<p>As a result of Web 2.0 technologies such as Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) web-based applications with rich contents are evolving to be more and more like normal applications in aspects, such as interactivity, functionality, and usability. This evolvement makes it possible to create web-based services, providing maps for users to search and browse geographic information. This thesis is an evaluation of functionality, usability and accuracy for the four web-based map APIs: Google Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Multimap and ViaMichelin.</p><p>The thesis explains how web-based mapping works, common functionality provided, and evaluates the functionality provided by each map service provider as well as the offered usability. In addition to this, it also includes the results of several tests, illustrating the APIs’ browser compatibility, performance and accuracy.</p><p>After testing and evaluation of the four APIs, the conclusion is that none of them can be appointed as the winner. They all have benefits and drawbacks; differences in terms of functionality, compatibility, usability, geocoding and development support, and the choice of API is consequently dependent of the type of application. As a result of this, and the fact that the APIs are constantly changing in terms of functionality and coverage, it is important to create applications independent of the map service provider. This was successfully done during the internship at Amadeus by creating a map abstraction layer in-between the applications and the maps, creating the possibility to switch API, or map service provider, without changed the code.</p>

Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística / A produção de mapeamento cartográfico sofreu muitas transformações ao longo dos anos, passando da utilização extensiva de instrumentos analógicos para o meio digital. Atualmente, grande parte desse processo é realizado com o auxílio do computador, exigindo um alto investimento em sistemas computacionais. No início da década de 90 surgiu um movimento, chamado de Software Livre, que tem o objetivo de diminuir a dependência tecnológica às grandes organizações multinacionais, que dominam muitos segmentos do mercado da tecnologia da informação. Assim, foram desenvolvidos diversos programas de uso geral e que substituem de maneira satisfatória o chamados Software proprietário. Ultimamente, também tem sido desenvolvido Software Livre para a área de geoprocessamento. O objetivo deste trabalho é avaliar o uso desses aplicativos na produção de mapeamento cartográfico e para isso realizamos a editoração cartográfica de uma folha da Carta CIM utilizando programas distribuídos seguindo a filosofia do Software Livre. O processo de editoração cartográfica é fundamental na produção de uma carta e exige o domínio de várias técnicas, sendo uma das tarefas mais complexas da cartografia. Este trabalho apresenta uma nova forma de executar esta importante tarefa, visando aproveitar os últimos avanços na cartografia utilizando software livre e automatizando partes do processo para facilitar sua realização. A realização desta atividade de maneira satisfatória utilizando tecnologias livres comprova o estágio de amadurecimento alcançado dos programas desenvolvidos segundo essa filosofia.

Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística / A produção de mapeamento cartográfico sofreu muitas transformações ao longo dos anos, passando da utilização extensiva de instrumentos analógicos para o meio digital. Atualmente, grande parte desse processo é realizado com o auxílio do computador, exigindo um alto investimento em sistemas computacionais. No início da década de 90 surgiu um movimento, chamado de Software Livre, que tem o objetivo de diminuir a dependência tecnológica às grandes organizações multinacionais, que dominam muitos segmentos do mercado da tecnologia da informação. Assim, foram desenvolvidos diversos programas de uso geral e que substituem de maneira satisfatória o chamados Software proprietário. Ultimamente, também tem sido desenvolvido Software Livre para a área de geoprocessamento. O objetivo deste trabalho é avaliar o uso desses aplicativos na produção de mapeamento cartográfico e para isso realizamos a editoração cartográfica de uma folha da Carta CIM utilizando programas distribuídos seguindo a filosofia do Software Livre. O processo de editoração cartográfica é fundamental na produção de uma carta e exige o domínio de várias técnicas, sendo uma das tarefas mais complexas da cartografia. Este trabalho apresenta uma nova forma de executar esta importante tarefa, visando aproveitar os últimos avanços na cartografia utilizando software livre e automatizando partes do processo para facilitar sua realização. A realização desta atividade de maneira satisfatória utilizando tecnologias livres comprova o estágio de amadurecimento alcançado dos programas desenvolvidos segundo essa filosofia.

