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The aim of this master thesis has been to answer the question: How can a vario-scale IMGeo be designed and developed by applying the constrained tGAP structure with Top10NL as initial constraint? This research has been done under authority of Gemeentewerken Rotterdam and TU Delft. For Gemeentewerken Rotterdam the main goal is to investigate the possibilities of automatic generalisation based on their project "Basisregistratie Geografie", for TU Delft the main goal is to see the concept of the constrained tGAP structure being investigated. The models IMGeo, a new large scale topographical standard in The Netherlands, and Top10NL, the authentic registration for medium scale topography in The Netherlands, are both derived from NEN 3610; they form the basis for the generalisation in this research. The main differences are explained by their backgrounds. IMGeo originates from the GBKN, whereas Top10NL is based on Top10Vector. The fact that these models are not made cooperatively is bad luck for this research; no object class hierarchy could be made from these models, because there are object classes in Top10NL which don't even exist in IMGeo. The Top10NL object classes therefore can't be seen as a generalisation of the object classes of IMGeo. The generalisation approach in this research was the constrained tGAP structure, a concept from the universities of Hannover and Delft. In this research IMGeo objects were assigned to Top10NL regions. Four possible methods to assign IMGeo objects to Top10NL regions were developed: - Simple overlay method. An intersection between the models where every IMGeo object is split at the borders of the overlapping Top10NL object. In the end result only Top10NL geometry will be visible. - The maximum area method. The Top10NL object which overlaps the IMGeo object the most is the shape to which the whole IMGeo object is assigned to. The IMGeo geometry is kept in this method. - The 35%-split method. If an IMGeo object belongs for more than 35% to two Top10NL objects we consider this Top10NL geometry as enrichment of the structure; therefore the IMGeo object is split and a new IMGeo object is created. For all IMGeo objects that don't have two Top10NL objects overlapping for more than 35% the maximum area method is applied. - The building first method. This method assigns IMGeo-buildings to a building region in case of some overlap with a Top10NL building without considering the amount of overlap. The other IMGeo objects are selected as in the maximum area method. The building first method has been developed because the results of the maximum area method and the 35%-split method were unsatisfying. This building first method gives the best results of the four methods. With this method further research was done. For the test dataset from the municipality of Almere class weights and class compatibilities have been derived, which are input values for the tGAP structure. This has been done after tuning the weights and compatibilities of the constrained tGAP structure and comparing the end result to the Top10NL dataset. Final conclusion of this report is that the constrained tGAP absolutely offers possibilities for automatic generalisation from large to medium scale data. However, the amount of pre-processing of the data and the state of development of the tGAP structure are reasons for a governmental organisation like Gemeentewerken Rotterdam to not yet develop a product like this. A topological structure of the models might possibly solve these problems. Cooperation between researching parties, industrial parties and governmental organisations in projects like DURP Ondergronden could be a good opportunity to develop a vario-scale IMGeo as described in this report.

he increasing availability of digital camera devices and camera phones enable users to capture and upload digital photos at any a time and any place. Online image collections face the problem organizing increasing photo collections. Because users experience adding qualitative photo annotations as a time-consuming and tedious task, they omit to do it. However, good photo annotation is very important for fast and reliable photo retrieval. The integration of positioning devices (e.g. GPS) with digital camera enables to capture position along with the photo and this location metadata has been applied in previous research to automatically caption digital photos. The disadvantage of describing a photo using location metadata only is that it only enables to add information about its surrounding and not about the actual objects pictured. This research carried out in the framework of the EU research project Tripod assumes in the near future camera devices integrated with GPS and digital compass will be available. Using this full spatial metadata, it is possible to exactly identify and localize objects inside the pictured scene. Digital photos with 3D position and view direction are collected on the Market Square in Delft (The Netherlands) using a Topcon imaging total station and Nikon D100 camera mounted with digital 3-axis compass and GPS to carry out a proof-of-concept. Using the output of a perspective viewer service, a tool that renders an three-dimensional model, a virtual abstraction that matches the digital photo is created to be able to identify and localize visible objects in order to place a label next to it. The three-dimensional models applied for this research are created from conventional GIS datasets (e.g. TOP10NL and GBKN) and a digital elevation model (AHN) by extruding the building footprints. The best possible for a label is defined at the empty areas and constraints and rules are added to ESRI ArcGIS label Engine Maplex to carry out the label placement inside the digital photo in a GIS environment. Misidentification and misplacement due to lens distortions, and GPS and compass inaccuracies are evaluated. A demo-application is developed in ESRI ArcGIS using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming and system architecture is proposed for implementation of a photo labelling service. It is concluded that the virtual scenes as output of perspective viewer services are appropriate to apply for object identification and localization. In doing so, the problem of label placement in three-dimensional geographic environments is reduced to a two-dimensional map-labelling problem. The best location of label placement is determined using constraints and rules to be applied to the virtual scene and the reclassified-to-binary image of the input photo, and the depth map enables to vary in label font size depending on the object distance.

