Information Theory of Cartography:An Information-theoretic Framework for Cartographic Communication

Map is one of the communication means created by human being.Cartographers have been making efforts on the comparison of maps to natural languages so as to establish a"cartographic language"or"map language".One of such efforts is to adopt the Shannon’s Information Theory originated in digital communication into cartography so as to establish an entropy-based cartographic communication theory.However,success has been very limited although research work had started as early as the mid-1960 s.It is then found that the bottleneck problem was the lack of appropriate measures for the spatial(configurational)information of(graphic and image)maps,as the classic Shannon entropy is only capable of characterizing statistical information but fails to capture the configurational information of(graphic and image)maps.Fortunately,after over 40-year development,some bottleneck problems have been solved.More precisely,generalized Shannon entropies for metric and thematic information of(graphic)maps have been developed and the first feasible solution for computing the Boltzmann entropy of image maps has been invented,which is capable of measuring the spatial information of not only numerical images but also categorical maps.With such progress,it is now feasible to build the"Information Theory of Cartography".In this paper,a framework for such a theory is proposed and some key issues are identified.For these issues,some have already been tackled while others still need efforts.As a result,a research agenda is set for future action.After all these issues are tackled,the theory will become matured so as to become a theoretic basis of cartography.It is expected that the Information Theory of Cartography will play an increasingly important role in the discipline of cartography because more and more researchers have advocated that information is more fundamental than matter and energy.

Cartography of Landslide Susceptibility around the Dias Horst and Thies Cliff-Senegal

The aim of this work is to map the susceptibility of sites to landslides. To assess the susceptibility of the zone, GIS techniques were used. Susceptibility factors are selected and split into two groups: active and passive factors. Passive factors regroup all the intrinsic conditions existing on the field at all times. The active factors or triggering factors are present sporadically and are added to the passive factors to trigger a landslide. With the weighted overlay method using ArcGIS?, four scenarios have been developed. A first scenario where only passive factors are combined and three scenarios for which we have for each scenario the passive factors combined with an active factor. With these different scenarios, five levels of susceptibility are obtained in the zone. These levels range from very low to very high susceptibility. For the different scenarios, the results show that the zone consists mainly of very low to low susceptibility with at least 61% of the area, followed by moderate susceptibility (23.54% to 38.24%) and last land with high susceptibility to very high with less than 1% of the surface. Fields with high to very high susceptibility are located on the slopes of the hills. Among the active factors, only the rainfall significantly modifies the percentage of land susceptible to landslide but remains in the field of moderate susceptibility. The predicted susceptibilities are closer to the observed landslides around the Thies Cliff than to the Dias Horst.

Future Education of Cartography and GIS:What Is Next?

Cartography and maps support the continuous rising of the awareness of the power of spatial data,which further lays a foundation for the popularity of various location based services and applications in society.Cartography and Geographic Information System education has been a core activity in the cartographic academic community for knowledge creation and transfer in higher education institutions.Maps in primary and high schools play a unique role across disciplines to build the spatial thinking capacities of young generations.Over years educators train students via lectures and lab works into which digital technologies are gradually incorporated.The COVID-19 pandemic has been fast forwarding our pace to employ digital technologies in online teaching and learning.Teachers are passively or proactively adapted to conduct their teaching online and redesign their lectures and assessments of students’performance.On another side,students are getting used to online learning even more quickly with various digital devices in an interactive and collective way.It creates opportunities for cartographic GIS educators to build a body of knowledge for cartography which can be used to build open source educational resources systematically.Further flexible curriculum can be designed and implemented for professional and continuous education and training at various levels.Future education of cartography and GIS can improve map literacy and make a sustainable education.

State’s Technical Cartography and Social Cartography’s Participatory Mapping: Contributions to a Contemporary Reflection on the Use of Maps

The use of cartography in geographical approaches, notably in those focused on territorial discussions, is gaining more and more importance. However, the use of technical maps still prevails, which often act to hinder its use and appropriation by traditional communities. Based on this assumption, this article seeks to show that, in addition to technical cartography, there are other methodologies, which should also be used, in both elaboration and representation of territories, such as the participatory mapping. For that, some recommendations and suggestions are presented in this paper, aiming to subsidize the application and the collaboration of maps, through the mentioned methodology. These suggestions and contributions are the result of both theoretical debates and in loci observations, in workshops held in traditional communities of Brazilian Amazonia. From these discussions, it is concluded that the adoption of participatory mapping in the process of valuing and understanding the knowledge of traditional communities is of great value, in addition to serving as a subsidy for the claims of rights of both appropriation and possession of the territory.

