Mobile devices today frequently serve as platforms for the visualisation of map-based data. Despite the obvious advantages, mobile map-based visualisation (MMV) systems are often difficult to design and use. Limited screen space, resource constraints and awkward interaction mechanisms are among the many problems with which designers and users have to contend. Adaptive user interfaces (AUIs), which adapt to the individual user, represent a possible means of addressing the problems of MMV. Adaptive MMV systems are, however, generally designed in an ad-hoc fashion, making the benefits achieved difficult to replicate. In addition, existing models for adaptive MMV systems are either conceptual in nature or only address a subset of the possible input variables and adaptation effects. The primary objective of this research was to develop and evaluate an adaptive MMV system using a model-based approach. The Proteus Model was proposed to support the design of MMV systems which adapt in terms of information, visualisation and user interface in response to the user‟s behaviour, tasks and context. The Proteus Model describes the architectural, interface, data and algorithm design of an adaptive MMV system. A prototype adaptive MMV system, called MediaMaps, was designed and implemented based on the Proteus Model. MediaMaps allows users to capture, location-tag, organise and visualise multimedia on their mobile phones. Information adaptation is performed through the use of an algorithm to assist users in sorting media items into collections based on time and location. Visualisation adaptation is performed by adapting various parameters of the map-based visualisations according to user preferences. Interface adaptation is performed through the use of adaptive lists. An international field study of MediaMaps was conducted in which participants were required to use MediaMaps on their personal mobile phones for a period of three weeks. The results of the field study showed that high levels of accuracy were achieved by both the information and interface adaptations. High levels of user satisfaction were reported, with participants rating all three forms of adaptation as highly useful. The successful implementation of MediaMaps provides practical evidence that the model-based design of adaptive MMV systems is feasible. The positive results of the field study clearly show that the adaptations implemented were highly accurate and that participants found these adaptations to be useful, usable and easy to understand. This research thus provides empirical evidence that the use of AUIs can provide significant benefits for the visualisation of map-based information on mobile devices.

In recent years, the focus of cartographic research has shifted from the cartographic communication paradigm to the scientific visualization paradigm. With this, there has been a resurgence of cognitive research that is invaluable in guiding the design and evaluation of effective cartographic visualization tools. The design of new tools that allow effective visual exploration of spatial data and data quality information in a resource management setting is critical if decision-makers and policy setters are to make accurate and confident decisions that will have a positive long-term impact on the environment. The research presented in this dissertation integrates the results of previous research in spatial cognition, visualization of spatial information and on-line map use in order to explore the design, development and experimental testing of four interactive visualization tools that can be used to simultaneously explore spatial data and data quality. Two are traditional online tools (side-by-side and sequenced maps) and two are newly developed tools (an interactive "merger" bivariate map and a hybrid o f the merger map and the hypermap). The key research question is: Are interactive visualization tools, such as interactive bivariate maps and hypermaps, more effective for communicating spatial information than less interactive tools such as sequenced maps? A methodology was developed in which subjects used the visualization tools to explore a forest species composition and associated data quality map in order to perform a range of map-use tasks. Tasks focused on an imaginary land-use conflict for a small region of mixed boreal forest in Northern Alberta. Subject responses in terms of performance (accuracy and confidence) and preference are recorded and analyzed. Results show that theory-based, well-designed interactive tools facilitate improved performance across all tasks, but there is an optimal matching between specific tasks and tools. The results are generalized into practical guidelines for software developers. The use of confidence as a measure of map-use effectiveness is verified. In this experimental setting, individual differences (in terms of preference, ability, gender etc.) did not significantly affect performance. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Since the arrival of settlers in the 16th century, the Canadian Government has dispossessed First Nations people of their land and culture through a history of colonialism. This has led to over a century of contentious relationships between First Nations and the Canadian Government in which First Nations have often struggled with the revitalization and reclamation of their culture and land due to oppressive systemic structures. Cartography has been one approach, among many, adopted by First Nations to facilitate self-determination in recent decades. However, the role of cartography has been one focused on western technocratic approaches of drawing territorial boundaries as part of the land claims process. Such approaches may assist First Nations in documenting land use and negotiating territorial rights and as such move them towards self-determination. Conventional western cartography is inherently incapable of representing the rich spatial nature of First Nations’ sense of cultural place. More recently, cybercartography has emerged due to technological advances in software and web-based publishing that has the potential to encapsulate First Nations’ oral history and culture by providing digital multimedia elements (i.e. audio, imagery, and video) within a digital spatial context. The use of cybercartography in this manner is quickly increasing over time, but research is lacking in understanding how new representations of First Nations history and culture through cybercartographic frameworks explicitly facilitate, or prohibit, First Nations ability to attain self-determination. To address this gap, this study evaluates the ways in which contemporary cybercartographic technologies may facilitate the process of self-determination through an application development and interview process with a local First Nation on Vancouver island, BC. The research process throughout the project are evaluated using the Indigenous principles of Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession (OCAP) and uses this as a framework to understand how the experiences of the Nation relate to the broader narrative of self-determination. The results of this study suggest that using a community-engaged approach to cybercartography facilitates community-specific requirements of self-determination, mainly because community engagement can lead to the development of tools that match community objectives and needs. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that the OCAP principles have the potential to be used in future studies for evaluating the efficacy of technologies that are intended to facilitate self-determination in First Nation communities. / Graduate / 2021-04-16

