Sustainable development mapping at multiple scales: 360 cameras for spatial data collection extraction and geovisualization

Britta Ricker

 ICC2025 Workshop on Multiscale Cartography and Sustainability

(install the YouTube app on your phone! Have your phone ready for QR codes)

Sustainable Development is complex

Different decision-making needs at different scales.

Different tools to collect data.

Same tool at different scales

 

Geovisualization

often a map

Geodata

User Interface/

Experience (UI/UX)

Advisor

Interaction

Maps form narratives

Space

(Neutral)

Place

(Care)

Sustainability Communication

 climate change communication is shaped by our different experiences, mental and cultural models, and underlying values and worldviews

Let's look around one of these tropical dry forests from the ground: in place.

 

360 camera - Add context

Can be used for: 

Geovisualization

  • Images
  • Videos

Spatial Data

Data Extraction

 

 

examples from literature

 

Visual imagery and the informal city: examining 360-degree imaging technologies for informal settlement representation (Cinnamon 2024)

 

 

Data Sharing and Data Extraction More examples from literature 

d’Andrimont, R., Yordanov, M., Lemoine, G., Yoong, J., Nikel, K., & van der Velde, M. (2018). Crowdsourced Street-Level Imagery as a Potential Source of In-Situ Data for Crop Monitoring. Land. https://doi.org/10.3390/land7040127

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/2041-210X.14472

1

Figural Space

smaller than the body, directly perceived from one place without locomotion

3

Environmental Space

larger than the body, require integration of information over time, buildings, neighborhoods, cities.

2

4

Geographical Space

much larger than the body, cannot be apprehended directly through locomotion, must be learned via symbolic representations - such as maps or models 

Scale and Multiple Psychologies of Space

(Montello 1991)

Vista Space

larger than the body but can be visually apprehended from a single space without locomotion

Conceptual Framework

applied to 360 imagery

Educating, informing, warning, persuading, mobilizing and solving this critical problem. 

1

Sustainability Communication

Human perception, thought, behavior in relationship to space/place (cognitive maps, spatial cognition)

2

Psychologies of Space

User draws conclusions based on interaction with the map

3

Geovisualization

4. Geographic Space

much larger than the body

Requires symbolic representation such as maps 

 

Mappy VR A Frame Examples

1. Figural space

reveals relationships between objects

"fits in your hand"

may show landmarks in distance - configuration of space

Possibilities with

360 camera

abstract

alternative perspectives

2. Vista Space - using animation (and music)

Social Media Examples

Watch on your own - narrative with animation

Does the animation make the viewer sick?

Virtual field trips - professional example

 

2. Vista space

Inspire viewer to Care --> SD Communication

Appeal to emotion

Evokes empathy

Understanding

Localized narratives

different type of

UI/geoviz

Wildlife NL

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>360&deg; Image</title>
    <meta name="description" content="360&deg; Image - A-Frame">
    <script src="https://aframe.io/releases/0.8.0/aframe.min.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <a-scene>
      <a-sky src="imgs/zuid_ken_sm.jpg" rotation="0 -130 0"></a-sky>

      <a-text font="kelsonsans" value="Scottish Highlanders" width="6" position="-2.5 0.25 -1.5"
              rotation="0 15 0"></a-text>
    </a-scene>
  </body>
</html>

AI edited example

Advertisement for

GSS consultancy Project Aruba course

Unedited 360

In-situ lecture with Eric Mijts

interactive example

1. Figural space

clip - reframe images from

360 scenes

Clip - reframe images

Automat the process from publically available 360 images Figural space

 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0198971524001364 

3./4. Geographic/Environmental Space  

360 image Data Extraction and Analysis

extract data from multiple 360 images 

Analyze or classify images

Aggregate to understand geographic space

Matthew Danish, S.M. Labib, Britta Ricker, Marco Helbich, A citizen science toolkit to collect human perceptions of urban environments using open street view images, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems,Volume 116,2025,102207,ISSN 0198-9715,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2024.102207.

3. Environmental Space

picture the landscape

SD Communication

movement builds understanding the configuration of a landscape with movement (Nanna Verhoeff)

 

 

360 video showing movement - bike video

Zuid Kennemerland

"Street View"

Find existing open source 360 imagery

or upload yours

Summary

Scale Description User interface Communication Aim
Figural smaller than body Picture - printed map picture the phenomenon
Vista larger than body -single vantage point 360 interactive image/video understand spatial relationships 
Environmental Locomotion - city, park video - animations -overhead view configuration
Geographic Continental  extract data + map magnitute

Hardware

Geographic Data

Geographic

User Interface

Video/Photo

2D Frame

360 image

Individual photos

animation/videos

thematic maps

 

 

 

(mobile) Augmented Reality

Virtual Reality

Join us in Aruba for the Cartography and Sustainable Development Workshop

Monday Jan 26th- Wed Jan 28th 2026

https://carto-sd.icaci.org/the-first-cartography-and-sustainable-development-workshop-in-aruba/

 

Copy of 360Images

By Britta Ricker

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Copy of 360Images

Lunch Lecture for Environmental Sciences Group at UU

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