The Cartography of Focus and Interrogative Projections inǸjò`-Kóo

Researches on cartography have made universal predictions on the hierarchies of functional projections in language.Based on this assumption,the structural maps established by Rizzi(1997,2001b)for the left-peripheral elements suggest very strongly that Interrogative dominates Focus.Nevertheless,a straight-jacket adoption of this proposed hierarchical order to account for these left-peripheral projections inǸjò`-Kóo would be counterintuitive.Therefore,leaning on empirical and theoretical evidence,the paper calls to question the universality of the cartographers’claim,and argues that the opposite of the view is true ofǸjò`-Kóo.The paper adopts fieldwork method for data elicitation and descriptive approach as well as minimalist program for analysis of data.Data used in this study were elicited from purposively selected native speakers based on language proficiency.Data were acquired with syntactic checklist and structured interviews,and were subjected to interlinear and qualitative analysis.

Landslide Cartography at the Region of Nabeul-Hammamet Based on Geographic Information System and Geomatic

Landslides are one of the most significant natural damaging disasters in hilly environment [1]. The location of our study area is to the north of Tunisia, home to several manifestations of land instabilities, we bring to study this area of interest by GIS and geomatic approach to reduce social economic losses due to landslides. The performance of a cartographic data base for the landslide study in the Cap-Bon region was realized through studying geologic 1/50,000 and topographic 1/25,000 maps, aster optic Remote Sensing, land observation, and climatologic seismic data. These data will be digitalized, georeferenced, vectorized, spatially analyzed, classified and geotreated in order to produce a landslides card. The findings have shown that fields with smooth and friable lithology which are located at rather important seismic zones (more than 4 at Richter’s scale) have some stability. However, the most endangered zones are in the North-West around Oued El Kbir and El Ain. Realizing this work helps to determine the most hazardous zones so that policy makers have an effective field intervention.

Cartography for the Aquifer Potential Recharge Areas of the Base of the Department of Aboisso(South-East Cote d’Ivoire)

The study highlights the potential recharge areas of the aquifers of the Department of Aboisso for an adequate and rational management of their use. The methodology used consisted in the identification of parameters (land use, soil types, drainage density, slope, induced permeability and alteration thickness) allowing infiltration and their expression as thematic maps. A weighting of these parameters was made by the multicriteria analysis method of Saaty. The integration to GIS conducted to elaborate the map of the potential recharge area of the aquifers for the Department of Aboisso. It brings to light five recharge level classes (bad: 20%;mediocre: 19%, medium: 45%;good: 15% and very good: 1%) in the study area. That map reveals the dominance of good recharge areas covering 61% and practically all over the studied area. They are generally characterized with gentle slopes coupled with mosaics of cultivations and forests, and high induced permeability allowing better infiltration. The zones of low recharge cover 39% of the department’s area, and are mainly located in urban areas inside the streams. This study exhibited that the land use is the preponderant parameter influencing the recharge in base area. This map could be considered as an excellent support for all kinds of activities especially to implement planning in the Department of Aboisso, the setting up of drilling broadbands and the choice of future sites for landfills or landfill of wastes to protect groundwater from any pollution.

The Cartography and the Spatial Representations:Search by Perfect Map

The activities of the professionals working on cartographic products have been highlighted especially in recent years. The history, the concepts and categories of cartography cannot be neglected in using this type of tool since the use of elements that make a cartographic product, as an example: map, chart, plan, globe, and a scale model should be used since the unawareness of techniques of cartography and the absence of the components of a map may hinder the understanding of what is intended to represent cartographically. This text is a contribution to the discussion of advances in cartography including errors and absence of maps, including a brief discussion of the characteristics of cartographic language nowadays and the search for perfection in cartography.

Cartographic Study and Modeling of the Bakwanga Kimberlite Massive 5 at Kasai Oriental in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Bakwanga kimberlite massive 5 in Kasai Oriental is part of a set of 13 kimberlite massives numbered according to the order in which they were discovered. They are located on an alignment with a more or less W-E direction making up the Northern group known as Bakwanga. The importance of the Bakwanga kimberlite massives on the country’s economy in the production of diamonds sufficiently proves the interest of geological research work in this area. The objective of this work is to determine a mathematical model of the shape of the massive as close as possible to reality and through cartography. The cartographic study and modeling of this kimberlite massive were carried out using data from core samples taken on longitudinal and transverse profiles of the 50 × 50 meter mesh drilling plan intersecting this kimberlite massive. We intend to deduce the structure and lithostratigraphy of the kim-berlitic facies and the direct environment of massive 5. As a result, we note that the majority of surveys on the extent of this massive have intersected: Red clayey sand - Polymorphic sandstone - Nodular sandstone, with kaolin blocks and nodules - Epiclastic Kimberlite - Xenokimberlite - Massive Kimberlite - Mesozoic sandstone - Dolomite (enclosing). The shape of the Massive 5 model is vaguely elliptical with a W-E longitudinal axis of 575 m and N-S axis of 275 meters. Surveys have shown that Massive 5 is in fact composed of two pipes, located in the W (western pipe) and E (eastern pipe) ends of the massif. The two chimneys of the two pipes have walls ranging from subvertical at the eastern pipe to very steep walls of around 70˚ to 80˚ for the western pipe and the average diameter of the two pipes is ±50 meters. At level 600, the massive has an area of ±10.5 hectares and it gradually decreases in depth and the modeling of the latter shows a concentric decrease in the volume of the massive from the surface to depth in the shape of a mushroom. 3 eruptive phases established this Kimber-litic massive, the first two phases (old) of which formed the crater of the western pipe and the third formed the crater of the eastern pipe in the dolomites. These dolomites constitute everywhere the surrounding area of the massive;the distinction of these 3 phases is made possible thanks to Epiclastic deposits, Xenokim-berlites and massive Kimberlites.

