MIRACLE at GeoCLEF 2005: First Experiments in Geographical IR

This paper presents the 2005 MIRACLE team’s approach to Cross-Language Geographical Retrieval (GeoCLEF). The main goal of the GeoCLEF participation of the MIRACLE team was to test the effect that geographical information retrieval techniques have on information retrieval. The baseline approach is based on the development of named entity recognition and geospatial information retrieval tools and on its combination with linguistic techniques to carry out indexing and retrieval tasks.

Discriminant Analysis of Geographical Origin of Cork Planks and Stoppers by Near Infrared Spectroscopy

The objective of this study was to assess the potential of visible and near infrared spectroscopy (VIS+NIRS) combined with multivariate analysis for identifying the geographical origin of cork. The study was carried out on cork planks and natural cork stoppers from the most representative cork-producing areas in the world. Two training sets of international and national cork planks were studied. The first set comprised a total of 479 samples from Morocco, Portugal, and Spain, while the second set comprised a total of 179 samples from the Spanish regions of Andalusia, Catalonia, and Extremadura. A training set of 90 cork stoppers from Andalusia and Catalonia was also studied. Original spectroscopic data were obtained for the transverse sections of the cork planks and for the body and top of the cork stoppers by means of a 6500 Foss-NIRSystems SY II spectrophotometer using a fiber optic probe. Remote reflectance was employed in the wavelength range of 400 to 2500 nm. After analyzing the spectroscopic data, discriminant models were obtained by means of partial least square (PLS) with 70% of the samples. The best models were then validated using 30% of the remaining samples. At least 98% of the international cork plank samples and 95% of the national samples were correctly classified in the calibration and validation stage. The best model for the cork stoppers was obtained for the top of the stoppers, with at least 90% of the samples being correctly classified. The results demonstrate the potential of VIS + NIRS technology as a rapid and accurate method for predicting the geographical origin of cork plank and stoppers

Smoothing of PV power fluctuations by geographical dispersion

The quality and the reliability of the power generated by large grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) plants are negatively affected by the source characteristic variability. This paper deals with the smoothing of power fluctuations because of geographical dispersion of PV systems. The fluctuation frequency and the maximum fluctuation registered at a PV plant ensemble are analyzed to study these effects. We propose an empirical expression to compare the fluctuation attenuation because of both the size and the number of PV plants grouped. The convolution of single PV plants frequency distribution functions has turned out to be a successful tool to statistically describe the behavior of an ensemble of PV plants and determine their maximum output fluctuation. Our work is based on experimental 1-s data collected throughout 2009 from seven PV plants, 20 MWp in total, separated between 6 and 360 km.

Development of mathematical models to elaborate strategies, select alternatives and development of plans for adaptation of communities to climate change in different geographical areas including costs to implement it.

There is evidence that the climate changes and that now, the change is influenced and accelerated by the CO2 augmentation in atmosphere due to combustion by humans. Such ?Climate change? is on the policy agenda at the global level, with the aim of understanding and reducing its causes and to mitigate its consequences. In most countries and international organisms UNO (e.g. Rio de Janeiro 1992), OECD, EC, etc . . . the efforts and debates have been directed to know the possible causes, to predict the future evolution of some variable conditioners, and trying to make studies to fight against the effects or to delay the negative evolution of such. The Protocol of Kyoto 1997 set international efforts about CO2 emissions, but it was partial and not followed e.g. by USA and China . . . , and in Durban 2011 the ineffectiveness of humanity on such global real challenges was set as evident. Among all that, the elaboration of a global model was not boarded that can help to choose the best alternative between the feasible ones, to elaborate the strategies and to evaluate the costs, and the authors propose to enter in that frame for study. As in all natural, technological and social changes, the best-prepared countries will have the best bear and the more rapid recover. In all the geographic areas the alternative will not be the same one, but the model must help us to make the appropriated decision. It is essential to know those areas that are more sensitive to the negative effects of climate change, the parameters to take into account for its evaluation, and comprehensive plans to deal with it. The objective of this paper is to elaborate a mathematical model support of decisions, which will allow to develop and to evaluate alternatives of adaptation to the climatic change of different communities in Europe and Latin-America, mainly in especially vulnerable areas to the climatic change, considering in them all the intervening factors. The models will consider criteria of physical type (meteorological, edaphic, water resources), of use of the ground (agriculturist, forest, mining, industrial, urban, tourist, cattle dealer), economic (income, costs, benefits, infrastructures), social (population), politician (implementation, legislation), educative (Educational programs, diffusion) and environmental, at the present moment and the future. The intention is to obtain tools for aiding to get a realistic position for these challenges, which are an important part of the future problems of humanity in next decades.

