Visualization of Uncertainty
Beard, K. (201).Visualization of Uncertainty. In D. Richardson (Ed). International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology. Wiley- AAG.
Abstract:
Uncertainty is endemic to our world and the data collected and assembled in databases to represent the world. Because uncertainty is usually not explicitly represented, it is often not considered and assessed as a routine part of analyses. Understanding uncertainties and the implications for decision making are important. As the rate of data collection accelerates, and with much of it being automated, grappling with data uncertainties becomes an ever more pressing concern. When data, maps, or other information products do not indicate otherwise, users generally assume and treat them to be without error. Visualization has been identified as one means to help draw attention to uncertainty and its implications. Research on the visualization of uncertainty has been addressed in geographic information science since the early 1990s. As understanding and measures of uncertainty have evolved and as new technologies generate new sources of spatial data, this research area has continued to evolve. This chapter reviews the evolving characterization of uncertainty, methods for visualizing uncertainty, and studies that have evaluated such visualizations.