As a result of Web 2.0 technologies such as Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) web-based applications with rich contents are evolving to be more and more like normal applications in aspects, such as interactivity, functionality, and usability. This evolvement makes it possible to create web-based services, providing maps for users to search and browse geographic information. This thesis is an evaluation of functionality, usability and accuracy for the four web-based map APIs: Google Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Multimap and ViaMichelin. The thesis explains how web-based mapping works, common functionality provided, and evaluates the functionality provided by each map service provider as well as the offered usability. In addition to this, it also includes the results of several tests, illustrating the APIs’ browser compatibility, performance and accuracy. After testing and evaluation of the four APIs, the conclusion is that none of them can be appointed as the winner. They all have benefits and drawbacks; differences in terms of functionality, compatibility, usability, geocoding and development support, and the choice of API is consequently dependent of the type of application. As a result of this, and the fact that the APIs are constantly changing in terms of functionality and coverage, it is important to create applications independent of the map service provider. This was successfully done during the internship at Amadeus by creating a map abstraction layer in-between the applications and the maps, creating the possibility to switch API, or map service provider, without changed the code.

The rigorous developments of GIS over the past decades have enabled application developers to create powerful systems that are used to facilitate the management of spatial data. Unfortunately, each one of these systems is specific to a local service, with little or no interconnection with services in other locales. This makes it virtually impossible to perform dynamic and interactive GIS operations across multiple locales which have similar or dissimilar system configurations. The Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) resolved the problems partially by offering excellent conceptual and logical abstraction model for data exchange. Recent advancements of the Internet enlightened the GIS community as to the realization of an ideal concept of information interchange. A suite of new technologies that embraces Extensible Markup Language (XML), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), Portable Network Graphics (PNG) and Java creates a powerful and new perspective that can be applied to all phases of online GIS system development. The online GIS is a Web-based approach to integrating diverse spatial data sources for GIS applications. To address the spatial data integration options and implications related to the Web-based approach the investigation was undertaken in 5 phases: (1) Determine the mapping requirements of graphic and non-graphic spatial data for online GIS application; (2) Analyze the requirements of spatial data integration for online environments; (3) Investigate a suitable method for integrating different formats of spatial data; (4) Study the feasibility and applicability of setting up the online GIS; and (5) Develop a prototype for online sharing of teaching resources. Resulting from the critical review on current Internet technology, a conceptual framework for spatial data integration was proposed. This framework was based on the emerging Internet technology on XML, SVG, PNG, and Java. It was comprised of four loosely coupled modules, namely, Application Interface, Presentation, Integrator, and Data module. This loosely coupled framework provides an environment that will be independent of the underlying GIS data structure and makes it easy to change or update the system as a new task or knowledge is acquired. A feasibility study was conducted to test the applicability for the proposed conceptual framework. A detailed user requirements and system specification was thus devised from the feasibility study. These user requirements and system specification provided some guidelines for online GIS application development. They were expressed specifically in terms of six aspects: (1) User; (2) Teaching resources management; (3) Data; (4) Cartography; (5) Functions; and (6) Software development configuration. A prototype system based on some of the devised system specifications was developed. In the prototype software design, the architecture of a Three-Tier Client-Server computing model was adopted. Due to the inadequacy of native support for SVG and PNG in all currently available Web browsers, the prototype was thus implemented in HTML, Java and vendor specific vector format. The prototype demonstrated how teaching resources from a variety of sources and format (including map data and non-map resources) were integrated and shared. The implementation of the prototype revealed that the Web is still an ideal medium for providing wider accessibility of geographical information to a larger number of users through a corporate intranet or the Internet cost-effectively. The investigation concluded that current WWW technology is limited in its capability for spatial data integration and delivering online functionality. However, developing of XML-based GIS data model and graphic standards SVG and PNG for structuring and transferring spatial data on the Internet appear to be providing solutions to the current limitations. It is believed that the ideal world where everyone retrieving spatial information contextually through a Web browser disregarding the information format and location will eventually become true.

