Angling to Reach a Destination to Fish—Exploring the Land and Water Travel Dynamics of Recreational Fishers in Port Phillip Bay, Australia

Recreational fishing is a popular pastime and multibillion dollar industry in Australia, playing a key economic role, especially in regional areas. In the State of Victoria, Port Phillip Bay (PPB), bordered by Melbourne and its suburbs, is the largest of the State’s marine recreational fisheries. At present, little is known about the spatial and temporal dimensions of angler travel from origins to destinations, and the applicability of such spatial knowledge in fisheries management. To address this lack of information we assessed spatiotemporal dynamics and patterns in fishing trips, based upon travel distances on land and water, to acquire insight into the spatial ranges over which anglers residing in various locations travel to fishing destinations in the environs of PPB. Data for each angler per fishing trip, from 6,035 boat-based creel surveys, collected at 20 boat ramps in PPB during a 10-year period from 2010 to 2019, were analyzed by applying geospatial modeling. Differences were observed in both land and water travel distance by region and popular target species, with anglers who launched from Bellarine region traveling further on land, and those who targeted snapper traveling further on water. It was also evident that most anglers resided within close proximity of PPB, often less than 50 km, although some anglers traveled long distances across the State to access fishing locations, particularly when targeting snapper. This work further highlights the importance of spatially explicit approaches to inform fisheries management by identifying users across different landscape and seascape scales, and out-of-region or State fishing trips, which may especially impact coastal communities and benefit local businesses.

Stereoscopic Views Improve Spatial Presence but not Spatial Learning in VR Games

A key affordance of virtual reality is the capability of immersive VR to prompt spatial presence resulting from the stereoscopic lenses in the head mounted display (HMD). We investigated the effect of a stereoscopic view of a game, Cellverse, on users' perceived spatial presence, knowledge of cells, and learning in three levels of spatial knowledge: route, landmark, and survey knowledge. Fifty-one participants played the game using the same game controllers but with different views; 28 had a stereoscopic view (HMD), and 23 had a non-stereoscopic view (computer monitor). Participants explored a diseased cell for clues to diagnose the disease type and recommend a therapy. We gathered surveys, drawings, and spatial tasks conducted in the game environment to gauge learning. Participants' spatial knowledge of the cell environment and knowledge of cell concepts improved after gameplay in both conditions. Spatial presence scores in the stereoscopic condition were higher than the non-stereoscopic condition with a large effect size, however there was no significant difference in levels of spatial knowledge between the two groups. Most all drawings showed a change in cell knowledge, yet some participants only changed in spatial knowledge of the cell, and some changed in both cell knowledge and spatial knowledge. Evidence suggests that a stereoscopic view has a significant effect on users' experience of spatial presence, but that increased presence does not directly translate into spatial learning.

Participatory GIS-Based Approach for the Demarcation of Village Boundaries and Their Utility: A Case Study of the Eastern Boundary of Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka

This study examines spatial knowledge of the local community and the participatory resource mapping (PRM) approach to demarcate land boundaries in the eastern boundary of Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has four types of major administrative boundaries, namely, provinces, districts, divisional secretariat divisions (DSD), and Grama Niladari (GN) divisions. The smallest community segments are clustered inside each GN division. The lack of proper demarcation of these smallest community segments, called ‘villages’, has been identified as a significant issue when implementing community development plans and applications in government and non-government projects. Thus, the deliverables of community-based projects become less effective. The objective of this study was to explore means of demarcating land boundaries, to separately identify small community segments using participatory GIS (PGIS) techniques. The study was conducted covering 12 GN divisions adjoining the eastern border of Wilpattu National Park (WNP). The methods used included PGIS interviews and group discussions with PRM steps. Overall, around 100 selected community members, spread across 12 GN divisions, were chosen to participate in the study. Community society meetings were conducted in each village, and essential topographic information in the area was collected with the knowledge of local society members and GIS tools. Later, this was digitized and verified to improve the presentation and accuracy of the results. As a result, the study could identify villages in each GN division, while generating more precise digital maps. Through this study, it can be confirmed that PGIS has remarkable potential in land use planning applications. The study further shows the potential of the application of PGIS in community-based projects and their deliverables to the community, and in enhancing community education on spatial thinking and planning, while facilitating community empowerment and innovation.

A fuzzy approach for determining the cognitive spatial location of an object in geographical information system

The work is devoted to the problem of interpretation of fuzzy semantics of cognitive descriptions of spatial relations in natural language and their visualization in a geographic information system (GIS). The solution to the problem of determining the fuzzy spatial location of an object based on vague descriptions of the observer in natural language is considered. The task is relevant in critical situations when there is no way to report the exact coordinates of the observed object, except by describing its location relative to the observer itself. Such a situation may be the result of a crime, terrorist act or natural disaster. An observer who finds itself at the scene transmits a text message, which is a description of the location of the object or place (for example, the crime scene, the location of dangerous objects, the crash site). The semantics of the spatial location of the object can be further extracted from the text message. The proposed fuzzy approach is based on the formalization of the observer's phrases, with which it can describe spatial relations, in the form of a set of linguistic variables that determine the direction and distance to the object. Examples of membership functions for linguistic variables are given. The spatial knowledge base is built on the basis of the phrases of observers and their corresponding fuzzy regions. Algorithms for constructing cognitive regions in GIS have been developed. Methods of their superposition to obtain the final fuzzy location of the object are proposed. An example of the implementation of a fuzzy model for identifying cognitive regions based on vague descriptions of several observers, performed using developed Python scripts integrated into ArcGIS 10.5, is considered.

