Abstract. This study aims to assess surface urban heat islands (SUHIs) pattern over the city of Zagreb, Croatia, based on satellite (optical and thermal) remote sensing data. The spatio-temporal identification of SUHIs is analysed using the 12 sets of Landsat 8 imagery acquired during 2017 (in each month of the year). Vegetation cover within the city boundaries is extracted by using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) data fusion method on calculated three vegetation indices (VI): Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and Ratio Vegetation Index (RVI) for each set of bands. The first principal component was used to compute the land surface temperature (LST) and deductive Environmental Criticality Index (ECI). As expected, the relationship between LST and all VI scores shows a negative correlation and is most negative with RVI. The environmentally critical areas and the patterns of seasonal variations of the SUHIs in the city of Zagreb were identified based on the LST, ECI and vegetation cover. The city centre, an industrial area in the eastern part and an area with shopping centers and commercial buildings in the western part of the city were identified as the most critical areas.
Cartographic communication through crisis maps takes place in a unique environment characterised by the immediate risks of considerable loss and stress. Many such maps are designed by practitioners with limited resources, pressured for time, and who often fail to pay the necessary attention to map graphics. This can reduce map clarity and make orientation to and understanding of essential crisis information difficult. To identify the most frequent shortcomings that may compromise the interpretation of depicted objects, phenomena presented, and actions required, we assessed the map graphics of 106 maps specifically designed for communication and action in crises. The results showed that they were often visually overloaded. Crisis data were not conveyed by appropriate cartographic representations, and due to the inappropriate use of visual variables, the associative and selective properties of cartographic symbols were overlooked, and their ordered and quantitative features ignored. The use of colour was often not adapted to conventional visual language, and colour symbolism was not always taken into account. The cartographic symbols used were often incomprehensible, illegible, ambiguous, and unclassified, and they lacked symbolism and hierarchical organisation. The article aims to address these problems by proposing guidelines which do not require much time or expertise, but which would ensure that cartographically correct crisis maps are well designed. Objects, phenomena or actions specific to crisis management would be indicated using appropriate map graphics and their importance highlighted, so as to make interpretation easier for all participants in a crisis event, and so facilitate crisis communication and response.
Open data portals are web services that serve as a central access point for all government-published open data and can exist at local, regional, national, and international levels. They are an important element of most open data initiatives that have enabled a large amount of government data to be widely available. However, data quantity and quality are not the only aspects that should be considered when publishing data. To improve the reusability of data and to achieve greater impact and benefits from open data, it is important to consider user-oriented aspects of the portal management, discovery, and use of data (e.g., organizing the portal in a user-centric way, providing accurate metadata, using a standardized and open data format, etc.). In this paper, we adopted the metrics proposed by the European Commission to assess compliance of the Croatian Open Data Portal with 10 user-oriented principles that open data portals should implement in terms of sustainability and added value. While the results show the government’s efforts in publishing data, some aspects such as better collaboration with data providers and other data portals, offering different visualization tools, etc. need to be improved to achieve active use and impact.
Mines remaining from the Homeland War are a huge problem in Croatia. The joint work of experts in humanitarian demining and military doctrines in certain geographical areas, and scientists of various profiles, has resulted in a concept for producing mine danger maps, which show areas and levels of potential hazards from mines, i.e. suspected hazardous areas. This paper presents the concept for producing mine danger maps for a suspected hazardous area (Svilaja, Croatia). The input data comprise information stored in mine information systems and additional data collected on the suspected hazardous area (e.g. bunkers and shelters for tanks, artillery and people). The resulting maps (Main Map) seek to improve the identification of areas where there is no threat so that parts of suspected hazardous areas can be proposed for mine reduction, or suspected hazardous areas can be better defined.
Cartographic symbols on crisis maps serve as means of depicting information about the position, properties, and/or numerical values of objects, phenomena or actions specific to crisis mapping. Many crisis cartographic visualisations require simple, clear, categorised and visually organised symbols that can be easily read and understood by a wide range of crisis map users. Cartographic symbol sets for crisis mapping depend on effective graphic design, good availability (sharing and promotion, dissemination and promulgation) and standardisation (ensuring the general and repeatable use of map symbols). In this research, our aim was to examine the extent of these challenges in current cartographic symbology for crisis mapping. Through a comparative study of prominent symbol sets, we analysed efforts invested so far and proposed future directions. The results of this study may be of assistance in understanding less unified or coherent symbologies currently in use, or in revising or amplifying existing sets for future publication.
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