Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
measurement and numbers, and, later, implemented on computers. The main claim for the quanti-
tative revolution is that it led to a shift from a descriptive (idiographic) geography to an empirical
law-making (nomothetic) geography.
Sensing and sensors play a major part in LBGC. Indeed, as mentioned, its associated mobile
devices will contain a multitude of sensors that can be employed to collect and analyse data in the
field. LBGC can also be related to pervasive and ubiquitous computing, in which existing technol-
ogy, such as mobile telephones and the Internet, is combined with new and novel inventions, such
as nanotechnology - computational developments that collectively offer a new research area in the
broader field of GC (Brimicombe and Li, 2006). However, neither of these fields gives a complete
picture of the state of LBGC although they do give an idea of where LBGC has come from and
where it may be going.
It is far better instead to consider LBGC as having a set of sound and well-established roots that
originate from three major sources of computational outdoor activity, previously identified by Raper
(2009):
•
Mobile GIS (MGIS)
•
Mobile mapping (MM)
•
Location-based services (LBS)
LBGC will clearly be strongly influenced by each relevant set of previous, distinct ideas, such that
most specific aspects of LBGC comprise either
borrowed
or
adopted and/or adapted as required
concepts that have subsequently been welded together to deliver a composite problem-solving strat-
egy: something that collectively constitutes a fresh approach. MGIS is the use of GIS technology
and GISc in the field. It is a catch-all term, which is used to describe everything from specific
mobile apps to simply having a laptop with a GIS installed on it and using it whilst located at a
study site of interest. MGIS often requires the user to have a general background training in and
knowledge of GIS and, especially, to possess skills in the particular software package that they are
using (although recently, ESRI has released their development platform for iOS and Android which
may encourage more explicit development of LBGC apps). This has the advantage of bringing the
analysis closer to the data, but to run it requires specialist hardware and expensive software pack-
ages. The software programs also often offer far more than what is required for the particular study
on which they are employed. The user is essentially taking a GIS package into the field on a smaller
device or outsourcing a piece of analysis which would usually be done on the desktop and doing it
in the field.
MM is different from MGIS but is related to it, since MM is concerned with the display of infor-
mation on mobile devices and is often used as a gateway or interface to MGIS and LBS. People do
not have to be specially trained to use MM as it is primarily a service used to display analysis and
results to the general public. Sat navs are a good example of this category, which are designed to
show their datasets. In this chapter, we consider MM as being part of MGIS and LBS and not as a
separate discipline in its own right.
Whilst LBGC has some similarities with LBS, it is not LBS. Essentially LBGC is about employ-
ing the techniques, methodologies and philosophies of GC whilst making full use of the advantages
of being located either in the area or at the site, which is the object of your study. Table 15.2 offers a
fuller comparison, showing some similarities, but actually serving to highlight numerous substan-
tial differences between LBGC, LBS and MGIS. LBS has been defined, inter alia, as 'the delivery
of data and information services where the content of those services is customised to the current
or some projected location and context of the user' (Brimicombe and Li, 2006: 7). This definition
implies that LBS are concerned with the delivery of location-relevant media and are designed to
serve up information related to a point, triggered by the user being at that location, without any
specific requirement for interaction between the user and their environment/surroundings. A newer
trend in LBS is the creation of mobile apps that track the location of a device and sometimes offer