Virtual Reality-Based Fuzzy Spatial Relation Knowledge Extraction Method for Observer-Centered Vague Location Descriptions

Many documents contain vague location descriptions of observed objects. To represent location information in geographic information systems (GISs), these vague location descriptions need to be transformed into representable fuzzy spatial regions, and knowledge about the location descriptions of observer-to-object spatial relations must serve as the basis for this transformation process. However, a location description from the observer perspective is not a specific fuzzy function, but comes from a subjective viewpoint, which will be different for different individuals, making the corresponding knowledge difficult to represent or obtain. To extract spatial knowledge from such subjective descriptions, this research proposes a virtual reality (VR)-based fuzzy spatial relation knowledge extraction method for observer-centered vague location descriptions (VR-FSRKE). In VR-FSRKE, a VR scene is constructed, and users can interactively determine the fuzzy region corresponding to a location description under the simulated VR observer perspective. Then, a spatial region clustering mechanism is established to summarize the fuzzy regions identified by various individuals into fuzzy spatial relation knowledge. Experiments show that, on the basis of interactive scenes provided through VR, VR-FSRKE can efficiently extract spatial relation knowledge from many individuals and is not restricted by requirements of a certain place or time; furthermore, the knowledge obtained by VR-FSRKE is close to the knowledge obtained from a real scene.

Novel Cartographical Designs for Blind and Partially Impaired Students in Kurdistan

It is understood that all human beings need information, including spatial (geospatial) information. It has to be noted that spatial and geospatial information helps people to enrich the knowledge about certain regions. In general, the knowledge is very significant for strengthening orientation ability, which, in turn, affects the level of intelligence. It is believed that the better a person can recognize geographical information the cleverer s/he is. Being able to have the spatial knowledge helps humans to fulfil their basic needs and find solutions to various problems. Present research uses Geographical Information System (GIS) to create paper maps, which can be transferred onto a touch display where the user can choose different keys and settings (such as colour, measurement, etc.) to represent different forms of data. The study aims to examine the effectiveness of digital interactive cartographical novel solutions in improving text and space memorization among visually impaired Kurdish students. The study’s purpose draws from the knowledge that Kurdistan learners and other demographic groups lack an effective multimodal communication map suited to contemporary society’s demands. The research seeks to fill the gap by presenting a strategy for developing interactive tactile maps for the target group to solve the growing problem of visual impairment in Kurdistan. Technologies associated with tactile maps are reviewed and the application of interactive tactile maps for populations, in addition to those who are visually impaired, is also considered. The obtained results are very useful for blind and low sighted users to communicate information through the assistive technologies on the map due to finding the geographical location easily.

Study on Emergency Evacuation and Intervention Behavior of Population with Spatial Knowledge Integrity

The level of spatial knowledge integrity of a population is crucial for fire escape behavior. The use of appropriate interventions for people with different levels of spatial knowledge can effectively improve evacuation efficiency. However, different emergency situations also have different effects on evacuation behavior. In this paper, we combine spatial knowledge integrity, intervention behavior and emergency situations in a fire evacuation study. To complete this study, 128 participants were recruited using VR technology, classified into spatial knowledge completeness, and studied crowd evacuation through different intervention behaviors in different simulated emergency scenarios. The results of the study showed that participants with complete spatial knowledge had shorter evacuation distances and times. Secondly, leader interventions guided evacuation better for participants with incomplete spatial knowledge in low-hazard emergencies, while range interventions were better for participants with complete spatial knowledge. Thirdly, in high-risk emergencies, leader intervention was better than range intervention for evacuation, regardless of spatial knowledge completeness. Fourth, the interaction between spatial knowledge completeness and intervention behavior was significant, positively influencing the evacuation time and distance of participants.

METHODS OF OBTAINING AND USING QUALITY DATA IN THE PRACTICE OF URBAN PLANNING

This article uses the term “spatial knowledge” to describe methods aimed at obtaining qualitative data on urban space. The study examines the coexistence of formal planning with informal planning practices. This coexistence takes place in the context of changes in current legislation and the growing influence of local communities in urban development planning. This paper describes certain methods for analyzing the "spatial practices" of the local community and examples of interaction between municipal authorities and NGOs. Communication between governmental and non-governmental planning agents explicitly or implicitly influences urban development by gradually transforming the "rational model" that defined planners as neutral analysts. Approbation of methods for obtaining quality data on urban space took place during various workshops at the All-Ukrainian festival "Cities of Ukraine" in Dnipro from 2016 to 2020. Thus, to analyze the manifestations of spatial tactics of citizens, the method of mapping places of artistic action was used. In combination with the method of mapping urban areas with limited access, it provides data on the nature of use (or restrictions on use) of common space. The analysis of property rights with an assessment of developers’ (or tenants’) intentions regarding the main and adjacent land plots was conducted using the mixed methodology. First of all, open sources (cadastral maps) were analyzed to determine the owners of plots. The data obtained were supplemented by information from the town-planning councils where intentions to develop specific sites were stated in the form of various projects. Subsequently, the method of implicit property rights analysis was used in the development concept of the Naberezhna Peremohy area in Dnipro. In general, all these city workshops, as well as practical planning performed in cooperation with a local architectural workshop, are relevant to the inclusion of informal practices in urban development planning. The transformation of the "rational model" of spatial planning requires using not only quantitative but also qualitative data of the place. Characterization of spatial tactics of citizens, identification of places of joint action with the definition of "urban voids" and identification of the main "actors" of spatial development contribute to the effectiveness of planning proposals.