The effect of the Cold War era on maps for public use in the Eastern Bloc countries: Tourist maps

Cartography of the Cold War era was very characteristic in the Eastern Bloc countries. The abnormal secrecy instructions forced by military cartographic authorities (following the Soviet advisors) influenced the making of all kinds of large- and medium-scale cartographic products for public use. Most of these maps were somehow distorted, although it was not easy to implement the technology of distortions developed by cartographers in the analogue map production era in the early 1960s. Tourist maps are expected to be created using topographic maps, but the access to classified topographic maps (both civilian and military) was limited for civilian users (even for civilian national mapping agencies, at least in the early years of the Cold War era). The tourist maps of this era were quite different from country to country in the Eastern Bloc, partly due to their cartographic traditions and to the relationships between the military and civilian cartography even influenced by the users’ demands.

FRMOD, a Python tool for statistical landslide susceptibility assessment

Locating landslide-prone slopes is important, as landslides often threaten life or property where they occur. There is an abundance of statistical methods in the literature for estimating susceptibility to landslides, i.e., the likelihood of landslide occurrence based on the analyzed conditions. Still, there is a lack of readily available GIS tools for landslide susceptibility analysis, making it hard to reproduce or compare the results of different susceptibility assessments. The FRMOD is a Python-based tool for conducting landslide susceptibility analysis with the frequency ratio method. The frequency ratio method yields susceptibility estimates by comparing the frequency distributions of a set of variables from the sample landslide areas to the distributions for the whole study area. The estimates show the level of similarity to the sample landslides. The two main inputs of the tool are the raster grids of the analyzed continuous (e.g., elevation, slope) and thematic (e.g., lithology) variables and the mask grid that marks the landslide and the non-landslide areas. The analysis is performed with cross-validation to measure the predictive performance of the model. Data computed during the analysis is stored along the final susceptibility estimates and the supplementary statistics. The script reads and writes GDAL-compatible rasters, while the statistics can be saved as text files. Basic plotting functionalities for the grids and the statistics are also built-in to quicken the evaluation of the results. FRMOD enables the swift testing of different analysis setups and to apply the same analysis method for different areas with relative ease.

Exploring and Transforming Spaces Through High-Dimensional Gestural Interactions

Almost every map or globe we come into contact with is distorted in some way, be it through cartographic projection, vertical exaggeration or data-driven morphing of distances in cartograms. And yet, once we utilize Virtual Reality technologies to position ourselves in a virtual reconstruction of a real or planned space, we usually default to a strict adherence to its real-world proportions and spatial relations. In search of an alternative conception of how such environments can be explored, this paper investigates a novel way of using the embodiment and high interactivity afforded by current VR technology to let users apply a wide range of transformations to their surroundings. Instead of utilizing a large number of predefined gestures that need to be learned before use, the full state of a user’s hand (including rotation, position, and joint angles) is tracked, directly mapped to a transformation matrix, and then selectively applied to the 3D environment. This is a complex and high-dimensional form of interaction, but through its embodied nature users can develop familiarity with it by unguided trial and error. Once accustomed, they can bend, shear, and manipulate the space around them with a variety of self-discovered gestural interactions. In the course of this paper, we discuss technical considerations, physiological limitations, possible use cases, as well as a number of recognizable gestures that emerged from the space of possible interactions after prolonged use.

Eye-tracking comparison of two road atlases

The usage of road atlases is experiencing a decline due to the rise in popularity of modern GPS navigational systems. However, road atlases are still utilised by some individuals, both in combination with mobile navigation and separately when navigating during the trip. Therefore, road atlases continue to be published. They are regularly updated, and they do gradually change, such as when the map symbology changes or when the creation of maps takes new technological possibilities into account. The changes in map symbology are the main essence of the presented paper. Based on the assumption presented by an expert (head of the largest cartographic publishing house in the Czech Republic) during an expert discussion that the 20-year-old road atlas is easier to read and that the required information was more quickly accessible in the old atlas than in the new atlas, a scientific experiment was designed and performed. Within the comparison of the "old" and "new" atlases, three hypotheses were established: (1) Accuracy of responses will be higher for the "old" atlas, (2) Time for task completion will be lower for the "old" atlas, and (3) Orientation in the maps from the "old" atlas will be easier. The eye-tracking testing performed did not confirm the first hypothesis, but the statistics confirmed the second and third hypotheses. The reasons for the different results for the "old" and "new" atlases were sometimes obvious (change in the graphic variables of a particular map symbol). Still, other times the causes were not completely clear. All of the experimental results were provided to the publishing house for further use in practice.

Definition of the Map

Cartography has undergone great changes in the last 40 years. Many web platforms and location-based services are offering increasing opportunities, paper maps have been largely supplemented by multimedia and digital maps, and spatial databases. The definition of a map has changed throughout history and the differences in their definitions are presented. This paper aims for new central cartographic definitions, corresponding to contemporary cartographic development after presenting the current situation of the topic. Definitions of cartographic mapping, cartography and cartographer are proposed, as well as a new definition of the map. All they are made on the base of logical analyses including different types of maps from traditional and real to virtual, 3D, animation, and digital.