Traditional cadastre is based on division of land into 2D surface parcels, upon which ownership rights are subsequently registered. Nevertheless, the rights to a parcel are always in 3D as land use would be impossible if confined only to the 2D flat surface. However, most 2D registrations are found to be adequate as long as the whole column of space (cujus est solum ejus est usque ad coelum et ad inferos) belongs to a person or a ground of persons. Intensive use of land and technological advances have made it possible to have many different types of uses simultaneously above and below one another. Examples of such multiple use of space (or stratified properties) include the apartment complex, tunnel, utility cable and pipeline criss-crossing under the surface and underground mining. The legal situations in such stratified properties can no longer be portrayed effectively on flat surfaces, as several persons, either as owner(s) or rights or interests holders, now hold the same parcel of land simultaneously. The introduction of the third dimension (hence the so-called 3D cadastre) is deemed necessary in order to provide efficient means to register and to provide the legal status of these factual situations as in the real world. Cadastre is always related to land. Being an essential tool in administering the man-land relationship, it is continually evolving in response to the dynamic nature of this relationship within the particular society. As a developing nation, the choice of an appropriate Malaysian 3D Cadastre depends upon its local conditions. It should be able to protect land rights effectively, efficiently, simply, securely and affordably

The master of science thesis project called "The Land Administration Domain Model 'Survey Package' and Model Driven Architecture" will be described and concluded in this report. The main subjects for the research are the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM), specifically the Survey Package, dealing with survey measurements. Secondly, the Model Driven Architecture (MDA), a software design methodology to generate platform specific information systems based on platform independent models, specified in the Unified Modelling Language (UML) and the Object Constraint Language (OCL). A custom developed MDA Prototype has been developed, aiming at the implementation of the Adapted LADM 'Survey Package' in a PostgreSQL/PostGIS object-relational database. Thirdly, an analysis of the quality of the Dutch cadastral map is performed, based on data loaded into this the Adapted LADM 'Survey Package' PostGIS database.

This thesis is about the visualization of a Tetrahedral Irregular Network (TEN) in a web client. A tetrahedron is the simplest geometric form in 3D space, a pyramid with a triangular ground face. Its four points can lie anywhere in the 3D space as long as they do not lie on one plane. 3D objects can be composed from multiple tetrahedra. In a fully partitioned TEN even air and soil are modeled with tetrahedra. Most GIS analyses on a TEN can be deducted to an operation on the triangle simplex, therefore 3D analysis on A TEN is relatively easy compared to analysis on another 3D data structures. Chapter one (Introduction) gives an overview of the background of the research, the objectives, the requirements and the research methodology. In Chapter two (Data models for 3D geo-information) the theory around 3D data modeling is given. It starts with an explanation of the 3D feature components. In the next part, there is a comparison of 3D data representations and 3D data models and a conclusion is drawn why the TEN is the best data model. In the next paragraphs, theory on the TEN data models is given as well as theory on the derived 3D TIN and ‘TEN view’ data model. In addition, this chapter gives information how to build up a TEN dataset, about 3D topology and a comparison is made how 3D spatial (TEN) data can be stored in a database. Chapter three (Prototype related technology) gives information about XML based standards to exchange and visualize 3D and 2D data and about any other technologies that are used in the prototype made for this thesis. In Chapter four (Review of 3D GIS applications on the web) a number of 3D web GIS prototypes are discussed which have been created in the last decennium. In addition to a description of them, the prototypes are compared on a number of features and a feasibility review is done of each prototype. Some prototypes are picked out and a conclusion is made which are the best prototype examples for the development of the prototype of this thesis. In Chapter five (Prototype architecture) first the preliminary draft of the prototype is discussed. Secondly, the chapter gives a schematic overview of the realized architecture and a description of the main components and techniques of the prototype. Thirdly, the steps that have been taken over time to develop the prototype are listed. In Chapter six (Prototype components, dataset and techniques) first each component of the prototype web application is described which are a 3D view, a 2D view, a Table view, a Titlebar and an SQL box. Secondly, information is given about the datasets that have been used. Thirdly, each technique used in the prototype is explained in detail In addition some techniques that are not implemented in the prototype are discussed too. Chapter seven (Evaluation and conclusion) starts with an evaluation. First, a comparison is made which XML based language is best for 3D TEN visualization: X3D, KML, or CityGML. Secondly is reviewed in which way the data can best be stored in the database. Thirdly is compared whether it is best to visualize the TEN, 3D TIN, or TEN view. As fourth, the architecture is discussed. In the next part of Chapter six (Summary and conclusion) each sub question as stated in the Chapter one is answered. In addition, an answer is given on the main research question. Finally, remarks are made regarding feature research and recommendations.

