•The research examines 7 surface transport networks operating in Milan from 1856 to 2016.•The networks are analysed by graph theory tools, including Icentr, a new centrality index.•The primary nodes ...in the transportation perspectives are pinpointed;•A detailed picture of how primary nodes have shifted over the years is proposed.•Historical phases of city expansion or densification can be identified.
This research examines the transport networks operating in Milan, Italy, in seven years, from 1856 to 2016. The networks are transformed into graphs and analysed with several techniques from graph theory, including a new centrality index called Icentr. With the help of this index, we identify the nodes, to be considered primary in the transportation network, that are better related both in terms of topology and more interconnected in terms of distance. The findings provide a detailed picture of how the primary nodes have shifted from the city’s inner core to outer areas over the course of the investigated decades, both for the topological case and when the graphs are weighted based on the distance between nodes. Particularly, the effect of distance is more evident in those historical phases when the city expands, creating longer connections between nodes, in contrast to phases when the city becomes denser. The proposed method of analysis appears suitable to be applied to other cities, both for simplicity and effectiveness.
This paper aims to quantify land cover and vegetation changes over the past 250 years on Norfolk Island, Australia, a remote island important for its cultural heritage and biodiversity. We collated ...over 130 historical maps and aerial photos from various archives, of which we georeferenced 80. Supervised classification and manual digitization were used to extract detailed land cover information on vegetation cover from 10 historical maps and datasets. While the classification and symbology used to represent vegetation on the different maps varied over time, we were able to track changes in vegetation cover on the island. We found that after the first (colonial) settlement, non-agricultural vegetation cover was at its lowest during the 1940s, and has since then expanded. We found high constancy of land cover patterns on the island since 1840 onwards. Historical maps thus provide an understanding of the dynamics that shape the present landscape.
The aim of this contribution is on the one hand to map pre-industrial long distance roads located in a hilly region east of Cologne, Germany, as exactly as possible and on the other hand to assess ...the accuracy of least-cost approaches that are increasingly applied by archaeologists for prehistoric road reconstruction. Probably the earliest map covering the study area east of Cologne dates back to 1575. The map is distorted so that rectification is difficult. But it is possible to assess the local accuracy of the map and to transfer the approximate routes to a modern map manually. Most of the area covered by the 1575 map is also depicted on a set of more accurate maps created in the early 19th century and a somewhat later historical map set (ca. 1842 AD). The historical roads on these rectified historical maps close to the approximate roads were digitized and compared to the outcomes of least-cost analysis, specifically least-cost paths and accessibility maps. Based on these route reconstructions with limited accuracy, Lidar data is checked to identify remains of these roads. Several approaches for visualizing Lidar data are tested to identify appropriate methods for detecting sunken roads. Possible sunken roads detected on the Lidar images were validated by checking cross sections in the digital elevation model and in the field.
Historical maps depict past states of the Earth’s surface and make it possible to trace the natural or anthropogenic evolution of geographic objects back through time. However, the state of the ...depicted reality is not the only source of change: maps of varying age can differ in terms of graphical design, and also in terms of storage conditions, physical ageing of pigments, and the scanning process for digitization. Consequently, a computer vision system learned from a specific (source) map series will often not generalize well to older or newer (target) maps, calling for domain adaptation. In the present paper we examine – to our knowledge for the first time – domain adaptation for segmenting historical maps. We argue that for geo-spatial data like maps, which are geo-localized by definition, the spatial co-occurrence of geographical objects provides a supervision signal for domain adaptation. Since only a subset of all mapped objects co-occur, and even those are not perfectly aligned due to both real topographic changes and variations in map generalization/production, they only provide weak supervision — still they can bring a substantial benefit over completely unsupervised domain adaptation methods. The core of our proposed method is a novel self-supervised co-occurrence network that detects co-occurring objects across maps (specifically, domains) with a novel loss function that allows for object changes and spatial misalignment. Experiments show that, for the task of segmenting hydrological objects such as rivers, lakes and wetlands, our system significantly outperforms two state-of-art baselines, even with limited supervision (e.g., 5%). The source code is publicly available at https://github.com/sian-wusidi/spatialcooccurrence.
Automated and semi-automated map georeferencing Burt, James E.; White, Jeremy; Allord, Gregory ...
Cartography and geographic information science,
20/1/2/, Letnik:
47, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Historical maps contain a wealth of information not generally available, but they must be referenced to well-known coordinate systems for maximum use in spatial analysis. Existing georeferencing ...tools are essentially manual, requiring considerable data entry, much panning and zooming, and precise on-screen digitizing. Here we present alternative approaches based on pattern-matching and spatial computing intended to overcome the inefficiencies of standard tools. We also describe and make available two computer programs implementing the methods discussed. The first, designed for large-scale quadrangles, locates map boundaries, finds ground control points, and produces georeferenced images without operator assistance. Experiments show that quadrangle georeferencing can be reliably automated (88% success rate in our tests). A second program, developed for general maps at any scale, uses self-learning and other approaches to overcome most of the manual aspects of georeferencing. Both programs find control points with single-pixel accuracy, yield transform errors on the order of map linewidth, and can produce warped or unwarped images as desired.
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•Tagus landscapes have been shaped by river regulation and land-use change.•Tagus morphological diversity decayed from the 19th to the 21th century.•Tagus zones had distinct ...morphological adjustments and trajectories of change.•Data from historical maps can improve the ecological assessment of large rivers.
