Search Results (79)

In the context of an increasing risk to cultural heritage due to climate change, this review explores and analyzes different geomatics techniques to efficiently monitor and safeguard historical sites and works of art. The rapid succession of technological innovations relating to the production of 3D models and the growth in recent years of the risks to which monumental heritage is exposed poses an all-round reflection on the prospects for the development and refinement of the disciplines of geomatics. The results highlight that geomatics techniques certainly improve data collection and the assessment of risks associated with climate change, also supporting geospatial-based decisions aimed at managing vulnerable cultural sites. The field of digital goods represents, in fact, one of the sectors where it is not possible to centralize knowledge in a single figure, instead postulating a synergistic interaction between different knowledge and techniques. Referring to the national framework, the distinction between protection and enhancement also involves us for both aspects, combining the more consolidated use of digital heritage for cognitive purposes and for the preparation of restoration projects. The study concludes by exploring possible future directions, emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary collaboration and the creation of effective guidelines and policies for the preservation of cultural heritage. Finally, the growing interest in this field in artificial intelligence and, in particular, machine learning is underscored. Full article

Natural disasters cause extensive infrastructure and significant economic losses, hindering sustainable development and impeding social and economic progress. More importantly, they jeopardize community well-being by causing injuries, damaging human health, and resulting in loss of life. Furthermore, communities often experience delayed disaster response. Aggravating the situation, the frequency and impact of disasters have been continuously increasing. Therefore, fast and effective disaster response management is paramount. To achieve this, disaster managers must proactively safeguard communities by developing quick and effective disaster management strategies. Disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and robotics and their applications in geospatial analysis, social media, and smartphone applications can significantly contribute to expediting disaster response, improving efficiency, and enhancing safety. However, despite their significant potential, limited research has examined how these technologies can be utilized for disaster response in low-income communities. The goal of this research is to explore which technologies can be effectively leveraged to improve disaster response, with a focus on low-income communities. To this end, this research conducted a comprehensive review of existing literature on disruptive technologies, using Covidence to simplify the systematic review process and NVivo 14 to synthesize findings. Full article

The color of a cityscape plays a significant role in its atmosphere; however, the traditional city color analysis methods cover a wide range but are not precise enough, requiring field sampling, a lot of manual comparisons, and lacking quantitative analysis of color. With the development of artificial intelligence, deep learning and computer vision technology show great potential in urban environment research. In this document, we focus on “building color” and present a deep learning-based framework that combines geospatial big data with AI technology to extract and analyze urban color information. The framework is composed of two phases: “deep learning” and “quantitative analysis.” In the “deep learning” phase, a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN)-based color extraction model is designed to automatically learn building color information from street view images; in the “quantitative analysis” phase, building color is quantitatively analyzed at the overall and local levels, and a color clustering model is designed to quantitatively display the color relationship to comprehensively understand the current status of urban building color. The research method and results of this paper are one of the effective ways to combine geospatial big data with GeoAI, which is helpful to the collection and analysis of urban color and provides direction for the construction of urban color information management. Full article

Traditional coastal flood risk prediction often overlooks critical geographic features, underscoring the need for accurate risk prediction in coastal cities to ensure resilience. This study enhances the prediction of coastal flood occurrence by utilizing the Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) approach. This approach employed models—random forest (RF), k-nearest neighbor (kNN), and artificial neural networks (ANN)—and compared them to the IPCC risk framework. This study used El Salvador as a demonstration case. The models incorporated seven input variables: extreme sea level, coastline proximity, elevation, slope, mangrove distance, population, and settlement type. With a recall score of 0.67 and precision of 0.86, the RF model outperformed the other models and the IPCC approach, which could avoid imbalanced datasets and standard scaler issues. The RF model improved the reliability of flood risk assessments by reducing false negatives. Based on the RF model output, scenario analysis predicted a significant increase in flood occurrences by 2100, mainly under RCP8.5 with SSP5. The study also highlights that the continuous mangrove along the coastline will reduce coastal flood occurrences. The GeoAI approach results suggest its potential for coastal flood risk management, emphasizing the need to integrate natural defenses, such as mangroves, for coastal resilience. Full article