Infrastructure is not only the hardware but encompass many more, such as the people involved. The geographic component of the information gives it extra value, but generating it is very costly. There are many different definitions of GII and it is useful to identify the vital components of which a GII consists. Based on the four GIS dimensions, humanware, orgaware, infoware and technoware different components of a GII can be identified. GII consists of dynamic conditions and possibilities offered to various types of users to generate, share, access, and use geographic information. The infrastructure consists of technical standards, the physical infrastructure, an institutional framework, a financial basis and awareness at the decision making and management levels. GIIs operate at different levels: from corporate to global. The final purpose to develop a GII is to improve decision making. Decisions require information and an optimal GII facilitates the access to current and accurate geographic information. Within governmental organizations the obligated authentic registers will be of increasing importance for the GII. DURP stands for digital exchangeable spatial planning and is setup to modernize the spatial planning process by the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment. The objectives of the stimulation programme are to make the spatial planning process more effective and efficient through digitalizing of the development, use and exchange of spatial plans, as well as to improve the involvement of citizens and to make the process more transparent. Municipalities are not yet obligated to digitize their local land use plans, but new legislation in the near future is suspected to change this. Digital exchangeable spatial plans consist mainly of geographic information and are used by a lot of users within the municipal organization. Spatial planning on the local level, municipalities, is of great importance. Municipalities are responsible for developing local land use plans, which can be very detailed and have strong judicial value. That is why it is important to have the most up to date local land use plan. The relation between GII and DURP is clearly noticeable here. The characteristics of this relation is the scope of the research. The integration of DURP within a GII will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the use and development of the spatial plans within the municipal organization. Besides this the existence of a GII could influence the implementation of DURP, as well as DURP could influence the implementation or development of a GII. Between the different municipalities there are strong differences in the implementation of DURP. This all leads to the following research question: How does the implementation and development of geographic information infrastructure within the municipal organization relate to the implementation and development of digital exchangeable spatial plans? Municipal organizations consist of two parts: the political and the official organization. The official organization is usually organized according to the concern model. Specialized decentralized sectors and on top a central concern staff and facilitating services. The sectors are each responsible for specific problem areas, for instance economy or social welfare. Currently most of the municipalities are developing from a company-orientated organization, where the focus is on results and performance to an environmentorientated organization, where the focus is on output and process. ‘Turn over’ of the organization or decompartmentalization of the sectors is needed to be able to serve the citizens in a better way. Based on the two models of Graafland (1993) and Kok and van Loenen (2005), stages of development of geographic information provision within municipalities are identified. Currently most municipalities are developing from the stages ‘local control’ to ‘infrastructure development’ defined by Graafland. Local control is characterized by a development of standards, slight awareness for cooperation and the management level gets involved and tries to formalize internal relations. Infrastructure development is characterized by a start of authentic registers, change of organization and a more top down approach to support development of infrastructure. This transition is a shift from demand driven to supply driven and from controlled bottom-up to controlled top-down. The corresponding stages of the GII development model are from the end of the ‘stand alone’ stage, to ‘exchange and standardization on technical level’ and to the beginning of the stage ‘intermediary’. Finally, when considering information provision within municipal organizations it all turns down to the field of tension between a sector and a corporate approach. The implementation and development of DURP is researched in the selected municipalities. The start of DURP is mainly triggered by external events. Together with the digitizing and making exchangeable of the local land use plans comes standardization. The Information Model Spatial Planning (IMRO) is developed to offer each municipality the same set of standards. Although the IMRO standards leave space open for own interpretation, it is a first step in improving the spatial planning. Many of the investigated municipalities initiated the digitizing together with updating of outdated plans. Municipalities are covered by a large amount of local land use plans, often more than 200. Many plans are joined together, to approximately 30 or 40, and the current situation is recorded. The plans are lay down in object-based geographic information files, in which the regulations and explanations are linked to the planned objects. These projects are mostly supported by the GII coordinating department to help implementing the object-based method of working, together with the ICT department which supports the acquiring and integration of the software. Redesigning of the work processes within the development of a local land use plan and setting up managerial control for the continuation of the standard processes and output are important factors for a successful implementation of DURP. This research did not reveal an observable pattern between the level of development of GII and DURP within the investigated municipalities. The relation must especially be found in human and organizational aspects. Knowledge at the GII coordinating departments has in many cases supported the setup of the digitizing of spatial plans. The object-based method of working, familiar to the GIS community, has caused a culture shock within the departments responsible for spatial planning. Another human aspect is the awareness for sharing geographic information. The possibility of other departments to consult spatial plans through the GII will motivate them to share geographic information as well and to keep the information up-to-date. The vital standardization needed for the digitizing of the spatial plans can be used as an example towards other work processes and information sources. For the generation and dissemination of information through a GII, it is important that all the work processes are optimal designed for the exchange and use of geographic information. Exchange requires standardization. Although there is no relation between the development of the two aspects, GII and DURP are certainly intertwined with each other. The information generated by digital spatial planning is often shared through the GII and a lot of the information required within the spatial planning process is obtained through the GII. In most of the researched municipalities, DURP is integrated within the GII. In other words the GII facilitates an important part of the input and output of information within the spatial planning process.

