Journal of Spatial Information Science

On the development of open geographical data infrastructures in Latin America: progress and challenges

2024-11-02T09:25:09+00:00

Open data initiatives and infrastructures play an essential role in favoring better data access, participation, and transparency in government operations and decision-making. Open Geographical Data Infrastructures (OGDIs) allow citizens to access and scrutinize government and public data, thereby enhancing accountability and evidence-based decision-making. This encourages citizen engagement and participation in public affairs and offers researchers, non-governmental organizations, civil society, and business sectors novel opportunities to analyze and disseminate large amounts of geographical data and to address social, urban, and environmental challenges. In Latin America, while recent open government agendas have shown an inclination towards transparency, citizen participation, and collaboration, only a limited number of OGDIs allow unrestricted use and re-use of their data. Given the region's cultural, social, and economic disparities, there is a contrasting digital divide that significantly impacts how OGDIs are being developed. Therefore, this paper analyses recent progress in developing OGDIs in Latin America, technological gaps, and open geographical data initiatives. The main results denote an early development of OGDIs in the region. Nevertheless, this opens the door for the timely involvement of citizens and non-government sectors to share needs, experiences, knowledge, and expertise, as well as to address a transboundary research agenda. Challenges are discussed from multiple perspectives: data, methodological, governmental and readiness, and potential impact. This analysis is aimed at researchers, policymakers, and practitioners interested in the specific challenges and progress of OGDIs in Latin America, while also contributing to the global conversation on best practices and lessons learned in implementing OGDIs across different contexts.

Automated validation of route instructions in indoor environments

2025-01-11T09:09:50+00:00

Indoor wayfinders often rely on verbal route directions, particularly in situations where other navigational aids may be unavailable or less effective. Ensuring the clarity and validity of these instructions is particularly important for navigation in complex indoor environments, such as airports and malls. However, current methods lack a reliable, systematic approach to computationally ensuring the a-priori validity of route instructions, failing to provide certainty to agents that they will be able to follow instructions successfully. Here we show a novel computational model for validating indoor route instructions, applicable to a wide range of indoor environments and turn-based grammars. Using a synthetic dataset of indoor floorplans with varying complexities, we demonstrate the model's capability to validate route instructions systematically. We systematize the requirements for route instruction validation in the framework which assesses instructions based on understandability, executability, path-following, and destination guidance. Our findings highlight the effectiveness of nuanced grammars, such as 8-sector grammar, for complex layouts and confirm the applicability of simpler grammars, like 4-sector grammar, for right-angle constrained environments. Importantly, we identify a transition point where the benefits of increased grammatical complexity on the descriptions of the turns are no longer productively supporting a reduction in turn ambiguity in the environments. This research shifts the field from subjective, time-consuming human evaluations to a computational approach, enhancing the reliability of indoor navigation systems.

Network evolution analysis: a usage-centric approach applied on cycling infrastructure

2025-02-28T09:25:09+00:00

Cycling practice is quickly increasing around the world, giving rise to the development of devoted infrastructure to protect its users and offer them a more enjoyable ride. Mobility infrastructure is represented in geographical databases, but these databases are often centered on car and pedestrian mobility. This causes some data quality problems like the lack of completeness or freshness. Volunteered geographical information (VGI) is affected by this kind of problem with a variable extent relying on the contributors' wish and skills. Research on VGI evolution for a network mainly focuses on the main usage of a road section, ignoring secondary information related to other road users of a specific section. This paper contains two contributions. To model the evolution, we define a multiplex graph where each layer represents a snapshot. It is implemented with an infrastructure class based on how cyclists perceive an infrastructure. We also present two complementary VGI road network evolution methods with a usage-centric approach on cycling. These approaches are adaptable for any usage of the network and are based on the multiplex graph. The first approach is based on the road sections, analyzing the evolution of each section individually. The second approach is based on randomly generated starting/ending points. These methods are illustrated in the Centre-Val de Loire region with OpenStreetMap.

Opportunities and challenges of integrating geographic information science and large language models

2025-01-11T09:07:59+00:00

The integration of large language models (LLMs) with geographic information science (GIScience) represents a new frontier in interdisciplinary research that combines advanced natural language processing with sophisticated spatial data analysis. This paper explores the synergistic potential of combining the natural language understanding and generation capabilities of LLMs with the expertise of GIScience in handling complex geospatial data. By exploring the specific contributions that LLMs can offer to GIScience, such as improving data processing, analysis, and visualization, and the mutual benefits that GIScience can offer to LLMs in terms of spatial reasoning and conceptual frameworks, we outline a comprehensive framework and a research agenda for this integration. Furthermore, we address the societal and ethical implications of this convergence, highlighting the challenges of bias, misinformation, and environmental impact. Through this exploration, we aim to set the stage for innovative applications in urban planning, environmental analysis, and beyond, while emphasizing the need for responsible use of AI.

Development of a low-distortion authalic sphere for the oblique azimuthal equal-area map projection of the spheroid

2025-03-10T01:00:55+00:00

This paper gives a new possible realization of the oblique Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area map projection for the ellipsoid of revolution. Unlike the realization available in previous literature, the authalic sphere used for the derivation has very low distortion at the neighbourhood of a freely chosen standard parallel. For this reason, the distortions caused by this authalic sphere can be neglected. It is shown that this realization gives a better approximation of the azimuthal equal-area mapping of the sphere in terms of angular distortions. Interesting side results of the study include a numerically stable inverse formulation for the azimuthal equal-area map of the sphere and mathematical connections between the Gaussian conformal sphere and the low-distortion authalic sphere.