Thesis (PhD (Geography and Environmental Studies))—Stellenbosch University, 2008. / GIS has revolutionized geographic analysis and spatial decision support and has greatly enhanced our understanding of the real world though it’s mapping and spatial modelling capabilities. Although GIS software is becoming more powerful, less expensive and more userfriendly, GIS still remains the domain of a selected few who can operate and afford these systems. Since the introduction of web mapping tools such as Google Earth, accessibility to geographic information has escalated. Such tools enable anyone with access to a computer and the Internet to explore geographic data online and produce maps on demand. Web mapping products have, however, a very narrow range of functionality. In contrast to GIS that focuses on spatial data capture, storage, manipulation, analysis and presentation, the function of web mapping tools is to visualize and communicate geographical data. The positive impact of web mapping tools suggests, however, that GIS has not yet developed to a level where anyone can use the technology to support spatial decisions and enhance productivity. A possible solution is to close the functional gap between web mapping tools and GIS to make spatial analysis more accessible, thereby promoting geographical awareness and supporting better spatial decisions.

Most data are associated with a place, and many are also associated with a moment in time, a time interval, or another linked temporal component. Spatiotemporal data (i.e., data with elements of both space and time) can be used to assess movement or change over time in a particular location, an approach that is useful across many disciplines. However, spatiotemporal data structures can be quite complex, and the datasets very large. Although GIS software programs are capable of processing and analyzing spatial information, most contain no (or minimal) features for handling temporal information and have limited capability to deal with large, complex multidimensional spatiotemporal data. A related problem is how to best represent spatiotemporal data to support efficient processing, analysis, and visualization. In the era of "big data," efficient methods for analyzing and visualizing large quantities of spatiotemporal data have become increasingly necessary. Automated processing approaches, when made scalable and generalizable, can result in much greater efficiency in spatiotemporal data analysis. The growing popularity of web services and server-side processing methods can be leveraged to create systems for processing spatiotemporal data on the server, with delivery of output products to the client. In many cases, the client can be a standard web browser, providing a common platform from which users can interact with complex server-side processing systems to produce specific output data and visualizations. The rise of complex JavaScript libraries for creating interactive client-side tools has enabled the development of rich internet applications (RIA) that provide interactive data exploration capabilities and an enhanced user experience within the web browser. Three projects involving time-series tsunami simulation data, potential human response in a tsunami evacuation scenario, and large sets of modeled time-series climate grids were conducted to explore automated web-based analysis, processing, and visualization of spatiotemporal data. Methods were developed for efficient handling of spatiotemporal data on the server side, as well as for interactive animation and visualization tools on the client side. The common web browser, particularly when combined with specialized server side code and client side RIA libraries, was found to be an effective platform for analysis and visualization tools that quickly interact with complex spatiotemporal data. Although specialized methods were developed to for each project, in most cases those methods can be generalized to other disciplines or computational domains where similar problem sets exist. / Graduation date: 2013

Much of current pedagogical discussion of the use of multimodal assignments in the writing classroom argues that one benefit of such assignments is that they foster student engagement, innovation, and creativity while simultaneously teaching writing and argumentation concepts. Although such discussions rarely use the term “play,” play theorists consider engagement, innovation, creativity, and learning to be central characteristics and outcomes of play. Thus, what many scholars view as a major outcome of multimodal assignments might most accurately be described as playful learning. In order to investigate the validity of claims that playful learning is a product of multimodal assignments, this dissertation reports on the results of a comparative case study of four different classrooms that used multimodal assignments. The objective of the study was to better understand the students’ experience of these assignments because the students’ perspective is only represented anecdotally in the literature. The study’s research questions asked: Do students find these assignments to be playful, creative, or engaging experiences? Do they view these assignments as related to and supportive of the more traditional goals of the course? And what role does the visual nature of these technologies have in the student’s experience of using them or in their pedagogical effectiveness? Each case was composed of a different writing course, a different assignment, and a different multimodal computer technology. The results of the study show that students generally did find these assignments both enjoyable and useful in terms of the learning goals of the course. Many students even went so far as to describe them as fun, indicating that for some students these were playful experiences in the traditional sense. However, comparison of the results of each case illustrates that the simple injection of a multimodal assignment into the classroom will not necessarily create a playful learning experience for students. The students’ experience is a complex phenomenon that is impacted by the structure of the assignment, whether or not they are provided a space for exploration and experimentation, their attitude towards the technology, and the characteristics of the technology. / text