The knowledge of the transportation mode used in a movement trajectory (derived in form of timestamped positions) is critical for applications such as travel behaviour studies. This thesis presents a method for segmenting movement data into single-mode segments and their classification with respect to the used transportation mode. The method relies on concepts found in expert systems, most notably membership functions, fuzzy logic, and certainty factors. A prototype, which may serve as a framework for managing travel behaviour surveys has been built in order to validate the presented theories and to classify the available test dataset. The transportation modes that this system classifies are walking, bicycle, tram, car, bus, train, underground, sailing boat, ferry, and aircraft. This research also investigates the performance of OpenStreetMap data in solving this problem. This free source of geodata proved to be crucial for the classification, where the ten transportation modes are discerned with various indicators mostly derived from the geodata, for instance, the proximity of the trajectory to the tram network and the information whether the movement has been made on a water surface or not. The classification relies on eliminating unlikely transportation modes by values set with a number of empirically derived fuzzy membership functions, and by using the selected combination of indicators it is possible to distinguish in between transportation modes which exhibit a similar behaviour (e.g. a car and bus in urban areas). Finally, the classification results are attached with a certainty value. The results are supplemented with additional mode-related information, e.g. the name of the departure train station. The segmentation has been done by detecting potential transition points between two transportation modes as brief stops. After each segment between consecutive potential transition points is classified, adjacent segments with the same classification outcome are merged (and removing the transition point in between), and keeping only the actual transition points where the transportation modes had been changed. The method solves the problem with noisy data, and traffic congestions which bias the indicators by using additional statistic values. The classification of gaps in the data (e.g. caused by a signal shortage during the logging of a trajectory) derived satisfying results, and segments with only their starting and ending point have been successfully classified. Thanks to the coverage of the OpenStreetMap data, in this research trajectories located outside the Netherlands (e.g. Norway and Denmark) have been segmented and classified as well. The accuracy of the classification with the developed prototype, determined with the comparison of the classified results with the reference data derived from manual classification, is 91.6 percent.

Planar partitions (subdivisions of the plane into polygonal areas) constitute one of the most important data representations in GIS. They are used to model concepts as varied as land use, administrative units, natural features and cadastral parcels, among many others. However, since polygons are often stored separately, different errors and inconsistencies are introduced during their creation, manipulation (both manual and automatic) and exchange. These come in the form of invalid polygons, gaps, overlaps and disconnected polygons, which severely hampers their use in other software. Existing approaches to solve this problem usually involve polygon repair using a list of constraints, and complex planar partition repair operations performed on a planar graph. However, these have many shortcomings in terms of complexity, numerical robustness and difficulty of implementation. Moreover, they leave many invalid cases untouched. To solve this problem, a novel method to validate and automatically repair planar partitions has been developed. It uses a constrained triangulation of the polygons as a base, which being by definition a planar partition, means that only relatively simple operations are needed to ensure that the output becomes valid. Point locations are maintained throughout the process, while fully automatic repair is possible using customisable criteria. This approach is also extensible to individual polygons, is capable of handling a larger variety of cases and has good performance compared to existing alternatives; all of this with numerical robustness and maintaining topological consistency throughout. In order to analyse, test and improve the developed algorithms, and encourage further development, a fast and efficient implementation has been written in C++, which has been tested with several large data sets and compared with other available software, regarding both performance and functionality. This prototype is able to successfully repair planar partitions of more than 100,000 polygons. It is also open source and freely available on the GDMC website (http://www.gdmc.nl/).

Disasters caused by human action or nature are part of life. Preventing disasters from occurring is often not possible. Lives can be saved or lost depending on our response to the disaster. Determining the fastest route to the people in need is therefore important. The determination of this fastest route is however not straight forward, since the environment the route is determined in has become chaotic as a result of the disaster. In this research attention focuses on ways to take the circumstances in the environment into consideration in an automated way. A distinction is made between changes that can be predicted and changes that cannot be predicted. Based on literature the latter turns out to be done best by choosing a process of re-evaluating the route determined. Based on the degree of dynamism a static, semi-static, iterative or dynamic approach can be taken to this re-evaluation. In a static approach the route is determined only once based on the most current information at that time. When the circumstances change re-evaluation of that determined route can take place every time a change occurs (semi-static), every couple of minutes (iterative) or constantly (dynamic). In this research a preference was given to use a combination between the semi-static and the iterative approach. This results in a re-evaluation after a number of changes have occurred and if there are only little changes the re-evaluation should take place after a set time. The incorporation of predictions in the algorithm is a second focus area. By incorporating predictions one is able to anticipate changes to the network and take them into consideration in the route determination process. Incorporating predictions on plume movement and bridge openings and closings introduces also a need to balance between travelling extra kilometres and waiting. To investigate the implications of incorporating predictions into the routing process a routing algorithm was designed. The Dijkstra algorithm was adapted to read the closing times from a file and decide whether it is better to wait or take an alternative route. Tests show that the estimation of travel times are more accurate when these are created with the algorithm that incorporates predictions into the routing process. Based on this research it is concluded that using the adapted algorithm routes can be determined that will prove to be faster and safer than the result of a shortest path calculation based only on the travel costs in the network.

