Wang, XinMohammadi, Ehsan2017-01-192017-01-1920172017Mohammadi, E. (2017). Sketch Recognition and Interpretation Using a Web-Based PGIS Framework for Urban Planning (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27798http://hdl.handle.net/11023/3582Internet and web mapping technologies have provided the public with a new understanding of maps and how they can participate in different types of activities. Access to these technologies offers opportunities for the provision of services that utilize users’ tacit knowledge to enhance the quality of engagements. This has led to the advent of applications that rely on users’ knowledge. However, participation in planning and decision-making using mapping technologies used by GIS and urban planning experts can be difficult and problematic for lay people as it requires expert knowledge. To address this issue, and other associated limitations (such as: validating the users’ input, defining the implication of planning based on users’ input and so on), this research investigates the difficulties and limitations related to participation and offers a solution based on semantics that models urban feature relationships to help recognize and validate users’ contributions collected as a set of sketches in an urban context. This methodology aims to help community members to engage in participatory GIS activities with minimal cognitive effort. The overall process requires an approach to help participants convey their cognitive maps in a valid and logical way that matches with standard urban patterns generally, or for an application specifically. Developing an ontology to model urban entities and their relationships is crucial for this matter. Utilizing spatial reasoning to check and validate logical relationships between sketches and existing features based on the developed ontology for the domain is also essential. In this thesis, the main objective was to overcome the aforementioned difficulties of user interaction with a PGIS system. To achieve the objective, an ontology was developed to present the semantic, topological and geometric relationships among the urban planning entities. Then, spatial reasoning rules were applied to recognize and validate users’ input and give them feedback based on the nature of their input. Finally a web-based system called PYPsketch for participatory GIS was developed. The user interface of the system was also evaluated in terms of urban feature recognition.engUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.Urban and Regional PlanningPsychology--CognitiveParticipatory GISSketch RecognitionOntologySpatial ReasoningHuman Computer InteractionUrban PlanningVGIdoctoral thesis10.11575/PRISM/27798