When a hazard event strikes, the reachability of affected areas is a significant factor that can determine if the situation becomes a disaster. Decision makers have to react quickly while under stress to tasks that depend on the road network, such as management of relief operations, planning of evacuation routes, or food and first aid distribution. In this paper we present an approach for exploring and validating reachability of remote areas through visualization with an interactive tabletop and tablets. We propose a simple way to combine and visualize data from scientists and communities to provide insights into area reachability, as well as the likely impacts of future hazard events on access routes. Moreover, our interface introduces an approach to assess alternative accessibility options to isolated settlements by helicopter or off-road routes that builds on satellite data and interactive collaborative mapping. This set of visualization and interaction techniques facilitates the formation of risk scenarios for better planning, preparedness and response activities. We developed our research with a case study of landslide threat for an area in Colombia.
Video games are conventionally screen-bound, restricted to predefined character movements and have a limited amount of interaction possibilities depending on the controller and the level architecture. Although the ways in which we can interact with games have improved over recent years, the digital world we are interacting with is still normally confined to the screen and restricted by predefined scenarios.In this paper, we introduce the i.Ge engine, a real-time video game level editor that allows users to interact with their own environment to create game content with real everyday objects, making them part of the level design. Thus, our engine reduces the gap between playing and creating by making both possible at the same time in a spatial augmented reality, thereby introducing new concepts in the field of game interaction and game design.
The assessment of natural hazards and risk has traditionally been built upon the estimation of threat maps, which are used to depict potential danger posed by a particular hazard throughout a given area. But when a hazard event strikes, infrastructure is a significant factor that can determine if the situation becomes a disaster. The vulnerability of the population in a region does not only depend on the area’s local threat, but also on the geographical accessibility of the area. This makes threat maps by themselves insufficient for supporting real-time decision-making, especially for those tasks that involve the use of the road network, such as management of relief operations, aid distribution, or planning of evacuation routes, among others. To overcome this problem, this paper proposes a multidisciplinary approach divided in two parts. First, data fusion of satellite-based threat data and open infrastructure data from OpenStreetMap, introducing a threat-based routing service. Second, the visualization of this data through cartographic generalization and schematization. This emphasizes critical areas along roads in a simple way and allows users to visually evaluate the impact natural hazards may have on infrastructure. We develop and illustrate this methodology with a case study of landslide threat for an area in Colombia.
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