The term green infrastructure captures the need to conserve biodiversity and to sustain landscapes’ different ecosystem services. Maintaining green infrastructures through protected areas, management and landscape restoration requires knowledge in geography, spatial data about biophysical, anthropogenic and immaterial values, spatial comprehensive planning, and thus geographical information systems (GIS). To understand land use planning practices and planning education regarding GIS in Sweden we interviewed 43 planners and reviewed 20 planning education programmes. All planners used GIS to look at data but did not carry out spatial analyses of land covers. BSc programmes included more GIS than MSc programmes but very few taught analyses for spatial planning. As key spatial planning actors, municipalities’ barriers and bridges for improved GIS use for collaborative learning about green infrastructures are discussed. A concluding section presents examples of how GIS can support spatial planning for green infrastructures.

We analyse environmental learning in public-access community gardens (‘PAC-gardens’) in Berlin, representing public green spaces that are collectively managed by civil society groups. Through extensive fieldwork, and drawing upon social theories of learning, we describe learning communities in four PAC-gardens and analyse factors that influence participation and boundary interaction, that is when experiences brought in from the outside encounter socially defined competences. Results show that these PAC-gardens have self-generated social and physical structures, which to different degrees inhibit or facilitate boundary interactions, whereas skills of individuals to put those to work, in combination with the quality of the surrounding neighbourhoods, can be ascribed for creating broader participation and greater diversity in the content of learning about local sustainability. Identified learning streams included learning about gardening and local ecological conditions; about urban politics, and about social entrepreneurship. We discuss results in relation to environmental learning that combats the generational amnesia in cities about our dependence on nature, where PAC-gardens clearly distinguish themselves from more closed forms of urban gardening such as allotment gardens and gated community gardens. We conclude that PAC-gardens that intertwine gardening with social, political and economic practices can create broader and more heterogeneous learning about social–ecological conditions, and help develop sense-of-place in degraded neighbourhoods.

The main focus of this paper is to describe the active hydraulic and sedimentary processes in downstream river reaches during flushing of sediments from reservoirs. During flushing extreme amounts of sediment may be released. Therefore, these processes are different than those downstream from dams and reservoirs not subjected to flushing. Hence, also the effects differ, which knowledge of may be of value for biologists, etc. During flushing of a reservoir a wave will be released to the downstream reaches. This wave can be divided into one water part and one sediment part. Initially they are in phase with each other, but with increased distance downstream from the dam, the transported sediment lags behind the water due to different traveling velocities. The paper treats when and where sedimentation occurs, and how this is related to the different traveling velocities of water and sediment. Also included are discussions on how the downstream effects during flushing differ from non-flushing effects, how visualization of effects can enhance both the analysis and communication with planners, politicians, etc., as well as discussions on how the studies of these effects can benefit from improved field-work methods.

As flood inundation risk maps have become a central piece of information for both urban and risk management planning, also a need to assess the accuracies and uncertainties of these maps has emerged. Most maps show the inundation boundaries as crisp lines on visually appealing maps, whereby many planners and decision makers, among others, automatically believe the boundaries are both accurate and reliable. However, as this study shows, probably all such maps, even those that are based on high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs), have immanent uncertainties which can be directly related to both DEM resolution and the steepness of terrain slopes perpendicular to the river flow direction. Based on a number of degenerated DEMs, covering areas along the Eskilstuna River, Sweden, these uncertainties have been quantified into an empirically-derived disparity distance equation, yielding values of distance between true and modeled inundation boundary location. Using the inundation polygon, the DEM, a value representing the DEM resolution, and the desired level of confidence as inputs in a new-developed algorithm that utilizes the disparity distance equation, the slope and DEM dependent uncertainties can be directly visualized on a map. The implications of this strategy should benefit planning and help reduce high costs of floods where infrastructure, etc., have been placed in flood-prone areas without enough consideration of map uncertainties.

Ett varmare klimat innebär kraftigare skyfall och fler översvämningar. Men många kommuner är dåliga på att avgöra var risken för höga vattenflöden gör det olämpligt att bygga. Det menar naturgeografen Anders Brandt – som vill se ett kunskapslyft i geografi.

Kartografiska sällskapets utbildningssektion genomför varje år de så kallade lärardagarna, en utbildningskonferens som kretsar kring geografisk information. Tilltänkta deltagare är alla, både utbildare och avnämare, som har intresse av utbildningsfrågor från skol- till universitetsnivå. Den 17 till 18 augusti detta år stod KTH som värd, med Hans Hauska hållande taktpinnen, och med 19 deltagare från ett tiotal olika arbetsgivare.

A case study of the Eskilstuna River in Sweden is presented. This study is carried out within the project KRIS-GIS®, a Swedish initiative of handling crisis situations, including flooding. The purpose is to show how different resolutions in input elevation data affect the resulting inundation maps. Terrain elevation points at the sides of the river were gathered from an airborne laser altimetry survey, and river bed elevations were gathered from an echosounding survey. The terrain model was constructed in ArcView GIS as a triangulated irregular network (TIN), which served as the base for all later modeling. The hydraulic modeling was done as one-dimensional steady flow in HEC-RAS flow routing software. High-resolution elevation data resulted in better inundation delineation than did lowresolution elevation data. If the mean water discharge was used in the modeling and if the river is narrow, a low resolution could even lead to that the river itself would not be marked as inundated. At high water discharges, the river was usually inundated, but there was great uncertainty if the riparian areas really would be flooded or not. With steep side slopes, the delineation of inundation becomes more certain, while at gentler side slopes, the flow is distributed on a larger surface with a risk that the raster cells will be incorrectly marked regarding inundation. Finally, the use of high-resolution elevation data compared with lowresolution data, makes estimates of friction factor, Manning’s n, relatively more important for correct results in inundation studies.

