Free CASA One Day Conference - April 13th

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Riding high from a mention on the front page of Engadget, we at CASA at UCL are running a free one day conference on 13th April which will feature the work of our group on projects associated with our research funded by various UK research councils.

The conference is free but you have to register and space is limited.

If you want to come to the one day CASA meeting “Advances in Spatial Analysis & e-Social Science”, then please go to the registration site at http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/conference/ and register.

Personally , the du team will be talking about the 'Geography of Everything' based around a project we have so far been unable to blog about, its going to be good...

If you need any more information about this meeting email christiane.morgan@ucl.ac.uk.

The programme for the CASA meeting is listed below

Session One (AM)

Online exploration of cultural regions, migration and ethnicity using the geography of personal names - Paul Longley & Pablo Mateos

Spatial Interaction Models for Higher Education - Alex Singleton & Ollie O’Brien

The Dynamics of Skyscrapers: Scaling, Allometry, and Sustainability - Michael Batty

Development of an urban growth model using high-resolution historical data - Kiril Stanilov

Session Two (PM)

The research frontier in urban modelling: the agenda and the challenges - Alan Wilson

On-line Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Network Data and Road Developments - Tao Cheng

Twitter Tags and Real-Time Visualisation of Complex Geographic Data with MapTube - Richard Milton

Tales of Things and Electronic Memory ­ Creating and Mapping The Geography of Everything - Andrew Hudson-Smith

Panel Discussion with Mike Goodchild, Keith Clarke, David Maguire, Carl Steinitz

Final Call - International Conference on Theory, Data Handling and Modelling in GeoSpatial Information Science, Hong Kong

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We have a final call for papers in geographic/urban visualisation - the deadline for abstracts has passed but as we are running a workshop send them to us via the contact page and we will sort out the initial submission process.

The Joint International Conference on Theory, Data Handling and Modelling in GeoSpatial Information Science will be held on May 26th to 28th 2010 in Hong Kong.

This conference will be a notable event in the international community of Geo-spatial information Science (GISc) in 2010, organized by: Commission II of the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) and Commission of Geographic Information Science and Commission of Modelling Geographical Systems of the International Geographical Union (IGU). The conference will join together the Symposium of Technical Commission II of ISPRS, the Symposium on Spatial Data Handling and the Conference on Modelling Geographical Systems from IGU.

ISPRS is a society regrouping scientific societies from more than 100 countries working in domains related to photogrammetry, remote sensing and geographical information science. 2010 will be a special year for the society as it will be celebrating its centenary anniversary. The ISPRS Technical Commission II Symposium is organised every four years alternately with the ISPRS Congress and is among the major events in ISPRS calendar regrouping leading scholars from the GISc and related communities. Last editions of the symposium were held in Ottawa, Canada (2002) and Vienna, Austria (2006) jointly with SDH.

You can find the submission guidelines and template from here.

Also take a look at the new Geovisualisation and Virtual Reality site (its hosted here in CASA) where you can sign up to become a member.

Call for Papers: 14th International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling in Hong Kong

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The 14th International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling will be held in Hong Kong 26-28th May 2010. As co-chair of the Geographical Visualization and Virtual Reality Working Group we will be organising sessions on the visualization of spatial data.

Abstracts are due 31st August 200, we encourage you to submit an abstract/paper and join us in Hong Kong in 2010.

Important Dates:

August 31st 2009 - Deadline for abstract
September 30th 2009 - Notification of accepted abstracts
November 30th 2009 - Deadline for full paper
January 15th 2010 - Notification of full paper acceptance
February 15th 2010 - Deadline for revised full paper
May 26th-28th 2010 - Symposium

For further information on the symposium visit http://isgis.lsgi.polyu.edu.hk

DU at the Science Museum

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Slightly short notice on this one but we are at the Science Museum, London, tonight showing aspects of the Virtual London model and talking about its use in visualising local climate change.

Located at the 'Dana' Centre the full info for tonight is as follows:

Dramatic temperature changes, sudden rainfall and rapid changes in pollutant levels – our cities’ climates are becoming more and more difficult to predict. Architects and planners are faced with increasingly complex and uncertain information when shaping tomorrow’s cities. Does this mean there should be a radical rethink of how we develop urban space?