Photovoltaic thermal (PVT) collectors are widely used to harness a large fraction of the solar spectrum to generate electricity and heat from a single collector. The circulation of the working medium will pass through the collector which cools down the PV cell temperature and also increases the water temperature, which will increase the electrical and thermal performance at the same time. PVT is an emerging technology and is demonstrated for domestic and industrial applications. There has also been a major gap for the techno-economic analysis of PVT system in different climatic conditions and further developing reliable financial models that can be applied in different regions. This thesis paper presents a techno-economic evaluation of a liquid-based PVT collector system developed by Abora Solar, Spain across a wide range of climatic conditions and contexts. The various performance indicators are visualized by digital mapping approach for 86 different locations all over the world. The databank obtained from the analysis is further used to establish a general correlation between collector performance and meteorological parameters such as Global horizontal irradiation and ambient temperature. The collector energetic performance is simulated using a validated and proprietary simulation tool developed by Abora Solar company. The complete energy system consists of a PVT collector, a water storage tank, and the associated DHW demand simulator. The collector energetic performance has reflected following the analysed Global horizontal irradiation and ambient temperature trend. The highest and lowest energy utilization ratio of the collector has been recorded in Reykjavik, Iceland (63%) and Medina, Saudi Arabia (54%) respectively. The highest and lowest exergetic efficiency of the collector has been recorded in Reykjavik, Iceland (23%) and Medina, Saudi Arabia (17%) respectively. The exergetic efficiency collector has shown better performance with the less ambient temperature and less quality of work in high ambient temperatures. Furthermore, the energy utilization ratio and exergetic efficiencies of collector production are analysed. The economic analysis is carried out in realistic approach using two different financial scenarios: mode (1) The total system cost is capital investment in the first year; mode (2) Only 25 % of total system cost is a capital investment and remaining 75 % investment is considered with financing period with certain interest rate. The economic performance of the collector has been decided mainly based on the Net Present Value per unit collector area, whereas it expressed high dependency on thermal energy savings. The average NPV per unit collector area of 86 geographical cities for first financial model 1 and financial model 2 are 1886€ and 2221€ respectively. Besides, the Payback Period has also been estimated for the first financing model in all selected locations. The first financial model (1) has shown better results in locations with a high interest rate and highly recommended for the locations with interest rate. The significant work of understanding of PVT components behaviour at the system level, the collector energetic and economic performance at different climatic conditions across the world have been highlighted which reflects the concrete developments to this research subject area and helps market decision-makers for market penetration.