Under senare tid har översvämningar alltmer uppmärksammats av allmänhet, politiker, myndigheter och organisationer. Samtidigt har allt fler insett att det inte är en fråga om en översvämning kommer att ske utan när och hur stor den blir. Detta innebär att översvämningsrisker ständigt måste vara en närvarande del i politikers, planerares och krisberedskapsorganisationers arbete. Ett sätt att vara väl förberedd inför översvämningar är att ta fram översvämningsområden för olika stora vattenflöden. Därför har det inom projektet KRIS-GIS®, beställt och finansierat av Krisberedskapsmyndigheten, gjorts en mer detaljerad specialstudie över översvämningar kring Eskilstunaån. Tillförlitligheten hos framtagna översvämningsområden beror framför allt av två faktorer: korrekt vattenflödessimulering och korrekt beskrivning av terrängen. I denna studie har den endimensionella modellen HEC-RAS använts för flödessimuleringen och för beskrivning av terrängen har en flygburen 3D-laserskanning över området kring Eskilstunaån utförts. Dessutom har ekolodning utförts för att möjliggöra beskrivning av bottentopografin i Eskilstunaån. Samtliga höjddatapunkter kopplades ihop i ett GIS till ett triangulärt oregelbundet nätverk, TIN. Därefter lades sektioner tvärs över vattendraget och omgivande terräng. Dessa tvärsektioner tilldelades höjdvärden från TIN-modellen innan de exporterades till HEC-RAS. Fyra olika vattenföringar simulerades i HEC-RAS: medelvattenföringen på 23,7 m3/s, årsfloden på 70 m3/s, 100-årsflödet på 123 m3/s samt högsta beräknade flödet på 198 m3/s. Dessutom har det gjorts några alternativa körningar med varierande värden på Mannings n, dvs. markfriktion. Efter körningar i HEC-RAS, exporterades resulterande vattennivåer tillbaka till GISet där ett resultatraster skapades, där varje rastercell visades som översvämmad eller ej, och i förekommande fall översvämmat djup. Resultaten av översvämningsanalyserna visar att betydligt säkrare översvämningsprognoser nu kan göras när tillgång till terrängmodeller av hög kvalitet finns. Vid tidigare studier har Lantmäteriets höjddatabas använts, där höjder finns representerade med ett värde per 50-metersruta. Från att terrängmodellen har varit den begränsande faktorn övergår i stället en korrekt beskrivning av markens råhet eller friktion, uttryckt som Mannings n, till att vara den begränsande faktorn. Det rekommenderas därför att differentiera råhetsvärdena beroende på vilken markanvändningstyp som finns längs med vattendraget. Speciellt viktigt är detta i flacka områden. För Eskilstunaåns nordligaste delar är det viktigt att vattennivån i Mälaren bedöms korrekt. För att sprida och kunna dra nytta av resultaten framtagna i KRIS-GIS®-projektet rekommenderas det att färdiga översvämningspolygoner kan användas av kommuner, räddningstjänst osv. i deras arbete. De kan ringa eller automatiskt få information, från t.ex. SMHI eller vattenregleringsföretag, som innehåller upplysningar om förväntade flöden. Motsvarande polygon för förväntat flöde visas i ett GIS och direkt har man lägesbilden klart för sig. Utöver detta har även visualiseringsaspekter behandlats.

With the implementation of the Bologna declaration, European and other universities must change or adjust courses and programmes so they fit into the Bologna model. In Sweden this will take place during 2007. The intention with the declaration, for example, is that a basic course in one subject at one university should be treated as equivalent to the same type of course at another university. Once a year, the recently formed section for education of the Swedish Cartographic Society gathers university lecturers and others for an education conference to discuss matters concerning higher education in geomatics, geoinformatics, geography, etc. Last year’s conference identified the need for a harmonized course curriculum in basic GIS. One of the advantages of such a course is easier transfer of study records for inclusion of course credits in study programmes at other universities. Therefore, an attempt has been made to write a harmonized course curriculum for basic GIS. The course will contain about 50% common content and about 50% of content decided by the individual university. The common content will be described as learning outcomes, and then it is up to the universities to place the learning outcomes into a context. Thanks to this common core, the course can be given for such diverse programmes as archaeology, land surveying, or economy, and still be able to include the required knowledge for students to continue on more advanced courses at other universities.

I ett tidigare nummer av Kart & Bildteknik beskrevs ett pågående forskningsprojekt som försökte ta reda på om det finns en optimal kvalitet på geografisk information som underlag för detaljerad översvämningskartering (Bergquist, Brandt & Klang, 2008). Projektet är nu avslutat och avrapporterat i Brandt (2009) och Klang och Klang (2009). Av resultaten framgår bland annat hur mycket tillförlitligheten av en översvämningskartering minskar med graden av försämrad höjdmodell, vilken utgör ett av de viktigaste underlagen för en översvämningsanalys. I samband med EUs översvämningsdirektiv (Europaparlamentets och rådets direktiv, 2007) föranleder detta en diskussion om vilka översvämningskarteringar som krävs för att uppfylla direktivet.

The fields of hydrology and fluvial geomorphology get more and more attention in the general public. The reason for this is changed climate patterns with increased frequencies of storms and river flooding and as a result changed geomorphology and living conditions for the inhabitants of the area. With the development of 3D geovisualization, hydrological and geomorphological processes can be better simulated and visualized. Thus not only the domain specialists, but also the general public can appreciate very complex hydrological processes and resulting geomorphology. This is of great value since a high frequency of storms and flooding has been a big issue for politicians, planners, and the general public. It is in this sense that 3D geovisualization can be an important tool for analysis and communication. Complex hydrological and geomorphological processes can be effectively simulated and analyzed by the domain specialists while efficient and effective visualization provides a common platform for communication among domain specialists and the general public. This paper will discuss and illustrate these issues using a case study of geomorphology along the Reventazón River, downstream from the Cachí Reservoir in Costa Rica, due to the release of extreme amounts of sediment during flushing of the reservoir.

