http://maps.unomaha.edu/ica/ http://members.home.net/ica-mi/

Preliminary Program

Workshop on Maps and the Internet

Guangzhou, China, July 31 - Aug. 2, 2001

with Post-Workshop trip to Wuhan, Aug. 2-3, arriving Beijing Aug. 4

Sponsored by:
 Commission on Maps and the Internet, International Cartographic Association (ICA)
 South China Normal University
 Guangdong Academy of Sciences
 ISPRS Commission IV/2

Overview

The Workshop is being sponsored by the ICA Commission on Maps and the Internet, South China Normal University, the Guangdong Academy of Sciences, and the ISPRS Commission IV/2. The ICA Commission was formed in 1999 in response to the rapid growth in the use of electronic networks to distribute maps and spatial data. The purpose of the workshop is to bring together international specialists in the field of Internet mapping and to disseminate information to a broader audience on new developments and major areas of research.

Conference Location

The meeting will be held in International Science and Technology Trade Center in Guangzhou. A mini-bus will transfer conference attendees between the conference hotel and the Trade Center. A computer with LCD projection panel, CD-ROM, and Internet connection will be available for the presentations. The bandwidth between China and other countries is limited so it might be best for speakers to also bring a CD with examples.

Conference Hotel

The Baiyun Hotel which is about 15-20 minutes from the airport. The hotel is located in one of the commercial centers in Guangzhou. The taxi fare from the airport to the hotel should be around 20 yuan (less than 3 dollars) (http://www.baiyun-hotel.com/).

We have received a group rate of approximately US$42 per night for a double room at the Bai Yun. This is lower than the published rate. Make your reservation through Dr. Bin Li at Bin Li <bin.li@cmich.edu>.

Information on the Bai Yun from their web page(http://www.baiyun-hotel.com/):

"Bai Yun hotel is one of the high buildings and large hotels in China. It is located at Huanshi Dong Road, the city center of Guangzhou where is the busy section with many large stores, hotels and commercial buildings. The hotel is also close to the Friendship Store, Pearl River, Subway Gate, Tianhe Railway Station and the site of China Export Commodities Trade Fair. It is convenient in communications with seven kilometers away from the Airport, and three kilometers away from the Railway Station. Bai Yun Hotel is the ideal place for both businessmen and tourists to stay at. "

NECESSARY SERVICES:
Different styles of Chinese and Western restaurants and banquet rooms have a seating capacity for 1,500 persons. Business feast, wedding reception and corporate function can be planned and booked here. They are really a strong appeal for food and drink.
· Ganxi Restaurant on the first floor: Offers all kinds of favours and snacks.
· Bai Yun Tower Restaurant on the second floor: Offers Cantonese Food, Chaozhou Food, Beijing Food and Shandong Food. The hall can accommodate 500 persons holding cocktail party or furnish 66 tables for a grand celebration.
· Juxian Pavilion on the third floor: The restaurant has banquet halls of different styles like Chinese styles. Traditional Cantonese food, seafood and game are served here.
· Western Restaurant: the Western Restaurant is very quiet and comfortable. It mainly serves French and American food. Buffet is available for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
· Bar: offers all kinds of drinks & cock-tails and snacks.
· There are Business Center, Ticket Office, Travel Service, Store, Sauna, Massage and Beauty Salon, Post Office, Band, Billiard Room and Safety Deposit Boxes in the hotel.

Cost of Registration

A small workshop participation fee will be charged by the organizers in Guangzhou - $50 for attendees, $20 for presenters.

Program Overview

Tuesday July 31, 2001

Wednesday August 1, 2001

  • 7:30 - 8:00 AM: Bus Transfer to Conference Center
  • 8:00 - 10:00 AM: Session 1: Technical Aspects of Internet Mapping
  • 10:30 AM - 12:30: Session 2: User Aspects of Internet Mapping
  • 1:30 PM - 9 PM: Tour of Guangzhou and Night Tour of Pearl River (Dinner* included)

    • Thursday August 2, 2001

    Friday August 3, 2001

    Saturday August 4

    * Denotes an extra cost that is not incluced in the participation fee.

    Schedule

    July 31, 2001

    8:00 AM - 2:00 PM Registration at Hotel

    2:30 - 3:00 PM Welcome and Overview of Conference and Post-Conference trip to Wuhan
    Overview of Conference (Peterson, Li Yan, Li Bin, Jianya Gong)

    3:00 - 4:00 PM Opening Session: Welcome Address by the Leaders in Guangzhou

    4:15 - 5:45 PM
    Session #1: Internet Mapping Applications in Guangzhou
    Chair:     Li Yan, Institute of Geography, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, China

    Ideal Meanings of Data Sharing --- Maps on Internet, Jianwei Ding, Guangzhou Urban Planning Automation

    Non-Point Pollution Source (NPS) Information System by Web-based Image & GIS Tools and Applications in Shenzhen, China, WANG Yunpeng, LIANG Yu, State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry

    Data Integration and Management of Resource and Environment based on Web GIS, Yan LI, GDRGC, Guangzhou Institute of Geography

    6:00 - 7:30 PM Welcome Reception 
    To be held at a restaurant near the conference site. Self-service dinner.