The goal of this research is to develop a 3D topological structure with validation functionality and a conversion function. Based on this research question, some sub questions have been defined and a research methodology. The outline of this research is elaborated in chapter 1. The first use of topology has been attributed to Euler in 1736, since then, topology has evolved in mathematics but also in GIS. Since the second half of the 20th century, 2D topological data structures are historically well established, with structures like TIGER and GBF/DIME. Several 3D topological structures have been developed as well. Most of them by researchers (for example 3D FDS and SSS). No commercial geo-DBMS has implemented a 3D topological structure, until recently. 1Spatial has developed a 3D topological structure. This structure has been analyzed among other 2D and 3D structures (chapter 2). It is clear that the existing structures differ a lot. Some structures maintain a 3D primitive while others do not. Orientation is stored in different ways, the same applies for geometry and singularities. Some structures have quite some redundancy, while other structures have only a few relationships stored explicitly, which makes maintaining the structure harder. In spite of the many differences, the characteristics of, both 2D and 3D, topological structures are based on the same aspects: dimension, partition (including the universe), primitives (including their relationships), orientation, singularities and geometrical realization. Based on these main aspects, the requirements for the topological structure are defined in chapter 3 and a conceptual model is designed. The model consist of four primitives, which are related to each other by their (co)boundary relationships. These boundary relationships exact a full space partition, where every primitive involved, is part of a volume primitive. No isolated and dangling primitives are allowed. Next to the boundaries, especially the rings and the shells, orientation plays an important role within a topological structure and the geometrical realization. Single geometries have their dvantages, therefore single geometries and topological structures should be used together. Once the structure has been defined, validation rules need to be set. In order to validate a 3D topological structure, the involved volumes must be valid as well as the whole structure, which means the relationships between the volumes. Since no single definition of a valid 3D primitive is available, the rules are based on a few existing validation functions for 3D single geometries. No 3D topological validation function exists at the moment. Once the rules for a valid structure are set (chapter 4), the structure has been implemented into Oracle Spatial. The validation rules are translated into validation tests and implemented on this structure (chapter 5), as well as the geometry operations. In chapter 6, the structure, validation tests and geometry operations are tested with a test data set and evaluated.

This Master of Science thesis states the taxonomy of functionalities and the visual materials of geo-virtual environments for the visualization of urban projects. The core of this visualization thesis is based on a requirement analysis process using the software approach of Requirement Engineering. It contains two important aspects. The requirement analysis part of the thesis identifies the functionalities that can be used in visual interaction between actors in the planning process. The second aspect of the thesis investigates the use of visual materials in geo-virtual environments to visualize the different planning phases of urban development. The relationship between the urban planning phases and the use of multi-dimensionality, realism and Levels of Detail (LoD) in models has been established here. Through observation, the thesis has analyzed the relationship between the use of visual materials and the human perception to understand them. Moreover, it has stated a process to create 3D base models on the basis of geo-data through widely used GIS software. The thesis elaborates the functionality domains of geo-virtual environments through the introduction of the construction, capabilities, experiencing, controlling, use, exploration and components functionalities. This taxonomy is achieved through the analysis of requirements of specific Dutch municipalities. These functionalities can be used for collaborative design process by the municipalities and facilitate visual interaction with actors like citizens. Based on the requirement analysis, the thesis sheds light on the knowledge-gap with regards to the classification of functionalities and visual materials. It uses scientific methods,

This research deals with the problem of the enormous amounts of data that is streaming from the ‘sensor web’ into our computer systems. This data is useless to us unless it is properly stored, queried and presented by means of computer systems. These are typically databases, query engines, applications and user interfaces. In particular the manner how data is stored in a database determines what information you can retrieve from the system. This is widely known when it comes to traditional relational databases, however when complex data structures such as spatial, temporal and spatio-temporal structures are involved the user of sensor data simply lacks an understanding of this issue. This thesis work addresses this problem by designing a prototype of an expert system that automatically makes the selection of an appropriate technical solution based on information entered by the user of sensor data. For the design of this prototype, techniques coming from Geo Information science are combined with those from Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science. The Artificial Intelligence techniques used are the building of an ontology and the use of a reasoning system and rule engine. These techniques, called semantic techniques, are typically useful for storing concepts and relations, querying them and drawing conclusions from them. These techniques are compared with one modelling method commonly used in software engineering, namely UML. The prototype that was built enables the user to enter requirements for the question to be posed upon the sensor data, as well as information about the structure of the data set used. The prototype also contains knowledge of existing technical solutions as well as features of space, time and space-time. A logical component then decides which technical solution is selected based on the information entered by the user. For the logical component two different semantic technologies were possible. One is the use of a reasoner. The other solution is a rule engine. Both solutions were implemented and this resulted in two prototypes, the JessTabDemo and the ReasonerDemo. The capabilities of the two prototypes were evaluated against the predefined prototype requirements. The conclusion was drawn that neither solution satisfied every predefined requirement. For reasons of comparison an imaginary solution based on UML was envisioned. This solution also did not satisfy every predefined requirement. This research concludes therefore that the envisioned instrument can best be built with a combination of UML and semantic technologies. It remains a challenge for the future to combine static solutions, such as databases, with dynamic ones such as ontologies.