Driven by the widespread adoption of deep learning (DL) in crop mapping with satellite image time series (SITS), this study was motivated by the recent success of temporal attention-based approaches in crop mapping. To meet the needs of beekeepers, this study aimed to develop DL-based classification models for mapping five essential crops in pollination services in Quebec province, Canada, by using Sentinel-2 SITS. Due to the challenging task of crop mapping using SITS, this study employed three DL-based models, namely one-dimensional temporal convolutional neural networks (CNNs) (1DTempCNNs), one-dimensional spectral CNNs (1DSpecCNNs), and long short-term memory (LSTM). Accordingly, this study aimed to capture expert-free temporal and spectral features, specifically targeting temporal features using 1DTempCNN and LSTM models, and spectral features using the 1DSpecCNN model. Our findings indicated that the LSTM model (macro-averaged recall of 0.80, precision of 0.80, F1-score of 0.80, and ROC of 0.89) outperformed both 1DTempCNNs (macro-averaged recall of 0.73, precision of 0.74, F1-score of 0.73, and ROC of 0.85) and 1DSpecCNNs (macro-averaged recall of 0.78, precision of 0.77, F1-score of 0.77, and ROC of 0.88) models, underscoring its effectiveness in capturing temporal features and highlighting its suitability for crop mapping using Sentinel-2 SITS. Furthermore, applying one-dimensional convolution (Conv1D) across the spectral domain demonstrated greater potential in distinguishing land covers and crop types than applying it across the temporal domain. This study contributes to providing insights into the capabilities and limitations of various DL-based classification models for crop mapping using Sentinel-2 SITS. Full article

Large Language Models (LLMs) such as GPT, BART, and Gemini stand at the forefront of Generative Artificial Intelligence, showcasing remarkable prowess in natural language comprehension and task execution. This paper proposes a novel framework developed on the foundation of Llama 2, aiming to bridge the gap between natural language queries and executable code for geospatial analyses within the PyQGIS environment. It empowers non-expert users to leverage GIS technology without requiring deep knowledge of geospatial programming or tools. Through cutting-edge Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, including tailored entity recognition and ontology mapping, the framework accurately interprets user intents and translates them into specific GIS operations. Integration of geospatial ontologies enriches semantic comprehension, ensuring precise alignment between user descriptions, geospatial datasets, and geospatial analysis tasks. A code generation module empowered by Llama 2 converts these interpretations into PyQGIS scripts, enabling the execution of geospatial analysis and results visualization. Rigorous testing across a spectrum of geospatial analysis tasks, with incremental complexity, evaluates the framework and the performance of such a system, with LLM at its core. The proposed system demonstrates proficiency in handling various geometries, spatial relationships, and attribute queries, enabling accurate and efficient analysis of spatial datasets. Moreover, it offers robust error-handling mechanisms and supports tasks related to map styling, visualization, and data manipulation. However, it has some limitations, such as occasional struggles with ambiguous attribute names and aliases, which leads to potential inaccuracies in the filtering and retrieval of features. Despite these limitations, the system presents a promising solution for applications integrating LLMs into GIS and offers a flexible and user-friendly approach to geospatial analysis. Full article

Previous studies have utilized machine learning algorithms that incorporate topographic and geological characteristics to model flood susceptibility, resulting in comprehensive flood maps. This study introduces an innovative integration of geospatial artificial intelligence for hazard mapping to assess flood risks on road networks within Portuguese municipalities. Additionally, it incorporates OpenStreetMap’s road network data to study vulnerability, offering a descriptive statistical interpretation. Through spatial overlay techniques, road segments are evaluated for flood risk based on their proximity to identified hazard zones. This method facilitates the detailed mapping of flood-impacted road networks, providing essential insights for infrastructure planning, emergency preparedness, and mitigation strategies. The study emphasizes the importance of integrating geospatial analysis tools with open data to enhance the resilience of critical infrastructure against natural hazards. The resulting maps are instrumental for understanding the impact of floods on transportation infrastructures and aiding informed decision-making for policymakers, the insurance industry, and road infrastructure asset managers. Full article

Despite the ecological importance of giant clams (Tridacninae), their effective management and conservation is challenging due to their widespread distribution and labour-intensive monitoring methods. In this study, we present an alternative approach to detecting and mapping clam density at Pioneer Bay on Goolboddi (Orpheus) Island on the Great Barrier Reef using drone data with a combination of deep learning tools and a geographic information system (GIS). We trained and evaluated 11 models using YOLOv5 (You Only Look Once, version 5) with varying numbers of input image tiles and augmentations (mean average precision—mAP: 63–83%). We incorporated the Slicing Aided Hyper Inference (SAHI) library to detect clams across orthomosaics, eliminating duplicate counts of clams straddling multiple tiles, and further, applied our models in three other geographic locations on the Great Barrier Reef, demonstrating transferability. Finally, by linking detections with their original geographic coordinates, we illustrate the workflow required to quantify animal densities, mapping up to seven clams per square meter in Pioneer Bay. Our workflow brings together several otherwise disparate steps to create an end-to-end approach for detecting and mapping animals with aerial drones. This provides ecologists and conservationists with actionable and clear quantitative and visual insights from drone mapping data. Full article