Development of mathematical models to elaborate strategies, to select alternatives and the development of plans for the adaptation of communities to climate change in different geographical areas including costs to implement it

Climate change is on the policy agenda at the global level, with the aim of understanding and reducing its causes and to mitigate its consequences. In most of the countries and international organisms UNO, OECD, EC, etc … the efforts and debates have been directed to know the possible causes, to predict the future evolution of some variable conditioners, and trying to make studies to fight against the effects or to delay the negative evolution of such. Nevertheless, the elaboration of a global model was not boarded that can help to choose the best alternative between the feasible ones, to elaborate the strategies and to evaluate the costs. As in all natural, technological and social changes, the best-prepared countries will have the best bear and the more rapid recover. In all the geographic areas the alternative will not be the same one, but the model should help us to make the appropriated decision. It is essential to know those areas that are more sensitive to the negative effects of climate change, the parameters to take into account for its evaluation, and comprehensive plans to deal with it. The objective of this paper is to elaborate a mathematical model support of decisions, that will allow to develop and to evaluate alternatives of adaptation to the climatic change of different communities in Europe and Latin-America, mainly, in vulnerable areas to the climatic change, considering in them all the intervening factors. The models will take into consideration criteria of physical type (meteorological, edaphic, water resources), of use of the ground (agriculturist, forest, mining, industrial, urban, tourist, cattle dealer), economic (income, costs, benefits, infrastructures), social (population), politician (implementation, legislation), educative (Educational programs, diffusion), sanitary and environmental, at the present moment and the future.

Geographical cataloguing of earthen architecture in Soria, Spain

This paper discusses the most relevant earth construction techniques that have been employed in the province of Soria (Spain). The objectives of the research are, first, to locate and catalogue each building techniques with earth within the geographic regions and environmental units and their relation to physical and human environment. Then, the second aim is analyze these techniques and characterize them in terms of material, components and construction processes. Three types are studied: the construction of rammed-earth walls, adobe masonry and timber frame filled with adobe.

Effect of the health status and geographical origin on the cork production characteristics of Western Algeria cork oak stands

Results lead to the conclusion that the effect of health status on traumatic phellogen formation and activity is clear but not uniform. Further studies are necessary for a deeper understanding of the effect of stress situations on pore formation and characteristics

Integrating geographical information in the Linked Digital Earth

Many progresses have been made since the Digital Earth notion was envisioned thirteen years ago. However, the mechanism for integrating geographic information into the Digital Earth is still quite limited. In this context, we have developed a process to generate, integrate and publish geospatial Linked Data from several Spanish National data-sets. These data-sets are related to four Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) themes, specifically with Administrative units, Hydrography, Statistical units, and Meteorology. Our main goal is to combine different sources (heterogeneous, multidisciplinary, multitemporal, multiresolution, and multilingual) using Linked Data principles. This goal allows the overcoming of current problems of information integration and driving geographical information toward the next decade scenario, that is, ?Linked Digital Earth.?

Residential self-selection and geographical scales in trip frequency.

Neighbourhood representation and scale used to measure the built environment have been treated in many ways. However, it is anything but clear what representation of neighbourhood is the most feasible in the existing literature. This paper presents an exhaustive analysis of built environment attributes through three spatial scales. For this purpose multiple data sources are integrated, and a set of 943 observations is analysed. This paper simultaneously analyses the influence of two methodological issues in the study of the relationship between built environment and travel behaviour: (1) detailed representation of neighbourhood by testing different spatial scales; (2) the influence of unobserved individual sensitivity to built environment attributes. The results show that different spatial scales of built environment attributes produce different results. Hence, it is important to produce local and regional transport measures, according to geographical scale. Additionally, the results show significant sensitivity to built environment attributes depending on place of residence. This effect, called residential sorting, acquires different magnitudes depending on the geographical scale used to measure the built environment attributes. Spatial scales risk to the stability of model results. Hence, transportation modellers and planners must take into account both effects of self-selection and spatial scales.