The development and rapid growth of computer mapping has led to many discussions concerning the accuracy of techniques used to generate these computer representations. The purpose of this study is to analyze the accuracy of thinning methods applied to scanned map data, which is only one in a series of processes used to accomplish digital conversion of conventional maps. In preliminary tests, nine thinning methods based on the successive layer removal process are evaluated. Seven raster images are thinned using these methods. The raster results are compared based on the number of pixels deleted and on the number of retained pixels that fall either on or off the medial axis of the original matrix. The four algorithms that produce the best results are then used for final testing. For the final tests, 25 digital lines are plotted and scanned. The raster images are thinned using the four successive layer removal methods and a line following method developed for this study. The raster output is evaluated using the preliminary testing method. The final vector output is compared to the original input based on line length, anchor line length, and fractal dimension. / Master of Science

Advances in VLSI technology have made possible a new generation of multicomputer systems that contain hundreds or thousands of processors and offer a combined processing power far beyond that possible in a single processor machine. Multicomputers can be used to solve a variety of computationally intensive applications, but they introduce the problem of handling communication between concurrent processes. In the design of multicomputer systems, the scheduling and mapping of a parallel algorithm onto a host architecture has a critical impact on overall system performance. The problem of how to best assign the resources of a host multicomputer system to the cooperating tasks of a parallel application program is known as the mapping problem. In this research we develop a graph-based solution to both aspects of the mapping problem using the simulated annealing optimization heuristic. A two phase mapping strategy is formulated: I) process annealing assigns parallel processes to processing nodes, and 2) connection annealing schedules traffic connections on network data links so that interprocess communication conflicts are minimized. To evaluate the quality of generated mappings, cost functions suitable for simulated annealing are derived that accurately quantify communication overhead. Communication efficiency is formulated to measure the quality of assignments when the optimal mapping is unknown. Application examples are presented using the hypercube as a host architecture, with host graphs containing up to 512 nodes. The influence of various parameters on the annealing algorithms is investigated, and results for several image graphs are presented. / Master of Science

Single digital-photo correction using the collinearity condition equations for a GIS application was investigated by control and test data from digital photos and USGS 1:24,000 topographic maps and by USGS 7.5-minute DEMs of two study areas, Prentiss, North Carolina and Blacksburg, Virginia. The collinearity equations were used to remove geometric errors caused by image tilt and relief, displacement. In addition to the study of geometric error in uncorrected and corrected digital photos, the impact of error in ground control points and error in DEM data on the accuracy of rectification was analyzed in terms of errors in point position, line length, and polygon area. Computer programs for single digital-photo correction using the collinearity equations and for impact analysis of errors in ground control and DEM data were developed. Point errors in uncorrected photos were tested by the affine transformation from UTM to photo coordinates by control points. Estimated error for the Prentiss photo was 14.599 meters and that for the Blacksburg photo was 11.252 meters. Due the poor distribution of control and test points, estimated errors in uncorrected photos were underestimated. Estimated error for the corrected photo of the Prentiss area was 11.397 meters and that for the Blacksburg area was 7.071 meters. Geometric errors in corrected digital photos were clearly not significantly greater than 12.192 meters. Error removed for the Blacksburg photo was significantly greater than zero and that for the Prentiss photo was not significantly greater than zero. Estimated removed errors were also underestimated. Errors in point position, line length, and polygon area of corrected digital photos were positively related to error in ground control points for photo orientation and error in DEM data for registration. The accuracy of ground control points has greater impact on point position and polygon area, and the accuracy of DEM data has greater impact on line length. The point position error, line length change, and polygon area change caused by random error within ±15 meters in ground control points were within 4 meters, 0.12% and 0.3% and those caused by random error within ±10 meters in DEM data of test features were within 2 meters, 0.11% and 0.0065%. It is both practical and accurate to use ground control points obtained from USGS 7.5-minute topographic maps and USGS 7.5-minute DEMs for single digital-photo correction by the collinearity equations for most GIS applications with spatial data layers obtained from USGS 1:24,000 topographic maps or smaller-scale maps for areas such as those studied here. / Master of Science

published_or_final_version / abstract / Geography / Master / Master of Geographic Information System