The coalition agreement of the current Dutch government describes four policy changes which should improve the accessibility of the social housing market for low incomes. The effects of these policy changes are unknown due to unpredictable housing move behaviour of households. A system dynamics model, taking this unpredictability into account, was created to explore the effects of the policy changes till 2020. Latin Hypercube simulations suggest that the allocation of low income households to the social housing sector improves, while the uncertainty ranges of absolute number of low income households of in the social housing sector do not differentiate among scenarios. The model can be improved by adding a detailed owner occupied market to the model, to provide a more complete overview of the effects of the policy changes.

The notion of terroir covers the interaction between the natural, the cultural conditions and the grape vine itself relative to the character of the final wine product. It is about a dynamic chain whose factors get different weights in each wine region and this results in the typicality of the different terroir wine products. The Old World wine regions have been for many years occupied with the terroir research in order to explain the uniqueness and the specificities of their wine products. Nowadays, more and more wine regions are interested in such kind of investigations in order to highlight their distinct products, expose their originality and get a place in the wine market. DOQ Priorat is located in South Catalonia in Spain and is a wine region that has recently been nominated a label of originality for its products. Such a denomination made the region’s cultivators interested to learn more about the natural conditions of the area in a try to explain the success of their products and with the prospect to preserve the quality of their wines. In these terms, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), providing the ability for spatial, statistical analysis and visualisation, have been considered important tools for the DOQ Priorat’s natural conditions’ analysis and diverse terroir investigation. Previous research has indicated topography, the soil properties and the climate of a region to define the natural conditions of a region and therefore being the factors of interest/effect in the wine terroir. These three factors can be described by specific attributes. For instance, elevation and ground inclination for topography, PH and texture for soil, temperature and precipitation for climate. The distribution of such attributes and many others that characterize the aforementioned natural conditions, has been studied in the DOQ Priorat territory in order to examine the resemblance of the DOQ Priorat vine growing conditions to the conditions that are considered beneficial from international research. The correspondence of the DOQ Priorat conditions to the standards for vine growing has been treated by means of a multivariate GIS analysis. The DOQ Priorat topographic and soil attributes have been evaluated relative to their suitability for vine growing and different suitability classes have been defined. Moreover, the growing season temperature distribution and its capability to define conditions of viability for specific grape varieties, has been used to define two major terroir units in DOQ Priorat. The suitability of the DOQ Priorat land for cultivation of specific varieties has been assessed through the topographic-soil composite suitability in relation to the teroir units defined. DOQ Priorat’s greatest extend has been classified in intermediate and intermediate to high vine growing suitability classes relative to its topography and soil conditions. The shallow and dry soils as well as the steep slopes visited in the area seem to contradict to what is considered beneficial for vine growing. In terms of climate however, the whole area presents ideal conditions for a wide variety of grape cultivations whereas most of these varieties proposed to fit the area are already cultivated today. Even though the current vineyard cultivations still present conditions of intermediate and intermediate-high suitability relative to what is considered beneficial from international vine growing research, the quality of the wines produced in DOQ Priorat is indisputable; there are therefore some unique features in the DOQ Priorat terroirs. The DOQ Priorat vines are cultivated in higher elevations and in soils shallower and less fine textured than what is considered to fit for vine growing internationally. That is what gives the DOQ Priorat wines their unique character and these are finally the conditions that are considered ideal for Priorat wines. Such a conclusion, leads to the confirmation of the dynamic nature of terroir, whose factors and attributes cannot be strictly defined and quantified for every wine region. New vine growing standards could be defined for several wine regions relative to their specificities whereas it is mostly the try, the result and the experience that define good and bad terroirs. The DOQ Priorat case has been a very nice example of a region going against the vine cultivation pattern whereas obtaining high quality and recognised wine products.

Managing uncertainties in practice differs from the suggested uncertainty management approach in the (scientific) literature. Uncertainty managers are not aware of the many tools and techniques that are available to manage uncertainties in their projects. They deal with uncertainties in a rather implicit way with varying success. Furthermore it appeared that there is a strong emphasis on (financial) risks rather than opportunities in practice and (to a less extent) in literature. This research identified some major problematic discrepancies between uncertainty management in practice and theory. These discrepancies are interrelated and lie at the root of a fundamental deadlock between project, politics and management. Breaking through this deadlock can only be achieved step by step with the support of practice as well as science. Close cooperation between practice and the academic world is recommended, but further research will have to show how a culture shift can take place on a wider scale.