Cartography and the others-aspects of a complicated relationship

Cartographic visualizations have been known for thousands of years and have brought forth a wealth of different map projections and cartographic products.Yet,cartography as an independent science has been established only about 100 years ago and sometimes its position among the spatial disciplines is challenged by the scientific community.In this respect it is a young science based on a very long tradition of map making,globe production,and the development of map projections.Maps and map related visualizations play an important and indispensable role in many other spatial disciplines such as geography and geodesy.Cartography has many overlaps with these traditional disciplines as well as with the more recent ones of photogrammetry and remote sensing.This paper reviews fundamental aspects of the conception of space and time throughout human history,the historic development of cartography from a technique of map making to a spatial science,highlighting major milestones in the history of the discipline.As a young science and confronted with major technological developments in the late 20^(th)century cartography underwent several crises as to what exactly is cartography and how it relates to other spatial sciences,in particular to geographic information systems.Major pitfalls and misconceptions are discussed and the three major scientific pillars of cartography are identified.The relationships of cartography with neighboring disciplines are discussed and the position of cartography vis a vis the others is delineated.Finally,desirable future developments of scientific cartography are discussed.

An evaluation of digital elevation modeling in GIS and Cartography

This study considers seven commonly used surface fitting methods within Golden Software and ArcGIS^(TM) environments.Using grid sizes of 68 rows by 100 columns(6800 grids)and 680 rows by 1000 columns(680,000 grids)and 294,208 elevation points covering the entire landmass of Nigeria,the study evaluates the performance of these methods in terms of execution time and faithfulness in the representation of the spatial elements.Results show marked differences in time taken to execute the fitting and that Inverse Distance,the Natural Neighbor,the Nearest Neighbor,and Triangulation with Linear Interpolation seem to give the highest level of correspondence or faithfulness.

Slope Stability Analysis: Case of the West Wall of the EMZ Pit at the Essakane Gold Mine in Burkina Faso (West Africa)

Knowledge of the state of stability of mining pits is both a basic condition, an essential axis and a safety benchmark for mining operations. This stability is largely based on the knowledge of the rock mass sheltering the mining works and this requires a perfect characterization of all of its structural formations through mapping (manual or digital). The families of discontinuities, namely family 1 (bedding), family 2 (Joint 2) and family 3 (Joint 1) obtained through structural mapping in the Essakane open pit mine, made it possible to analyze the failure modes at the origin of rock instabilities. The respective dips of these different directional families are: 77˚ - 85˚/N 058˚ - 068˚, 66˚ - 74˚/N 133˚ - 143˚, 25˚ - 35˚/N115˚ - 130˚. An average safety factor of 4.3 was estimated for the area with a quality of the rock mass (RMR) estimated at 47. The results obtained reflect on the one hand the risks of instability associated with the quality of the rock mass studied and on the other hand highlights the state of stability of the study area.

Underpinning Aspects of Developing a Cartographic Curriculum

Educating the future generation of modern cartographers,being able to deal with the rapid changes of modern technologies and developing the skills and competences to not only being able to cope with those challenges but also to be able to contribute to develop the domain further,has become a rising concern of many.In this paper,the experiences of setting up an International MSc program are shared as well as some reasoning for the development of an underpinning curriculum are given.

Syntactic Characteristics and a Smart Construction Mechanism for Thematic Map Symbols

The construction of thematic map symbols is a very complex and intellectually demanding process,but thematic symbols can be automatically generated and easily shared on the web using the syntactic structure of semantic symbols.In this paper,the symbol types,inner structure,and design pattern are discussed.A syntactic construction theory based on letter (thematic maps primitive)-word (single thematic symbol)-sentence (combined symbols or complex symbols) structure model is proposed to automate the construction of thematic map symbols.As a result of this research,symbols can be defined using cartographic primitives which are arranged according to syntactic principles.A semiotic model and word-centered construction theory can be integrated into interactive cartography as represented by the technology of Internet.Finally,the concepts and schema of this theory are discussed,and some examples are presented based a web thematic cartographic system to verify its utility.