Many calamities in history like hurricanes, tornado and flooding are proof to the large scale impact they cause to the life and economy. Computer simulation and GIS helps in modeling a real world scenario, which assists in evacuation planning, damage assessment, assistance and reconstruction. For achieving computer simulation and modeling there is a need for accurate classification of ground objects. One of the most significant aspects of this research is that it achieves improved classification for regions within which light detection and ranging (LiDAR) has low spatial resolution. This thesis describes a method for accurate classification of bare ground, water body, roads, vegetation, and structures using LiDAR data and aerial Infrared imagery. The most basic step for any terrain modeling application is filtering which is classification of ground and non-ground points. We present an integrated systematic method that makes classification of terrain and non-terrain points effective. Our filtering method uses the geometric feature of the triangle meshes created from LiDAR samples and calculate the confidence for every point. Geometric homogenous blocks and confidence are derived from TIN model and gridded LiDAR samples. The results from two representations are used in a classifier to determine if the block belongs ground or otherwise. Another important step is detection of water body, which is based on the LiDAR sample density of the region. Objects like tress and bare ground are characterized by the geometric features present in the LiDAR and the color features in the infrared imagery. These features are fed into a SVM classifier which detects bare-ground in the given region. Similarly trees are extracted using another trained SVM classifier. Once we obtain bare-grounds and trees, roads are extracted by removing the bare grounds. Structures are identified by the properties of non-ground segments. Experiments were conducted using LiDAR samples and Infrared imagery from the city of New Orleans. We evaluated the influence of different parameters to the classification. Water bodies were extracted successfully using density measures. Experiments showed that fusion of geometric properties and confidence levels resulted into efficient classification of ground and non-ground regions. Classification of vegetation using SVM was promising and effective using the features like height variation, HSV, angle etc. It is demonstrated that our methods successfully classified the region by using LiDAR data in a complex urban area with high-rise buildings.

Accurate and current land use information for urban areas is important for effective management and planning. Over the years, researchers/planners have relied heavily on aerial photographs for land use information of urban areas because of the limitations of deriving more accurate land use estimates from satellite remote sensing data. The main problem involved in producing accurate land use maps of cities and towns from satellite images is that urban areas consist of a complex assemblage of different land cover types, many of which have very similar spectral reflectance characteristics. This is because land use is an abstract concept- n amalgam of economic, social and cultural factors-that is defined in terms of functions rather than forms. The relationship between land use and the multispectral signals detected by a satellite sensor is therefore both complex and indirect. In many European cities, residential areas are characterized by a complex spatial assemblage of tile roof, slate roof, glass roof buildings, as well as tarmac, concrete and pitch roads, and gardens (comprised of grass lawns, trees and plants). In North American cities, roofing materials are more commonly composed of wood and shingles. In both settings all these "objects" together form the residential areas or residential districts of town or city, but each of them has a different spectral reflectance. So, in generating a land use map from remotely sensed image, buildings, roads, gardens, open spaces will be identified separately. Keeping this in mind, this thesis evaluates eight selected land use classification methods for the Vancouver metropolitan area, identifies the most accurate and suitable method for urban land use classification, and produces a land use map of the study area based on the most suitable method. The study area is a part of Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD). It includes Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Delta, and parts of seven other municipalities. The whole area is highly urbanized and commercialized. Agricultural lands are present in the southern part of the study area (which includes parts of Richmond, Delta and Surrey). For this study four sources of data have been used. The 1996 Greater Vancouver regional District (GVRD) land use map is the basic source of land use information. A remotely sensed image of May 1999 (Landsat 7) has been used for the identification of land cover data, Vancouver and Fraser valley orthophotos (May/July 1995) have been used to locate sample sites, and aerial photos of May 1999 (1:30,000) have been used for ground verification.