    7:30 - 9:00 PM Introductions and Demonstration Session
    An introduction of participants and demonstration of web pages and mapping applications by interested participants. A lively introduction of participants accompanied by a short overview of their web site and associated web-mapping applications.

    August 1, 2001

    8:00 - 10:15 PM
    Session 2: Technical Aspects of Internet Mapping

    Chair: Bin Li, Central Michigan University, USA

    Federated Spatial Database and Interoperability, Jianya Gong, Yandong Wang, Wuhan University, China.

    Visualizing Spatial Data and Associated Multimedia Information on the Internet, Shunfu Hu, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, USA

    Towards the Development of a Integrated Internet System for Improving User Access to Maps, Lihua Zhao, The University of New South Wales, Australia

    A Study on GML-Based Ubiquitous WebGIS, LUO Ying-wei, WANG Xiao-lin, MA Jian and XU Zhuo-qun
    Dept. of Computer Science and Technology, Peking University, Beijing

    Information Features of Network Map, Zhigang LI, Ruizhi SHI, Surveying Institute, University of Information Engineering

    Peer-to-Peer Sharing of Cartographic Data, Bin Li, Central Michigan University, USA

    10:30 AM - 12:30 PM
    Session 3: User Aspects of Internet Mapping

    Chair: Corné van Elzakker, ITC Division of Geoinformatics, Cartography and Visualization, The Netherlands

    Web Cartography: Use and User Issues, Corné van Elzakker, ITC Division of Geoinformatics, Cartography and Visualization, The Netherlands

    Usability Tests with Interactive Maps, Gennady Andrienko and Natalia Andrienko, GMD - German National Research Center for Information Technology

    Web-based Maps in Support of Teaching Weather and Physical Geography, James Carter, Illinois State University, USA

    The Form and Function of Internet Maps, Rex G. Cammack, Southwest Missouri State University, USA

    Map Design and the Staged-Information Processing Approach, George McCleary, University of Kansas, USA

    1:30 - 9:00 PM
    Tour of Guangzhou and Night Tour of Pearl River (Dinner* included)

     

    August 2, 2001

    8:00 - 10:00 PM
    Session 4: Applications of Internet Mapping

    Chair: Michael Peterson, University of Nebraska-Omaha, USA

    Participative Forest Management Facilitated by the Use of GIS/Internet Integrated Data, Francoise Orban-Ferauge, University of Namur, Belgium and Jose Andres Ignacio, Ateneo de Manila, Philippines

    A Comparison of Web-based GIS and Web-based Multimedia Cartography as Tools for an Historical Geography Analysis: New Bedford, Massachusetts,1889-1999, Alberto Giordano, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA

    Cartographic Solutions for Visualization of Northern City of Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada, Eva Siekierska, Geomatics Canada

    Thinking in Enterprise Architecture of webGIS Applications, Qi Mingyao 1, Chi Tianhe 1, Huo Liang 2, (1 Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Resarch,Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100101), (2 Wuhan Technologic University of Surveying and Mapping ,Wuhan,430079).

    The Automated Display of Maps from the Internet, Michael Peterson, University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA

    10:30 - 12:30 PM
    Session 5: Future Trends

    Chair: Georg Gartner, Vienna University of Technology, Austria

    Multi-purpose Publishing of Geodata in the Web, Lassi Lehto, Finnish Geodetic Institute, Finland

    Mobile Internet: Applying Maps to Mobile Clients, Georg Gartner, Susanne Uhlirz & Andreas Pammer, Vienna University of Technology, Austria

    Internet Mapping Applications in Hong Kong - from World Wide Web to Mobile, Director, CEO, MapAsia.com Limited, NG, Stanley Wing-fai,

    Mobile Internet Map Communication in Japanese Daily Life, Hiroshi OTA, Futsubu School, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan

    A Proposal for a Collaborative On-line Course in Multimedia Cartography, William Cartwright Department of Geospatial Science, RMIT University, Australia

    2:00 - 3:00 PM
    Visit of GDRGC, Guangzhou Institute of Geography

    6:30 PM
    Leave for Wuhan by Train



    Post-Workshop Trip, Aug. 2 - 4

    Dr. Jianya Gong, Director of the National GIS Laboratory at Wuhan University, will accompany a group of workshop participants by train from Guangzhou to Beijing. We will be in Wuhan on Friday, August 3, for a tour of the city and the National GIS Laboratory. Lodging will be arranged for Friday August 3 in Wuhan.

