Pub Date : 2018-09-20DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27224v1
B. Sudantha, E. Warusavitharana, R. Ratnayake, P. Mahanama, M. Cannata, D. Strigaro
Despite the advances in low cost open hardware and open software IoT (Internet of Things) enabled devices, their application in regional scale environmental monitoring has not been explored until the launch of 4ONSE (4 times Open and Non-conventional technology for Sensing the Environment) project, which is an ongoing research project between University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka and University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI). The project has paved the path for deploying low cost, open technologies based, non-conventional environmental monitoring systems in Deduru Oya river basin area of Sri Lanka. This research presents the selection process of appropriate sensors suitable for tropical climatic condition of Sri Lanka, issues encountered and remedies taken during the design and deployment phases.
{"title":"Appropriateness of low cost sensor network for environmental monitoring in a tropical country: Experience and lessons learnt from real world deployment","authors":"B. Sudantha, E. Warusavitharana, R. Ratnayake, P. Mahanama, M. Cannata, D. Strigaro","doi":"10.7287/peerj.preprints.27224v1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27224v1","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the advances in low cost open hardware and open software IoT (Internet of Things) enabled devices, their application in regional scale environmental monitoring has not been explored until the launch of 4ONSE (4 times Open and Non-conventional technology for Sensing the Environment) project, which is an ongoing research project between University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka and University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI). The project has paved the path for deploying low cost, open technologies based, non-conventional environmental monitoring systems in Deduru Oya river basin area of Sri Lanka. This research presents the selection process of appropriate sensors suitable for tropical climatic condition of Sri Lanka, issues encountered and remedies taken during the design and deployment phases.","PeriodicalId":93040,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ preprints","volume":"147 1","pages":"e27224"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76574082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-09-20DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27226v1
Z. Siki, B. Takács, Csaba Égeto
Ulyxes is an open source project to drive robotic total stations as well as other sensors, collect their measurements in database and finally publish the results for authorized users on the web. On special requests the results are also presented with web based maps in the background. This project is like an instant coffee: three in one (coffee, sugar and milk). The coffee and the strongest part is the research and coding. The sugar is the application of the program in industrial environment and the milk on the top is the educational usage. The software development started in 2008 connected to a monitoring task in the Hungarian Nuclear Power Plant. Since then the development has been extended from total stations to different positioning capable sensors. In 2012 the development of a new Python based object oriented framework started. The code is based on the results of some other open source projects, Python, PySerial, GNUGama, SQLite, OpenCV, etc. After connecting to the international Geo4All network in 2014, Ulyxes became a project of our Geo4All Lab. The project has its own home page (http://www.agt.bme.hu/ulyxes) and the source code is available on the GitHub portal (https://github.com/zsiki/ulyxes). The code is maintained by the colleagues at the Department of Geodesy and Surveying at the Budapest University of Technology, volunteers from all over the World are welcome. BSc and MSc students are also involved in the development and testing. More theses were connected to this project in the recent five years. In the curriculum of an MSc subject called Surveying Automation, Ulyxes is used to demonstrate automatized tasks in engineering surveying. The system has been applied for several projects during the last 10+ years. Typical applications are the load tests of bridges and other engineering structures and on the other hand Ulyxes can be used to monitor the movements of buildings in the nearby of constructional works, like metro stations, underground garage and other buildings as well. Raspberry Pi small, single board computers are used with Raspbian operating system during on-site works. The source code is divided into three parts. The first one is the Ulyxes API which is the core of the system. The second one, Ulyxes Apps is a collection of applications based upon the API. Some of them were developed by our students. The third part is the server side scripts to publish observation results through the Internet. Moreover it is also planned to implement SOS standard using IstSOS. Our Geo4All Lab maintains another open source software, called GeoEasy to process observation data in engineering and land surveying. A closer cooperation is also planned between our two open source projects. In this paper the most important features of Ulyxes will be presented with examples, an actual monitoring project in Budapest and test loads of bridges and overpasses.