Join architect Nate Kolbe from the Superfusionlab practice as he shows off their ‘Snow City’ installation, a conceptual 3D model of London under deep snow. This extreme example serves as a starting point as we explore how climate catastrophes could affect cities, and what city builders and planners need to do to prepare.

Have your say with Geoff Darch as he talks about transport strategies to deal with flash floods or water shortages. And experts from the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (thats us) will demonstrate computer models of London under water.

Come and give your opinion on what should be considered when designing the cities we live in…

This event is part of the London Festival of Architecture.

Event organised by:
The Science Museum

The event is free - Call 020 7942 4040 to book

AAG Conference, Boston

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We are heading off to the Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Conference in Boston on Wednesday. The AAG is always a good place to touch base with the latest research, we are presenting a paper on Saturday for those interested, the full details are below:

Abstract Title:
Web 2.0 and CyberInfrastructure: GeoVue Tools and Virtual Worlds for Geographic Visualisation

is part of the Paper Session:
Build it, Mapt it, Web it

scheduled on Saturday, 4/19/08 at 10:10 AM.

Author(s):
Andrew Hudson-Smith, Dr* - University College London

Abstract:

Web 2.0, specifically The Cloud, GeoWeb and Wikitecture are revolutionizing the way in which we present, share and analyze geographic data. In this paper we outline and provide working examples using our suite of tools which are detailed below, aimed at developing new applications of GIS and related technologies.

GeoVUE is one of seven nodes in the National Centre for e-Social Science whose mission it is to develop web-based technologies for the social and geographical sciences. The Node, based at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London has developed a suite of free software allowing quick and easy visualization of geographic data in systems such as Google Maps, Google Earth and Second Life. These tools address two issues, firstly that spatial data is still inherently difficult to share and visualize for the non-GIS trained academic or professional and secondly that a geographic data social network has the potential to dramatically open up data sources for both the public and professional geographer.

With our applications of GMap Creator, Image Cutter, PhotoOverlay Creator, GEarth Creator and finally MapTube, we detail ways to intelligently visualize and share spatial data. This paper concludes with detailing usage and outreach as well as an insight into how such tools are already providing a significant impact to the outreach of geographic information.

Keywords:

google earth,web 2.0, second life, visualisation, google maps

Fingers crossed for good weather as we are packing our panorama kit, all being well our previously delayed (due to fog in Hong Kong) HDR tutorial should go online next week.

Spatial Technology Gallery - Digital Urban at the AAG

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It took a visit to Franks Google Earth blog and then onwards to Alan's Geography 2.0 Virtual Globes to find out the details - we will be showing work at the Spatial Technology Gallery, a special event at the 2007 Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting.

Details taken from Geography 2.0 are:

When:
Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 7:00pm-9:00pm,

Where:
Conference Room Yosemite B, Hilton San Francisco, located at 333
O'Farrell Street San Francisco, CA 94102 -View Location on My Maps.

What:
On Wednesday evening, a select group of researchers from academia, government labs, and industry have been invited to demonstrate their latest, cutting-edge spatially-enabled technologies. The format will be simultaneous demos--a mix of science fair, test drive, and show-and-tell. This organic event will provide an opportunity to examine and discuss the technology and incubating ideas that will be impacting in coming weeks, months, and years, with the pioneering minds that are making them. We anticipate topics spanning virtual globes, augmented reality, open source mapping projects, internet GIS, environmental simulation and prediction, map mashups, and mobile spatial data collection.

This "after hours" event is open to anyone interested in spatial technology, so you will not need to register for the AAG meeting to attend. If you want to participate in any other aspects of the AAG meeting, however, you would need to register and pay like normal.


Who:
--ESRI
--Microsoft
--NASA World Wind
--Urban Mapping LLC
--CASA University College London
--Center for Fire Research and Outreach (Berkeley)
--UCSB Center for Nanotechnology in Society and UCSB Geography
--Dave Lemberg (Western Michigan)
--Jesse Rouse and Sue Bergeron (WVU/Very Spatial)
--Johannes Schoening (Muenster)
--Brian Tomaszewski (Penn State)
--Dawn Wright and Andre Skupin (Place and Spaces Project)
--Chuanrong Zhang (Kent State)

NSF/ESRC Agenda Setting Workshop on Agent Based Modelling of Complex Spatial Systems - Day 2

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Day two at the NSF/ESRC Agenda Setting Workshop on Agent Based Modelling of Complex Spatial Systems in Santa Barbara.