    Thursday August 2, 2001:

    Friday August 3, 2001:

    Saturday August 4, 2001:

    Abstracts

    Session 2: Technical Aspects of Internet Mapping

    Visualizing Spatial Data and Associated Multimedia Information on the Internet
    Shunfu Hu
    Department of Geography
    University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
    800 Algoma Blvd
    Oshkosh, WI 54901
    hus@uwosh.edu

    With the advancement of digital mapping techniques and Internet technology, both spatial data (e.g., maps, remotely sensed data, etc.) and associated multimedia information (e.g., text, graphics, digital video, sound and animation) can be disseminated and visualized via World Wide Web (WWW). An internet-based approach for integrating multimedia with a geographic information system (GIS) database was developed for an area corresponding to the U.S. Geographical Survey (USGS) Long Pine Key and Pa-Hay-Okee Lookout Tower 1:24,000-scale topographic quadrangles in Everglades National Park. The multimedia database contains descriptive text, ground photographs, digital video clips and audio segments highlighting the characteristics of Everglades plant communities, individual species, and invasive exotics, as well as plant-animal interactions, hurricane damage, and post-fire vegetation succession. It is linked to a GIS database that includes detailed vegetation maps, SPOT panchromatic imagery, and scanned National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP) 1:40,000-scale color-infrared (CIR) aerial photographs. The integrated multimedia approach was implemented in two steps: 1) an interactive multimedia system designed to manipulate multimedia information such as hypertext, hyperlinks, scanned photographs, digital video and sound was developed in a Microsoft Visual Basic programming environment; and 2) a GIS application program to manipulate spatial data was constructed using Visual Basic and Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) MapObjects Internet Map Server software. The integrated multimedia approach discussed in this paper demonstrates an innovative way to disseminate and visualize both spatial data and associated information in multimedia format on the Internet.

     

    Towards the Development of a Integrated Internet System for Improving User Access to Maps
    Lihua Zhao
    School of Geography
    The University of New South Wales
    Sydney 2052 NSW Australia
    Email: lihuaz@student.unsw.edu.au

    The growth of the Internet and the delivery of content on the Web have changed the methodologies for displaying, reading and using spatial information. The Internet is having a profound effect on the way in which maps are accessed.
    This paper reports on work in progress to develop on-line mapping application required to produce and delivery spatial analysis result and maps to marketing business customers. A primary role of the application is to provide analysis result and data to clients in as efficient a way as possible, therefore the choice of Internet delivery. A methodologies was chosen which involved a group of open-source and commercial products linked together by scripts and programs.
    The on-line mapping component was designed to meet the following requirements for effective decision support for direct marketing:
    * Gather and display existing customer information;
    * Generate buyer profile based on the customer information and demographic variables
    * Create dynamic maps from data stored in a GIS
    * Allow users to display (scale and pan) map information to different areas of interest
    * Produce map layout with cartographic components, such as title, legend and scale, etc.

     

    A Study on GML-Based Ubiquitous WebGIS
    LUO Ying-wei, WANG Xiao-lin, MA Jian and XU Zhuo-qun
    Dept. of Computer Science and Technology, Peking University, Beijing, 100871
    lyw@geoagent.pku.edu.cn

    GML is gradually accepted by people and becoming an exchange format for spatial information. In this paper, it is pointed out that GML-based ubiquitous WebGIS will have a bright future both in application and in market. GML-based ubiquitous WebGIS contains two aspects of content, one is the trade-off of spatial information based on GML, the other is ubiquitous WebGIS application based on GML data. At last, based on XML Parser technology, a method of building GML-based ubiquitous WebGIS application is presented, which will provides a useful experience for ubiquitous WebGIS.
    Key words: XML, GML, XML Schema, Ubiquitous WebGIS, XML Parser, Java Applet

    Peer-to-Peer Sharing of Cartographic Data
    Bin Li
    Department of Geography
    Central Michigan University
    Mount Pleasant, MI 48858

    Peer-to-peer data sharing over the Internet has great usability but lacks acceptability by the original data providers. This paper will explore the technical issues related to cartographic data sharing through the peer-to-peer model. It will focus on the specific software components that enable packaging, broadcasting, and searching of cartographic data in different formats. We will also discuss some preliminary considerations on the technical matters with managing cartographic data as digital assets. A proof-of-concept system for peer-to-peer data sharing will be demonstrated.