{"title":"Ulyxes: an open source project for automation in engineering surveying","authors":"Z. Siki, B. Takács, Csaba Égeto","doi":"10.7287/peerj.preprints.27226v1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27226v1","url":null,"abstract":"Ulyxes is an open source project to drive robotic total stations as well as other sensors, collect their measurements in database and finally publish the results for authorized users on the web. On special requests the results are also presented with web based maps in the background. This project is like an instant coffee: three in one (coffee, sugar and milk). The coffee and the strongest part is the research and coding. The sugar is the application of the program in industrial environment and the milk on the top is the educational usage. The software development started in 2008 connected to a monitoring task in the Hungarian Nuclear Power Plant. Since then the development has been extended from total stations to different positioning capable sensors. In 2012 the development of a new Python based object oriented framework started. The code is based on the results of some other open source projects, Python, PySerial, GNUGama, SQLite, OpenCV, etc. After connecting to the international Geo4All network in 2014, Ulyxes became a project of our Geo4All Lab. The project has its own home page (http://www.agt.bme.hu/ulyxes) and the source code is available on the GitHub portal (https://github.com/zsiki/ulyxes). The code is maintained by the colleagues at the Department of Geodesy and Surveying at the Budapest University of Technology, volunteers from all over the World are welcome. BSc and MSc students are also involved in the development and testing. More theses were connected to this project in the recent five years. In the curriculum of an MSc subject called Surveying Automation, Ulyxes is used to demonstrate automatized tasks in engineering surveying. The system has been applied for several projects during the last 10+ years. Typical applications are the load tests of bridges and other engineering structures and on the other hand Ulyxes can be used to monitor the movements of buildings in the nearby of constructional works, like metro stations, underground garage and other buildings as well. Raspberry Pi small, single board computers are used with Raspbian operating system during on-site works. The source code is divided into three parts. The first one is the Ulyxes API which is the core of the system. The second one, Ulyxes Apps is a collection of applications based upon the API. Some of them were developed by our students. The third part is the server side scripts to publish observation results through the Internet. Moreover it is also planned to implement SOS standard using IstSOS. Our Geo4All Lab maintains another open source software, called GeoEasy to process observation data in engineering and land surveying. A closer cooperation is also planned between our two open source projects. In this paper the most important features of Ulyxes will be presented with examples, an actual monitoring project in Budapest and test loads of bridges and overpasses.","PeriodicalId":93040,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ preprints","volume":"23 1","pages":"e27226"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78181791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-09-20DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27227v1
L. Benvenuto, Roberto Marzocchi, I. Ferrando, B. Federici, D. Sguerso
DataBases (DB) are a widespread source of data, useful for many applications in different scientific fields. The present contribution describes an automatic procedure to access, download and store open access data from different sources, to be processed in a GIS environment. In particular, it refers to the specific need of the authors to manage both meteorological data (pressure and temperature) and GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Zenith Total Delay (ZTD) estimates. Such data allow to produce Precipitable Water Vapor (PWV) maps, thanks to the so called GNSS for Meteorology(G4M) procedure, developed through GRASS GIS software ver. 7.4, for monitoring in time and interpreting severe meteorological events. Actually, the present version of the procedure includes the meteorological pressure and temperature data coming from NOAA’s Integrated Surface Database (ISD), whereas the ZTD data derive from the RENAG DB, that collects ZTD estimates for 181 GNSS Permanent Stations (PSs) from 1998 to 2015 in the French-Italian boundary region. Several Python scripts have been implemented to manage the download of data from NOAA and RENAG DBs, their import on a PostgreSQL/PostGIS geoDB, besides the data elaboration with GRASS GIS to produce PWV maps. The key features of the data management procedure are its scalability and versatility for different sources of data and different contexts. As a future development, a web-interface for the procedure will allow an easier interaction for the users both for post-processing and real-time data. The data management procedure repository is available at https://github.com/gtergeomatica/G4M-data
{"title":"A procedure to manage open access data for post-processing in GIS environment","authors":"L. Benvenuto, Roberto Marzocchi, I. Ferrando, B. Federici, D. Sguerso","doi":"10.7287/peerj.preprints.27227v1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27227v1","url":null,"abstract":"DataBases (DB) are a widespread source of data, useful for many applications in different scientific fields. The present contribution describes an automatic procedure to access, download and store open access data from different sources, to be processed in a GIS environment. In particular, it refers to the specific need of the authors to manage both meteorological data (pressure and temperature) and GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Zenith Total Delay (ZTD) estimates. Such data allow to produce Precipitable Water Vapor (PWV) maps, thanks to the so called GNSS for Meteorology(G4M) procedure, developed through GRASS GIS software ver. 7.4, for monitoring in time and interpreting severe meteorological events. Actually, the present version of the procedure includes the meteorological pressure and temperature data coming from NOAA’s Integrated Surface Database (ISD), whereas the ZTD data derive from the RENAG DB, that collects ZTD estimates for 181 GNSS Permanent Stations (PSs) from 1998 to 2015 in the French-Italian boundary region. Several Python scripts have been implemented to manage the download of data from NOAA and RENAG DBs, their import on a PostgreSQL/PostGIS geoDB, besides the data elaboration with GRASS GIS to produce PWV maps. The key features of the data management procedure are its scalability and versatility for different sources of data and different contexts. As a future development, a web-interface for the procedure will allow an easier interaction for the users both for post-processing and real-time data. The data management procedure repository is available at https://github.com/gtergeomatica/G4M-data","PeriodicalId":93040,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ preprints","volume":"90 1","pages":"e27227"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76733537","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-09-16DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27220v1
P. Loewe
This submission reports on the continuing efforts by OSGeo activists within the annual General Assembly gatherings of the European Geoscience Union (EGU). Starting as improvided splinter events, the format soon emerged both into dedicated topical sessions for Open Source within the EGU division of Earth and Space Science Informatics (ESSI), but also dedicated annual evening events (Townhalls). Further, the format of topical Open Source sessions was quickly adopted also by the American Geophysical Union (AGU). This talk covers lessons learned from past events, current developments and opportunities within ESSI in EGU and AGU, and also new acitivities.