With the implementation of the Bologna declaration, many study programmes and course curricula needs to be updated and revised. This paper describes the current situation in Sweden regarding GIT educations and courses and whether a harmonization is needed. A survey was made to see which GIT courses that are given and at which level they are given at the various universities. For some universities, interviews were conducted about their courses’ contents and their strategies for determining course levels. Discussions were also made about harmonization of courses between Swedish universities. Some problems due to lack of harmonization was noted, which probably will be more severe in the future due to increased student mobility. To harmonize courses, Bloom’s revised taxonomy is put forward as a tool which is used to clearly state the level of the course in relation to learning objectives.

På Kartografiska Sällskapets årsmöte i Jönköping den 21 mars beslutades att inrätta en ny sektion inom sällskapet – en utbildningssektion. Denna artikel beskriver bakgrunden till sektionen och dess verksamhetsidé. Utbildningssektionens embryo tillkom för tre år sedan efter förslag från ULI som delegerade uppgiften till Geomatikprogrammet vid Högskolan i Gävle. Tanken vara att skapa ett forum för lärare inom geomatikområdet. Både för att sammanföra lärare från olika lärosäten, för att öka förståelsen för varandras arbeten, och för att kunna förbättra möjligheterna till samarbete.

The apparent absoluteness of information presented by crisp-delineated flood boundaries can lead tomisconceptions among planners about the inherent uncertainties associated in generated flood maps. Even mapsbased on hydraulic modelling using the highest-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs), and calibrated withthe most optimal Manning’s roughness (n) coefficients, are susceptible to errors when compared to actual floodboundaries, specifically in flat areas. Therefore, the inaccuracies in inundation extents, brought about by thecharacteristics of the slope perpendicular to the flow direction of the river, have to be accounted for. Instead ofusing the typical Monte Carlo simulation and probabilistic methods for uncertainty quantification, an empiricalbaseddisparity-distance equation that considers the effects of both the DEM resolution and slope was used tocreate prediction-uncertainty zones around the resulting inundation extents of a one-dimensional (1-D) hydraulicmodel. The equation was originally derived for the Eskilstuna River where flood maps, based on DEM dataof different resolutions, were evaluated for the slope-disparity relationship. To assess whether the equation isapplicable to another river with different characteristics, modelled inundation extents from the Testebo Riverwere utilised and tested with the equation. By using the cross-sectional locations, water surface elevations, andDEM, uncertainty zones around the original inundation boundary line can be produced for different confidences.The results show that (1) the proposed method is useful both for estimating and directly visualising modelinaccuracies caused by the combined effects of slope and DEM resolution, and (2) the DEM-related uncertaintiesalone do not account for the total inaccuracy of the derived flood map. Decision-makers can apply it to alreadyexisting flood maps, thereby recapitulating and re-analysing the inundation boundaries and the areas that areuncertain. Hence, more comprehensive flood information can be provided when determining locations whereextra precautions are needed. Yet, when applied, users must also be aware that there are other factors that caninfluence the extent of the delineated flood boundary.

Natural water retention measures (NWRM) are a multifunctional form of green infrastructure that can play an important role in catchment-scale flood risk management. While green infrastructure based on natural processes is increasingly recognised as being complementary to traditional flood control strategies based on grey infrastructure in urban areas, there are a number of outstanding challenges with their widespread uptake. At a catchment scale, it is widely accepted that NWRM in upstream areas based on the concept of ’keeping the rain where it falls’ can help reduce the risk of downstream flooding by enhancing or restoring natural hydrological processes including interception, evapotranspiration, infiltration, and ponding. However, both the magnitude of flood risk reduction and the institutional structures needed for widespread uptake of NWRM are inadequately understood. Implementing NWRM can involve trade-offs, especially in agricultural areas. Measures based on drainage management and short rotation forestry may help ’keep the rain where it falls’ but can result in foregone farm income. To identify situations where the implementation of NWRM may be warranted, an improved understanding of the likely reductions in downstream urban flood risk, the required institutional structures for risk management and transfer, and mutually acceptable farm compensation schemes are all needed.

It is well known that archaeological sites are important sources for understanding past human activity. However, those sites yet to be identified and further investigated are under a great risk of being lost or damaged before their archaeological significance is fully recognized. The aim of this research was to analyze the potential use of remote sensing and aerial archaeology techniques integrated within a geographic information system (GIS) for the purpose of remotely studying pit house archaeology. As pit house archaeological sites in North America have rarely been studied with a focus in remote sensing, this study intended to identify these features by processing very high resolution satellite imagery and assessing how accurately the identified features could be automatically mapped with the use of a GIS. A Worldview-2 satellite image of the Bridge River pit house village in Lillooet, south-central British Columbia, was processed within ArcGIS 10.1 (ESRI), ERDAS Imagine 2011 (Intergraph) and eCognition Developer 8 (Trimble) to identify spatial and spectral queues representing the pit house features. The study outlined three different feature extraction methods (GIS-based, pixel-based and object-based) and evaluated which method presented the best results. Though all three methods produced similar results, the potential for performing object-based feature extraction for research in aerial archaeology proved to be more advantageous than the other two extraction methods tested.