    Session 3: User Aspects of Internet Mapping

    Web Cartography: Use and User Issues
    Corné P.J.M. van Elzakker
    ITC, Division of Geoinformatics, Cartography and Visualisation
    P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, The Netherlands
    Phone: +31 53 48 74 478 / Fax: +31 53 48 74 335
    E-mail: elzakker@itc.nl
    http://www.itc.nl/~elzakker

    Accessibility and actuality are the real benefits of the WWW medium for the dissemination of geospatial information through maps. In addition, the Web allows different modes of using web maps that address different map use goals. A great deal of web map use research will be required to develop more effective cartographic tools to better serve the needs of the users. Part of this research will have to be directed towards the characteristics of the web map users and the nature of their questions.

    Currently, we are witnessing a significant diversification of the user profile combined with an exponential growth of the total number of Internet users worldwide. The global distribution of the Internet is still very uneven, but there are now signs that the geographical anomalies will be somewhat reduced in the years to come. There are a number of other problems and limitations with which users are confronted in their use of maps on the web. However, the Web already is the major medium for the dissemination of maps and it has a great potential for further growth. But, this growth will have to be accompanied by cartographic research.

    Usability Tests with Interactive Maps
    Gennady Andrienko and Natalia Andrienko
    GMD - German National Research Center for Information Technology
    AiS.KD - Autonomous Intelligent Systems Institute, Knowledge Discovery Team
    Schloss Birlinghoven, Sankt-Augustin, D-53754 Germany
    http://borneo.gmd.de/and/
    e-mail gennady.andrienko@gmd.de

    Development of the computer cartography and geographic information systems revealed lack of knowledge about the use of interactive map displays on a computer screen. Properties of such displays are quite different from those of static paper maps. These new properties give an opportunity to substantially expand the range of applicability of traditional cartographic presentation methods to various data analysis tasks. For example, static choropleth maps are not suitable for comparison of values associated with different objects while their interactive counterparts can make this task very easy to do. However, it is necessary to perform experiments and collect knowledge on how people can utilize the novel techniques of interactive, dynamic computer cartography.

    We developed various interactive techniques for dynamic manipulation of maps and implemented them in Java to allow multiplatform functionality and Internet access to the system (Andrienko and Andrienko, 1999). Our current goal is to test if users can successfully apply these tools after short training. For this purpose we designed a series of data analysis tasks including detection of outliers, comparison of values, finding trends in spatial distribution, revealing relationships between attributes, etc. In performing these tasks the test subjects are supposed to utilize different interactive techniques. The tasks are supplemented with instructions on the use of these techniques and illustrated examples. The tests will be performed on-site with about 10 participants (12-13 March 2001, Lisboa, CNIG - Portuguese National Center for Geoinformation) and in the Internet (after the first test). Results of the tests will be reported in the final paper.

     

    Web-based Maps in Support of Teaching Weather and Physical Geography
    James Carter
    Department of Geography
    Illinois State University
    jrcarter@ilstu.edu

    The author teaches courses in weather and physical geography to students with little background in these subjects. In this teaching heavy use if made of the web to deliver material to students in the weather class, while in the physical geography class the students develop their own web pages on particular subjects.

    This presentation will focus on a variety of maps employed in both of these subjects. One set of maps relates to the presentation of the monthly patterns of climate in terms of temperature, precipitation and cloud cover. There are alternative maps of climate that will be examined. The web is rich in terms of the variety of weather maps. Attention will be given to some of these maps and how they can used in a teaching environment.

    Complementing these maps of weather are basic reference maps of the world and maps of elevation. One web site provides the viewer the ability to generate his/her own map of hypsometry, from the deepest ocean trench to the highest peak. At this site the viewer can have the completed map placed in a gallery for others to view. Currently, there are more than 500 maps of world hypsometry in the gallery. The public can view these maps, many of which have been made by children. Because the user makes his/her own map, these maps can be cut and pasted into a student's web site. Appropriate attribution is in order.

    To cover the subject matter in these courses, the author has had to create some maps which now reside on the web. Some of these maps appear open to the public while other maps are password protected. Consideration will be given to what kinds of maps can be shown in different types of environments.

    The Form and Function of Internet Maps
    Rex G. Cammack
    Department of Geography, Geology, and Planning
    Southwest Missouri State University
    901 S. National Ave
    Springfield, MO 65804
    Cammack, Rex G" <rgc439f@smsu.edu

    The new cartographic genre of the Internet has given cartographers a new set of map design challenges and new interactive map functions to use and evaluate. The evolution of Internet has been from a text and byte communication media such as Gopher and file transfer protocol (ftp) to the multimedia data stream of Shockwave and Napster. Through this evolution process cartographers have been exploring ways to use this media to deliver and communicate with maps. This research establishes a form and function taxonomy for Internet maps and analyzes the prevalence of these form and function characteristics of the Internet map. The detailed taxonomy of map form and interactive function will be created and used to survey a large number of World Wide Web sites that contain maps. The survey methodology will account for multicultural sources of maps and the mass production for maps from a few World Wide Web mapping companies. The results of the survey will provide an insight into current Internet map form and function.

