GIS A

GEOSPATIAL DATA VISUALIZATION

Lecture 7
Lecturer: M. Gwena
 A Recap
• GIS is a computer system capable of assembling, storing,
manipulating, and displaying geographically referenced
information
• A GIS is a computer-based system that provides the following four
sets of capabilities to handle geo-referenced data.

1. Data capture and preparation

2. Data storage and management
3. Data manipulation and analysis
4. Data Display/Presentation/Output
 Geospatial Data Visualization: Introduction
• This is the presentation/display or output of spatial data
• Much GIS output is in the form of hard copy maps or graphic displays
• Design of graphic output is critical if information is to be conveyed
effectively to the user
• Graphic output from GIS is often poorly designed e.g. colors used
randomly without appropriate scaling
• Conventional scale of colors used to display elevation on standard atlas
maps has been optimized over centuries of cartographic experience
• Design can benefit from principles of cartographic design developed in
cartography
• Screen display introduces a new set of issues because of greater
capabilities compared with paper maps
 Geospatial Data Visualization
What to know
• Audience and information content
• Know your audience
• Know what information to present
• Showing data to the general public should be simple and easy to
read
• Know your data
• How many maps do you need?
• How much detail do you need?
• How many themes do you need?
• How many features do you need?
Concepts of Geospatial data Visualization
• The concern here is to understand the basic concept
behind geospatial data visualization. Two issues are
covered namely:-
• Characteristics of Maps
• The visualization process
 Characteristics of Maps
• Maps put answers in a spatial perspective.
• They answer questions regarding to:-
• Where?
• What?
• When?
• Which?
• How?
• A map is effective, if it is able to communicate the contents with
little ambiguity.
• Hence the scale of a map is important and that is why we talk
about large scale or small scale maps.
 Role of Scale
• The scale of output should be consistent with input scale
• e.g. It is inappropriate to digitize from 1:1,000,000 map, display at
1:24,000 because data will not be sufficiently accurate

• Also inappropriate to digitize at 1:24,000, display at 1:1,000,000

without adequate generalization features will be too dense, too
detailed
• Scale on a CRT screen is as important as on a plotted map

• In principle a spatial database is "scale-free", but in practice scale is a

crude indicator of data accuracy
• This involves converting the spatial data in the
database into graphics by applying cartographic The Visualization Process
methods and techniques.
• The producers of maps could either be
cartographers or experts in the various disciplines.
The visualization process is guided by the question
“How do I say what to whom and is it effective?
“, Where,
 How refers to the cartographic methods and
techniques
 I is the cartographer and map maker
 Say is the mode of communication either graphics
or semantics
 What addresses the spatial data and their
characteristics
 Whom is the map user and the purpose of the
map
• Effectiveness ensures that the needs of the user
have been met.
Use of Maps
• As a result of technology advances maps are being generated using GIS
by integrating data sets from different sources.
• Maps can be used in various ways:-
• As input to a GIS
• To show intermediate results from a GIS analysis
• As an output from a GIS

• Geospatial data visualization finds its application in the following

areas:
• Cartographic Visual Variables
• Map Cosmetics/Composition
• Map output media.
 Cartographic Visual Variables
• Various variables are employed for this purpose namely:-
• Size
• Lightness value
• Texture
• Color
• Shape
• Orientation

• Their role is to enhance and distinguish between or among different

phenomena being displayed on a map.
Nominal Visual Variables

• Answers the questions

‘what’ (identification) and
‘where’ (location)

• Best for emphasizing

difference in kind/
qualitative differences
Ordinal Visual variables

• Has some elements of

amounts to show some
level of hierarchy

• Effective for emphasizing

difference in amount/
quantitative differences
 Visual variables…..
Position Form
 Visual variables…..
Orientation Colour
 Visual variables…..
Value Texture
 Visual variables…..
Size Point features
Combination

A Combination of visual variables

gives a stronger perception
 Colours used in Maps
• Process colours are used with parameters as hue, value and saturation.
• Hue can be defined as the various colours we perceive (red, blue, green, yellow,
orange, etc.). Millions of hues arise by combining various percentages of the
primary hues and altering their value and saturation.
• Value is the lightness or darkness of a hue and is affected by background: the
value looks lighter when surrounded by darker shades of grey colour.
• Saturation means intensity or purity of a colour and ranges from 0% (neutral
grey) to 100% (maximum saturation).

Figure: Showing Hue, value, saturation.