To ensure the sustainable development of artificial intelligence (AI) application in urban and geospatial science, it is important to protect the geographic privacy, or geo-privacy, which refers to an individual’s geographic location details. As a crucial aspect of personal security, geo-privacy plays a key role not only in individual protection but also in maintaining ethical standards in geoscientific practices. Despite its importance, geo-privacy is often not sufficiently addressed in daily activities. With the increasing use of large multimodal models (LMMs) such as GPT-4 for open-source intelligence (OSINT), the risks related to geo-privacy breaches have significantly escalated. This study introduces a novel GPT-4-based model, GeoLocator, integrated with location capabilities, and conducts four experiments to evaluate its ability to accurately infer location information from images and social media content. The results demonstrate that GeoLocator can generate specific geographic details with high precision, thereby increasing the potential for inadvertent exposure of sensitive geospatial information. This highlights the dual challenges posed by online data-sharing and information-gathering technologies in the context of geo-privacy. We conclude with a discussion on the broader impacts of GeoLocator and our findings on individuals and communities, emphasizing the urgent need for increased awareness and protective measures against geo-privacy breaches in the era of advancing AI and widespread social media usage. This contribution thus advocates for sustainable and responsible geoscientific practices. Full article

Flooding is a recurrent hazard occurring worldwide, resulting in severe losses. The preparation of a flood susceptibility map is a non-structural approach to flood management before its occurrence. With recent advances in artificial intelligence, achieving a high-accuracy model for flood susceptibility mapping (FSM) is challenging. Therefore, in this study, various artificial intelligence approaches have been utilized to achieve optimal accuracy in flood susceptibility modeling to address this challenge. By incorporating the grey wolf optimizer (GWO) metaheuristic algorithm into various models—including recurrent neural networks (RNNs), support vector regression (SVR), and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost)—the objective of this modeling is to generate flood susceptibility maps and evaluate the variation in model performance. The tropical Manimala River Basin in India, severely battered by flooding in the past, has been selected as the test site. This modeling utilized 15 conditioning factors such as aspect, enhanced built-up and bareness index (EBBI), slope, elevation, geomorphology, normalized difference water index (NDWI), plan curvature, profile curvature, soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), stream density, soil texture, stream power index (SPI), terrain ruggedness index (TRI), land use/land cover (LULC) and topographic wetness index (TWI). Thus, six susceptibility maps are produced by applying the RNN, SVR, XGBoost, RNN-GWO, SVR-GWO, and XGBoost-GWO models. All six models exhibited outstanding (AUC above 0.90) performance, and the performance ranks in the following order: RNN-GWO (AUC: 0.968) > XGBoost-GWO (AUC: 0.961) > SVR-GWO (AUC: 0.960) > RNN (AUC: 0.956) > XGBoost (AUC: 0.953) > SVR (AUC: 0.948). It was discovered that the hybrid GWO optimization algorithm improved the performance of three models. The RNN-GWO-based flood susceptibility map shows that 8.05% of the MRB is very susceptible to floods. The modeling found that the SPI, geomorphology, LULC, stream density, and TWI are the top five influential conditioning factors. Full article

This paper is part of an ongoing research study on developing a methodology for the low-cost creation of the Digital Twin of an urban neighborhood for sustainable, transparent, and participatory urban management to enable low-and middle-income economies to meet the UN Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 successfully and timely, in particular SDGs 1, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 12. The methodology includes: (1) the creation of a geospatial data infrastructure by merging Building Information Models (BIMs) and 3D cadastral data that may support a number of applications (i.e., visualization of 3D volumetric legal entities), and (2) the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms, Machine Learning (ML), and sensors that are interconnected with devices located in the various property units to test and predict future scenarios and support energy efficiency applications. Two modular platforms are created: (1) to interact with the AI sensors for building tracking and management purposes (i.e., alarms, security cameras, control panels, etc.) and (2) to analyze the energy consumption data such as future predictions, anomaly detection, and scenario making. A case study is made for an urban neighborhood in Athens. It includes a dynamic weather simulation and visualization of different seasons and times of day in combination with internal energy consumption. Full article

