Translating text into space for mapping the past territory of a city: a study on spatial development of Dhaka during Mughal period

Rahman, Mashrur; Zaman, Kawser Bin; Hafiz, Roxana

doi:10.1186/s40410-016-0036-y

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 20 publications

(18 reference statements)

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“…Through a comparison of the land cover maps generated in this study, along with close investigation of historical topographic maps and the empirical literature, it has been observed that there are three primary growth centers in the study area, specifically Savar in the northwest, Naryangang in the east, and Dhaka in the center, located on the banks of the rivers Dhaleswari, Lakkhya, and Buriganga, respectively [23,56]. These three mighty rivers fed the initial growth of these cities as they provided year-round navigable channels for trade, transportation, and commerce for the entire region.…”

Section: Land Cover Change and Urban Expansionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing Land Cover Change and Urban Growth Trajectories of the Mega-Urban Region of Dhaka Using Remotely Sensed Data and an Ensemble Classifier

Hassan

Southworth

2017

Sustainability

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Accurate information on, and human interpretation of, urban land cover using satellite-derived sensor imagery is critical given the intricate nature and niches of socioeconomic, demographic, and environmental factors occurring at multiple temporal and spatial scales. Detailed knowledge of urban land and their changing pattern over time periods associated with ecological risk is, however, required for the best use of critical land and its environmental resources. Interest in this topic has increased recently, driven by a surge in the use of open-source computing software, satellite-derived imagery, and improved classification algorithms. Using the machine learning algorithm Random Forest, combined with multi-date Landsat imagery, we classified eight periods of land cover maps with up-to-date spatial and temporal information of urban land between the period of 1972 and 2015 for the mega-urban region of greater Dhaka in Bangladesh. Random Forest-a non-parametric ensemble classifier-has shown a quantum increase in satellite-derived image classification accuracy due to its outperformance over traditional approaches, e.g., Maximum Likelihood. Employing Random Forest as an image classification approach for this study with independent cross-validation techniques, we obtained high classification accuracy, user and producer accuracy. Our overall classification accuracy ranges were between 85% and 97% with kappa values between 0.81 and 0.94. The area statistics derived from the thematic land cover map show that the built-up area in the 43-year study period expanded quickly, from 35 km 2 in 1972 to 378 km 2 in 2015, with a net increase rate of approximately 980% and an average annual growth rate of 6%. This growth rate, however, was higher in peripheral areas, with a 2903% increase and an annual expansion rate of 8%, compared to a 460% increase with an annual growth rate of 4% in the core city area (Dhaka City Corporation). This huge urban expansion took place in the north, northwest, and southwest regions of Dhaka, transforming areas that were previously agricultural land, vegetation cover, wetland, and water bodies. The main factors driving the city towards northern corridors include flood-free higher land, the availability of a transportation network, and the agglomeration of manufacturing-based employment centers. The resulting thematic map and spatial information produced from this study therefore serve to facilitate a detailed understanding of urban growth dynamics and land cover change patterns in the mega-urban region of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

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Section: Land Cover Change and Urban Expansionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing Land Cover Change and Urban Growth Trajectories of the Mega-Urban Region of Dhaka Using Remotely Sensed Data and an Ensemble Classifier

Hassan

Southworth

2017

Sustainability

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“…Therefore, the Bengal delta can be depicted as a fluid landscape that is a set of series of locales and places formed by the movements and shifts in river course related to the narrative. From the above description, Dhaka's position seems to be geographically well located in terms of communication; also a commanding [22] position in terms of navigability as well as centrality. So, the dynamics of present Dhaka in a historical process could better be appreciated from an ecological perspective.…”

Section: Unfolding Ecology and Land Formation In Bengal Deltamentioning

confidence: 95%

Reclaiming Public Open Space within the Shifting Landscape of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Begum¹

2020

cea

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“…They found that the locations mentioned by travelers, moving by cart on major thoroughfares, corresponded directly to the least-cost paths through the Lake District, indicating the importance of the natural corridors of the region to wheeled transport. Similarly, Rahman, Zaman, and Hafiz (2016) used aggregated point analysis to create boundaries for the city of Dhaka, Bangladesh based on mentions of specific and locatable places in historic texts. By comparing this map with the local geomorphology, they concluded that the texts can provide a relatively accurate idea about the boundaries of the pre-Mughal city.…”

Section: Spatial Analysis An D Visualizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The discussion was facilitated by two graduate students, who proposed readings for the class, as well as the instructor. We read two articles: Murrieta-Flores, Donaldson, and Gregory (2017) and Rahman, Zaman, and Hafiz (2016). The former was an example of how literary texts could be studied with the analytical tools provided by GIS while the latter used a variety of documents, such as texts, itineraries, and urban descriptions, to map the spatial extent of a historical urban area.…”

Section: A P P I N G a S S I G N M E N Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping Historical Texts in the Classroom: The Anatolian Travelers Project

Cobb¹,

Rogers

Ford

et al. 2019

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The process of mapping provides an active approach for students to engage with landscapes of the past. As part of a graduate-level class called Spatial Analysis of the Past, students were given an assignment to create online maps of nineteenth-century travelers’ accounts about western Anatolia (Turkey). Travelers often record their experiences of journeying through foreign landscapes. Although usually written from the perspective of an outsider, these first-hand accounts can serve as valuable primary source documents for geographical information about these regions. The participation of students in mapping these accounts can prompt deep reflection in the classroom regarding the subjectivity of spatial representations and understandings. This class assignment served as the initial step in a larger research undertaking called the Anatolian Travelers Project, an ongoing, open access initiative. This project attempts to collect, organize, and visualize regional travelers’ accounts through online mapping, to improve our understanding of how people interacted with this landscape and its inhabitants. The project records and compares, among other things, the travelers’ modes of transportation, the routes they chose, their observations about the land and people, and what they felt was worth recording and publishing. Here, we reflect on the use of web mapping as a pedagogical method in teaching the past by reporting on the results of our classroom experimentations. Specifically, we focus on four learning goals: the integration of historical and archaeological methods, an increase in digital literacy among humanities students, experimentation with visualization decisions, and an investigation of landscape and spatial perspectives. Our experiences in the classroom will help inform our future implementations of online mapping as a teaching tool. In terms of technology, we utilized the Neatline plugin to Omeka for mapping, though we consider infrastructure ultimately interchangeable.

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Translating text into space for mapping the past territory of a city: a study on spatial development of Dhaka during Mughal period

Cited by 5 publications

References 20 publications

Analyzing Land Cover Change and Urban Growth Trajectories of the Mega-Urban Region of Dhaka Using Remotely Sensed Data and an Ensemble Classifier

Analyzing Land Cover Change and Urban Growth Trajectories of the Mega-Urban Region of Dhaka Using Remotely Sensed Data and an Ensemble Classifier

Reclaiming Public Open Space within the Shifting Landscape of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Mapping Historical Texts in the Classroom: The Anatolian Travelers Project

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