Geographic information science

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Geographic information science (GIScience, GISc) or geoinformation science is a scientific discipline at the crossroads of computational science, social science, and natural science that studies geographic information, including how it represents phenomena in the real world, how it represents the way humans understand the world, and how it can be captured, organized, and analyzed. It is a sub-field of geography, specifically part of technical geography. [1] [2] [3] It has applications to both physical geography and human geography, although its techniques can be applied to many other fields of study as well as many different industries.

Contents

As a field of study or profession, it can be contrasted with geographic information systems (GIS), which are the actual repositories of geospatial data, the software tools for carrying out relevant tasks, and the profession of GIS users. That said, one of the major goals of GIScience is to find practical ways to improve GIS data, software, and professional practice; it is more focused on how gis is applied in real life as opposed to being a geographic information system tool in and of itself. The field is also sometimes called geographical information science.

British geographer Michael Goodchild defined this area in the 1990s and summarized its core interests, including spatial analysis, visualization, and the representation of uncertainty. [4] GIScience is conceptually related to geomatics, information science, computer science, and data science, but it claims the status of an independent scientific discipline. [5] Recent developments in the field have expanded its focus to include studies on human dynamics in hybrid physical-virtual worlds, quantum GIScience, the development of smart cities, and the social and environmental impacts of technological innovations. [6] These advancements indicate a growing intersection of GIScience with contemporary societal and technological issues. Overlapping disciplines are: geocomputation, geoinformatics, geomatics and geovisualization. [7] Other related terms are geographic data science (after data science) [8] [9] and geographic information science and technology (GISci&T), [10] with job titles geospatial information scientists and technologists. [11]

Definitions

Since its inception in the 1990s, the boundaries between GIScience and cognate disciplines are contested, and different communities might disagree on what GIScience is and what it studies. In particular, Goodchild stated that "information science can be defined as the systematic study according to scientific principles of the nature and properties of information. Geographic information science is the subset of information science that is about geographic information." [12] Another influential definition is that by geographic information scientist (GIScientist) David Mark, which states:

Geographic Information Science (GIScience) is the basic research field that seeks to redefine geographic concepts and their use in the context of geographic information systems. GIScience also examines the impacts of GIS on individuals and society, and the influences of society on GIS. GIScience re-examines some of the most fundamental themes in traditional spatially oriented fields such as geography, cartography, and geodesy, while incorporating more recent developments in cognitive and information science. It also overlaps with and draws from more specialized research fields such as computer science, statistics, mathematics, and psychology, and contributes to progress in those fields. It supports research in political science and anthropology, and draws on those fields in studies of geographic information and society. [13]

In 2009, Goodchild summarized the history of GIScience and its achievements and open challenges. [14]

See also

Organizations
Journals

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geographic information system</span> System to capture, manage, and present geographic data

A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data. Much of this often happens within a spatial database; however, this is not essential to meet the definition of a GIS. In a broader sense, one may consider such a system also to include human users and support staff, procedures and workflows, the body of knowledge of relevant concepts and methods, and institutional organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geomatics</span> Geographic data discipline

Geomatics is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as the "discipline concerned with the collection, distribution, storage, analysis, processing, presentation of geographic data or geographic information". Under another definition, it consists of products, services and tools involved in the collection, integration and management of geographic (geospatial) data. Surveying engineering was the widely used name for geomatic(s) engineering in the past. Geomatics was placed by the UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems under the branch of technical geography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waldo R. Tobler</span> American geographer

Waldo Rudolph Tobler was an American-Swiss geographer and cartographer. Tobler is regarded as one of the most influential geographers and cartographers of the late 20th century and early 21st century. He is most well known for coining what has come to be referred to as Tobler's first law of geography. He also coined what has come to be referred to as Tobler's second law of geography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoinformatics</span> Application of information science methods in geography and geosciences

Geoinformatics is a scientific field primarily within the domains of Computer Science and technical geography. It focuses on the programming of applications, spatial data structures, and the analysis of objects and space-time phenomena related to the surface and underneath of Earth and other celestial bodies. The field develops software and web services to model and analyse spatial data, serving the needs of geosciences and related scientific and engineering disciplines. The term is often used interchangeably with Geomatics, although the two have distinct focuses; Geomatics emphasizes acquiring spatial knowledge and leveraging information systems, not their development. At least one publication has claimed the discipline is pure computer science outside the realm of geography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transport network analysis</span> Spatial analysis tools for geographic networks

