Showcasing research, development, production and education in Cartography and GIScience at the International Cartographic Association’s conference in Tokyo 2019

Every two years the International Cartographic Association (ICA) holds its international conference for Cartography and GI Science. The conference brings-together colleagues undertaking research, development, production and educational pursuits. Attendance at the conference affords the opportunity to keep up-to-date with current research and development and the general thinking about what research is needed, internationally.

In July 2019 Japan hosted ICC2019, the 29^th ICA Conference. The conference theme was ‘Mapping Everything for Everyone’. As well as hosting the conference, Japan also facilitated the holding of the 18^th General Assembly of the Association.

We are pleased, in this Special Issue of the International Journal of Cartography, to provide 14 selected reviewed papers from the conference that, we believe, reflect the endeavors of colleagues and illustrate the diverse and exciting fields of research being addressed by members of the ICA community. Papers included in this Special Issue were selected by the editors from the ‘review’ papers from the conference. The selected papers had been reviewed by the conference organizing committee and two blind reviews were conducted on each paper submitted. For the papers selected by us for consideration in this Special Issue further blind reviews were conducted.

We would like to especially thank Dr. Hideyuki Fujita and his team from the ICC2019 Program Committee for managing the initial paper selection and reviews and for working with us. Their professional support certainly made our work for this issue much more efficient and effective.

The following sections of this piece provide a synopsis of the papers that comprise this issue.

Yuhao Kanga, Song Gaoa and Robert Roth, in their paper ‘Transferring Map Styles based on Generative Adversarial Networks’, propose a framework using AI for map style transfer applicable across multiple map scales. The map style transfer was applied to a target group of visual examples, including Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, and artistic paintings and to unstylized GIS vector data. A binary classifier based on a deep convolutional neural network was used to evaluate whether the transferred-styled images preserve the original map design characteristics.

In ‘Is Deep Learning the New Agent for Map Generalization?’, Guillaume Touya, Xiang Zhang and Imran Lokhat address whether deep learning could be the technique that will make generalization research bridge the gap to fully automated generalization processes.

Their paper discusses the issues that could be tackled with deep learning and what the promising perspectives appear to be. This is supported by the provision of preliminary experiments with building generalization or data enrichments.

Benjamin Niedermann and Jan-Henrik Haunert present an approach to zooming in digital maps that reduces the necessity of zooming by providing the user with the possibility of displacing the labels of a circular focus region in their paper ‘Focus + Context Map Labeling with Optimized Clutter Reduction’. They utilize techniques from focus + context maps implementing the displacement of the labels by fish-eye projections.

‘Multiscale Cartographic Visualisation of Harmonised Datasets’ is contributed by Peter Kunz and Joachim Bobrich. They outline ‘TopPlusOpen’, developed by the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG), Germany. This provides a freely accessible Web map, which is based entirely on open or free data sources, which necessitated several cooperation agreements. The web map is on line and used in many geoportals.

Marie-Dominique Van-Damme, Ana-Maria Olteanu-Raimond and Yann Méneroux, in their paper ‘Potential of crowdsourced data for integrating landmarks and routes for rescue in mountain areas’, focus on the sharing and downloading of landmarks and routes produced by the crowd. The paper reports on the findings of their exploration w.r.t. the potential of crowdsourced data in the context of mountain rescue. They studied the content of different sources to better understand how landmarks and routes are mapped, and the feasibility of defining the links between crowdsourced and authoritative data, and the feasibility of defining links between routes and landmarks. Experiments enlighten the complementarity of data as well as semantic rules.

A study that aimed to identify OpenStreetMap (OSM) contributors’ awareness of data quality and relations between their awareness and the positional accuracy of the contributed OSM data is the topic addressed by Jun Yamashita, Toshikazu Seto, Yuichiro Nishimura and Nobusuke Iwasaki in their paper ‘VGI contributors’ awareness of geographic information quality and its effect on data quality: A case study from Japan’. They found that the awareness or lack thereof of the positional accuracy did not affect the positional accuracy of OSM data and that crowdsourcing approach might not guarantee the data quality of VGI.

‘Reasoning about Socio-Economic Data: A Visual Analytics Approach to Bayesian Network’ by Ekaterina Chuprikova and Liqiu Meng report on their study that developed a model-based visual analytics prototype in which a probabilistic graphical model, Bayesian Network, is integrated within a geospatial visualization tool. Their proposed approach is demonstrated by means of a scenario with heterogeneous socio-economic data in Munich, Germany. The system developed supports prior knowledge awareness and user involvement in socio-economic data discovery using interactive visualization.

Albina Apriadsa, Habib Sidiq Anggoro, Ari Cahyonob and Rossaydiana Apriadna provide the results of their research regarding the documentation of geographical names in their paper ‘Unveil the “Lost Toponyms” in the Northern Part of the Menoreh Mountains, Java, Indonesia’. This was done by comparing the Indonesian official topographic map (Peta Rupabumi Indonesia – RBI) to the latest compiled Dutch colonial era map and by undertaking field surveys in four districts: Borobudur, Salaman, Kalibawang, and Samigaluh.

