperspectral/multispectral images. Then, how AI approaches have been exploited for the interpretation of geomatic data is explained. Finally, a broad set of examples of applications are given, together with the specific method applied. Limitations point towards unexplored areas for future investigations, serving as useful guidelines for future research directions.

Project “We Propose!” Territorial citizenship and curricular innovation in portuguese geographical education

This paper considers the strengths of the project methodology for the construction of a more innovative, active and problematizing geographical education among Portuguese secondary students, through the critical reflection on the applicability of the Project “We Propose! / Nós Propomos!”, in the last five years. The methodological approach is based on a review of the national and international literature, a simplified content analysis of the last three curricular reforms in Portugal since the beginning of this century, and recourse to the explanation and interpretation of descriptive memories of the project. The scholarly significance of this study resides in the demonstration of how students are placed in contact with real-life geographers from the municipalities and local associations beyond the institutional and economic fabric of their surroundings and learn to value geographic knowledge and how geography can help in solving land use problems.

De/colonizing OpenStreetMap? Local mappers, humanitarian and commercial actors and the changing modes of collaborative mapping

In its early days, the geodata and mapping project OpenStreetMap (OSM) was widely celebrated for opening up and “democratizing” the production of geographic knowledge. However, critical research highlights that the new socio-technical practices of collaborative mapping often also produce or reproduce patterns of exclusion, not least in the area of relative data density between the Global South and North. These findings notwithstanding, we consider it important to acknowledge the increasing number of contributions of geodata from regions outside the old European core of OSM. This expansion of geodata production in OSM is related to a diversification of OSM actors and socio-technical practices. While OSM has often been described as a crowd-based project bringing together thousands of individual craft mappers, our analysis of OSM metadata indicates new institutional actors are gaining relevance. These developments have not only resulted in new collaborations but also conflicts between local mapping communities and institutional actors. We interpret these processes in two ways. First, the expansion of mapping activities can be viewed as a decolonizing process, whereby quantitative differences in data density between the Global North and South are partly reduced and new groups of local mappers are empowered to produce geographic knowledge. Second, these new developments can also be understood as colonizing processes. The engagement of large commercial actors in OSM raises concerns that the project (and its local mappers) could be used as a new means of data extraction and that in particular new and diverse voices in the OSM community are marginalized by a fixation on economically exploitable, modernistic and universalistic epistemologies. However, this supposedly clear distinction should not obscure the fact that colonizing and decolonizing processes intertwine in complex ways.

Territorial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Galicia (Spain): a geographical approach

The coronavirus pandemic is causing a huge impact around the world. Its real magnitude presents very important regional differences, which are appreciable in the number of infected and victims in the different countries. The outbreak of the pandemic and the ignorance of the virus mean that, even today, there are many unknowns about essential aspects related to it. In this sense, geographic knowledge can help answer many questions from the territorial analysis of the data. The objective of this article will be to analyze the behavior of the coronavirus pandemic within the Spanish region of Galicia. The authors of this study propose a multiscale analysis that allows deciphering the most common propagation patterns. For this, we have high spatial resolution data that has been provided by the competent authority under confidentiality. The results of this work allow us to represent and interpret the territorial impact of the pandemic, understanding its behavior as far as possible, allowing future dynamics to be predicted.

O TRABALHO DE CAMPO COMO PRODUÇÃO DE CONHECIMENTO:

Os trabalhos de campo são importantes na trajetória dos estudos geográficos. Propiciam à produção de conhecimentos, contribuindo para uma interação particular entre teoria e prática. Além disso, por meio do campo garante-se autenticidade às observações e experiências, possibilitam-se descobertas e o desenvolvimento de novas teorias, inclusive, colocando-as à prova. Entre o(a)s geógrafo(a)s parece haver consenso e até certa obviedade com relação à importância do campo. Contudo, compreende-se que, para atingir a potencialidade na construção de conhecimentos, o campo não pode ser concebido como uma atividade meramente lúdica. Então, impõe-se a necessidade de refletir sobre a práxis e justificar sua necessidade no ensino, na pesquisa e extensão. Nessa perspectiva, busca-se responder: qual é a importância do trabalho de campo para a produção de conhecimentos geográficos no ensino, pesquisa e extensão? O que considerar ao propor um trabalho de campo? Apresentam-se, amparados na literatura sobre o tema, os elementos fundamentais que constituem as experiências de trabalho de campo no âmbito da ciência geográfica. As reflexões produzidas a partir dos princípios orientadores levam a considerar que tais práticas são produtos e produtoras do conhecimento, envolvendo uma atitude investigativa com reflexão e intervenção da/na realidade estudada. Assim, defende-se o trabalho de campo como práxis geográfica. Palavras-chave Metodologia, Geografia, Práticas espaciais. FIELDWORK AS KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION: methodological contributions to geographical practice Abstract Fieldwork is important in the trajectory of geographic studies that provide a unique form of knowledge production, contributing to a particular interaction between theory and practice. In addition, the field guarantees authenticity to observations and experiences, enables discoveries and the development of new theories, including, putting them to the test. Between the geographer there seems to be consensus and even a certain obviousness regarding the importance of field activity. However, it is understood that in order to achieve potential in the construction of knowledge, the field cannot be conceived as an ludic activity. So, the need to reflect on praxis and justify its need in teaching, research and extension is increasingly imposed. The authors will seek to answer the following questions: what is the importance of fieldwork for the production of geographic knowledge in teaching, research and extension? What to consider when proposing fieldwork? In this article, supported by the literature on the subject, the fundamental elements that constitute the fieldwork experiences in the scope of geographic science are presented. The reflections produced from the guiding principles led us to consider that such practices are products and producers of knowledge, involving an investigative attitude with reflection and intervention of / in the studied reality. Thus, we defend fieldwork as geographic praxis. Keywords Methodology, Geography, Space practices.

