Editorial

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3 pages, 217 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

GIScience and Historical Visual Sources: A Promising Look at Past Scenarios and Sceneries

by Motti Zohar

ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2022, 11(5), 286; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijgi11050286 - 28 Apr 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1479

Abstract

The discipline of historical geography evolved rapidly in the 20th century [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geographic Information Science (GIScience) and Geospatial Approaches for the Analysis of Historical Visual Sources and Cartographic Material)

Research

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13 pages, 2817 KiB

Open AccessArticle

GIScience and Historical Cartography for Evaluating Land Use Changes and Resulting Effects on Carbon Balance

by Canio Manniello, Giuseppe Cillis, Dina Statuto, Andrea Di Pasquale and Pietro Picuno

ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2022, 11(3), 179; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijgi11030179 - 08 Mar 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2720

Abstract

Multi-chronological examination of territory using GIScience and historical cartography may reveal a strategic tool for investigating changes in land use and the surrounding landscape structure. In this framework, the soil plays a key role in ecosystem evolution, since it governs all the mechanisms [...] Read more.

Multi-chronological examination of territory using GIScience and historical cartography may reveal a strategic tool for investigating changes in land use and the surrounding landscape structure. In this framework, the soil plays a key role in ecosystem evolution, since it governs all the mechanisms at the basis of vegetal growth, as well as all components of the total environment contributing to the formation of a rural landscape, including the balance of carbon dioxide. The present study was developed using a GIS approach applied to historical maps and aims to assess the environmental impact of land-use change, with particular attention to its effects on agricultural soil and atmospheric carbon dioxide balance. Thanks to a comparison between historical cartographic maps of different periods, this geospatial approach has enabled the assessment of the evolution of the rural land of the study area in the municipality of Ruoti (Basilicata Region—Southern Italy). This area, indeed, has been affected by deep land-use transformations, mainly caused by agricultural activities, with a resulting impact on the atmospheric CO₂ balance. These transformations have been analyzed and quantified in order to contribute to the understanding on how the changes in land use for agricultural purposes have led to unforeseen changes in the rural landscape, ecosystems and the environment. The results showed that the greatest changes in land use were caused by the abandonment of large rural areas, resulting in the expansion of urban areas, a decrease in orchard and arable land (about less 25%), and an increase in woodland (more than 30%). These changes have resulted in a doubling in soil carbon fixation value. The final results have therefore confirmed that historical cartography within a GIS approach may decisively offer information useful for more sustainable agricultural activities, so as to reduce their negative contribution to climate change. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geographic Information Science (GIScience) and Geospatial Approaches for the Analysis of Historical Visual Sources and Cartographic Material)

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24 pages, 4369 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

GisGCN: A Visual Graph-Based Framework to Match Geographical Areas through Time

by Margarita Khokhlova, Nathalie Abadie, Valérie Gouet-Brunet and Liming Chen

ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2022, 11(2), 97; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijgi11020097 - 29 Jan 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3397

Abstract

Historical visual sources are particularly useful for reconstructing the successive states of the territory in the past and for analysing its evolution. However, finding visual sources covering a given area within a large mass of archives can be very difficult if they are [...] Read more.

Historical visual sources are particularly useful for reconstructing the successive states of the territory in the past and for analysing its evolution. However, finding visual sources covering a given area within a large mass of archives can be very difficult if they are poorly documented. In the case of aerial photographs, most of the time, this task is carried out by solely relying on the visual content of the images. Convolutional Neural Networks are capable to capture the visual cues of the images and match them to each other given a sufficient amount of training data. However, over time and across seasons, the natural and man-made landscapes may evolve, making historical image-based retrieval a challenging task. We want to approach this cross-time aerial indexing and retrieval problem from a different novel point of view: by using geometrical and topological properties of geographic entities of the researched zone encoded as graph representations which are more robust to appearance changes than the pure image-based ones. Geographic entities in the vertical aerial images are thought of as nodes in a graph, linked to each other by edges representing their spatial relationships. To build such graphs, we propose to use instances from topographic vector databases and state-of-the-art spatial analysis methods. We demonstrate how these geospatial graphs can be successfully matched across time by means of the learned graph embedding. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geographic Information Science (GIScience) and Geospatial Approaches for the Analysis of Historical Visual Sources and Cartographic Material)

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20 pages, 6444 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Historical Vltava River Valley–Various Historical Sources within Web Mapping Environment

by Jiří Krejčí and Jiří Cajthaml

ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2022, 11(1), 35; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijgi11010035 - 04 Jan 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2967

Abstract

The article deals with a comprehensive information system of the historic Vltava River valley. This system contains a number of resources, which are described. For old maps, which are the basis of the whole system, their georeferencing and potential problems in creating seamless [...] Read more.

