Monitoring change: Characteristics of dynamic geo-spatial phenomena for visual exploration

In the context of a research about application of dynamic visualisation par ameters in animations for monitoring purposes, this paper reports on charac teristics of dynamic gee-spatial phenomena for visual exploration. A framew ork of concepts is proposed to describe a variety of phenomena in the physi cal environment. The nature of monitoring tasks is taken into account. Expl icit attention is paid to context-sensitivity and to the description of the temporal behaviour of dynamic phenomena. If it proves to be a suitable fra mework, visualisation variables will be linked to the general concepts to f orm a theoretical basis for animated representation of dynamic gee-spatial phenomena. Empirical testing of animations will follow to evaluate whether dynamic visualisation variables can be used to prompt thinking about the pr ocesses at work and about spatio-temporal relationships by domain experts w ho perform monitoring tasks. The ultimate goal is to contribute to the deve lopment of representation methods and interaction tools.