{"title":"OSGeo events at EGU General Assemblies: Making Open Science a Reality","authors":"P. Loewe","doi":"10.7287/peerj.preprints.27220v1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27220v1","url":null,"abstract":"This submission reports on the continuing efforts by OSGeo activists within the annual General Assembly gatherings of the European Geoscience Union (EGU). Starting as improvided splinter events, the format soon emerged both into dedicated topical sessions for Open Source within the EGU division of Earth and Space Science Informatics (ESSI), but also dedicated annual evening events (Townhalls). Further, the format of topical Open Source sessions was quickly adopted also by the American Geophysical Union (AGU). This talk covers lessons learned from past events, current developments and opportunities within ESSI in EGU and AGU, and also new acitivities.","PeriodicalId":93040,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ preprints","volume":"85 1","pages":"e27220"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76815283","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-09-16DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27212v1
G. Esposito, A. Mondini, I. Marchesini, P. Reichenbach, P. Salvati, M. Rossi
A rapid assessment of the areal extent of landslide disasters is one of the main challenges facing by the scientific community. Satellite radar data represent a powerful tool for the rapid detection of landslides over large spatial scales, even in case of persistent cloud cover. To define landslide locations, radar data need to be firstly pre-processed and then elaborated for the extraction of the required information. Segmentation represents one of the most useful procedures for identifying land cover changes induced by landslides. In this study, we present an application of the i.segment module of GRASS GIS software for segmenting radar-derived data. As study area, we selected the Tagari River valley in Papua New Guinea, where massive landslides were triggered by a M7.5 earthquake on February 25, 2018. A comparison with ground truth data revealed a suitable performance of i.segment. Particular segmentation patterns, in fact, resulted in the areas affected by landslides with respect to the external ones, or to the same areas before the earthquake. These patterns highlighted a relevant contrast of radar backscattering values recorded before and after the landslides. With our procedure, we were able to define the extension of the mass movements that occurred in the study area, just three days after the M7.5 earthquake.
{"title":"An example of SAR-derived image segmentation for landslides detection","authors":"G. Esposito, A. Mondini, I. Marchesini, P. Reichenbach, P. Salvati, M. Rossi","doi":"10.7287/peerj.preprints.27212v1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27212v1","url":null,"abstract":"A rapid assessment of the areal extent of landslide disasters is one of the main challenges facing by the scientific community. Satellite radar data represent a powerful tool for the rapid detection of landslides over large spatial scales, even in case of persistent cloud cover. To define landslide locations, radar data need to be firstly pre-processed and then elaborated for the extraction of the required information. Segmentation represents one of the most useful procedures for identifying land cover changes induced by landslides. In this study, we present an application of the i.segment module of GRASS GIS software for segmenting radar-derived data. As study area, we selected the Tagari River valley in Papua New Guinea, where massive landslides were triggered by a M7.5 earthquake on February 25, 2018. A comparison with ground truth data revealed a suitable performance of i.segment. Particular segmentation patterns, in fact, resulted in the areas affected by landslides with respect to the external ones, or to the same areas before the earthquake. These patterns highlighted a relevant contrast of radar backscattering values recorded before and after the landslides. With our procedure, we were able to define the extension of the mass movements that occurred in the study area, just three days after the M7.5 earthquake.","PeriodicalId":93040,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ preprints","volume":"40 1","pages":"e27212"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85216392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-09-16DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27214v1
C. E. Kilsedar, G. Bratic, M. Molinari, M. Minghini, M. Brovelli
Land cover (LC) maps are crucial to understand and analyze several phenomena, including urbanization, deforestation and climate change. This elevates the importance of their accuracy, which is assessed through a validation process. However, it has been observed that knowledge on the importance of LC maps and their validation is limited. Hence, a set of educational resources has been created to assist in the validation of LC maps. These resources, available under an open access license, focus on the validation procedure through open source and easy-to-use tools. Moreover, addressing the lack of accurate and up-to-date reference LC data, an application has been developed that provides users a means to collect LC data.
