Using sound to represent positional accuracy of address locations

Uncertainty data are often ignored by spatial data users for reasons that include difficulty of representation and comprehension. This study evaluated the benefits of a sonification extension to ArcGIS which represented the positional accuracy of address locations using piano notes. The approach was assessed by 49 survey participants via a computer-based task and subsequent discussion. Two factors that influenced successful interpretation were the proportion of values requiring detection and the presentation method. Knowledge of the data source also appeared relevant. Future studies will examine applications to climate scenarios and visualisations of future landscapes, as well as other aspects of sound.