A transport network, or transportation network, is a network or graph in geographic space, describing an infrastructure that permits and constrains movement or flow. Examples include but are not limited to road networks, railways, air routes, pipelines, aqueducts, and power lines. The digital representation of these networks, and the methods for their analysis, is a core part of spatial analysis, geographic information systems, public utilities, and transport engineering. Network analysis is an application of the theories and algorithms of graph theory and is a form of proximity analysis.

Geovisualization or geovisualisation, also known as cartographic visualization, refers to a set of tools and techniques supporting the analysis of geospatial data through the use of interactive visualization.

Digital Earth is the name given to a concept by former US vice president Al Gore in 1998, describing a virtual representation of the Earth that is georeferenced and connected to the world's digital knowledge archives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Cartographic Association</span> International organization

The International Cartographic Association (ICA) is an organization formed of national member organizations, to provide a forum for issues and techniques in cartography and geographic information science (GIScience). ICA was founded on June 9, 1959, in Bern, Switzerland. The first General Assembly was held in Paris in 1961. The mission of the International Cartographic Association is to promote the disciplines and professions of cartography and GIScience in an international context. To achieve these aims, the ICA works with national and international governmental and commercial bodies, and with other international scientific societies.

A feature, in the context of geography and geographic information science, is a discrete phenomenon that exists at a location in the space and scale of relevance to geography; that is, at or near the surface of Earth. It is an item of geographic information, and may be represented in maps, geographic information systems, remote sensing imagery, statistics, and other forms of geographic discourse. Such representations of features consist of descriptions of their inherent nature, their spatial form and location, and their characteristics or properties.

Michael Worboys is a British mathematician and computer scientist. He is professor of spatial informatics at the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Greenwich, London, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neogeography</span> Amateur-focused geography

Neogeography is the use of geographical techniques and tools for personal and community activities or by a non-expert group of users. Application domains of neogeography are typically not formal or analytical.

The UCSB Center for Spatial Studies (spatial@ucsb) is a research center at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The center was founded in 2008 by Michael Goodchild, and focuses on spatial thinking across domains, spatial intelligence, geoinformatics, geographic information science, and geographic information systems. The center is currently directed by Krzysztof Janowicz, Professor for Geoinformatics. It was previously directed by Werner Kuhn. With its multidisciplinary focus, the center hosts speakers, workshops, visiting researchers, and offers an academic Minor in Spatial Studies. The center's mission is to engage in interdisciplinary research and education in how people and technology solve spatial problems and how spatial thinking can be applied to address problems in a wide variety of application domains and research fields. Under Janowicz's directorship, the center put a new focus on spatial data science, knowledge graphs, and on technology transfer to the industry more broadly.

Andrew U. Frank was a Swiss-Austrian professor for geoinformation at Vienna University of Technology from 1992 until 2016. Previously he was Professor at the University of Maine at Orono. Frank was recognized for his achievements in the fields of spatial information theory, spatial database theory, and ontology in GIS in a special section in his honor in IJGIS.

Geographic data and information is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a location relative to Earth. It is also called geospatial data and information, georeferenced data and information, as well as geodata and geoinformation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Parsons</span> Geospatial Technologist & Tech Evangelist

Ed Parsons is a London-based Geospatial Technologist and tech evangelist at Google. He is working to evangelise geospatial data for commercial application and consequently, to improve the usability and efficiency of location based tools at Google. He is credited as being one of the core proponents of Google Street View.

Daniel Sui is a Chinese American geographer/GIScientist and currently serves as the senior president and chief research & innovation officer at Virginia Tech. Sui previously served as vice chancellor for research & innovation at the University of Arkansas – Fayetteville and division director for social & economic sciences at the U.S. National Science Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Technical geography</span> Study of using and creating tools to manage spatial information

Technical geography is the branch of geography that involves using, studying, and creating tools to obtain, analyze, interpret, understand, and communicate spatial information.

