Publications

The Richardson plot has been used to illustrate fractal dimension of naturally occurring landscape features that are sensitive to changes in scale or resolution, such as coastlines and river channels. The Richardson method estimates the length of a path by traversing (i.e., “walking”) the path with a specific stride length. Fractal dimension is determined as the slope of the Richardson plot, which

This research posits that socially constructed spatial relations address concepts of interactions instead of intersections, human/tool agents instead of physical processes, and broader ranges of geographical outcomes. The hypothesis is that social space can be represented by using patterns of logic relations between sets of entities. The data corpus of spatial relations was extracted from geograp

More data are being collected about the world around us than ever before, but effectively using this information requires different data stores to be integrated in such a way that they can be seamlessly queried and analyzed. Automated alignment algorithms exist to facilitate this data integration challenge. In this paper we examine the utility of two current leading automated alignment systems to

This paper introduces our research in developing a probabilistic model to extract linear terrain features from high resolution DEM (Digital Elevation Model) data. The proposed model takes full advantage of spatio-contextual information to characterize terrain changes. It first derives a quantifiable measure of spatio-contextual patterns of linear terrain feature, such as ridgelines, valley lines a

Recent increase in the production of high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) from lidar data has led to interest in their use for terrain mapping. Although the impact of different resolutions has been studied relative to terrain characteristics like roughness, slope and curvature, its relationship to the extraction of terrain features remains unclear. To address this question, this study t

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the United States' official national topographic mapping organization, is building and maintaining geographic databases for fundamental base geographic layers of land cover, structures, boundaries, hydrography, geographic names, transportation, elevation, and orthoimagery as The National Map. Data from the 3D Elevation Program, the National Hydrography Dataset an

Semantic technology based on the Resource Description Framework (RDF) modeling environment has introduced new data management capabilities that can lead to innovative cartographic techniques. This report describes research toward more semantically expressive linked geospatial data mapping, topics of research, and an avenue for further  international collaboration.

This paper reports on a new Area Preserving Segment Collapse (APSC) algorithm for simplifying polygonal boundaries while preserving polygonal area at simplified target scales and minimizing areal displacement. A general segment collapse algorithm is defined by iteratively collapsing segments to Steiner points in priority order, guided by placement and displacement functions. The algorithm is speci

This report describes a software tool that calculates costs associated with the reconstruction of supply chain interdependent critical infrastructure in the advent of a catastrophic failure by either outside forces (extreme events) or internal forces (fatigue). This tool fills a gap between search and recover strategies of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (or FEMA) and construction techniqu

Large spatial databases often labeled as geospatial big data exceed the capacity of commonly used computing systems as a result of data volume, variety, velocity, and veracity. Additional problems also labeled with V’s are cited, but the four primary ones are the most problematic and focus of this chapter (Li et al., 2016, Panimalar et al., 2017).  Sources include satellites, aircraft and drone pl

Whither the topographic map? Topographic mapping historically has been approached as a map factory operation through the period 1879-1990. During this time, data were field and photogrammetrically collected; cartographically verified and annotated creating a compilation manuscript; further edited, generalized, symbolized, and produced as a graphic output product using lithography, or more recently

National Mapping Agencies (NMAs) are still among the main end users of research into automated generalisation, which is transferred into their produc- tion lines via various means. This chapter includes contributions from seven NMAs, illustrating how automated generalisation is used in practice within their partly or fully automated databases and maps production lines, what results are currently b