Cartographic-Environmental Analysis of the Landscape in Natural Protected Parks for His Management Using GIS.Application to the Natural Parks of the“Las Batuecas-Sierra de Francia”and“Quilamas”(Central System,Spain)

In this work we report a methodological procedure with an integrated physical-perceptual approach that allows units of landscape in protected natural areas to be differentiated. First, indirect methods were applied by means of a mapping procedure, which identified the physical components of major relevance. We then generated maps of natural units, anlyzing the “printed” landscape of a territory. Secondly, we developed direct methods to identify and describe the reresentative elements of the landscape, analyzing the “perceived” landscape. The identification and delimitation of these landscape units with geographical information systems provide detailed maps facilitate the tasks of planning and management. The procedure was validated by means of its application in two protected natural spaces. The treatment used here considers landscape not only as an aesthetic element but also as something “live” elaborating maps that should be of use in land planning and management of natural areas.

Geodetic Datum Transformation Parameters towards WGS84 Applicable to the 1/50k Topographical Map (1981) of Burundi

The knowledge of the geodetic reference datum of maps or data is required for their use in a GIS. Many older maps are lacking this information, making their use cumbersome. The availability of an aerial coverage at high resolution of Burundi and digital elevation model, based on a novel geodetic network, all calculated on the WGS84 datum, allows to calculate the datum applicable to older maps, for instance the regular 1/50k map of the country. The method, based on the difference in geocentric coordinates between points common to the two systems, yields: Δx = -156.71 ± 10.2 m, .Δy = -3.26 ± 13.2 m, .Δz = -290.77 ± 21.06 m, well in keeping with older values proposed by the NGA.

Map of Maryland and Virginia of 1660-1670 Created by Augustin Herrmann

In the paper a little known large 4-folio map of the territory of the later US states Virginia and Maryland is introduced. The map, which was surveyed and composed between 1660 and 1670, is exceptional from several points of view: the vast impenetrable territory covering a strip of land of about 700 × 400 km was mapped by one man, Augustin Herrman “Bohemian” (as he called himself) and by his crew during 10-year surveying and trigonometric measurements. It seems that this extraordinary map belongs among the first geodetically surveyed maps of the American territory. In 1960 altogether 5 copies of the map, complete in four parts, were known in British, French and American Libraries and map collections.

Camera Pose Estimation Using Collaborative Databases and Single Building Image

Cities are in constant change and city managers aim to keep an updated digital model of the city for city governance. There are a lot of images uploaded daily on image sharing platforms (as “Flickr”, “Twitter”, etc.). These images feature a rough localization and no orientation information. Nevertheless, they can help to populate an active collaborative database of street images usable to maintain a city 3D model, but their localization and orientation need to be known. Based on these images, we propose the Data Gathering system for image Pose Estimation (DGPE) that helps to find the pose (position and orientation) of the camera used to shoot them with better accuracy than the sole GPS localization that may be embedded in the image header. DGPE uses both visual and semantic information, existing in a single image processed by a fully automatic chain composed of three main layers: Data retrieval and preprocessing layer, Features extraction layer, Decision Making layer. In this article, we present the whole system details and compare its detection results with a state of the art method. Finally, we show the obtained localization, and often orientation results, combining both semantic and visual information processing on 47 images. Our multilayer system succeeds in 26% of our test cases in finding a better localization and orientation of the original photo. This is achieved by using only the image content and associated metadata. The use of semantic information found on social media such as comments, hash tags, etc. has doubled the success rate to 59%. It has reduced the search area and thus made the visual search more accurate.

Contribution of a Websig to a Study of the Distribution of Education Staff for Vocational Training in Côte D’ivoire

Education makes it possible to pass from one generation to another, the culture necessary for the development of the personality and the social integration of the individual. Education contributes closely to the supervision of students and remains the responsibility of educators and education inspectors. But each education staff admits the number of students supported. This number is two hundred and eighty (280) students per educator and one thousand two thousand (2000) per education inspector. Our study aims at taking stock of the adequacy between school enrollment and education staff enrollment from a WebSIG for vocational training schools in Côte d’Ivoire. To achieve this, the methodology adopted led us to use the MERISE analysis method for setting up the database, web programming languages (HTML 5, PHP, CSS, XML and JavaScript), AJAX technology, Apache web server, DBMS (MySQL), Google Maps API. The results from the use of WebSIG highlight the disparity in the distribution of education personnel. These results also show which schools remain in need as well as in excess.

Journal of Geodesy and Geoinformation Science

Aims: The Journal of Geodesy and Geoinformation Science is an official publication of the Chinese Society for Geodesy. Photogrammetry and Cartography. The Journal aims to facilitate and strengthen academic exchange on geodesy and geoinformation research between China and other countries.