The issue related to cross-border mapping is addressed by László Zentai and Gábor Gercsák. Their paper ‘Cross-border topographic mapping, cross-border orienteering: the Hungarian overview’ examines cross-border topographic and orienteering maps and how they approach cross-border mapping. They reflect on how early military surveys in Hungary did not present areas over the state borders, and how this situation changed with later topographic mapping and through the development of orienteering maps for events conducted near international borders.

‘An Analysis of the Representation of Sustainable Development Goals in Textbook Maps and Atlases in Educational Contexts’ by Sandra Sprenger and Carina Peter provide the results of their evaluation of the potential of maps for the teaching of The United Nations General Assembly’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). They analyzed the extent to which the contents of SDGs have been implemented in educational materials. Qualitative content analysis was used as the methodological basis with a subsequent quantitative evaluation of a number of maps.

Collaborative research work by Nargiz Safaraliyeva, Naeema Al Hosani and José Jesús Reyes Nunez is reported in their paper ‘Teaching basic map concepts in three countries: Azerbaijan, Hungary and United Arab Emirates’. Their aim is to offer an abbreviated background on the methods and solutions used to teach basic map concepts in three countries, based on the study of textbooks and workbooks related to Geography as well as school atlases.

Lee Frederix’s paper ‘Mapping as a visual arts practice: social geographies of contemporary Beirut’ documents an attempt to synthesize his ongoing artistic practice and academic research into the representation of the contemporary city of Beirut. It incorporates Guattari’s machinic, Debord’s psychogeography, and Rauschenberg’s neoDada approach to objects, all seen through the lens of Landscape Urbanism. The maps produced are anecdotal diagrams, abstract schematics, and stylized image/ objects that are intended as creative visualizations of subjective experiences and cultural practices in contemporary Beirut.

‘Designing the Imagery on Image Maps – How far can we take it?’ is contributed by Christian E. Murphy. He addresses the design of image maps and whether the imagery can be designed with the same dedication as cartographic symbols. The research examined how many visual levels can be introduced to the imagery. Based on research addressing the variation length of visual variables, the concept of transition to imagery is discussed, then an empirical study evaluates the boundaries of image map design is provided.

Jean-François Girres focusses on the use of the limitations, in terms of functionalities for images comparisons existing tools implemented in GIS or remote sensing software when used for the production of ‘impact maps’ for use in damage assessments for emergency mapping after a natural disaster in the paper ‘Hazard-based images comparison methods for damage assessment in emergency mapping’. A generic model for hazard-based images comparison is proposed and a first implementation of a prototype in a GIS software described.

This is the second time that Japan, and Tokyo, has hosted an ICA conference. In 1980 the 10^th ICC Conference and the 6^th ICA General Assembly was hosted by the Japan Cartographers Association and the Japan Map Center. At this time, the conference ran in parallel with the 24^th International Geographical Union Conference. A joint session on Cartography was held during the conference. Papers were delivered in French and English, the official languages of ICA, with simultaneous translation. Of note, at this General Assembly, eleven Commissions were established (Ormeling, 1983).

From a report written by Beetson (1981), from the U.S. Geological Survey, the Principal Delegate for the USA at the General Assembly, it is interesting to see that eighty-seven papers were presented. The 1980 conference provided presentations on several major topic areas, viz:

• Maps as a means of Communication;

• Utilization of Maps for Environmental Assessment;

• Cartographic Representation of Urban Areas;

• History of Cartography;

• Application of New Techniques Developed in the Fields Related to Mapping;

• Integration and Impact of Computer technology in Cartographic Production’;

• Mapping and Charting Marine Resources; and

• Modern Requirements and Experiences in Training Cartographers.

When comparing the themes from Tokyo 1980 to Tokyo 2019, it can be seen that the number of subject areas has grown immensely, which reflects the growing interest in research activities in Cartography and GIScience. The 2019 conference had forty-three themes. Selecting just some of these themes (see below), it can be seen that there some commonalities with the themes for 2019, compared to 1980. The 2019 theme areas that can be closely related to those from 1980 are:

• Cognitive Issues in Geographic Information Visualization and map design;

• Mapping the environment;

• Mapping Cities;

• History of Cartography;

• New techniques – Big Data and Data Science / Crowd Sourced Information;

• Map Production and Geoinformation Management;

• Marine Cartography; and

• Education and Training.

Reflecting the on-going commitment of the International Cartographic Association, in this instance the endeavors of almost 30 years between 1980 and 2019, it is most pleasing to see the outcomes of the undertakings of international colleagues and the outcomes of their quality of their research and development. The reporting on their findings at ICC2019 and in this Journal provides essential information for better understanding and appreciating what is ‘contemporary cartography and GIScience’.