Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
System for Interactive Support of the Creation of Topical Maps that was solved at
the Department of Computer Science of the Palack
´
University in Olomouc and as
part of which, the issue of decision-making processes and aspects of visualization
are studied in detail (Brus et al.
2009
,
2010
; Dobe
ˇ
ov
´
and Brus
2011
).
During creation of a topical map, the initial step is the requirement of the
visualization itself, given either by the request of a topical map or only by the
need to visualize data for better understanding of the studied data and phenomena.
In this moment, the author of visualization must decide the subsequent option and
individual steps in the process of the creation of the map. There are usually many
options to choose from and there are more variants on which the solution of a
specific task can be based. The decision-making process concerning specific prop-
erties of the resulting representation is subsequently always influenced in particular
by already acquired cartographic skills of the creator of the map and also by the
knowledge concerning visualization techniques in general. The primary source of
information is therefore study of professional literature. In this phase, a professional
should gather and classify all generally available information based on which they
will learn the basics, in particular in the given domain, in advance. With regard to
the fact that almost 95 % of all map outputs is connected with digital representation
of data, the needed knowledge must also include the knowledge of computer
graphics and related disciplines. From the point of view of data processing, and
subsequent visualization, the ability of the author to work with available software
must be also mentioned, since knowledge and availability of technological and
software equipment principally influences the whole process of the creation of a
map. In many studies, this situation must be emphasized, because of the fact that the
rules of optimal process of the creation of a map are often broken and the authors of
the final visualization are often domain experts themselves. Cooperation of a
domain expert with cartographer is rather unusual. The group of users that visualize
and process spatial data using programs for the creation of maps concerning for
instance land-use planning, environmental protection and other fields often create
the maps intuitively and do not respect cartographic rules. This situation changes
the traditional relationship between cartographer and user of the map. Therefore, it
is necessary to emphasize initial knowledge of the map creator and consider it as
key for the designed concept.
For the designed scheme (Fig.
1
), initial step is to determine the objective of the
map. The main objective of the map should always be defined before visualization
itself and subsequently developed into individual objectives in order to ensure that
all objectives will be met. An important factor is, in this case, feasibility of
individual objectives and the possibilities to fulfil them. The objectives of visual-
ization including uncertainty should be always evaluated critically in advance in
connection to subsequently formulated functions of the occurring visualization.
Also, it should be based on already defined methods and already created partial
visualizations in order to proceed as is usual for the given topic. However, the used
methods should be viewed prudently and critically since many visualization
methods were only designed but not tested for user aspects. In general, also
