Application of GIS to the communication of geographic information and assistance of navigation for women and elderly people

本课题的研究成果总结如下：(1)对空间认知和地图的理论和实践问题的文献综述表明，数字化促进了面向用户的地图制作。(2)开发了一种利用缓冲操作利用地理信息系统分析示意图的方法，并将其应用于巴西日裔和日本人之间的比较。(3)一项关于导航技能与地图使用关系的问卷调查显示，女性对自己的空间能力缺乏信心，而男性更多地使用多用途地图(例如，(4)建立了由点分布生成的表示表面分布的地图的感知模型，并将其应用于犯罪地图，验证了该模型的有效性。(5)通过对老年人和年轻人的方向感问卷(SDQ-S)的比较发现，尽管老年人的“里程碑记忆”能力低于年轻人，但由于情景记忆的老化，两组人的空间能力没有差异。

The results of this research project are summarized as follows.(1) A review of the literatures on theoretical and practical issues of spatial cognition and maps revealed that the digitization has promoted user-oriented map making,. making map makers sensitive to the context of map use.(2) We developed a method for analyzing sketch maps with GIS using buffer operation and applied it to a comparison between Japanese Brazilians and Japanese people.(3) A questionnaire survey on the relationship between navigational skills and map use revealed that women with low confidence in their spatial abilities rely heavily on guide maps while men with better sense of directions frequently use multipurpose maps(e.g., topographical maps).(4) A perceptual model of maps representing a surface distribution generated from a point distribution was developed and its validity was demonstrated by applying it to crime maps.(5) Comparison of the sense of direction by a questionnaire(SDQ-S) between elderly and young people revealed that there is little difference in the spatial abilities between two groups, though the ability at "landmark memory" of the elderly is inferior to that of young people owing to the deterioration of episodic memory with aging.