Some Medieval and Post-Golden Horde’s Towns of the Itil (Volga) and Syr-Darya Basins According to the Arabic and Chinese Maps

Research objectives: The earliest depictions of the towns of the Itil (Volga) and Syr-Darya Basins in medieval cartography are found on the Idrisi map (1154). The post-Golden Horde towns in these areas are found in the Jenkinson map and the Kunyu wanguo quan tu (Map of the Ten Thousand Countries of the Earth, 1602) by Matteo Ricci. In 1772, the Qianlong neifu yutu 乾隆内府舆圖 (Terrestrial Map of the Imperial Repository of Qianlong), which used modern cartographic techniques, enriched the geographic information of Central Asian countries and filled the gaps in contemporary European maps. Research materials: Influenced by the map of Al-Idrīsī’, the geographic gaps and blind spots on the European maps were filled, reconstructed, and connected with the new world geographic knowledge, forming a relatively complete world map. At the end of the Ming and early Qing dynasties, a large amount of overseas geographic knowledge was introduced by Western missionaries who entered China. Results and novelty of the research: The analysis of Arab, European, and Chinese maps made it possible to assess the degree of accuracy of their information about the post-Golden Horde cities of the Itil (Volga) and Syr-Darya basins. The authors managed to determine the geographical ideas of Arab, European, and Chinese geographers about Central Asia. Specifically, this article examined the place names of the Itil Basin (including Western Siberia) and the Qazaq Steppe (including adjacent regions) in the European-Russian imperial maps and in the Qing Chinese maps. Historical maps provide rich resources of knowledge that graphically encode information about the state of a fraction of the real world at a certain point in time.

Octonauts - National Identity and Attribution Theory in Children Learning About Nations

Children develop a sense of their own national identities, and knowledge of and attitudes towards other nations, around five to seven years old, with the media facilitating such learning. Though multiple psychological studies in this area exist, they must continue given the growing accessibility of media content and its potential impact upon children's attitudes towards people from other nations, and to better relate culture to attribution theory. To address this, content and discourse analyses, and an adapted version of Kelley's covariation model of attribution theory were applied to the children's television series Octonauts to determine how character behaviours were explained to children, how these behaviours relate to character national identities, and the potential representational impact of these relationships. Findings show the majority of behaviours were explained through internal attributions, fitting the series' educational focus, with some national identities being assigned to explain character behaviours or relationships between characters whilst also propagating negative representations of some nations. Findings also discuss missed opportunities for the series to enhance the geographic knowledge of child audiences, and how efforts to change behaviours within episodes potentially influence the moral development of children. Corresponding address: [email protected]

“They Proved to Be Very Good Sailors”: Slavery and Freedom in the South Sea

This article mines archival sources and published accounts from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries to highlight the extent to which enslaved men, women, and children in the South Sea came into contact with British corsairs. It does so in ways that lend to three important observations: that people of African descent occupied a central role within the history of British corsair activity in the South Sea; that British corsair activity in the South Sea forms part of the history of the slave trade; and that there are important differences between British corsairs’ use of enslaved and free people of African descent in the South Sea as compared to the Atlantic World. The latter point, which rests on the recognition of the particular linguistic skills and geographic knowledge held by people of African descent in the South Sea and British corsairs' particular vulnerabilities, also provides a useful framework for future research on both the specificity of black life in the region and the meanings those skills and knowledge held for Africans and their descendants themselves.