     

    Map Design and the Staged-Information Processing Approach
    George McCleary
    University of Kansas, USA

    When Steven Kosslyn presented his schema for the review of five cartographic texts (in the Journal of the American Statistical Association in 1985), he provided a model not only for evaluation but also for creation. His subsequent work (and that of others) allows us to approach design systematically from the perspective of the user, focusing on the user's staged processing of information -- the process through which the map user obtains from the display ("visualizes") the mapped information.
    The stage-processing system encourages an integrated and comprehensive approach to more than the design of a single map. It promotes design within a user-centered context. It helps set an integrated design program -- integrating into a single design framework the design of a map series, a printed volume (text with maps, or even an atlas), or an entire web site.
    While design guided by the staged-information processing approach appears, on the surface, daunting, it nevertheless promotes the accommodation of the critical components of the visual information display as a whole. The cartographic designer begins by creating a map that, first, promotes the creation of an effective perceptual image (accounting for the constraints imposed by discriminability and the visual properties of the kinds of symbolization employed -- including typography, as well as the processing priorities promoted by format, layout and contrast). Second, the process handles the constraints imposed by short-term (or working) memory. And, finally, it forces the designer to accommodate the "associations" concomitant with long-term memory (the inferences and potential ambiguities resulting from the mental processing of the information in the visual display).
    A check list? A procedural framework? An operational sequence diagram? It is these and more ... while the staged-information processing approach provides the cartographic designer with an operational schema, it also sets a conceptual framework that aligns the designer and the user, remotely linked across the World Wide Web.

    Session 4: Applications of Internet Mapping

    Participative Forest Management facilitated by the use of GIS/Internet integrated data
    Francoise Orban-Ferauge, FUNDP, University of Namur, Belgium francoise.orban@fundp.ac.be
    Jose Andres Ignacio, ESSC, Ateneo de Manila, Philippines ignacio@mlbly.philcom.com.ph
    Françoise Orban-Ferauge
    Directeur du Département de Géographie
    Facultés Universitaires Notre Dame de la Paix
    61, rue de Bruxelles, B 5000 Namur, Belgique.
    Tel 32 81 724473 Fax 32 81 724530
    http://www.fundp.ac.be/sciences/geographie/geographie.html

    In the context of promoting the participative management of the tropical forest in Mindanao (Southern Philippines), a scientific collaboration between Belgian and Philippine Universities and Research Institutes aims to facilitate the dialogue between the local government and the indigenous people through technical mapping.

    The research focuses on the integration of indigenous community maps, remote sensing information, forest indices and topographic indicators into a GIS. The information to be used has to come from local indigenous knowledge (Community Maps), remote sensing satellite imagery (Land Cover Classification), government (Technical Maps) and the Internet (Elevation Models and Socio-Economic Data). All this information need to be processed in order to come-up with several indicators and to produce synthetic and thematic maps that will be able to capture the main challenges facing the sustainable management of the natural resources of the forest. The promoters of this research are convinced that this can only be achieved if it is done with a respect for, and with the active participation of the people living in the forest itself by integrating their own environmental perceptions with the technical database.

    A discussion of the actual development of this research is very much expected during the workshop with a view to widening the potential database, the interaction with the Internet, as well as to solve some technical problems related to the data fusion.

     

    A Comparison of Web-based GIS and Web-based Multimedia Cartography as Tools for an Historical Geography Analysis: New Bedford, Massachusetts, 1889-1999
    Alberto Giordano
    Department of Earth and Geographic Sciences
    University of Massachusetts Boston
    BOSTON, MA 02125
    E-mail: alberto@earth.geog.umb.edu; Tel. (617) 984-5867

    In Massachusetts, human activities in coastal and wetlands areas are regulated by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). DEP administers and enforces the Public Waterfront Act (Chapter 91), adopted in 1866. Under Chapter 91, license or permits must be obtained in order to place new structures or fills, or change the use of existing structures or fills. Each license contains textual and cartographic information, showing the location, shape, and size of proposed structures. Most of the 20,000 licenses issued since 1866 are available only on paper, but a pilot project has now been completed to convert all licenses issued in New Bedford (a city of 100,00) to a digital format for Web delivery. The area around New Bedford has a rich and long history. Originally a Native American settlement, the golden age of the city was in the 19th century, when New Bedford became first the "whaling capital of the world" and then a major textile manufacturing center. For most of the 20th century New Bedford maintained its manufacturing base and continued its fishing tradition. In the last few decades the city has faced a serious economic recession, from which it is only now starting to recover. The Chapter 91 database, together with additional cartographic sources we
    collected, can be used to trace the history of the city though its waterfront development in the last 110 years. An ArcView-based GIS implementation let researchers and planners explore changes in the waterfront by type of structure, time of construction, type of property, activity, etc. This implementation is now available on the Web. In addition, we developed a Flash-based multimedia cartography application, also available on the Web, whose main objective is to show coastal development in New Bedford using a cartographic animation. The two Web-based applications provide users with functionalities for searching the database that integrate the benefits of traditional GIS analysis and multimedia cartography.

