Abstract:The increased development of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) and its potential role in GIScience studies raises questions about the resulting data quality. Several studies address VGI quality from various perspectives like completeness, positional accuracy, consistency, etc. They mostly have consensus on the heterogeneity of data quality. The problem may be due to the lack of standard procedures for data collection and absence of quality control feedback for voluntary participants. In our research, we are concerned with data quality from the classification perspective. Particularly in VGI-mapping projects, the limited expertise of participants and the non-strict definition of geographic features lead to conceptual overlapping classes, where an entity could plausibly belong to multiple classes, e.g., lake or pond, park or garden, marsh or swamp, etc. Usually, quantitative and/or qualitative characteristics exist that distinguish between classes. Nevertheless, these characteristics might not be recognizable for non-expert participants. In previous work, we developed the rule-guided classification approach that guides participants to the most appropriate classes. As exemplification, we tackle the conceptual overlapping of some grass-related classes. For a given data set, our approach presents the most highly recommended classes for each entity. In this paper, we present the validation of our approach. We implement a web-based application called Grass&Green that presents recommendations for crowdsourcing validation. The findings show the applicability of the proposed approach. In four months, the application attracted 212 participants from more than 35 countries who checked 2,865 entities. The results indicate that 89% of the contributions fully/partially agree with our recommendations. We then carried out a detailed analysis that demonstrates the potential of this enhanced data classification. This research encourages the development of customized applications that target a particular geographic feature.

Dissemination of information in today's digital lifestyle has grown beyond prints, multimedia contents are no longer luxurious elements but necessary components. Combined with an advanced navigation system on Android-based mobile devices and augmented reality technology, we achieve a contextaware self-guided application that not only assists users navigating an unknown territory but also delivers facts about places they are visiting as well as living and non-living things they are encountering. Applying such a system to zoos, the largest living classrooms in existance, while incorporating cartoon-like kids' friendly interfaces and games, we have developed a portable educational gadget. Our application, named ZooEduGuide, is designed to effectively attract and motivate young children and teenagers to learn about animals and wildlife along with ecological footprints. It encourages their love for animals and raises their awareness for environmental conservation as today, more than ever before, there is an urgent need to actively protect wildlife at a global scale. Enhancing zoo experience with ZooEduGuide, a planned field-trip at the zoo could be personalized. Furthermore, the flexibility and generalizability of our system allows local zoos to customize their maps and to dynamically schedule show events. At the same time, many zoos across the country can share common information and news through a centralized on-board database managed by the national zoo organization.

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