Swedish public law aims to make shores accessible to everybody and provide good conditions for biodiversity. For this, a shore protection is needed that protects against exploitation, but which can allow new development, including buildings that lead to rural development.This essay is about shore protection, rural development in shore sites based on the problems in pointing out new areas for rural development in shore sites. These areas are called LIS-areas, a shortening for Landsbygdsutveckling i Strandnära lägen. Rural development in shore sites is a law from 2009 that made it possible to develop certain areas in the countryside with new buildings. LIS was added to the Environmental code with the purpose to repeal shore protection in rural areas so that municipalities could designate LIS-areas in their comprehensive plans. LIS is applicable throughout Sweden, with few exceptions, and in these certain areas it will be easier to get a dispensation approved if the dispensation will develop the rural area.The aim of this study is to facilitate the designation of LIS areas geographically, but also in a long-term sustainable way so that rural development is created. Previous studies show lack of criteria that show what LIS areas should look like and how large the areas should be in order to achieve rural development. The objective of the study is to provide suggestions on criteria that can be used when selecting new LIS areas.The study was conducted as a case study in which different methods were applied. The selection identified 17 municipalities along the coastline of northern Sweden that were suitable candidates for the study. Subsequently, reviews on LIS-areas, surveys, interviews and interpretation of the LIS-law were done.The result shows a number of criteria used to designate new LIS areas. A template for LIS criteria has been developed to facilitate the work with LIS and to obtain a consensus on how LIS should be identified in the country. The template can be applied in a geographical information system (GIS) as a multi-criteria analysis.Municipalities often misinterpret the legislation on LIS, which leads to incorrect decisions about shore protection and LIS areas. Municipalities use criteria to designate LIS areas, but the criteria look different and are applied in different ways. LIS can be developed so that rural development can be achieved to a greater extent in the future by common goals and strategies.

Four urban public spaces, representing various designs and microclimates, were investigated in Gothenburg, Sweden, in order to estimate how weather and microclimate affect people in urban outdoor environments. The research strategy was both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary and included scientists from three disciplines: architecture, climatology and psychology. The project is based on common case studies carried out during four seasons, including measurements of meteorological variables, interviews and observations of human activity at each place. Multiple regression analysis of meteorological and behavioural data showed that air temperature, wind speed and clearness index (cloud cover) have a significant influence on people's assessments of the weather, place perceptions and place-related attendance. The results support the arguments in favour of employing climate sensitive planning in future urban design and planning projects, as the physical component of a place can be designed to influence the site-specific microclimate and consequently people's place-related attendance, perceptions and emotions.

Changes in the landscape affect not only people’s well-being but also how people perceive and use the landscape. An increasing number of policies have highlighted the importance of conserving a landscape’s recreational and aesthetical values. This study develops and evaluates a model that links people’s perceptions of a mountain landscape to physical monitoring data. Using a questionnaire, we revealed how respondents working with the Swedish mountains characterise the Magnificent Mountain landscape (as defined by Swedish policy objectives) and translated these characteristics into data from the National Inventory of Landscapes in Sweden (NILS). We found 14 potential indicators that could be derived from the existing NILS physical monitoring data and which could be used to monitor changes in the landscape values as perceived by people. Based on the results, we suggest how to simultaneously utilise field sampling of physical data and field photos to provide temporal information about landscape perception.

According to Christopher Alexander’s theory of centers, a whole comprises numerous, recursively defined centers for things or spaces surrounding us. Wholeness is a type of global structure or life-giving order emerging from the whole as a field of the centers. The wholeness is an essential part of any complex system and exists, to some degree or other, in spaces. This paper defines wholeness as a hierarchical graph, in which individual centers are represented as the nodes and their relationships as the directed links. The hierarchical graph gets its name from the inherent scaling hierarchy revealed by the head/tail breaks, which is a classification scheme and visualization tool for data with a heavy-tailed distribution. We suggest that (1) the degrees of wholeness for individual centers should be measured by PageRank (PR) scores based on the notion that high-degree-of-life centers are those to which many high-degree-of-life centers point, and (2) that the hierarchical levels, or the ht-index of the PR scores induced by the head/tail breaks, can characterize the degree of wholeness for the whole: the higher the ht-index, the more life or wholeness in the whole. Three case studies applied to the Alhambra building complex and the street networks of Manhattan and Sweden illustrate that the defined wholeness captures fairly well human intuitions on the degree of life for the geographic spaces. We further suggest that the mathematical model of wholeness be an important model of geographic representation, because it is topological oriented, which enables us to see the underlying scaling structure. The model can guide geodesign, which should be considered as the wholeness-extending transformations that are essentially like the unfolding processes of seeds or embryos, for creating built and natural environments of beauty or with a high degree of wholeness.

Scale is a fundamental concept that has attracted persistent attention in geography literature over the past several decades. However, it creates enormous confusion and frustration, particularly in the context of geographic information science, because of scale-related issues such as image resolution and the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP). This paper argues that the confusion and frustration arise from traditional Euclidean geometric thinking, in which locations, directions, and sizes are considered absolute, and it is now time to revise this conventional thinking. Hence, we review fractal geometry, together with its underlying way of thinking, and compare it to Euclidean geometry. Under the paradigm of Euclidean geometry, everything is measurable, no matter how big or small. However, most geographic features, due to their fractal nature, are essentially unmeasurable or their sizes depend on scale. For example, the length of a coastline, the area of a lake, and the slope of a topographic surface are all scale-dependent. Seen from the perspective of fractal geometry, many scale issues, such as the MAUP, are inevitable. They appear unsolvable, but can be dealt with. To effectively deal with scale-related issues, we present topological and scaling analyses illustrated by street-related concepts such as natural streets, street blocks, and natural cities. We further contend that one of the two spatial properties, spatial heterogeneity, is de facto the fractal nature of geographic features, and it should be considered the first effect among the two, because it is global and universal across all scales, which should receive more attention from practitioners of geography.