Duane Francis Marble was an American geographer known for his significant contributions to quantitative geography and geographic information science (GIScience). Marble had a 40-year career as a professor at multiple institutions, retiring from the Ohio State University and holding a courtesy appointment as Professor of Geosciences at Oregon State University afterward. His early work was highly influential in computer cartography and is regarded as a significant contributor to the quantitative revolution in geography. His work on constructing a "Model Curricula" in GIScience is listed as the starting foundation built upon by the Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge.

Michael P. Peterson is an American geographer and cartographer whose fields of research include geographic information systems and computer cartography in relation to the Internet and World Wide Web. He is currently a professor at the University of Nebraska Omaha. He was also the president of the North American Cartographic Information Society between 1996 and 1997, as well as the editor of the journal Cartographic Perspectives from 1998 to 2001.

Natalia V. Andrienko is a Ukrainian computer scientist who has worked in Moldova, Russia, Germany, and England; her research involves information visualization and visual analytics for geographic information systems and spatial data. She is a professor at City, University of London in England, a lead scientist for the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems (IAIS) in Sankt Augustin, Germany, and a principal investigator for the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in Dortmund, Germany.

References

  1. ↑ Haidu, Ionel (2016). "What is Technical Geography – a letter from the editor". Geographia Technica. 11: 1–5. doi: 10.21163/GT_2016.111.01 .
  2. ↑ Ormeling, Ferjan (2009). Technical Geography Core concepts in the mapping sciences. Eolss Publishers Company Limited. p. 482. ISBN   978-1-84826-960-6.
  3. ↑ Bello, Innocent E. (October 2023). "Critical Issues in the Methods of Data Collection in Geoinformatics and Environmental Sciences". International Journal of Social Sciences and Management Research. 9 (8): 18–28. doi: 10.56201/ijssmr.v9.no8.2023.pg18.28 .
  4. ↑ Goodchild, Michael F. (2010-07-27). "Twenty years of progress: GIScience in 2010 | Goodchild | Journal of Spatial Information Science". Journal of Spatial Information Science. 2010 (1): 3–20. doi: 10.5311/josis.2010.1.2 .
  5. ↑ Duckham, Matt; Goodchild, Michael F.; Worboys, Michael (2004-11-23). Foundations of Geographic Information Science. CRC Press. ISBN   9780203009543.
  6. ↑ "Symposium 2023". www.ucgis.org. Retrieved 2023-12-25.
  7. ↑ Krawczyk, Artur (9 November 2022). "Proposal of Redefinition of the Terms Geomatics and Geoinformatics on the Basis of Terminological Postulates". ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information. 11 (11): Krawczyk. Bibcode:2022IJGI...11..557K. doi: 10.3390/ijgi11110557 .
  8. ↑ Singleton, Alex; Arribas-Bel, Daniel (2019). "Geographic Data Science". Geographical Analysis. 53: 61–75. doi: 10.1111/gean.12194 . ISSN   0016-7363.
  9. ↑ Andrienko, Gennady; Andrienko, Natalia; Weibel, Robert (2017). "Geographic Data Science" (PDF). IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications. 37 (5): 15–17. doi:10.1109/MCG.2017.3621219. ISSN   0272-1716.
  10. ↑ Unwin, David J.; Foote, Kenneth E.; Tate, Nicholas J.; DiBiase, David, eds. (2011-12-16). Teaching Geographic Information Science and Technology in Higher Education. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. doi:10.1002/9781119950592. ISBN   978-1-119-95059-2.
  11. ↑ "Geospatial Information Scientists and Technologists - 15-1199.04". O*NET Code Connector. 2020-11-26. Retrieved 2022-01-28.
  12. ↑ Goodchild, Michael (1992). "Geographical information science". International Journal of Geographical Information Systems. 6 (1): 31–45. doi:10.1080/02693799208901893.
  13. ↑ Duckham, Matt; Goodchild, Michael F.; Worboys, Michael (2004-11-23). Foundations of Geographic Information Science. CRC Press. p. 4. ISBN   9780203009543.
  14. ↑ Goodchild, Michael F. (2009). "Geographic information systems and science: today and tomorrow". Annals of GIS. 15 (1): 3–9. Bibcode:2009AnGIS..15....3G. doi:10.1080/19475680903250715. ISSN   1947-5683. S2CID   13308017.
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