{"title":"Open educational resources for the validation of global high-resolution land cover maps","authors":"C. E. Kilsedar, G. Bratic, M. Molinari, M. Minghini, M. Brovelli","doi":"10.7287/peerj.preprints.27214v1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27214v1","url":null,"abstract":"Land cover (LC) maps are crucial to understand and analyze several phenomena, including urbanization, deforestation and climate change. This elevates the importance of their accuracy, which is assessed through a validation process. However, it has been observed that knowledge on the importance of LC maps and their validation is limited. Hence, a set of educational resources has been created to assist in the validation of LC maps. These resources, available under an open access license, focus on the validation procedure through open source and easy-to-use tools. Moreover, addressing the lack of accurate and up-to-date reference LC data, an application has been developed that provides users a means to collect LC data.","PeriodicalId":93040,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ preprints","volume":"98 1","pages":"e27214"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89127542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-09-16DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27216v1
C. Granell, Daniel Nüst, F. Ostermann, R. Sileryte
Reproducibility is a fundamental pillar in science but it has recently been described as hard and challenging to achieve, as stated in numerous editorials and papers, some of which alert on a “reproducibility crisis”. In this article we outline 1/ the approach taken to put Reproducible Research (RR) in the agenda of the GIScience community, 2/ first actions and initial lessons learned towards the discussion and adoption of RR principles and practices in the workflows and habits of researchers, and finally, we present 3/ our short-term strategy (two years) and specific actions to achieve the main goal of making RR an integral part of scientific workflows of the GIScience community.
{"title":"Reproducible Research is like riding a bike","authors":"C. Granell, Daniel Nüst, F. Ostermann, R. Sileryte","doi":"10.7287/peerj.preprints.27216v1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27216v1","url":null,"abstract":"Reproducibility is a fundamental pillar in science but it has recently been described as hard and challenging to achieve, as stated in numerous editorials and papers, some of which alert on a “reproducibility crisis”. In this article we outline 1/ the approach taken to put Reproducible Research (RR) in the agenda of the GIScience community, 2/ first actions and initial lessons learned towards the discussion and adoption of RR principles and practices in the workflows and habits of researchers, and finally, we present 3/ our short-term strategy (two years) and specific actions to achieve the main goal of making RR an integral part of scientific workflows of the GIScience community.","PeriodicalId":93040,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ preprints","volume":"243 1","pages":"e27216"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73082367","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-09-16DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27219v1
H. Yamauchi, T. Oguchi, Y. Hayakawa, Toshikazu Seto
Since around 2000, GIS researchers in Japan have collaborated to provide materials for GIS lecture classes for university undergraduates. As a result, a GIS core curriculum, a Japanese version of GIS Body of Knowledge (BoK), and a series of PowerPoint presentation files were developed. These materials are online and available to anybody with free of charge. However, they have not yet published free-access online materials for GIS exercises using software and spatial data. Therefore, we launched a new project in 2015 to produce such materials. The learning topics in the materials were selected based on products from the previous projects. Software packages used for GIS operations are free open-source ones. The materials have been provided as open educational resources with a Creative Commons license on the GitHub platform. The materials were used in a university class of GIS exercises to verify whether they are effective for undergraduate students. In this paper, we introduce the developed materials and show the results of their applications.
