Underlying the majority of remotely-sensed data analysis is the assumption that geographical phenomena, such as rivers, heather-moors and the dynamics associated with such objects, can be adequately detected and identified through the use of spectral and other visual information alone. There is a common misconception that any major deficiencies of quantitative analyses are "hardware problems": that by increasing the spectral, spatial, radiometric and temporal resolutions of sensors, geographical phenomena will be identified with similarly increasing accuracy and reliability. This, however, is an unrealistic viewpoint. This thesis has developed a prototype of an automated system based on the principle that by considering the "real-world" properties of the land, a more effective and robust analysis of its dynamic nature can ensue. SYMOLAC is an automated SYstem for MOnitoring LAnd Cover based upon theories of artificial intelligence. It has been developed within a specifically designed hybrid software environment called ETORA, an Environment for Task-Orientated Analysis. This prototype environment allows SYMOLAC to utilise disparate sources of spatial data, to reason with both quantitative and qualitative knowledge, to model disparate domain uncertainties, and to exploit the functionality of third-party software components. Unlike standard approaches, it allows an automated analysis to focus on each particular domain task and how it may best be performed with the available data, knowledge and software resources. The detection of forest felling and the subsequent update of the Land Cover of Scotland (1988) dataset forms the initial application of SYMOLAC. It is concluded that the system's approach is flexible, extensible and adaptable, and demonstrates one way in which satellite imagery can offer <I>potential </I>to the future monitoring of complex land cover change without the need for human intervention.

This thesis is concerned with mobile mapping practices in Sydney and Hong Kong. Since the development of mobile media technology, there has been widespread proliferation of geo-locative, quasi-cartographic mapping practices in which people use applications (apps) on their mobile phones to narrate and navigate their way through urban spaces. This has raised questions within scholarly communities about the impact that these new technologies are having on everyday practices and everyday lives. As such, this thesis seeks to contribute to a growing field of knowledge surrounding the transformation of wayfinding, navigational and spatial mapping in the wake of these developments. Focusing an empirical investigation in two post/colonial cities - Sydney and Hong Kong - it draws on ethnographic, archival and geographical data in order to situate mobile mapping in an everyday context. Building upon Foucault's work on order (2002b), knowledge (2002a) and discipline (1995), this thesis seeks to address the issue of power-knowledge relations within and without mobile mapping practices as political and generative contestations over the meaning of space, the potentiality of practice and the indeterminacy of the past. It does so by considering an over-arching discourse of cartographic reason, best articulated by Farinelli (1998) and Olsson (1998) as a rationalist, universalist and geometrical approach to spatial understanding. Moving beyond the Cartesian interpretation of cartographic reason, it argues that in an increasingly digitised and monadic world, analyses of cartographic discourse must expand into an investigation of the role of Leibnizian binary systems, universal characteristics and elasticity. As such, this thesis engages three heuristic lenses - space, technology and people - with which to understand the empirical material from different perspectives. It argues that digital mobile mapping practices can be understood as expanded and transformative descendants of the rationalist, universalist and scientific impulses that have characterised cartographic reason since the Enlightenment. However, where continuity can be traced across many different cartographic and mapping practices, as the power of cartographic reason continues to reassert authority and territorialise space and knowledge, equally, the contestations which where borne of initial and early colonial encounters continue to generate contestation, conflict and hauntings.

Blomquist, Aviva (2021). Understanding Community Sense of Place and Social Sustainability Through Instagram: The establishment of Rågsved nature reserve and the demolition Snösätra Graffiti Wall of Fame. Human Geography, advanced level, master’s thesis for Master exam in Human Geography, 30 ECTS credits  Supervisor: Danielle Drozdzewski Language: English Key words: Digital geography, sense of place, social media, public space socio-spatial planning, participation, social sustainability, cultural sustainability.  This thesis investigates digital sense of place and social and cultural sustainability issues in the establishment of Rågsved nature reserve and the subsequent demolishment of (parts of) Snösätra Graffiti Wall of Fame. Drawing on theories of the more or less digital world, the non-representational, the more-than human, and the idea of geolocative social media as participatory public space (in the making), the thesis aim was to investigate how covert netnography/digital ethnography and discourse analysis can help us understand sense of place, and to identify sustainability issues through geotagged user generated data on Instagram. The empirical findings reveal conflicting community sense of place, assembled through complex entanglements between algorithms, physical structures/landscape, language, and sensory embodiments, which were simultaneously digital and non-digital. There were indications that the flows of posts geotagged on Instagram functioned as ‘claimed’ participatory public space, where stakeholder communities discussed place outside of dominant political imaginations. In addition, the posts indicated social and cultural sustainability issues. The main conclusion is that this type of discourse analysis of social media has the potential for functioning as a ‘passive’ participation strategy, and for creating deliberative discussions with stakeholder communities based on an understanding of place as they experience it.