Thema dieser Arbeit ist die automatisierte grafische Aufarbeitung der Rohdaten einer Wetter- oder Klimaprognose für das Internet, um eine interaktive Anwendung zur Betrachtung der Daten zu erhalten. Im Internet finden sich zwar Wetterdarstellungen, die gute Ansätze aufweisen, allerdings werden interaktive und dynamische Techniken nur wenig genutzt. Daher wurde erstmalig eine Software erstellt, mit der eine komplexe Web Mapping Applikation generiert werden kann, die sowohl für die Darstellung von allgemeinen geographischen Daten, als auch für die Visualisierung von räumlichen Daten mit einem zeitlichen Aspekt geeignet ist. Besonderen Wert wurde auf die Visualisierung von Wetterdaten gelegt, die in der Web Mapping Applikation komfortabel eingebunden werden können. Dadurch ist es möglich, eine interaktive und dynamische Visualisierung einer Wettervorhersage im Internet zu präsentieren. Zusätzlich wurde darauf geachtet, dass die Visualisierung einer Wettervorhersage in Kombination mit der Web Mapping Applikation automatisiert erfolgt und dennoch sehr frei und einfach konfiguriert werden kann. Es ist keinerlei Fremdsoftware erforderlich, um eine solche Web Mapping Anwendung zuerzeugen. Lediglich die zu visualisierenden Daten müssen vorhanden sein. Die in der Web Mapping Applikation vorhandenen Daten sind frei kombinierbar, Ausschnitte können gezielt betrachtet werden, eine Navigation durch die Zeit wird ermöglicht und die Wettervorhersagedaten können mit einer beliebig genauen Geographie versehen werden. Dadurch ist es erstmals gelungen eine komfortable Wettervorhersage für das Internet zu präsentieren, die eine umfangreiche Analyse der kommenden Wetterlage erlaubt. Um die Anwendbarkeit der automatisierten Prozesskette zu demonstrieren, kann eine täglich aktualisierte interaktive Wettervorhersage für Europa unter folgender URL betrachtet werden: http://www.svg-weather.de

A presente pesquisa propôs o desenvolvimento e a aplicação de um web-GIS interativo alimentado por usuários visando ao mapeamento do risco de inundações por meio da coleta de dados de ameaça, exposição e vulnerabilidade percebidos pela população. Foi também estimado o risco de inundação a partir de uma expressão de indicadores propostos por Mendiondo (2008). As duas metodologias foram aplicadas em sub-bacias urbanas da cidade de São Carlos. Foram realizadas entrevistas com a população da cidade para coletar dados de percepção de risco, enquanto se desenvolvia o web-GIS, para o qual, uma vez terminado, foram transferidos os referidos dados online. O portal se mostrou uma ferramenta de uso simples e confiável. As estimativas de risco calculadas por meio da expressão citada levaram a concluir que as sub-bacias com maior risco de inundação são as dos córregos Tijuco Preto e Medeiros. Entretanto, o risco estimado a partir da análise de percepção evidenciou as sub-bacias Gregório e Santa Maria Madalena como as de maior risco de inundação. As duas ferramentas apresentaram-se valiosas e econômicas para estimativa de risco de inundação em ambiente urbano, podendo constituir ótimos sistemas de apoio à decisão. O webGIS, em particular, é potencialmente útil para informar aos moradores sobre quais são as áreas de risco de inundação na cidade. / This dissertation presents the development and application of an interactive web-GIS in which internet users map flood risk collaboratively by filling up a geotagged form with questions on flood hazard, exposure and vulnerability. Flood risk was also assessed through the use of a set of environmental risk indicators proposed by Mendiondo (2008). The two methodologies were applied to six urban watersheds of the city of São Carlos (State of São Paulo, Brazil). Interviews including questions asked on the web-GIS were carried out in city streets while the portal was being developed. Thus perceived risk data gathered from the interviews was later transferred online onto the web-GIS. The web-GIS proved to be an easy to use and intuitive tool. According to the results of risk calculation obtained with the indicators expression the watersheds with higher flood risk were the Tijuco Preto and Medeiros, which were also the ones with smallest area and higher population density. The results of perceived risk, which was assessed through the analysis of the interviews data, gave evidence that Gregorio and Santa Maria Madalena where the watersheds at higher risk. These watersheds are the two which experience a higher rate of occurrence on a year basis. The two approaches for assessing risk proved to be consistent and relatively inexpensive for the estimate of flood risk in urban areas, with the potential of representing valid decision support systems. The webGIS is a particularly interesting solution as a medium of information to inhabitants on the level of risk to which they are exposed.