Mapping accessibility in Norway – a Method to Register and Survey the Status of Accessibility in urban areas and recreational areas

The Norwegian mapping authority has developed a standard method for mapping accessibility mostly for people with limited or no walking abilities in urban and recreational areas. We choose an object-orientated approach where points, lines and polygons represents objects in the environment. All data are stored in a geospatial database, so they can be presented as web map and analysed using GIS software. By the end of 2020, more than 230 out of 356 municipalities are mapped using that method. The aim of this project is to establish a national standard for mapping of accessibility and to provide a geodatabase that shows the status of accessibility throughout Norway. The data provide a useful tool for national statistics, local planning authorities and private users. The results show that accessibility is still low and Norway still faces many challenges to meet the government’s goals for Universal Design.

How are maps used in research? An exploratory review of PhD dissertations

Maps are a powerful medium for communicating research. Tools for analysing geospatial data and preparing maps are now readily available and widely used in research. Despite this, concerns are being raised over the quality of maps produced with online and desktop mapping products. As academics and supervisors of postgraduate students, we conducted an exploratory study to determine if and how these concerns apply to maps in PhD dissertations. We reviewed just over 1,000 dissertations published in 2015 and 2017 at three universities. Maps for indicating locations or study areas were used in a diverse range of topics, confirming our reliance on maps to communicate information about geographic space. Maps that communicated scientific results were prevalent in the natural sciences and in the humanities, and in these cases, the dissertations included a large number of maps. We provide a qualitative description of problems identified in the dissertations, which highlight challenges with the accurate and responsible presentation of scientific results in maps. The accumulation of minor inaccuracies on maps, especially if one result is based on another, can have serious consequences for scientific knowledge production. Future work could review maps in PhD dissertations to inform guidelines for preparing and evaluating maps to be included in dissertations.

Mixed Reality Maps to help convey disaster information

In safe and industrialized nations most people have only been sporadically in contact with disaster information. But nevertheless, suitable cartographic products are needed to support first aid responders and help teams trying to save as many lives as possible in disaster events. The spatial information on which these teams have to rely on are currently maps without any interactivity and flexibility which was detected by a requirements analysis asking stakeholders working in the field of disaster management. Based on this analysis a tabletop mixed reality application was developed. Within the application two case study scenarios were integrated. Both scenarios together showed the flexibility of the mixed reality approach for representing disaster information in a suitable and feasible way. The first scenario illustrates a large fire event as well as several additional information sources which can assist response and management teams in various directions. The second scenario displays an earthquake event visualizing damaged and destroyed houses and streets. This scenario as well integrates many different information sources and spans from small scale area visualizations to large scale indoor maps for highlighting e.g. injured people in distinct rooms or floors. The resulting application was evaluated by experts. First the application was presented and explained to the experts. Afterwards the experts were asked in a structured interview how they would evaluate the usability and willingness to use such an application in real scenarios. The experts were impressed by the available possibilities in representing and integrating disaster information via the tabletop mixed reality approach yet mentioned that a head mounted device compared to a smartphone would be more beneficial in practice.

Dual naming as a mechanism to recognize multiple identities; Casablanca or Ad-Dār al-Bayḍā

The primary aim of place names is to provide clear direction and reference in order to distinguish geographical entities. The Moroccan linguistic situation allows for a bilingual presentation of place names, with an Arabized version and a French counterpart that differs phonetically. On the other hand, Casablanca has dual naming, a colonial name, and an Arabic variant, which is not simply a translation that happened as a result of Arabization policies introduced after the country's independence. This study relies mainly on questionnaires, in addition to interviews, in an attempt to address the following aspects: The attitude towards the standardization of only one variant, variants and the city's cultural heritage and significance, standardization of only one variant and the accurate representation of the place, dual naming as a reminder of the multiple place histories vs. dual naming as a mere case of the language difference, and Moroccans and the etymology of the variants. The findings indicate that Casablanca shifts from a mere marker of the colonial period to an active maker of the city's heritage. Its meaning is disconnected from its historical anchorage and converted into an instrument of identity and means of historical memory. Moreover, the choice of one variant is perceived as a loss of toponymic identity, which will serve as a hindrance against the population and their relation to their past.

Finite mixtures of normal distributions in the study of the error in altimetry

The modelling of the altimetric error is proposed by means of the mixture of normal distributions. This alternative allows to avoid the problems of lack of normality of the altimetric error and that have been indicated numerous times. The conceptual bases of the mixture of distributions are presented and its application is demonstrated with an applied example. In the example, the altimetric errors existing between a DEM with 5 × 5 m resolution and another DEM with 2 × 2 m resolution are modelled, which is considered as a reference. The application demonstrates the feasibility and power of analysis of the proposal made.