Currently presenting is David O'Sullivan, ex of our lab at CASA.

Agent-based complex systems are dynamic networks of many interacting agents; examples include ecosystems, financial markets, and cities. The search for general principles underlying the internal organization of such systems often uses bottom-up simulation models such as cellular automata and agent-based models -Grim et al 2005.

Complex systems are irreducible - a compact model of a complex system is possible. In general, specific to complex systems is the interest in the spatial locations of the outcomes, such as patterns, processes and the relationship between them.

Verification of any model of an open system is impossible and validation is not the same thing. In a similar fashion, calibration and confirmation are also not the same thing (as verification, or as one another), the argument therefore is for multiple models.

We therefore know that the end product is difficult to analysis and therefore do the models merely outcome what we expect? Keith Bevan has a proposal for a coherent philosophy for modelling the environment, while Steve Bankes advocates working with multiple models.

Agent Based Models models play multiple roles throughout the scientific process, as such it is hard to pinpoint the nature of the exploration. It is also of note that real world choices are made depending on the outcomes of models.

The talk ends with a series of questions - What type of science is Agent Based Modelling? Are tools making the problem work or can they be part of the solution? Does GIS have a role to play?

I would add that it needs to be asked why is the tool set is so complicated? The role of GIS and agents was demonstrated yesterday by ESRI and the level of complexity is concerning, as is the quality of the visualisation.

Interestingly, people do not seem to be aware of the type of model systems running in current game engines and therefore wth full 3D visualisation....

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Next up is Dawn Parker of George Mason University looking at what researchers seek from Agent Based Models. In general is it a better understanding of the process behind real world systems. Yet models are complex, should they be simplified?

Take a look at Dawn's SLUDGE model (Simulated Land Use Dependent on Edge Effect Externalities). SLUDGE is a simle combined cellular automaton and agent-based model designed to study the joint influcent of distance-dependent spatial externalities and transportation costs on patterns of land use.

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Coffee Break :) - For a full rundown on GIS and Agents see the CASA GIS and Agent Based Modelling Blog.

NSF/ESRC Agenda Setting Workshop on Agent Based Modelling of Complex Spatial Systems

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Sitting in the Upham Hotel, Santa Barbara at a two day workshop on Agent-Based Modelling.

An interesting day of presentations ahead including a look into representations of complex modeling and a demonstration from David Maguire of ESRI.

Depending on the relevance we will update this post with details and thoughts..

First up is Mike Worboys, University of Maine looking into the technology which is driving effective agent based modelling.

Technology is weaving itself into everyday life until it becomes part of the general human experience, with each new innovation comes new challenges for modelling systems. Temporal progressions infer changes but we often miss occurrent entities and their relationships when developing models....

Distributed models are inherently complex, even if described by simple rules. Rule systems are not enough we need more 'mathematical' principles upon which such systems can be expressed. Credo: Process algebras and their extensions that handle mobility provide a possible next step from cellular rules.

Following on is Marina Alberti from the University of Washington on Modelling Complex Urban Landscape Dynamics: A Pattern-Orientaed Approach. Take a look at the research site for papers and details.

Agent based models are being used at Washington to model emerging phenomena resulting from the interactions of individual entities. Their agents exhibit complex behaviour and learning algorithms based on a hierarchical model.

Dynamic Probabilistic Relations Models (DPRM) are a particular type of nth order Markov model allowing for representation of different types of states and complex relations -each relation is described by its own set of variables. Washington's Bio-complexity Conceptual Model is structured with demographic and a micro simulation of human behaviour, represented by UrbanSim. The interaction between land user and land cover is driven by a number of spatial interactions.

In general the model provides a probability of the transition of rural/semi-rural to urban areas based on past observations and the generated output.

The discussion is subsequently opened up to the floor moving onto both Activity Theory and emerging phenomena in terms of Complex Systems.

Digital Urban's Travels - AAG - April 17th-21st

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We are attending the Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting in San Francisco next week complete with Mike Batty, Paul Longley and Richard Milton of CASA in tow.

At the moment it looks like we are presenting on Thursday evening, if you are coming along and would like to hook up to talk through any ideas etc then let us know.

Before the meeting we are at a conference in Santa Barbara on Agent Based Modelling and Visualisation.

We will be posting a series of updates on the conferences, as well as a return to the series of panoramas on the blog, as long as we can fit the kit into our suitcase..