Elevation change is critical for choosing a route when bicycling. We detail an empirical study in which we comparatively evaluated three linear symbolization types (color hue, color-coded arrows, and elevation profiles) to depict elevation change in bicycle maps for two common bicycle route planning tasks: relative height detection and slope identification. Participants performed most accurately with the color-coded arrows for relative height detection tasks, whereas symbolization did not significantly influence map-use performance for slope identification. Participants preferred the elevation profile, in spite of their lowest performance with this method overall. Our rare empirical findings offer much needed new insights into the function and appropriateness of common elevation symbolization methods, specifically to identify elevation change in bicycle route planning tasks in urban areas where map display real estate is already very limited.

An empirical evaluation of three elevation change symbolization methods along routes in bicycle maps

This article explores the potential for creating personal visualization of participation in sports cycling as a design study. Examples show riders' personal narratives and performances relative to other participants in long-distance cycling events. Minimalist cartographic design is applied during the automatic generation of profile maps, which allows personal textual narratives to be attached to visualizations of 3D variations in terrain. Changes in relative position and time-in-hand data during mass participation events are shown as position charts, and animations of rider density over time are used to visualize the progress of larger groups of riders in an event. The designs focus on representing the aspects of participation that evoke an emotional response in an effort to engage users.

/pdf/visualizing-personal-progress-in-participatory-sports-ashkbm3hvd.pdf

Visualizing Personal Progress in Participatory Sports Cycling Events

This paper proposes elevation models to promote, evaluate, and compare various terrain representation techniques. Our goal is to increase the reproducibility of terrain rendering algorithms and tec...

Elevation models for reproducible evaluation of terrain representation

As relief influences disposition of all the other objects displayed on maps, terrain representation plays one of the key roles in the map creation process. Originally a manual technique, relief shading creates the three-dimensional effect and allows the user to read the terrain in an intuitive way. With the advent of digital elevation models (DEMs) analytical relief shading came into a wider use, since it is faster, requires less effort, and delivers reproducible results. In contrast to manual relief shading, however, it often lacks clarity when representing heterogeneous landscapes with diverse landforms. The aim of this work is to evaluate analytical hillshading methods against a set of landforms within an online survey. The responses revealed that the clear sky model performs best applied to most of the landforms included in the survey, in particular all the mountain and valley types. Cluster shading proved to work well for the mountainous and hilly areas but less so in the depiction of valleys. Texture shading and the multidirectional, oblique-weighted (MDOW) method deliver too much detail for most of the landforms presented. Glaciers were depicted in the best way using the aspect tool. For alluvial fans, the standard relief shading with custom lighting direction proved to work best compared to the other methods.

https://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/9/4/253/pdf

Comparison of Relief Shading Techniques Applied to Landforms

Assemblages of geomorphic units: A building block approach to analysis and interpretation of river character, behaviour, condition and recovery

Gray Earth is a new terrain dataset available at Natural Earth (NaturalEarthData. com), a NACIS-sponsored repository of free map data (Kelso 2009, Patterson 2012). Serving as a monochromatic counterpart to the site’s full-color terrain rasters, Gray Earth provides a worldwide depiction of landforms in grayscale. It comes in three resolutions that complement the 1:50and 1:10-million vector data also available at Natural Earth. In addition to a basic version showing features of the Earth’s land surface, visitors can also download deluxe versions that include supplemental ocean fills, bathymetric shading, and major rivers (Figure 1).

The Design of Gray Earth: A Monochrome Terrain Dataset of the World

A Technique for Encoding Elevation Changes Along a Route

Those thin lines emanating outward from the shore are the titular waterlines with which we will concern ourselves here. The ICA glossary (1973), one of the few modern references to the term, defines the term as lines representing water, drawn parallel with the edge of a water feature, which decrease in proximity and strength away from that edge. Christensen (2008), in his excellent primer on the history of waterlines, has shown that in contrast to their status today, they were once the work of well-paid specialists, important enough to consume a large share (18% by one of his estimates) of the budget for the production of European ordnance survey maps in the nineteenth century. Despite this significant expenditure, I can find no clear answer on Waterlines: Arguments for their Employment, Advice on their Generation

On Waterlines: Arguments for their Employment, Advice on their Generation

. Standard Elevation Models We propose the use of standard elevation models to evaluate and compare the quality of various relief shading and other terrain rendering techniques. These datasets will cover various landforms, be available at no cost to the user, and be free of common data imperfections such as missing data values, resampling artifacts, and seams. Datasets will be available at multiple map scales over the same geographic area for multi-scale analysis.

/pdf/standard-elevation-models-for-evaluating-terrain-3lo1l98rry.pdf

Daniel P. Huffman

Papers

Elevation models for reproducible evaluation of terrain representation

The Design of Gray Earth: A Monochrome Terrain Dataset of the World

A Technique for Encoding Elevation Changes Along a Route

On Waterlines: Arguments for their Employment, Advice on their Generation

Standard elevation models for evaluating terrain representation