Geographical variation in anophthalmia and microphthalmia in England, 1988-94

Objective: To investigate the geographical variation and clustering of congenital anophthalmia and microphthalmia in England, in response to media reports of clusters.

Geographical structuring in the mtDNA of Italians.

Geographical patterns of mtDNA variation were studied in 12 Italian samples (1072 individuals) by two different spatial autocorrelation methods. Separate analyses of the frequencies of 12 restriction morphs show North-South clines, differences between Sardinia and the mainland populations, and the effects of isolation by distance. A recently developed autocorrelation statistic summarizing molecular similarity at all sites (AIDA; autocorrelation index for DNA analysis) confirms the presence of a clinical pattern; differences between random pairs of haplotypes tend to increase with their geographical distance. The partition of gene diversity, however, reveals that most variability occurs within populations, whereas differences between populations are minor (GST = 0.057). When the data from the 12 samples are pooled, two descriptors of genetic variability (number of polymorphic sites and average sequence difference between pairs of individuals) do not behave as expected under neutrality. The presence of clinal patterns, Tajima's tests, and a simulation experiment agree in suggesting that population sizes increased rapidly in Italy and Sicily but not necessarily so in Sardinia. The distribution of pairwise sequence differences in the Italian peninsula (excluding Sardinia) permits a tentative location of the demographic increase between 8000 and 20,500 years ago. These dates are consistent with archaeological estimates of two distinct expansion processes, occurring, respectively, in the Neolithic and after the last glacial maximum in the Paleolithic. Conversely, there is no genetic evidence that such processes have had a major impact on the Sardinian population.

Digitization for Preservation and Access: Restoring the Usefulness of the Nitrate Negative Collections at the American Geographical Society Library

Film-based photographic collections of nitrate negatives pose major challenges to preservation and access because of unstable media and the lack of item-level indexing. Digitization offers an opportunity to capture the content of deteriorating negatives, to extend access to them, and to restore their usefulness as information resources. Digitization as a preservation strategy has been the subject of ongoing debate. This article contributes to the discussion by exploring access to and the preservation of film-based photographic collections and by presenting the digiti- zation project at the American Geographical Society Library as a case study. The project, Saving and Sharing the AGS Library’s Historic Nitrate Negative Images, was undertaken from 2010 to 2012 to preserve and provide access to over 69,000 nitrate negatives from its historic collections.

Application of Text Summarization techniques to the Geographical Information Retrieval task

Automatic Text Summarization has been shown to be useful for Natural Language Processing tasks such as Question Answering or Text Classification and other related fields of computer science such as Information Retrieval. Since Geographical Information Retrieval can be considered as an extension of the Information Retrieval field, the generation of summaries could be integrated into these systems by acting as an intermediate stage, with the purpose of reducing the document length. In this manner, the access time for information searching will be improved, while at the same time relevant documents will be also retrieved. Therefore, in this paper we propose the generation of two types of summaries (generic and geographical) applying several compression rates in order to evaluate their effectiveness in the Geographical Information Retrieval task. The evaluation has been carried out using GeoCLEF as evaluation framework and following an Information Retrieval perspective without considering the geo-reranking phase commonly used in these systems. Although single-document summarization has not performed well in general, the slight improvements obtained for some types of the proposed summaries, particularly for those based on geographical information, made us believe that the integration of Text Summarization with Geographical Information Retrieval may be beneficial, and consequently, the experimental set-up developed in this research work serves as a basis for further investigations in this field.

Delineating zones to increase geographical detail in individual response data files: An application to the Spanish 2011 Census of population

Due to confidentiality considerations, the microdata available from the 2011 Spanish Census have been codified at a provincial (NUTS 3) level except when the municipal (LAU 2) population exceeds 20,000 inhabitants (a requirement that is met by less than 5% of all municipalities). For the remainder of the municipalities within a given province, information is only provided for their classification in wide population intervals. These limitations, hampering territorially-focused socio-economic analyses, and more specifically, those related to the labour market, are observed in many other countries. This article proposes and demonstrates an automatic procedure aimed at delineating a set of areas that meet such population requirements and that may be used to re-codify the geographic reference in these cases, thereby increasing the territorial detail at which individual information is available. The method aggregates municipalities into clusters based on the optimisation of a relevant objective function subject to a number of statistical constraints, and is implemented using evolutionary computation techniques. Clusters are defined to fit outer boundaries at the level of labour market areas.