 Example: Use of Color
• Mapping qualitative data e.g. land use,
and the visual variable used is color,
• The idea is to ensure that there is color
balance
Example: Use of Size Symbol
• Mapping of quantitative data e.g.
population.
• Different sizes of point symbols can be
used to distinguish areas with high and
low population.
Label Placement
• Features shown on maps and displays can be differentiated and identified in various ways:
• Symbols, e.g. church, bridge
• Colors
• Sizes
• Labels
• Labels provide the greatest flexibility to attach descriptions to point, line and area features
• Names of administrative divisions, lakes, rivers etc.
• Elevations of contours, spot heights
• Highway numbers
• In cartography, positioning labels is a complex and sophisticated process
• There have been few attempts to write down the rules used (Imhof, 1975 is a well-
known exception)
• It has proven difficult to emulate these rules in automated map production or GIS
• Positioning labels on screen displays is especially difficult because of low resolution (e.g.
640 by 480 pixels), and the importance of speed
• By comparison, a plotted map may have an effective resolution of 300 dots per inch,
and an hour computing time may be acceptable
 Basic rules (Imhofs,1975)
• Names on maps should:
• be legible
• be easily associated with the features they describe
• not overlap other map contents
• be placed so as to show the extent of the feature
• reflect the hierarchy of features by the use of different font sizes
• not be densely clustered nor evenly dispersed
• It may not be possible to satisfy all of these rules perfectly
• The best solution will balance conflicting objectives, e.g. need to associate
name with feature vs. need to avoid overlap of contents
• Label placement is a complex problem because of the vast number of possible
positions that have to be searched and the number of conflicting objectives
 Specific rules point labels
• Label must be close to point, preferably to the right and above

• No overlap with other labels, except perhaps in the spacing of the

areal label
• Label may intersect line feature; then line must be interrupted

• Points close to large body of water must have their label in the water.
In other cases there may be no line between a point and its label

• If it cannot be avoided, a name may be split over two lines of text

• Unless otherwise stated all point symbols must be centered over the
true position of the feature.
 Specific rules line labels
• Label must follow shape of line feature
• Label should not bend upwards and downwards consecutively
• At long line features the label must be repeated
• No extra spacing between characters, spacing between words of
the label is allowed
• For vertical line features: upward reading direction left on the
map and downward right on the map
• Contour lines: labels must be aligned to the contour elevations
 Specific rules for areal labels
• Horizontal labeling is good unless this conflicts with the
dominant shape of the region
• Monotonous curving; no inflection points
• Label must be spread over whole region
• Non-horizontal labels must be curved
• Adjacent regions preferably have same shape of label (both
horizontal, e.g.)
• Sometimes an areal label may be outside its region, but not
in another labeled region
 Labels

3 Kinds of labels Preferential locations for name labels of point

features: the best location is to the upper right (1).

• Straight, horizontal name

(Point features)

• Curved name (linear

features)

• Curved name with

spacing between
characters (Area features)
Incorrect and correct name placement for areal (a) and
linear (b) map objects
 Labeling Challenges
• Polygon Labeling
• labelling polygons has become notorious within automated
mapping as a difficult and challenging programming problem
• The label should be central to the feature, may be reoriented
or curved to fit the feature diagram
• In some cases the label may be connected with the feature by
an arrow
 Map Composition
• Is a process of creating a map comprising of • Information that should always accompany
several closely interrelated map elements a map (Map cosmetics) include:-
• This information (Map cosmetics)is useful for • Title which informs the user the topic
the user for gauging the quality of the map. being visualized
• Within this context, for paper maps this • Legend which depicts how the topic is
information has to appear on the map face being visualized
whereas for within a digital environment is a • Additional marginal information
mouse click away since they are designed to include:-
be interactive. • Scale
• In map design, visual hierarchy or map • Grid lines
ground separation is important for not only • North arrow
coming up with appealing maps but also • Datum and projection
maps of integrity in terms of communicating • When map was created
spatial information.
• Data used and age
• The above elements exist within the map • Tools used to create the map
composition tool and should be placed
carefully on the map margin to achieve visual • Who created the map
balance • Map Inset
 Map Output Media
• Spatial data in a GIS can be displayed just like a paper map with roads,
rivers, vegetation and other features represented as lines on a map
complete with legend, border and titles,
• Or it can be represented as a set of statistical tables, which can be
converted to charts and graphs
• The mode is usually dictated by the end user/ purpose of the project
• Various ways of presenting the final out put include but not limited to the
following Map Output Media:

