Recent Progress of Marine Geographic Information System in China:A Review for 2006-2010

In this article,the progress of marine geographic information system(MGIS) in China during 2006?2010 is reviewed with emphases on generic MGIS,advanced MGIS and MGIS-based applications.Generic MGIS can be divided into two categories:data-oriented MGIS and user-oriented MGIS,recent achievements of which by Chinese researchers are summarized respectively.Advanced MGIS mainly involves the establishment of 3D virtual marine environment and 'Digital Ocean'.An overview of the 3D MGIS based simulations in the context of ocean phenomena,ocean engineering and ocean battlefield is also presented.Several sug-gestions for future development of MGIS in China are proposed,and trends of development are addressed.

Interactive map reports summarizing bivariate geographic data

Bivariate map visualizations use different encodings to visualize two variables but comparison across multiple encodings is challenging.Compared to a univariate visualization,it is significantly harder to read regional differences and spot geographical outliers.Especially targeting inexperienced users of visualizations,we advocate the use of natural language text for augmenting map visualizations and understanding the relationship between two geo-statistical variables.We propose an approach that selects interesting findings from data analysis,generates a respective text and visualization,and integrates both into a single document.The generated reports interactively link the visualization with the textual narrative.Users can get additional explanations and have the ability to compare different regions.The text generation process is flexible and adapts to various geographical and contextual settings based on small sets of parameters.We showcase this flexibility through a number of application examples.

VirusMap:A visualization database for the influenza A virus

Influenza A virus,a highly virulent pathogen that has caused several pandemic events over the course of human history,still remains a major threat to human health at present.The most serious influenza pandemic in recorded history was the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak,which killed about 20-100 million people worldwide（Murray et al.,2006）.Also,

Virtual globes for UAV-based data integration:Sputnik GIS and Google Earth^(TM) applications

The integration of local measurements and monitoring via global-scale Earth observations has become a new challenge in digital Earth science.The increasing accessibility and ease of use of virtual globes(VGs)represent primary advantages of this integration,and the digital Earth scientific community has adopted this technology as one of the main methods for disseminating the results of scientific studies.In this study,the best VG software for the dissemination and analysis of highresolution UAV(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle)data is identified for global and continuous geographic scope support.The VGs Google Earth and Sputnik Geographic Information System(GIS)are selected and compared for this purpose.Google Earth is a free platform and one of the most widely used VGs,and one of its best features its ability to provide users with quality visual results.The proprietary software Sputnik GIS more closely approximates the analytical capacity of a traditional GIS and provides outstanding advantages,such as DEM overlapping and visualization for its dissemination.