AGIS Task 5 – Visualising Uncertainty

DGC, Feltham
 INTRODUCTIONS

• Dr Ed Figura
– Envitia
• Prof. Mike Jackson
– University of Nottingham
• Dr Adam Rousell
– University of Nottingham

• And...
 PURPOSE OF WORKSHOP

• To gain insight into:

– How uncertainty is viewed
– Workflows and data required for tasks
– Types of uncertainty
– Methods for visualising uncertainty
• Predominantly interactive
– We want your views
 AGENDA

10:30 Introduction
10:45 What is Uncertainty?
11:30 Tea break
11:45 Workflows and Data Requirements
12:30 Lunch
13:15 Recap
13:20 Types of Uncertainty
14:00 Tea break
14:10 Visualisation Techniques
15:20 Summary & Closing Remarks
15:30 End
What is Uncertainty?
 UNCERTAINTY VS. QUALITY

• Important to distinguish between uncertainty and quality as

they are often used interchangeably
• They are intertwined, but still separate items
• Quality can be seen as an understanding of Uncertainty, but
quality comprises of additional aspects and not just
uncertainty measures
 UNCERTAINTY

“There are known knowns; there are things we know we know.

We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say, we
know there are some things we do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know
we don’t know.”

United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

 UNCERTAINTY

Uncertainty is a measure of surety as to whether a particular

perception or observation is true to its reality.

• Generally a description of aspects that affect how close to the

actual value a measured or modelled value is.
– How well a classification fits a feature
– How much precision a phenomena is measured with
• But sometimes we do not have a description of this.
• There will always be uncertainties introduced from things we
know nothing about
 QUALITY

“Data quality elements allow for the evaluation of how well

a dataset meets the criteria set forth in its product
specification or user requirements.” (ISO, 2010 pp. 24).

• Quality information used to determine whether the

information should be used – fitness of purpose
• Generally derived through comparison with ground truthing
or existing dataset.
• Not necessarily something that is (or even could be)
propagated and expressed in a final value
ISO 2010. ISO/CD 19157 Geographic Information - Data Quality.
 WE ARE CONCERNED WITH UNCERTAINTY

• This project is with regards to uncertainty as opposed to

quality
• More concerned with portraying uncertainty in data so that
decisions can be made regarding it rather than whether the
data should be used or not – that is down to the user to
decide
 GEOSPATIAL DATA

• Geospatial data comprises of three main aspects (Chrisman,

1983):
– Spatial
– Temporal
– Attribute
– Also information regarding scale, granularity, dimensionality and
topological correctness although these will generally be addressed in
metadata rather than the data itself
• Each has uncertainty relating to it

CHRISMAN, N. R. 1983. The role of quality information in the long-term functioning of a geographic
information system. Proceedings of AUTO-CARTO 6, 303-21.
 SPATIAL UNCERTAINTY

• Location of the feature

 TEMPORAL UNCERTAINTY

• Uncertainty introduced due to difference in time of collection

and time of use, and the actual date/time it was collected
• If the data was collected 10 years ago, then there will be more
uncertainty as to how accurate the information is compared
to the current state
• Information gathered at a particular time of day may be
different to that gathered at a different time (i.e. tides impact
the water level throughout the day, so the variation should be
identified)
 TEMPORAL UNCERTAINTY

Photos taken 6 hours apart

Image reproduced with permission, source: http://ibbly.com/Tides.html

 ATTRIBUTE UNCERTAINTIES

• Uncertainty relating to the attributes of a feature:

– Building classification
– River speed
– Tree height
• Uncertainty depends on the attribute
 OVERALL UNCERTAINTY

• Each of these contribute to the overall uncertainty of the

data.
• We may only be concerned with one, but normally it will be a
combination
• Knowing the central point of a tree may not be useful without
knowing it’s height and spread
 WHAT DOES UNCERTAINTY MEAN TO
YOU?

• That is what we see as uncertainty

• What are your views on uncertainty?
11:30 – 11:45

TEA BREAK
Workflows & Data Requirements
 WORKFLOWS & DATA REQUIREMENTS

• Important to understand the processes data moves through to

identify the uncertainty that exists in an end product
• Different stages may introduce additional uncertainties
 WORKFLOWS

• Workflows are the process that data has to go through from

collection to use
– Data collection
– Classification
– Modelling
– Visualisation
– Interpretation
 DATA REQUIREMENTS

• What data is needed to allow a successful planning and

execution of an operation
• Input data
• Derived data
• Data types (raster/vector)
 SCENARIOS

• For the following scenarios what are the workflow processes

and what data is required?
• Non-Combatant Evacuation
– Operation to evacuate civilians and government personnel from a city
in a country where civil war has broken out. Aim is to avoid conflict
with either party.
• Beach Landing Operation
– It has been decided that troops need to be moved into the combat
arena to rescue hostages held in a facility close to the shore line. Using
the beach as a landing site has been deemed the best entrance to the
area.
12:30 – 13:15

LUNCH BREAK
Recap
 RECAP OF THE MORNING

• What is Uncertainty?
• Workflows and Data Requirements?
– Evacuation operation
– Beach landing operation
Types of Uncertainty
 TYPES OF UNCERTAINTY

• We know that uncertainty exists in data, so what forms does it

take?
• Again, we want your ideas of the types you think exist.
 TYPES OF UNCERTAINTY

• Different types of uncertainty present in different pieces of

data
• Attribute uncertainty is particularly problematic due to the
different types of data
• Some types identified:
Vagueness
Error

Precision Judgement
Ambiguity
Completeness
 SCENARIOS

• Looking at the scenarios again and the data/processes

identified, what types of uncertainty are present?
• Evacuation
• Beach Landing
14:00 – 14:10

TEA BREAK
Visualisation Techniques
 VISUALISATION TECHNIQUES

• Major part of the project – What are the best visualisation

techniques for portraying uncertainty information?
• Consider not just visual but also audio, haptic etc.
 VISUALISATION TECHNIQUES

• Methods for visually representing information (MacEachren et

al. 2012):
Location Size

Colour Texture
Hue Orientation
Value Grain
Saturation Arrangement

Shape Fuzziness

Transparency

MacEachren, A.M., Roth, R.E., O’Brien, J., Li, B., Swingley, D. and Gahegan, M. 2012: Visual Semiotics &
Uncertainty Visualization: An Empirical Study. IEEE Transactions on Visualization & Computer Graphics
18, 2496-2505
 VISUALISATION TECHNIQUES

• Also can use:

– Animation
– Sound
– Haptic
– Text
– Graphs
 VISUALISATION TECHNIQUES

• Individual uncertainty values

• Compound uncertainties
• Visualise with the data or separately?
 VISUALISATION TECHNIQUES

• What methods are currently being used?

• Suggestions for possible techniques
Summary & Closing
 SUMMARY & CLOSING

• Summary of discussions
• Thank you for attending and contributing
• Thank you to the DGC for hosting us

• Contact:
Dr Adam Rousell
University of Nottingham
adam.rousell@nottingham.ac.uk