• Monitor/Screen display
• Printed Maps
• Statistics or quantitative reports
• Tabular data
• Web Maps
 Map Output Media – Screen maps
• Although the traditional output media was hardcopy paper maps, and it is still
being used even today, more map products are being generated in digital format
also.
• The advantage of on screen maps is that they can be used for pre-view, internal
presentation or for the World Wide Web.
• The size of on-screen maps compared to hardcopy ones is that they have to be
smaller in size hence the content has to be selected carefully
• The fact that information is in digital form offers a lot of advantages in the sense
that it can be displayed on demand.
• It is also possible to link to other data sets, i.e. tabular, multimedia (sound,
video and animations).
 Monitor display (Screen Maps)
• The monitor is the most common mode of GIS data presentation
• Due to its flexibility, i.e. ability to show various versions of a coverage or set of
results, it is practical to view these options on a screen rather that printing
them out every time they need to be viewed.
 Screen Display...............
• Issues are different here because screen is:
• smaller, lower resolution than a printed or plotted map
• more flexible
• zoom, pan, interaction with user, animation, use of color
• Principles of design of screen displays are still poorly developed
• Black background or white?
• Affects perception of color
• Tradition (PC and mainframe terminals) is black background, Mac and many
workstations use white
• Hard copy map must display as much information as possible to satisfy
possible user requirements
• Because system is interactive, screen can display limited information but provide
for access to more
• e.g. user "clicks" on or "picks" an object with a mouse, accesses lengthy text
description
• Access to an object's attributes is not limited by constraints of static display
 Printed maps

• Are the most common form of permanent output product.

• Most applications eventually need hard copy maps as they are cheap and
portable.
• In addition, almost everyone relates to maps and can use them fairly easily
Mapping Numerical Data
Mapping Ordinal Data
Annotated photograph
 Map Output Media – Web maps
• Web maps can either be static or dynamic.
• Static maps are mainly used for view only, to advertise for products, e.g.
tourist attraction sites, for historical documentation.
• The static maps in addition to view only, may have other functionalities
e.g. zooming, panning, hyper linking, etc.
• Dynamic maps on the other hand are about change and involve change in
one or more of the spatial data layers.
• Different types of animations can be used for dynamic maps, e.g.
animated GIF, and also virtual reality modelling for presenting 3-D
models.
 Web mapping............
• And does it in such detail, that organisation of services, decision support,
coping with emergencies, and a whole array of other activities, are made
faster and more efficient.
• Web mapping is backed by a globally agreed set of open standards that will
see the rapid rise of a whole new industry.
• The geographic data industry. Standards will enable products to be
interoperable, massively increasing participation, and hence business.
• Web mapping then dynamically integrates multiple distributed on-line data
sources into one or several map images that visually communicate regional,
national or international interactions over the web.
 Features
• A strict separation of data, logic and display, allowing for re-useable and
interchangeable components
• Distributed, information sources. Connect to networked data and
services anywhere - you no longer need to store it all in-house.
• The use of globally agreed Open Standard Interfaces between the
components enables vendor- and platform independence.
• Integration of diverse information types: maps, documents, contact
directories, metadata, multimedia etc.
 Features.....
• Social Change's web mapping Services solution architecture empowers
you to value add your own (geographic) data with related online
information. You can:
• Search for online sources such as weather maps, traffic data,
background maps or satellite images.
• Fuse these with your local (e.g. spreadsheet) data and display on you
desktop, web site display.
• Scan your documents, emails or directories for geographic references
and link them to a map.
• Make any data collection geographically searchable using global
metadata standards. Find all documents referring to a specific region.
 Scene Generation – Picture of Reality
• Maps show geographic variation using symbols, objects, other abstractions of
reality
• GISs do not have to do this - why not show a picture of the reality? - artist's
impression?
• Scene generation is set of techniques for simulating real physical appearance
• e.g. GIS is used to plan a ski area on a mountain which is currently forested
• Plan could be shown as a map, with contours, green tint for remaining forest,
line objects for ski lifts
• Scene generation would show oblique perspective view, cover hill with trees of
varying height
• Current technology allows appearance of trees to be varied depending on
species, age
• We are still some way from having hardware fast enough to do this in "real
time"
Examples of Outputs: Terrain Mapping
Mapping of Elevation Data

Contours Layer Tints

Shaded Relief 3-D Visualization

 Animations
Time Series Mapping

Single Static Map

Series of Static Maps

Animated Maps
3D Mapping data visualization
Quantitative
in 3-D
 THE END

THE END OF LECTURE 7