Two fundamental issues surrounding research on Zipf’s law regarding city sizes are whether and why this law holds. This paper does not deal with the latter issue with respect to why, and instead investigates whether Zipf’s law holds in a global setting, thus involving all cities around the world. Unlike previous studies, which have mainly relied on conventional census data such as populations and census-bureau-imposed definitions of cities, we adopt naturally (in terms of data speak for itself) delineated cities, or natural cities, to be more precise, in order to examine Zipf’s law. We find that Zipf’s law holds remarkably well for all natural cities at the global level, and it remains almost valid at the continental level except for Africa at certain time instants. We further examine the law at the country level, and note that Zipf’s law is violated from country to country or from time to time. This violation is mainly due to our limitations; we are limited to individual countries, or to a static view on city-size distributions. The central argument of this paper is that Zipf’s law is universal, and we therefore must use the correct scope in order to observe it. We further find Zipf’s law applied to city numbers; the number of cities in the largest country is twice as many as that in the second largest country, three times as many as that in the third largest country, and so on. These findings have profound implications for big data and the science of cities. 

The aim was to investigate the relationships between landscape-related personal and collective identity and well-being of residents living in a Swedish mountain county (N = 850). It was shown that their most valued mountain activities were viewing and experiencing nature and landscape, outdoor recreation, rest and leisure, and socializing with friends/family. Qualitative analyses showed that the most valued aspects of the sites were landscape and outdoor restoration for personal favorite sites, and tourism and alpine for collective favorite sites. According to quantitative analyses the stronger the attachment/closeness/belonging (emotional component of place identity) residents felt to favorite personal and collective sites the more well-being they perceived when visiting these places. Similarly, the more remembrance, thinking and mental travel (cognitive component of place identity) residents directed to these sites the more well-being they perceived in these places. In both types of sites well-being was more strongly predicted by emotional than cognitive component of place-identity. All this indicates the importance of person-place bonds in beneficial experiences of the outdoors, over and above simply being in outdoor environments.

The main objective of the present quasi-experimental study was to examine the influence of culture (Swedish vs Japanese) and environmental attitude (urban vs open-air person) on participants' thermal, emotional and perceptual assessments of a square, within the PET (physiological equivalent temperature) comfortable interval of 18-23 degrees C. It was predicted that persons living in different cultures with different environmental attitudes would psychologically evaluate a square differently despite similar thermal conditions. Consistent with this prediction, Japanese participants estimated the current weather as warmer than did Swedish participants and, consistent with this, they felt less thermally comfortable on the site, although participants in both countries perceived similar comfortable thermal outdoor conditions according to the PET index. Compared to the Japanese, the Swedes estimated both the current weather and the site as windier and colder, indicating a consistency in weather assessment on calm-windy and warm-cold scales in participants in both cultures. Furthermore, Swedish participants felt more glad and calm on the site and, in line with their character (more glad than gloomy), they estimated the square as more beautiful and pleasant than did Japanese participants. All this indicates that thermal, emotional and perceptual assessments of a physical place may be intertwined with psychological schema-based and socio-cultural processes, rather than fixed by general thermal indices developed in line with physiological heat balance models. In consequence, this implies that thermal comfort indices may not be applicable in different cultural/climate zones without modifications, and that they may not be appropriate if we do not take into account the psychological processes involved in environmental assessment.

The main objective of the present study was to examine the influence of culture (Sweden vs. Japan) and environmental attitude (urban vs. open-air person) on participants' thermal, emotional and perceptual assessments of a park, within the physiological equivalent temperature (PET) comfortable interval of 18-23 degrees C. It was predicted that persons sharing different cultures and environmental attitudes might psychologically differently evaluate a Swedish and a Japanese park despite similar thermal conditions. Consistent with this prediction, Japanese were shown to evaluate the weather as warmer and less good for out-door activity than did Swedes, although and according to the PET index participants in both cultures experienced similar comfortable thermal conditions. Japanese were also shown to evaluate the park as more pleasant and warmer place than did Swedes. However, the Japanese felt emotionally less pleasant at the site than did Swedes. An interaction between culture and environmental attitude indicated tentatively a difference in environmental attitude (urban vs. open-air person) between the two countries as regards the place-related wind sensitivity. All these findings are discussed in terms of culture and environmental attitude suggesting that thermal, emotional and perceptual assessments of a physical place may be intertwined with psychological and cultural processes, rather than fixed by general thermal indices developed in line with the physiological heat balance models. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The general aim has been to illuminate the psychological mechanisms involved in outdoor place and weather assessment. This reasoning was conceptualized in a model, tentatively proposing direct and indirect links of influence in an outdoor place-human relationship. The model was subsequently tested by an empirical study, performed in a Nordic city, on the impact of weather and personal factors on participants' perceptual and emotional estimations of outdoor urban places. In line with our predictions, we report significant influences of weather parameters (air temperature, wind, and cloudlessness) and personal factors (environmental attitude and age) on participants' perceptual and emotional estimations of outdoor urban places. All this is a modest, yet significant, step towards an understanding of the psychology of outdoor place and weather assessment.

Multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) involves techniques which relatively recently have received great increase in interest for their capabilities of solving spatial decision problems. One of the most frequently used techniques of MCDA is Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). In the AHP, decision-makers make pairwise comparisons between different criteria to obtain values of their relative importance. The AHP initially only dealt with crisp numbers or exact values in the pairwise comparisons, but later it has been modified and adapted to also consider fuzzy values. It is necessary to empirically validate the ability of the fuzzified AHP for solving spatial problems. Further, the effects of different levels of fuzzification on the method have to be studied. In the context of a hypothetical GIS-based decision-making problem of locating a dam in Costa Rica using real-world data, this paper illustrates and compares the effects of increasing levels of uncertainty exemplified through different levels of fuzzification of the AHP. Practical comparison of the methods in this work, in accordance with the theoretical research, revealed that by increasing the level of uncertainty or fuzziness in the fuzzy AHP, differences between results of the conventional and fuzzy AHPs become more significant. These differences in the results of the methods may affect the final decisions in decision-making processes. This study concludes that the AHP is sensitive to the level of fuzzification and decision-makers should be aware of this sensitivity while using the fuzzy AHP. Furthermore, the methodology described may serve as a guideline on how to perform a sensitivity analysis in spatial MCDA. Depending on the character of criteria weights, i.e. the degree of fuzzification, and its impact on the results of a selected decision rule (e.g. AHP), the results from a fuzzy analysis may be used to produce sensitivity estimates for crisp AHP MCDA methods.

