DYNAMIC VISUALISATION VARIABLES IN ANIMATION: THEIR USE FOR THE MONITORING OF SPATIAL DYNAMICS

Animation is often believed to be useful for the representation of real world dynamics because it can represent spatial and temporal aspects of geographic phenomena. However, the question whether animations are also effective visualization media is not yet fully answered. Research conducted so far with geo-applications provides mixed evidence (see for examples and a discussion 1). It has been suggested, however, that animations might be particularly useful in applications where detailed sequential information about changes is important (2). Such an application is monitoring. The main objective of monitoring of spatial dynamics is to gain insights in the spatio-temporal behaviour of geographic phenomena. Insights enables domain experts to warn or act otherwise in case of undesired developments, like hazards. It may also lead to the generation of models of reality which are, for example, used to estimate the effects of interference in a development, or to extrapolation of trends to predict future developments. Monitoring is important for the sustainable development of our world. Insights in the behaviour of geographic phenomena can be obtained by applying computational methods, but the human ability to quickly see patterns, relationships, trends, movement and other changes is very powerful. Therefore, visual exploration of animations can perhaps complement computational methods. In an animation data are represented by graphic variables in the spatial dimensions of the maps/images. In addition