An approach to control the positional accuracy of point features in volunteered geographic information systems

Abstract

Volunteered geographic information (VGI) is a huge source of user-generated geographic information. There is an enormous potential to use VGI in different mapping activities due to its significant advantages. VGI is found to be richer and more up-to-date than authoritative geographic information. However, VGI quality is an obvious challenge that needs to be addressed in order to get the full potential of VGI. Positional accuracy is one of the important aspects of VGI quality. Although VGI positional accuracy can be high in some contexts, VGI datasets are characterized by a large spatial heterogeneity. This paper proposes an approach for controlling positional accuracy as well as decreasing the spatial heterogeneity of point features in VGI systems. A case study has been conducted in order to ensure the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed approach.