Hydraulic modelling is now, at increasing rates, used all over the world to provide flood risk maps for spatial planning, flood insurance, etc. This puts heavy pressure on the modellers and analysts to not only produce the maps but also information on the accuracy and uncertainty of these maps. A common means to deliver this is through performance measures or feature statistics. These look at the global agreement between the modelled flood area and the reference flood that is used. Previous studies have shown that the feature agreement statistics do not differ much between models that have been based on digital elevation models (DEMs) of different resolutions, which is somewhat surprising since most researchers agree that high-resolution DEMs are to be preferred over poor resolution DEMs. Hence, the aim of this study was to look into how and under which conditions the different feature agreement statistics differ, in order to see when the full potential of high-resolution DEMs can be utilised. The results show that although poor resolution DEMs might produce high feature agreement scores (around F > 0.80), they may fail to provide good flood extent estimations locally, particularly when the terrain is flat. Therefore, when high-resolution DEMs (1 to 5 m) are used, it is important to carefully calibrate the models by the use of the roughness parameter. Furthermore, to get better estimates on the accuracy of the models, other performance measures such as distance disparities should be considered.

To understand how the produced flood boundaries from hydraulic modeling can be affected by the resolution of the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and the roughness values used, and how different performance measures can affect the choice of most optimal models, different simulations were conducted using varying pairs of DEM and Manning’s n. Each result was then compared to the reference flood data and analyzed using different performance measures that account for the sizes of inundation (F-statistics), and the distance between the modeled and reference flood (disparity measures). The results showed that the different pairs of DEM resolution and Manning’s n produced different performance scores and flood extents. High-resolution DEMs performed generally better with higher resolution DEMs, while lower resolution DEMs received better performance when paired with lower Manning’s n. The different model performances also produced different combinations having the most optimal performances depending on the assumptions they applied in the computations. Additionally, the results showed that models from coarser resolution DEMs can produce higher maximum scores than higher resolution DEMs. However, when the maps, cross-sectional profiles, and the water surface elevations from the coarser resolution DEMs were compared with the higher resolution DEMs, they are more inaccurate in representing the terrain, flood boundaries, and the water depths. Thus, interpreting model results only based on performance measure, particularly for lower resolution DEMs, may give incorrect conclusion on the optimality of the result. It is important that the flood extent maps, cross-sectional profiles, and the derived water depths are analyzed together with the performance scores to gain better understanding of the reliability of flood model results.

OpenStreetMap (OSM) constitutes an unprecedented, free, geographical information source contributed by millions of individuals, resulting in a database of great volume and heterogeneity. In this study, we characterize the heterogeneity of the entire OSM database and historical archive in the context of big data. We consider all users, geographic elements and user contributions from an eight-year data archive, at a size of 692 GB. We rely on some nonlinear methods such as power law statistics and head/tail breaks to uncover and illustrate the underlying scaling properties. All three aspects (users, elements, and contributions) demonstrate striking power laws or heavy-tailed distributions. The heavy-tailed distributions imply that there are far more small elements than large ones, far more inactive users than active ones, and far more lightly edited elements than heavy-edited ones. Furthermore, about 500 users in the core group of the OSM are highly networked in terms of collaboration.

In a previous work we developed GISwaps, a novel method for geospatial decision-making based on Even Swaps. In this paper, we present the results of an evaluation of a visualization framework integrated with this method, implemented within a decision support system. This evaluation is based on two different studies. In the quantitative study, 15 student participants used GISwaps with no visual features, and 15 participants used GISwaps with the integrated visual framework, as the tool in a solar farm site location case study. The results of the quantitative evaluation show positive impact of the visualization in terms of increased coherency in trade-offs. The results also show a statistically significant difference in average trade-off values between the groups, with users from the non-visual group setting on average 20% higher trade-off values compared with the users in the visual group. In the qualitative study, we had one expert in GIS, two experts in decision-making and two experts in solar energy as a focus user group. Data in this study were obtained by observations and semi-structured interviews with the participants. The impact of the visualization framework was assessed positively by all participants in the expert group. 

New technology has provided new tools for effective spatial planning. Through the example of locating suitable sites for urbandevelopment in Ulaanbaatar, this paper illustrates how multicriteria decision analysis and geographical information systems canbe used for more effective urban planning. Several constraint and factor criteria were identified, transformed into map layers,and weighted together using the analytic hierarchy process. Besides localization results, this study shows the effect of using poorelevation data and how a sensitivity analysis can be applied to yield further information, spot weighting weaknesses, and assess thequality of the criteria.

A geomorphological map is probably the most comprehensive way of illustrating the landform distribution, surface form, material, age, and the processes responsible for the landscape look. As such geomorphological maps are invaluable in the fields of geoconservation assessment, evaluation and management. It is therefore an oddity, as well as an inconvenience, that there is no systematic landform inventory or mapping of the geomorphology that is comparable to the surveys undertaken for geology or soils in the UK. For that purpose the project of “Developing a Geomorphological Map of Wales” was initiated by the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) as part of a PhD project investigating the Quaternary glaciations of Wales.