Large rivers on the Iberian Peninsula reflect a long-history of human interventions and natural disturbances in the fluvial corridors and on the surrounding valleys. In this study we aim to characterize the river morphology in pre-regulation times and understand the morphological changes of the large river Tagus (Central Portugal), across space and time. For this, we used comparable military thematic maps from three dates (1855, 1940 and 2000) and evaluated the river landforms, including sinuosity, aquatic, geomorphic and riparian aspects, in three geomorphological zones (Upland, Middle, and Lowland) using a Geographic Information System (GIS). We related the landform variations to the hydrological alterations and to Land-use Land-Cover (hereinafter LULC) changes at valley level. Hydrological data were achieved by simulating river flow regime using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. LULC data was obtained by on-screen digitizing of the military thematic maps complemented with ancillary bibliographic information. Metrics for channel form, aquatic and riparian features were quantified in 51 sampling units of 2500 m-long river sections for each period to describe the river morphology. Shannon-Wiener Index (H’) was applied as a descriptor of the morphological diversity.
Data analysis revealed a narrowing of the main channel, an overall reduction of the sinuosity, a smaller number of instream geomorphic units and abandoned lateral channels on the most recent period. Morphological alterations were driven primarily by the reduction of floods and sediment inputs, caused by streamflow regulation, while the agricultural intensification, the augment of forest plantations and the reduction of the Mediterranean scrublands induced changes in sediment dynamics and altered the riparian connectivity. The Upland zone showed the highest morphological alterations switching from a historical high-energy section to a low-dynamic zone. We also observed a high morphological variability in the Middle course exhibiting multifaceted gradients of change, while the Lowland zone reflected continuous but less pronounced modifications. River management planning should express the insights of how past and present human alterations affect morphological processes in river-floodplain systems, particularly taking into account river zones’ specificities and how they may react or constrain potential restoration processes.
The article deals with analysis of the historical topography of Tsarevokokshaysk on the basis of cartographic, written and archaeological sources. The most informative cartographic source on the ...historical topography of Tsarevokokshaysk is the city plan of 1795, which depicts the main elements of the urban landscape. Written sources provide the most detailed descriptions of the city in 1728, 1795 and 1837. The results of archaeological research of the historical center of Yoshkar-Ola significantly refine and supplement the data of archival sources, allowing us to localize historical and topographic objects on the modern map of the city. The author describes the objects of the urban planning of Tsarevokokshaysk, starting with its central part – the Kremlin, then the prison and Zaostrozhnaya territory. The description includes information from archival sources supported by archaeological research data. In conclusion, the author characterizes the change in the main features of the urban layout of Tsarevokokshaysk during the period from the founding of the city to the beginning of the 20th century, raises controversial issues of the historical topography of Tsarevokokshaysk and concludes that further archaeological research of the historical center of Yoshkar-Ola is necessary.
Soil maps of the world Hartemink, Alfred E.; Krasilnikov, Pavel; Bockheim, J.G.
Geoderma,
October 2013, 2013-10-00, Letnik:
207-208
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Soil maps depict the distribution of soils on the earth's surface and have an important role in aggregating our knowledge of soil resources. The maps are based on geographic rules of spatial ...arrangement of soils and at each scale show soil distribution patterns. Here we review how world soil maps have evolved from the early 1900s to the present. The first world soil map was published in 1906 by K.D. Glinka and included 18 soil classes that more or less corresponded to the climatic zones of the Earth. This first map was followed by a number of world soil maps at various scales developed in different countries. With increasing information following extensive soil surveys in all parts of the world, world soil maps have become more precise, less schematic and eventually have led to the FAO–UNESCO soil maps. Over time, world soil maps show an increasing complexity of the depicted soil pattern but most of the maps were concept-dependent rather than data-derived and are influenced by the underlying systems of soil classification. In recent years, a project in soil mapping was developed that is based on the mapping of key soil properties rather than soil classes (GlobalSoilMap project). In the future, world soil maps should include both soil classes and soil properties and be accompanied by a set of interpretative tools.
•The first world soil map was published in 1906 by K.D. Glinka.•Most of the world soil maps were concept-dependent rather than data-derived.•Following soil surveys in all parts of the world, world soil maps have become less schematic.
En este artículo se interpreta la evolución del patrimonio territorial en torno al Real Alcázar como base para una caracterización de su paisaje extramuros. Con respecto a la metodología, la revisión ...de una selección de mapas históricos entre 1572 y 1890 se concentra, en primer lugar, en la detección e identificación del patrimonio territorial en torno al alcázar de Sevilla. El análisis comparativo y la revisión sistemática de literatura científica es la base para una interpretación posterior de las transformaciones sufridas por este patrimonio territorial que, en nuestra opinión, caracterizan el paisaje del área de estudio. La selección de mapas, planos y dibujos históricos busca ser ilustrativa de los cambios acontecidos en el patrimonio territorial y demostrar la necesidad de recurrir a distintas escalas para comprender las implicaciones urbanas de las operaciones desarrolladas a nivel territorial, y viceversa.
Extensive changes in land cover during the 20th century are known to have had detrimental effects on biodiversity in rural landscapes, but the magnitude of change and their ecological effects are not ...well known on regional scales. We digitized historical maps from the beginning of the 20th century over a 1652 km2 study area in southeastern Sweden, comparing it to modern-day land cover with a focus on valuable habitat types. Semi-natural grassland cover decreased by over 96 % in the study area, being largely lost to afforestation and silviculture. Grasslands on finer soils were more likely to be converted into modern grassland or arable fields. However, in addition to remaining semi-natural grassland, today's valuable deciduous forest and wetland habitats were mostly grazed grassland in 1900. An analysis of the landscape-level biodiversity revealed that plant species richness was generally more related to the modern landscape, with grazing management being a positive influence on species richness.
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