The recent rise in the applications of advanced technologies in the sustainable design and construction of transportation infrastructure demands an appropriate medium for their integration and utilization. The relatively new concept of Civil Integrated Management (CIM) is such a medium; it enhances the development of digital twins for infrastructure and also embodies various practices and tools, including the collection, organization, and data-management techniques of digital data for transportation infrastructure projects. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of advanced CIM tools and technologies and categorizes its findings into the following research topics: application of advanced surveying methods (Advanced Surveying); geospatial analysis tools for project planning (Geospatial Analysis); multidimensional virtual design models (nD Modeling); Integrated Geospatial and Building Information Modeling (GeoBIM); and transportation infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation planning (Asset Management). Despite challenges such as modeling complexity, technology investment, and data security, the integration of GIS, BIM, and artificial intelligence within asset-management systems hold the potential to improve infrastructure’s structural integrity and long-term performance through automated monitoring, analysis, and predictive maintenance during its lifetime. Full article

Crowdsourced spatial analytics is a rapidly developing field that involves collecting and analyzing geographical data, utilizing the collective power of human observation. This paper explores the field of spatial data analytics and crowdsourcing and how recently developed tools, cloud-based GIS, and artificial intelligence (AI) are being applied in this domain. This paper examines and discusses cutting-edge technologies and case studies in different fields of spatial data analytics and crowdsourcing used in a wide range of industries and government departments such as urban planning, health, transportation, and environmental sustainability. Furthermore, by understanding the concerns associated with data quality and data privacy, this paper explores the potential of crowdsourced data while also examining the related problems. This study analyzes the obstacles and challenges related to “geospatial crowdsourcing”, identifying significant limitations and predicting future trends intended to overcome the related challenges. Full article

In response to the urgent global threat posed by human-induced extreme climate hazards, heatwaves are still systematically under-reported and under-researched in Thailand. This region is confronting a significant rise in heat-related mortality, which has resulted in hundreds of deaths, underscoring a pressing issue that needs to be addressed. This research article is one of the first to present a solution for assessing heatwave dynamics, using machine learning (ML) algorithms and geospatial technologies in this country. It analyzes heatwave metrics like heatwave number (HWN), heatwave frequency (HWF), heatwave duration (HWD), heatwave magnitude (HWM), and heatwave amplitude (HWA), combining satellite-derived land surface temperature (LST) data with ground-based air temperature ($T_{\mathrm{air}}$) observations from 1981 to 2019. The result reveals significant marked increases in both the frequency and intensity of daytime heatwaves in peri-urban areas, with the most pronounced changes being a 0.45-day/year in HWN, a 2.00-day/year in HWF, and a 0.27-day/year in HWD. This trend is notably less pronounced in urban areas. Conversely, rural regions are experiencing a significant escalation in nighttime heatwaves, with increases of 0.39 days/year in HWN, 1.44 days/year in HWF, and 0.14 days/year in HWD. Correlation analysis ($p<0.05$) reveals spatial heterogeneity in heatwave dynamics, with robust daytime correlations between $T_{\mathrm{air}}$ and LST in rural (HWN, HWF, HWD, $r>0.90$) and peri-urban (HWM, HWA, $r>0.65$) regions. This study emphasizes the importance of considering microclimatic variations in heatwave analysis, offering insights for targeted intervention strategies. It demonstrates how enhancing remote sensing with ML can facilitate the spatial–temporal analysis of heatwaves across diverse environments. This approach identifies critical risk areas in Thailand, guiding resilience efforts and serving as a model for managing similar microclimates, extending the applicability of this study. Overall, the study provides policymakers and stakeholders with potent tools for climate action and effective heatwave management. Furthermore, this research contributes to mitigating the impacts of extreme climate events, promoting resilience, and fostering environmental sustainability. Full article

The potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in agriculture for improving crop yields and reducing the use of water, fertilizers, and pesticides remains a challenge. The goal of this work was to introduce Hyperfidelis, a geospatial software package that provides a comprehensive workflow that includes imagery visualization, feature extraction, zonal statistics, and modeling of key agricultural traits including chlorophyll content, yield, and leaf area index in a ML framework that can be used to improve food security. The platform combines a user-friendly graphical user interface with cutting-edge machine learning techniques, bridging the gap between plant science, agronomy, remote sensing, and data science without requiring users to possess any coding knowledge. Hyperfidelis offers several data engineering and machine learning algorithms that can be employed without scripting, which will prove essential in the plant science community. Full article