To develop a mapping methodology suitable for the Welsh landscape, three contrasting areas were selected to provide a wide range of geomorphological features. Aerial photography, satellite imagery, digital elevation models, and field investigations of landform/sediment associations, formed the foundation for landform interpretation, which were compiled in a GIS.

Geomorphological maps of Cadair Idris, and the Central and North Cambrian Mountains were produced, scale 1:10 000 – 1:25 000. The maps form an extensive inventory of the geomorphological geodiversity, and were used for providing data to palaeoglaciological reconstructions and making geoconservation recommendations to the CCW. The recommended sites are of regional interest; their rareness, distinct morphology, interesting research and educational value makes them worthy of RIGS (Regional Important Geodiversity Sites) protection.

A Geomorphological Map of Wales has the potential for wider practical, scientific and educational benefits, such as for governmental bodies, local authority planners, tourism, researchers, teachers, landowners and land managers. Without a full account of all the geomorphological components of a landscape, there can be no full understanding of the landscape history or the various landforming processes. Important geodiversity sites may be overlooked, badly managed or lost before their full potential are realised.

Coastal valleys in the west part of Mid-Wales, such as the Mawddach, Dysynni, Tal-y-llyn and Dyfi, are believed to have acted as corridors for ice which drained the Welsh Ice Cap during the Devensian. Connectivity analyses of valley patterns from detailed digital elevation models, and interpretation of satellite images and aerial photographs show the existence of large variations in the amount of glacial modification between these valleys. Although all the valleys are glacially over-deepened along Silurian fault lines, only the Dyfi basin exhibits a dendritic pattern, with V-shaped cross profiles and valley spurs typical of valleys formed by fluvial processes.

The connectivity analyses show that the Dyfi basin exhibits a purely dendritic pattern with little glacial modification of the preglacial fluvial valley pattern in form of valley breaching. It is proposed here that the general river valley morphology of the Dyfi basin is of a pre-Late Devensian age. This suggests a complex glacial drainage history, where cold-based ice was not only confined to the interior uplands, but also covered low-altitude areas previously believed to be a major drainage conduit for the Welsh Ice Cap. This indicates that Late Devensian glacial erosion was not as intense as previously believed and larger areas might have been overlain by cold-based ice.

Coastal valleys in the west part of mid-Wales, such as the Mawddach, Dysynni, Tal-y-llyn and Dyfi, are believed to have acted as corridors for ice which drained the Welsh Ice Cap during the Devensian. Analysis of detailed digital elevation models and interpretation of satellite images and aerial photographs show the existence of large variations in the amount of glacial modification between these valleys. Although all the valleys are glacially over-deepened along Silurian fault lines, only the Dyfi basin exhibits a dendritic pattern, with V-shaped cross profiles and valley spurs typical of valleys formed by fluvial processes. Connectivity analysis of the Dyfi basin shows that it exhibits a nearly dendritic pattern with connectivity α and β values of 0.74 and 1.01 respectively, with little glacial modification of the preglacial fluvial valley pattern in the form of valley breaching. It is proposed that the general river valley morphology of the Dyfi basin is of a pre-Late Devensian age. Several examples have been identified of glacial meltwater incision into a well-developed pre-existing river valley system, causing river capture across watersheds. The degree of preservation of the pre-glacial fluvial valley system within the Dyfi basin indicates limited modification by glacial processes, despite the area being subjected to Late Devensian glacier activity. It is possible that major parts of the basin were covered by cold-based or slow-moving ice close to or under a migrating ice divide, with the major ice drainage occurring along the weaker zone of the Pennal Fault, causing minor adjustments to the surrounding interfluves and uplands.

The impact of snow cover on seasonal ground frost and freeze-thaw processes is not yet fully understood. The authors therefore examined how snow cover affects seasonal ground frost in a coastal setting in northern Sweden. Air and soil temperatures were recorded in a paired-plot experiment, both with and without snow cover, during the frost season 2012–2013. The frequency, duration, and intensity of the freeze-thaw cycles during the frost season were calculated. The results showed that the freeze-thaw frequency was 57% higher at the soil surface and the intensity 10 °C colder in the spring of 2013, when the ground lacked snow cover. Furthermore, the duration of the seasonal freeze-thaw cycle was 30 days longer on average in cases where there was natural snow accumulation. The correlation between air and ground surface temperatures weakened with increased snow-cover depth. The authors conclude that continued increases in air temperature and decreases in snow in coastal northern Sweden might alter freeze-thaw cycles and thus affect natural and human systems such as geomorphology, ecology, spatial planning, transport, and forestry.

This paper reports results from two locally based geography excursions at two secondary schools in Sweden, in order to study how the pupils’ own experience from the local neighborhood, intrinsic motivation, and flow interact during the learning process to see if these parameters affect their understanding and knowledge of the studied objects. The methods used were observations during the excursions, as well as interviews and questionnaires afterwards. The results show that the pupils believe that they learn more when studying objects in their natural environment, i.e. outside their classroom. Furthermore, the results show that intrinsic motivation may be difficult, but not impossible, to achieve, and also that there are good opportunities for attaining flow. If the pupils can see patterns and structures of the objects and processes studied, they will start understand and gain knowledge. This process will increase chances for intrinsic motivation, which will further increase understanding and knowledge, and attaining flow. Once achieved, a spiral process of continued flow, continued intrinsic motivation, and increasing knowledge may be maintained.