     

    Non-Point Pollution Source (NPS) Information System by Web-based Image & GIS Tools and Applications in Shenzhen, China
    WANG Yunpeng LIANG Yu
    State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China

    A Non-Point Pollution Source (NPS) Information System was constructed in this paper by use of web-based remote sensing and GIS technology. Chosing the Image Web Server of Earth Resource Mapping Pty Ltd. as the NPS image and map site server software, we introduce the construction method with Shenzhen as an example.The system is designed in multi-models and provides application in administration districts or in drainage area units, and it can provide the result of inquiry, simulation, and statistics. Site administrator can process and update the server maps in client GIS application(such as MapInfo or Arcview).Users can roam or zoom big-sized image through ecwp:// protocol in browser crossing Internet. The preliminary application such as NPS calculation,analysis and simulation can also be performed in web-based NPS information system.

    Keywords: Non-Point Pollution Source (NPS) Information System, web-based GIS, Enhanced Compressed Wavelet (ECW), ER Mapper Image Server

     

    The Automated Display of Maps from the Internet
    Michael Peterson, University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA
    Michael P. Peterson, Department of Geography/Geology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE 68182. E-Mail: Michael_Peterson@unomaha.edu.

    A large number of weather maps are available through the web. These maps are updated on a regular basis, sometimes in intervals of less than 30 minutes. The purpose here was to make these maps available for viewing in a public place in such a way to encourage analysis and comparison of the distributions. The display would need to automatically update maps from the web and display them in a sequenced fashion. Two older computers were made available for use. One was already 12 years old and could not be upgraded beyond 8 MB of memory. The challenge was to create sequenced displays of these maps from the web using this older technology. The solution was to use a simple scripting language and small program that downloaded the maps from the web every half-hour. The maps were then displayed in full-screen mode on a continual basis in the intervening period. Two weather displays we placed next to each other in a public place and then evaluated for use. A regular group of viewers developed that stopped to examine the display of maps on a daily basis. The display seemed to have increased the understanding of weather processes and the depiction of these types of distributions through maps.
    Keywords: cartographic visualization, weather maps, automated sequenced displays of maps

    Session 5: Future Trends

    Multi-purpose Publishing of Geodata in the Web
    Lassi Lehto
    Finnish Geodetic Institute
    Department of Geoinformatics and Cartography
    PO Box 15, 02431 Masala, Finland
    Lassi.Lehto@fgi.fi

    The Web platform has provided a new publishing environment, to be used in parallel with the traditional print media, and thus necessitates general publishing houses to create methods for the so-called multi-purpose publishing. The same challenge is facing also providers of geospatial data. The recent introduction of the mobile Internet as a medium for distributing geographic information further strengthens this need. The Extensible Markup Language (XML) technologies are generally seen as the answer, and are increasingly being applied also in geospatial applications. A mechanism for transforming XML-encoded data, the Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) specification, is presented as a tool to provide multi-purpose publishing functionality for the Web and the Mobile Internet-based spatial services. The XML-based graphic languages to be presented and evaluated in the context of map visualization include Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and Extensible 3D (X3D).

    Recent developments indicate a drastic change in the mechanisms of Web-based spatial data delivery. The general trend towards XML-based data processing is being recognized also in the spatial data domain. Various standardization communities have been working to develop XML vocabularies for encoding spatial data. The most interesting of these is the Open GIS Consortium's Geography Markup Language (GML) recommendation. Several GIS vendors are developing GML support into their software and a few products are already commercially available. It can be assumed that in the near future GML, or some derivative thereof, will be de facto standard for spatial data encoding in the Web. Once the format of spatial data content becomes standardized, new opportunities will open for standardized visualization definitions also. The most promising technology for this purpose seems to be the XSLT specification.

    The XSLT technology provides powerful tools to define a transformation from the data content encoding language to an appropriate presentation language. The basic functionality that the XSLT mechanism provides is transforming an XML document into another XML document. Therefore, the various XML-based visualization languages are the most appropriate form of output from an XSLT process. The languages most interesting for geospatial applications are the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), the supposed de facto format for Web vector imaging, and the Extensible 3D (X3D) language, the XML-based successor to the popular Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML).