Nowadays the field of geo-information is undergoing major changes, and the transition from 2D to 3D is having a major influence. A significant amount of 3D datasets are stored in the database. Experts are aware that new quality control mechanisms need to be built into the database systems in order to secure and guarantee high-performing data. Constraints are effective in providing solutions needed to avoid errors and enable maintenance of data quality. Whereas constraints for 2D geographic datasets have already been the subject of several research projects, studies into 3D geo-data constraints are largely unexplored. This thesis research discovers a new approach to model, conceptualise and implement 3D geo-constraints which can function in the database. At the outset, constraints can be formulated using natural language. As natural language is subjective and varies between individuals, expressions can be ambiguous and can easily cause confusion. So spatial constraints are abstracted using geometry that depicts the exact shape, and also topology that reveals the spatial relationship between geometries. This step makes the meaning of a constraint clearer to others. Furthermore, using standardised UML diagrams and OCL expressions, geo-constraints can be formalised to an extent that not only humans, but also machines can understand them. With model-driven architecture supported by various softwares, OCL expressions can be automatically converted to other models/executable codes (e.g. PL/SQL) just by a few clicks. And with small modifications, database triggers can be formulated to carry out constraints check. A database including various topographic objects (e.g. buildings, trees, roads, grass, water-bodies and terrains) is used as a study case to apply the discovered approach. During this research, a first attempt to formulate 3D geo-constraints in OCL has been made. These expressions can be tested and translated to other models/implementations when the OCL standard is extended with spatial types and operations. In the implementation stage, the current 3D functions in Oracle Spatial database are found to be insufficient. A new 3D function using existing 2D functions - plus additional code relating to computational geometry - has been developed by the author to bridge the gap. Based upon this function, a large group of spatial constraints which apply to objects in 3D space can be checked. Bentley Map and Python IDLE are used to test the performance of constraints as well as the visualisation of warning messages to clients. Database error messages are immediately displayed on the front-ends when a modification that does not satisfy a constraint is attempted to commit to the database. During the case study, new classes of constraints are also discovered. They are higher-level constraints, parameterised constraints, constraints allowing exceptional instances, extra-check rules to detect conflicting constraints and constraints relating to multi-scale representations.

This research explores from what organisational experiences and developments the Balearic Islands’ Spatial Data Infrastructures could benefit from Catalonia’s SDI. Four case studies are the basis of the research: the SDI of Catalonia (IDEC), the SDI of the Balearic Islands (IDEIB), the SDI of Mallorca (IDEmallorca) and the SDI of Menorca (IDEmenorca). The purpose of this research is because the Balearic Islands’ autonomous region is a subnational entity in the early phase of building a SDI. The archipelago is taking its first SDI steps and affronting the challenges that this supposes. Considering the IDEC won the eSDINet+ 2009 best practice award and because of the cultural and physical closeness the IDEC is considered the best SDI node from which the Balearic Islands SDI nodes could benefit from. However, there is also the danger of just copying the IDEC case. Further, there’s consideration of the uniqueness of each case study. Besides, it’s known the experience of one case leads to dilemmas because the nature of assessing SDIs is nontrivial. Therefore, during the research, there’s been consideration about the non-trivial aspects of the SDI assessment. The three important features considered in the non-trivial issue of SDIs are: ambiguity, multi-faceted nature and non-trivial SDI assessment with the need to cope with risk. The case study investigation method was performed for three reasons. First, to learn about the organisational status. Second, to answer “how” and “why” questions. And, third, it is an appropriate way to research the sub-national SDIs in the Balearic Islands and Catalonia. The responsibilities of all the case studies are to make the spatial information accessible for all the users. Then, the roles of all the case studies are public information distribution, link from IDEE to their node and participant in the IDEE. Among other organisation aspects the triangular organisational structure and the maturity matrix were investigated and analysed. Through the surveys it was found out there are various similarities and differences between the Balearic Islands’ and the Catalan triangular organisation structure and other organisational aspects. The IDEC, created in 2001, and the IDEIB, that began in 2007, are at the network GII stage and at the “internetwork” stage, respectively. Both have a similar triangular organisation structure based on their responsibilities. Further IDEmallorca, which started in 2008, is at the intermediary GII stage, and IDEmenorca, which also began in 2008, is at the exchange GII stage. Besides, both follow a similar triangular organisation pattern. After performing a SWOT analysis of the cases studies based on the eSDI-Net+ indicators and the survey answers it is possible to affirm the Balearic Islands SDI nodes have a series of common strengths. These common strengths are: enable value adding services, existing Geoportal and view services, openness with data services (WMS), processes to assess SDI use and user satisfaction, service performance measurements, training provided to staff, legal status of the SDI node organisations and SDI related documentation in Catalan. Then, the weaknesses that all the Balearic Islands SDI nodes need to solve, according to this research, are the lack of strategy and technology and data problems. Also, the IDEmallorca and the IDEmenorca need to solve the following constraints: lack of support of the Councils to the SDI node, inadequate resources and insufficient awareness, poor perception and lack of commitment. To solve these constraints the Balearic Islands SDIs can benefit from the experiences and developments of the IDEC. These experiences and developments are thirteen: learn from other experiences; importance of encouraging local entities; coordination and collaboration between the regional and local entities; sectorial approach; support of the SDI in the organisation; raise awareness on SDI benefits; more partnerships; digital information available; focus on end-users; system engineering point of view; consider project environment; eGovernment funding; total investment paid back in 6 months.

