Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Uncertainty
The notion
uncertainty
is mentioned quite often in both foreign and Czech literature
and in the last twenty years has become the subject of focus of more and more
professionals. The current development of technology only supports this fact. In the
field of geoinformatics, the situation is no different, quite to the contrary. Quick
development of implementations of individual theories working with this approach
makes uncertainty an integral part of most operations with spatial data. Despite the
stated fact, understanding uncertainty in the field of geoinformatics is still limited
by problematic definition of this notion in individual science disciplines.
In literature, there are quite a few definitions of uncertainty. Great number of
definitions reflects the complexity of the issue hidden under this general phenom-
enon. For instance, the difference between
accuracy
and
uncertainty
is debated
very often. In cartography, the two terms are understood as very similar, and
sometimes, they are even considered to be synonyms (Boukhelifa and Duke
2007
). In connection with uncertainty, we can talk about accuracy, reliability,
clearness, distinctiveness, etc. (Duckham et al.
2001
). More generally, uncertainty
can be defined as imperfection of the users
knowledge concerning data, processes
or results. Thus,
uncertainty
is a multi-faceted notion including many types. They
include inaccuracy, indeterminacy, imperfect knowledge, inconsistency, missing
information, buzz, ambiguity, lack of reliability, doubt and others. Definitions of
uncertainty are thus very rich and reflect its various properties. Thanks to numerous
types of uncertainty, there is no clear agreement in the used terminology or a
generally accepted meaning (MacEachren et al.
2005
). The ambiguity of translation
from various languages, in particular from English, has a distinctive impact on this
situation too, and moreover, every scientific discipline operating with uncertainty,
uses different terminology. Even professional literature states notions like uncer-
tainty, indeterminacy, haziness, generality, bilinguality and others often as syno-
nyms. From this view, the effort to follow authoritative foreign sources is surely
praiseworthy, however, it is important to take into account also various specifics of
the environment (professional, territorial, linguistic) in which these authorities
formulate their standpoints (Kalouda
2010
). To define and use individual terms
correctly in geoinformatics, it is necessary to know how to work with the notions.
The main aim of the paper is to discuss and suggest user centered framework for
spatial data quality visualisations. In the first part of the paper is described spatial
data quality, then continuously mention visualisation issues. Finally all aspect of
new framework are discussed and described with min aim to facilitate the whole
process.
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