    The increasing use of light, hand-held devices to access geographic information creates a new demand for still another form of visualization. In the near future, these devices will not be capable to process vector-based map images, let alone spatial 3D models. However, XSLT transformations could be used to produce appropriate visualizations also on those limited-display appliances. The spatial dataset created as a result in a synchronous request-response dialog can be easily filtered by a well-designed XSLT transformation, and the resulting SVG image then rendered as a raster file in a format supported by the target user agent. The resulting file can then be transferred to the mobile device for display.

     

    Mobile Internet: Applying maps to mobile clients
    Georg Gartner, Susanne Uhlirz & Andreas Pammer
    Department of Cartography
    Vienna University of Technology
    Karlsgasse 11, A-1040 Wien, Fax: 00431/58801/12699
    email: gartner@tuwien.ac.at

    The Internet is changing the way maps are used. It acts as a stimulant for map production and map distribution. Applied web mapping techniques are often seen as a major step in the development of cartography (Peterson 1999). The main advantages of Internet Cartography are described as gaining better accessibility for the user, enabling higher actuality (van Elzakker 2000) or easier distribution of maps. But, the efficiency of the usage of Internet-based applications, as any other digital mapping application, is determined and restricted by the main attributes of the machines, which are used for accessing and interacting with mapping systems. As one of the main attributes, Computers are usually not highly mobile. For a lot of cartographic applications this missing mobility and the fact, that the user has to find access to a machine in order to get his information or map, is not a major disadvantage. But for enabling mapping systems, which could serve products dependening on the position/location of an user, in terms of "giving you the information right there where you need the information", the availability of mobile input/output machines and an infrastructure for wireless submission of information to any location are necessary preconditions.

    The infrastructures and technologies of telecommunication systems are developing rapidly. They have reached a stage, where they are judged as a mass market industry. In Austria, more than 5 Mio. cellular phones are used by a total population of 8 Mio. New technologies like the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) or the Universal Mobile Transfer System (UMTS) together with new functionalities of cellular phones and other wireless handheld devices allow now not only the display of graphics, the enabling of some kind of interactivity but also the development of so-called location based services. This fact, together with the predicted merging of computer industries with telecommunication industries enables for the first time, that the vision of serving actual and interactive cartographic products independent from time and space could become true.

    In this paper it will be argued, that the regained mobility of cartographic products and services can be seen as a major stage in the digital (r)evolution of cartography, especially because of the consequences to the usage of maps. TeleCartography as an enlargement of Internet Cartography is using a client/server - structure known from the Internet, adapted by the fact, that the client is mobile. It will be analyzed, which technologies are currently available or will be launched soon. A status quo report of location based services is given. Finally, cartographic concepts and first prototypes of location based services of a TeleCartography project of the Department of Cartography / TU Vienna are described and compared with international examples.

    A Proposal for a Collaborative On-line Course in Multimedia Cartography
    William Cartwright
    Department of Geospatial Science
    RMIT University
    GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 3001
    E-mail: william.cartwright@rmit.edu.au.

    The provision of courses in cartography require much effort on behalf of the provider to ensure that the course is both comprehensive, current and attuned to the needs of the cartographic profession. Educational institutes have responded by continually developing programs that are appropriate for what has been described as 'New Cartography'. However, the realities of needing to align to ever-tightening academic funding have changed how we can provide specialist classes, often to relatively small groups, as is generally the case in cartography. But, exploiting what on-line delivery, coupled with collaboration, both national and international, can provide the means to deliver appropriate educational programs and materials. This has prompted academics in Cartography departments to re-think program provision strategies

    This paper outlines the required elements of a course in Multimedia Cartography. It covers the foundation subjects needed and how they can be developed in both theoretical and practical aspects. The paper proposes a means by which by which programs might be made available by international collaboration through the use of contemporary communications systems and interactive on-line educational packages.

     

    E-mail Addresses of All Presenters:
    ShunFu Hu <Hus@vaxa.cis.uwosh.edu>, william.cartwright@rmit.edu.au, gartner@mail.ikr.tuwien.ac.at, Francoise Orban <Francoise.orban@fundp.ac.be>, alberto@earth.geog.umb.edu, hirohta@attglobal.net, gennady.andrienko@gmd.de, lihuaz@student.unsw.edu.au, Lassi.Lehto@fgi.fi, rgc439f@smsu.edu, Michael_Peterson@unomaha.edu, jrcarter@ilstu.edu, Bin Li <bin.li@cmich.edu>, McCleary George F, Jr <mccleary@ukans.edu>, Yingwei Luo <lyw@geoagent.pku.edu.cn>, siekiers@NRCan.gc.ca, <Dr Wang Yunpeng> wangyp@gig.ac.cn, <lyan@gis.sti.gd.cn>

