Journal of Zhejiang University SCIENCE
(ISSN 1009-3095, Monthly)

2005   Vol. 6A   No. 11   p.1235-1248

Spatial/temporal indexing and information visualization genre for environmental digital libraries

CHEN Su-shing^†1, GRUNWALD Sabine²

(¹Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA)
(²Department of Soil and Water Science, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA)
^†E-mail: suchen@cise.ufl.edu
Received Aug. 5, 2005; revision accepted Sept. 10, 2005

Abstract: Protecting and preserving our environmental systems require the ability to understand the spatio-temporal distribution of soils, parent material, topography, and land cover as well as the effects of human activities on ecosystems. Space-time modelling of ecosystems in an environmental digital library is essential for visualizing past, present, and future impacts of changes occurring within such landscapes (e.g., shift in land use practices). In this paper, we describe three novel features, spatio-temporal indexing, visualization, and geostatistical genre, for the environmental digital library, Environmental Visualization and Geographic Enterprise System (ENVISAGE), currently in progress at the University of Florida.

Key words: Spatio-temporal indexing, Geostatistics, GIS (Geographic Information System), Visualization, Environmental digital library, Spatio-temporal search
doi:10.1631/jzus.2005.A1235             CLC number: TP391