Navigation has become booming business recently. Well-known navigation services, such as TomTom, Garmin and Google Navigation, are dominating the market for outdoor, road based navigation. The fact that such applications are able to determine a location on a platform has always fascinated the author. Simple location determination is further utilized in specialized applications and functions, such as SportyPal, which logs the movements and interpolates several units, or the geotagging of photos. And so, this further piqued the interest to investigate matters in the indoor environment, as one has to look beyond what one sees. However, navigation as a word can also be used as a metaphor to describe one man’s life journey. How can one navigate as a human being? On the paths of life, one has to navigate through a web of complicated matters by fulfilling expectations and by making decisions that will influence your future. Decisions might be based on past experience and/or knowledge, there is no ‘turn back’ option, and things might heavily alter the path of life in unforeseen circumstances, both positive and negative. Navigation is then based on the abstract level. The author, too, almost navigated towards another direction. Unforeseen circumstances in the private life forced him to choose a different flow than intended. The result is this thesis project, in which much time and effort has been put. The author hopes that the thesis is readable and understandable. He hopes that every wise man should follow his own direction and that as such, navigation applications will contribute in making those decisions.

The possibility of an automatic object matching process in combination with a VGI (Volunteered Geographical Information) type of map has been explored in this research. TOP10NL, the topographic map of the Netherlands and OpenStreetMap (OSM), the VGI type of map have been chosen for this purpose. The object matching process in this research became more critical as OSM does not always follow strict rules. Therefore, to overcome the complications special care has been taken into account on the characteristics of these two datasets and have been incorporated in the object matching process. Knowledge from previous studies in this field has been explored and adapted in this study. As TOP10NL and OSM represent completely different type of datamodels, a schema translation had to be done to harmonise them. The average geometric accuracy of TOP10NL is ±2 meter, whereas the quality of OSM is uncertain over locations. Therefore the quality of the OSM dataset over the study areas was also judged before developing the object matching model by some quality measures of geographic maps. Only the quality measures ‘data lineage’, ‘completeness’ and ‘positional accuracy’ were considered in this study. The data lineage shows that both datasets share quite a large number of objects from the same origin. It was found that the road, railway and building objects were quite complete in the OSM dataset over the study areas whereas the water objects were quite incomplete. Because of the reliable data lineage of the OSM data over the Netherlands the positional accuracy of the OSM data were found to be quite good. Considering the geographic location and the importance four areas within the Netherlands were chosen for the experiments. The urbanised Delft and Rotterdam, semi-urbanised Dokkum and the rural part of Echt were selected for the experiments. The common features within both TOP10NL and OSM, which are road, building, water and railway, were considered for the experiments. Two different object matching models were developed for line and polygon objects. For both models the decision rule was developed considering the characteristics of the datasets used in this study. For line matching the decision rule was developed to make the list of best matched pairs by accumulating them in a step by step procedure, whereas a straight forward simple rule has been developed for polygon matching process. These models were verified with the different object class data of the different study areas. The accuracy was high and for more than 90% instances the correct match was found. In the road matching process it was possible to insert the ‘street names’ from the OSM database as an attribute in the road network database of TOP10NL. A number of matching tables have been formed for different cardinality of matched objects which may be useful in the future in an automatic updating process of TOP10NL and OSM.

For the creation of three-dimensional (3D) city models, extrusion of building footprints is widely applied. Extrusion results in block shaped buildings. The main problem with these 3D models is that they do not represent height differences within a building. This thesis presents a method to improve building footprints by subdivision into parts describing height differences and roof shapes. These improved building footprints are used for creating 3D models by separate extrusion of each of these parts. Applying this method results in 3D building models with multiple heights. Several subjects are discussed in this thesis: generalization, decomposition, segmentation, 3D geometry reconstruction and their validation. This research is based on the combination of two existing methods, one for generalization and decomposition of building footprints, and one for segmentation of point clouds. These methods are extended and problems are solved by including: (1) direction of lines, (2) best fitting line, (3) adjacent buildings, (4) preservation of holes, (5) handling of slant lines, (6) quality statistics and (7) validation. The existing generalization method creates topology errors which are reduced by including knowledge from adjacent buildings. Decomposed building footprints are merged based on the segmented point cloud. The resulting decomposition is a subdivision describing multiple roof shapes and height jumps, based on linear features in the building footprint. Reconstruction of the actual 3D geometry is performed by extrusion of the decomposition cells. The resulting reconstruction is a Level of Detail 1 (LoD) model with height differences. To test the usability of the improved footprints for reconstruction of a LoD2 model, parametric shape fitting is applied. These tests are executed using a small set of roof shapes proving the usability. All reconstructed 3D building geometries are validated using Oracle Spatial 11g. In order to analyze, test and improve the developed algorithms, a prototype is implemented in C++. This prototype is tested intensively with several real-world data sets. Results from these tests are proving proper functioning of the developed method and support the conclusions.