    Inquiries from: mdelgado@ind.ispjae.edu.cu, graciela metternicht <graciela@vesta.curtin.edu.au>, Amy Jeu <amyjeu@yahoo.com>, Julie Rice <jrice@ou.edu>, "Lars Brodersen" <lrb@kms.dk>, Karel Kriz <kriz@atlas.gis.univie.ac.at>, "Palko, Stefan" <Stefan.Palko@CCRS.NRCan.gc.ca>, Alberta Auringer Wood <awood@mun.ca>, "Judy M. Olson" <olsonj@msu.edu>

    Who Should Attend?
    Anyone interested in the use of the Internet for the distribution of maps and spatial data:
    - members of academia who wish to familiarize themselves with recent research developments and who are keen to develop new perspectives;
    - practitioners from mapping organizations as well as software industry representatives who wish to contribute their experience with commercial Internet mapping software and explore new concepts and opportunities for software development;
    - students of cartography who wish to have a better understanding of the major areas of research related to the distribution of maps through the Internet.
    The participation of young researchers is particularly encouraged.

    About the Location
    The meeting will be held in Guangzhou, China Located just north of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is the economic center of South China and one of the largest cities in the country. As the "capital" of Guangdong province, it is the administrative and academic center of the province. It is also the major city in the Pearl River Delta, the richest agricultural region in China. Guangzhou is easily accessible via air, train, highway, or waterway. It is about 30 minutes flight or 2 hours drive from Hong Kong. State of the art computing and audiovisual equipment will be available to support presentations and software demonstrations. Further travel to Beijing to attend the International Cartographic Association conference is possible by train (about $100) and plane (about $150).

    About South China Normal University
    One of the major national universities in China, the university offers a wide range of academic programs at both undergraduate and graduate levels. The Geography Department has a large group of faculty in physical and economic geography and has a rapidly growing group in geographic information science.

    About the Guangdong Academy of Sciences
    The academy is the research entity of the Guangdong Province and consists of many research institutes that have full time research and administrative personnel. The academy carries out basic research as well as applied projects. The academy has a large campus in downtown Guangzhou and well-equipped conference facilities.

    ICC 2001
    This workshop functions as a pre-conference event to the 20th International Cartographic Conference 2001 (ICC 2001) in Beijing, to be held on 6-10 August 2000. The three-day gap between the two events should allow those wishing to participate in the ICC to easily travel to Beijing. Train tickets between Beijing and Guangzhou are approximately $100 and includes sleeping arrangements. An airline ticket is about $150 (one way). A post-ICC 7-day conference tour returns to Guangzhou via the historic cities of Xi'an and Guilin. Further information on the ICC 2001 can be found at http://www.sbsm.gov.cn/icc2001/.

    Cost
    A small workshop participation fee will be charged by the organizers in Guangzhou - $50 for attendees, $20 for presenters. Additional fees (yet to be determined) will be charged for the tour, dinner, luncheon, post-workshop trip to Wuhan and Beijing. All registration will be on-site.

    Travel Possibilities from Hong Kong to Guangzhou

    Guangzhou is a two-hour drive from Hong Kong. A number of possibilities exist for traveling between the two cities.

    1. By bus directly from the Hong Kong airport to Guangzhou.
    2. By bus that can picks you up at your hotel in Hong Kong. (Ask the hotel to arrange this. The bus may drop you off at the hotel in Guangzhou.)
    3. By train. There are many throughout the day.
    4. By ferry boat (quite fast).

    First choice would be a bus. Train is fine too. The web site http://english.hongkong.com has some useful information for traveling within Hong Kong.

    Lodging (tentative information)

    Bai Yun Hotel: 300 RMB (single), 320 RMB (double). [$42] (current exchange rate is 8.27 RMB : $1)
    Holiday Inn: $130 (single and double)
    Garden Hotel: $140 (single and double)

    Visa Application
    Participants need to apply for a visa to enter China. The cost is $30 and requires that you send your passport to the Chinese Embassy. The application needs to be done by the end of April. See: http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/6752.html and http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/6798.html

    Program Committee
    Guobin Chi, Geography Department, South China Normal University, China
    Corné van Elzakker, ITC Division of Geoinformatics, The Netherlands
    Georg Gartner, Cartography Institute, Technical University of Vienna, Austria
    Bin Li, Department of Geography, Central Michigan University, USA
    Yan Li, Institute of Geography, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, China
    Jianya Gong, National GIS Laboratory, Wuhan University
    Michael Peterson, Geography/Geology, Nebraska-Omaha, USA