The article deals with a comprehensive information system of the historic Vltava River valley. This system contains a number of resources, which are described. For old maps, which are the basis of the whole system, their georeferencing and potential problems in creating seamless mosaics are described. Other sources of data include old photographs, which are localized and stored in the system, along with the definition point of the place from which they were probably taken. The vectorization of data is described, not only for area features used for the analysis of land-use changes, but also for the vectorization of contours. These were vectorized from old maps and are substantial for the creation of historic DEM. Vectorized footprints of buildings and vectors of other functional areas subsequently serve as a basis for the procedural modeling of the virtual 3D landscape. The creation of such a complex and broad information system cannot be described in one article. The aim of this text is to draw attention to a possible approach to the presentation and visualization of the historic landscape, along with links to important documents. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geographic Information Science (GIScience) and Geospatial Approaches for the Analysis of Historical Visual Sources and Cartographic Material)

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17 pages, 9273 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of the Cartographer’s Position and Topographic Accessibility on the Accuracy of Historical Land Use Information: Case of the Second Military Survey Maps of the Habsburg Empire

by Krzysztof Ostafin, Małgorzata Pietrzak and Dominik Kaim

ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2021, 10(12), 820; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijgi10120820 - 04 Dec 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2617

Abstract

Historical maps are critical for long-term land use reconstructions; however, quantifying the uncertainty involved in comparing historical maps with recent data remains a considerable challenge. To date, many works have focused on the technical aspects of comparing historical and contemporary materials, but the [...] Read more.

Historical maps are critical for long-term land use reconstructions; however, quantifying the uncertainty involved in comparing historical maps with recent data remains a considerable challenge. To date, many works have focused on the technical aspects of comparing historical and contemporary materials, but the potential sources of uncertainty inherent in historical data remain poorly understood. In this paper, we analyze the impacts of the topographic accessibility and cartographer’s field position on the content quality of historical Austrian second military survey maps by referring to independent census data. Our results show that the topographic accessibility and visibility from the cartographer’s surveying table points had very little impact on the map content quality and that the surveying table point locations were uniformly distributed throughout the area, regardless of the landscape conditions. These findings demonstrate that the second military survey maps can be seen as valuable and consistent historical data sources, making them especially useful for long-term land use research in Central Europe. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geographic Information Science (GIScience) and Geospatial Approaches for the Analysis of Historical Visual Sources and Cartographic Material)

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13 pages, 5073 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Geospatial Analysis of the Non-Surveyed (Estimated) Coastlines in Inoh’s Map, 1821

by Yuki Iwai and Yuji Murayama

ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2021, 10(9), 580; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijgi10090580 - 27 Aug 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2375

Abstract

The history of modern maps in Japan began with Inoh’s map that was made by surveying the whole of Japan on foot 200 years ago. Inoh’s team investigated coastlines, major roads, and geographical features such as rivers, lakes, temples, forts, village names, etc. [...] Read more.

The history of modern maps in Japan began with Inoh’s map that was made by surveying the whole of Japan on foot 200 years ago. Inoh’s team investigated coastlines, major roads, and geographical features such as rivers, lakes, temples, forts, village names, etc. The survey was successively conducted ten times from 1800 to 1816. Inoh’s map is known as the first scientific map in Japan using a systematic method. However, the actual survey was conducted only for 75% of the coastlines in Japan and the remaining 25% was drawn by Inoh’s estimation (observation). This study investigated how the non-surveyed (estimated) coastlines were distributed in the map and why the actual survey was not conducted in these non-surveyed coastlines. Using GIS, we overlaid the geometrically corrected Inoh’s map (Digital Inoh’s Map Professional Edition) with the current map published by the Geospatial Information Authority (GSI) of Japan for examining the spatial difference. We found that the non-surveyed coastlines were in places where the practice of actual surveying was topographically difficult because of the limited surveying technology of those days. The analytical result shows that 38.6% of the non-surveyed coastlines were cliffs, 25.7% were rocky beaches, and 6.2% were wetlands and tidal lands (including rice fields and tidal flats). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geographic Information Science (GIScience) and Geospatial Approaches for the Analysis of Historical Visual Sources and Cartographic Material)

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19 pages, 50770 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Application of GIS Tools in the Measurement Analysis of Urban Spatial Layouts Using the Square Grid Method

by Łukasz Musiaka and Marta Nalej

ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2021, 10(8), 558; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijgi10080558 - 17 Aug 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4984

Abstract

The principal aim of this paper is to present the capabilities of newly developed GIS tools for measurement analysis of urban spatial layouts, using the square grid method. The study of urban morphology and metrology is a multistage process, which involves the metrological [...] Read more.