{"title":"Development and operation of GIS exercise materials for undergraduate students","authors":"H. Yamauchi, T. Oguchi, Y. Hayakawa, Toshikazu Seto","doi":"10.7287/peerj.preprints.27219v1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27219v1","url":null,"abstract":"Since around 2000, GIS researchers in Japan have collaborated to provide materials for GIS lecture classes for university undergraduates. As a result, a GIS core curriculum, a Japanese version of GIS Body of Knowledge (BoK), and a series of PowerPoint presentation files were developed. These materials are online and available to anybody with free of charge. However, they have not yet published free-access online materials for GIS exercises using software and spatial data. Therefore, we launched a new project in 2015 to produce such materials. The learning topics in the materials were selected based on products from the previous projects. Software packages used for GIS operations are free open-source ones. The materials have been provided as open educational resources with a Creative Commons license on the GitHub platform. The materials were used in a university class of GIS exercises to verify whether they are effective for undergraduate students. In this paper, we introduce the developed materials and show the results of their applications.","PeriodicalId":93040,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ preprints","volume":"39 1","pages":"e27219"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87047015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-09-16DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27218v1
M. Heitzler, H. Bär, R. Schenkel, L. Hurni
Map projections are one of the fundamental concepts of geographic information science and cartography. An understanding of the different variants and properties is critical when creating maps or carrying out geospatial analyses. To support learning about map projections, we present an online tool that allows to interactively explore the construction process of map projections. A central 3D view shows the three main building blocks for perspective map projections: the globe, the projection surface (cone, cylinder, plane) and the projection center. Interactively adjusting these objects allows to create a multitude of arrangements forming the basis for common map projections. Further insights can be gained by adding supplementary information, such as projection lines and Tissot’s indicatrices. Once all objects have been arranged in a desired way, the projection surface can be unrolled to form the final flat map. Currently, the tool is limited to visualize the construction of true perspective map projections. In the future, prime concerns are to increase the genericity of the application to support more map projections and to integrate it into the GITTA (Geographic Information Technology Training Alliance) platform.
{"title":"An interactive tool for teaching map projections","authors":"M. Heitzler, H. Bär, R. Schenkel, L. Hurni","doi":"10.7287/peerj.preprints.27218v1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27218v1","url":null,"abstract":"Map projections are one of the fundamental concepts of geographic information science and cartography. An understanding of the different variants and properties is critical when creating maps or carrying out geospatial analyses. To support learning about map projections, we present an online tool that allows to interactively explore the construction process of map projections. A central 3D view shows the three main building blocks for perspective map projections: the globe, the projection surface (cone, cylinder, plane) and the projection center. Interactively adjusting these objects allows to create a multitude of arrangements forming the basis for common map projections. Further insights can be gained by adding supplementary information, such as projection lines and Tissot’s indicatrices. Once all objects have been arranged in a desired way, the projection surface can be unrolled to form the final flat map. Currently, the tool is limited to visualize the construction of true perspective map projections. In the future, prime concerns are to increase the genericity of the application to support more map projections and to integrate it into the GITTA (Geographic Information Technology Training Alliance) platform.","PeriodicalId":93040,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ preprints","volume":"3 1","pages":"e27218"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79140936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-09-15DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27211v1
Ionut Iosifescu Enescu, Marielle Fraefel, G. Plattner, L. Espona-Pernas, D. Haas-Artho, M. Lehning, K. Steffen
EnviDat is the institutional research data portal of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape WSL. The portal is designed to provide solutions for efficient, unified and managed access to the WSL’s comprehensive reservoir of monitoring and research data, in accordance with the WSL data policy. Through EnviDat, WSL is fostering open science, making curated, quality-controlled, publication-ready research data accessible. Data producers can document author contributions for a particular data set through the EnviDat-DataCRediT taxonomy. The publication of research data sets can be complemented with additional digital resources, such as, e.g., supplementary documentation, processing software or detailed descriptions of code (i.e. as Jupyter Notebooks). The EnviDat Team is working towards generic solutions for enhancing open science, in line with WSL’s commitment to accessible research data.
{"title":"Fostering Open Science at WSL with the EnviDat Environmental Data Portal","authors":"Ionut Iosifescu Enescu, Marielle Fraefel, G. Plattner, L. Espona-Pernas, D. Haas-Artho, M. Lehning, K. Steffen","doi":"10.7287/peerj.preprints.27211v1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27211v1","url":null,"abstract":"EnviDat is the institutional research data portal of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape WSL. The portal is designed to provide solutions for efficient, unified and managed access to the WSL’s comprehensive reservoir of monitoring and research data, in accordance with the WSL data policy. Through EnviDat, WSL is fostering open science, making curated, quality-controlled, publication-ready research data accessible. Data producers can document author contributions for a particular data set through the EnviDat-DataCRediT taxonomy. The publication of research data sets can be complemented with additional digital resources, such as, e.g., supplementary documentation, processing software or detailed descriptions of code (i.e. as Jupyter Notebooks). The EnviDat Team is working towards generic solutions for enhancing open science, in line with WSL’s commitment to accessible research data.","PeriodicalId":93040,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ preprints","volume":"70 1","pages":"e27211"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86919981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}