The purpose of this article is to present the results from a review of literature on geography excursions and field studies and to discuss their development over time, focusing on purpose, content, method, and execution. The scope was limited to Swedish and Anglo-Saxon literature, produced after the year 1900. The results show that excursions and field studies have since long been important methods in school teaching, not only in the subject geography. One of the purposes of using excursions and field studies in teaching is to facilitate the learning process of pupils and students. Several authors arguing that learning improved when the objects are studied in the real world. We can see that a continuous process of change has altered contents as well as conduction of the excursions. The previous instrumental orientation has moved toward more pupil-participating work methods. Today preparation is a keyword in most texts on excursions, and the perspectives have been broadened.

Visualizations of flood maps from simulation models are widely used for assessing the likelihood of flood hazards in spatial planning. The choice of a suitable type of visualization as well as efficient color maps is critical to avoid errors or bias when interpreting the data. Based on a review of previous flood uncertainty visualization techniques, this paper identifies areas of improvements and suggests criteria for the design of a task-specific color scale in flood map visualization. We contribute a novel color map design for visualizing probabilities and uncertainties from flood simulation ensembles. A user study encompassing 83 participants was carried out to evaluate the effects of this new color map on user’s decisions in a spatial planning task. We found that the type of visualization makes a difference when it comes to identification of non-hazardous sites in the flood risk map and when accepting risks in more uncertain areas. In comparison with two other existing visualization techniques, we observed that the new design was superior both in terms of task compliance and efficiency. In regions with uncertain flood statuses, users were biased toward accepting less risky locations with our new color map design.

In year 2000, the EU Water Framework Directive was adopted and by 2015, all European watersheds have to be established. The purpose with the directive is to create an overall view over the water resources in Europe and to get a comprehensive legislation. SMHI in Sweden has already established a few watersheds around the country. An overall view of the water resources together with knowledge of the geology is a requirement to a sustainable development and an effective taking care of the nature resources. Within the physical planning, the geology knowledge is very important. For example, it is vital to know the quality of the ground when planning new building complexes.

The purpose with this bachelor thesis was to establish the watershed of Kungsbäcken and to do a geomorphologic survey of the area. The thesis also aimed to describe some of the fluvial morphologic presences, in a part of Kungsbäcken, i.e. from the outflow to Gavleån at Stora Vall, to the viaduct at Regementvägen.

By doing the study as a combination of physical geography and GIT, the possibilities to do different types of analyses and calculations, on the basis of the nature resources in an area and the modern technique are pointed out. Furthermore, the result from this study will be given to SMHI. The result may be of benefit to SMHI, when mapping the watershed of Kungsbäcken later on.

To make the geomorphologic survey of the watershed and to establish the boundaries of it, literature, earlier studies in the area, terrain- , rock, - soil maps and aerial photos were studied. Moreover, out of date-boundaries established by SMHI were used, together with an analogue analysis, based on the printed terrain map 13H SV. We also used a flow model, based on a digital elevation model over the area. The study also contained field trips. Three areas with uncertain boundaries were studied and with flow direction instruments and ocular examination, the boundaries were established. Field trips of geomorphologic interest were also made, like studies of recessional moraine and roch moutonnée.

By field trips, analyses, digitizing and literature perusal, the boundaries of the watershed of Kungsbäcken has been established and the area is 105.4 km2. The result of the geomorphologic survey of the area can be seen in a map (appendix 1). Apart from that, concepts and nature phenomena are also described in the report along with observations of the benefits of studies like this one.

Abstract

A wildfire is an uncontrollable fire in an area of combustible fuel that occurs in the wild or countryside area. Wildfires are becoming a deadly and frequent event in Europe due to extreme weather conditions. In 2018, wildfires profoundly affected Sweden, Finland, and Norway, which were not big news before. In Norway, although there is well–organized fire detection, warning, and mitigation systems, mapping wildfire risk areas before the fire occurrence with georeferenced spatial information, are not yet well-practiced. At this moment, there are freely available remotely sensed spatial data and there is a good possibility that analysing wildfire hazard areas with geographical information systems together with multicriteria decision analysis (GIS–MCDA) and frequency ratio models in advance so that subsequent wildfire warning, mitigation, organizational and post resilience activities and preparations can be better planned. 

This project covers eight counties of Norway: Oslo, Akershus, Østfold, Vestfold, Telemark, Buskerud, Oppland, and Hedmark. These are the counties with the highest wildfire frequency for the last ten years in Norway. In this study, GIS-MCDA integrated with analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and frequency ratio models (FR) were used with selected sixteen–factor criteria based on their relative importance to wildfire ignition, fuel load, and other related characteristics. The produced factor maps were grouped under four main clusters (K): land use (K1), climate (K2), socioeconomic (K3), and topography (K4) for further analysis.

The final map was classified into no hazard, low, medium, and high hazard level rates. The comparison result showed that the frequency ratio model with MODIS satellite data had a prediction rate with 72% efficiency, followed by the same model with VIIRS data and 70% efficiency. The GIS-MCDA model result showed 67% efficiency with both MODIS and VIIRS data. Those results were interpreted in accordance with Yesilnacar’s classifications such as the frequency ratio model with MODIS data was considered a good predictor, whereas the GIS-MCDA model was an average predictor. When testing the model on the dependent data set, the frequency ratio model showed 72% with MODIS & VIIRS data, and the GIS-MCDA model showed 67% and 68% performance with MODIS and VIIRS data, respectively. In the hazard maps produced, the frequency ratio models for both MODIS and VIIRS showed that Hedmark and Akershus counties had the largest areas with the highest susceptibility to wildfires, while the GIS-MCDA method resulted to Østfold and Vestfold counties.

Through this study, the best independent wildfire predictor criteria were selected from the highest to the lowest of importance; wildfire constraint and criteria maps were produced; wildfire hazard maps with high-resolution georeferenced data using three models were produced and compared; and the best, reliable, robust, and applicable model alternative was selected and recommended. Therefore, the aims and specific objectives of this study should be considered and fulfilled.