The principal aim of this paper is to present the capabilities of newly developed GIS tools for measurement analysis of urban spatial layouts, using the square grid method. The study of urban morphology and metrology is a multistage process, which involves the metrological analysis of town plans. The main research step is the determination of measurement modules of town layouts, using the square grid. By using GIS software, the authors developed a new tool, named HGIS Tools, which allow to create any number of modular grids with the selected cell size that corresponds to urban units of distance and surface area. When investigating a large number of towns and cities, this offers a significant improvement of the research procedure. The paper presents a test of the tool’s potential on the example of regular medieval towns from the area of the former Teutonic Order state (currently the territory of Poland), diversified in terms of size, genesis and morphometrics. The obtained results confirmed that HGIS Tools allowed to determine the hypothetical measurement module of the layout of the cities studied. The results were consistent with the analyses of other authors carried out with the traditional grid-square methods. The test of the HGIS Tools showed their significant potential in conducting morphometric analyses of spatial arrangements of urban spatial layout on a larger scale. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geographic Information Science (GIScience) and Geospatial Approaches for the Analysis of Historical Visual Sources and Cartographic Material)

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17 pages, 9393 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Coupling Historical Maps and LiDAR Data to Identify Man-Made Landforms in Urban Areas

by Martino Terrone, Pietro Piana, Guido Paliaga, Marco D’Orazi and Francesco Faccini

ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2021, 10(5), 349; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijgi10050349 - 18 May 2021

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3747

Abstract

In recent years, there has been growing interest in urban geomorphology both for its applications in terms of landscape planning, and its historical, cultural, and scientific interest. Due to recent urban growth, the identification of landforms in cities is difficult, particularly in Mediterranean [...] Read more.

In recent years, there has been growing interest in urban geomorphology both for its applications in terms of landscape planning, and its historical, cultural, and scientific interest. Due to recent urban growth, the identification of landforms in cities is difficult, particularly in Mediterranean and central European cities, characterized by more than 1000 years of urban stratification. By comparing and overlapping 19th-century cartography and modern topography from remote sensing data, this research aims to assess the morphological evolution of the city of Genoa (Liguria, NW Italy). The analysis focuses on a highly detailed 1:2’000 scale map produced by Eng. Ignazio Porro in the mid-19th century. The methodology, developed in QGIS, was applied on five case studies of both hillside and valley floor areas of the city of Genoa. Through map overlay and digitalization of elevation data and contour lines, it was possible to identify with great accuracy the most significant morphological transformations that have occurred in the city since the mid-19th century. In addition, the results were validated by direct observation and by drills data of the regional database. The results allowed the identification and quantification of the main anthropic landforms. The paper suggests that the same methodology can be applied to other historical urban contexts characterized by urban and architectural stratification. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geographic Information Science (GIScience) and Geospatial Approaches for the Analysis of Historical Visual Sources and Cartographic Material)

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16 pages, 1803 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Agricultural Land-Use Changes in the Judean Region from the End of the Ottoman Empire to the End of the British Mandate: A Spatial Analysis

by Gad Schaffer

ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2021, 10(5), 319; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijgi10050319 - 08 May 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2394

Abstract

Vines and olives are two important and widespread traditional agricultural crops that are also connected to the Judeo–Christian–Muslim tradition. The goal of the research was to demonstrate the importance of using cartographical sources to obtain a more accurate and complete view of the [...] Read more.

Vines and olives are two important and widespread traditional agricultural crops that are also connected to the Judeo–Christian–Muslim tradition. The goal of the research was to demonstrate the importance of using cartographical sources to obtain a more accurate and complete view of the past. To this end, the aims were: (1) to reconstruct the former agricultural land-use in three periods, 1873–1874, 1917, and 1943–1945; (2) to analyze the different spatial physical factors that could explain the spatial distribution of traditional agricultural landscapes; (3) to identify the changes which took place between the three reconstructed timestamps. The research employed different cartographic sources and the implemented analyses were conducted using GIS tools and methods. The results show that, in the past, the distribution of vines and olive groves greatly depended on several physical geographic factors (climate, slopes, direction). Nonetheless, human factors such as political instability, cultural and religious beliefs contributed as well. Moreover, this research showed how GIS has advanced historical geography research. Lastly, the research demonstrated that obtaining the most complete view of the past can be achieved by a combination of sources together with the use of GIS tools and methods. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geographic Information Science (GIScience) and Geospatial Approaches for the Analysis of Historical Visual Sources and Cartographic Material)

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