Mondays, 3:00-3:50 p.m.Wilkinson 1271 credit

Geo 507Virtual Seminar in Geographic Information Science

Geographic Information Science (GISci)

• geographic information systems (GIS)• automated mapping, web mapping• remote sensing• global positioning systems• distributed computing• mobile computing

New high-res satellite imagery will enable us to measure, in even greater detail, physical phenomena that change continuously over time and large areas.

Remote Sensing

Image courtesy of Rutgers U. - 1999 UCGIS Congressional Breakfast

Mobile and field computing impacts both howwe collect geospatial data…and how we use data in the field...

Image courtesy of Rutgers U. - 1999 UCGIS Congressional Breakfast

Robotic vehicles for data collectionin the field - on land...

Image courtesy of Rutgers U. - 1999 UCGIS Congressional Breakfast

… and at sea

• on the order of tens of meters to meters

• features the size of a beer can!

Distributed computing is changing how we enter, manage and use spatial information ...

Image courtesy of Rutgers U. - 1999 UCGIS Congressional Breakfast

Map Servers - “Web GIS”

Urban planners use 3-D analysis to evaluate urban land use ...

Image courtesy of Rutgers U. - 1999 UCGIS Congressional Breakfast

and to recommend continuous green space strategies...

Image courtesy of Rutgers U. - 1999 UCGIS Congressional Breakfast

GISci Parsed

• Geographic: having to do with the surface of the Earth (and the near-surface)

• Geographic information:– composed of primitive tuples <l,a> where l is a

location in space-time and a is some general property, class, measurement, feature, person, structure…

– <,a> where is some region whose definition is widely known

– information --> spatial dependences and cross-dependences

GISci (2)

• The science behind the systems

• Fundamental issues arising from the systems

• The science that is done with the technology

• Systematic study of geographic information using scientific methods

GISci (3)

• The digital transition– practices, arrangements, institutions

developed in the paper map era must now respond to the massive shift to digital representation and handling

– e.g., the Flat Earth Society

– the horseless carriage

Discovery

• Does discovery mean being there at all?– there is no more geography

• Hollywood and the Internet can take you there

• “Digital Earth”– a “camera” pointed at a sunlit Earth– a virtual, immersive world

Building the Digital Earth

• Access to data– what is available about this place

• Tools for visualization– 4-5 orders of magnitude of zoom– user-centered– beyond the visible– analysis, modeling, simulation

Research Challenges

• Representation– infinite complexity in the real world

– spatio-temporal continuity, dynamism

– an infinity of themes

– must be useful, efficient

• The digital computer– finite capacity

– binary alphabet

“To find ways to express the infinite complexity of the geographical world in the binary alphabet and limited capacity of a digital computer”

Research Challenges ...

• Uncertainty– no representation can be complete– what the data indicate about the world– what the user believes the data indicate

about the world

• Simulation

“To find ways of summarizing, modeling, and visualizing the differences between a digital representation and real phenomena”

Research Challenges ...

• Cognition

– Human perceptions of space

• GIS technology– learned in Upper Division or Graduate

School

– the “Spatially Aware Professional”

“To achieve smooth transition between cognitive and computational representations and manipulations of geographic information”

UCGIS - www.ucgis.org

University Consortium for Geographic Information Science– research the issues that emerge from the use of the

technology - in areas such as scale, accuracy, representation

– evaluate, reflect on, work to improve the technology

– work to improve GIS practice

~70 institutions,govt., industry

UCGIS - www.ucgis.org

• science motivated by practice, observation, practical need

• national consensus about the nature of that science

• Cross-disciplinary linkages

www.geo.orst.edu/ucgisgeography.uoregon.edu/gis/ucgis/

UCGIS Research Priorities

• Cognition• Extensions to

representation• Acquisition and

integration• Distributed and mobile

computing• Interoperability

• Scale• Uncertainty• Spatial analysis• Future of the spatial

information infrastructure

• GIS and society

New UCGIS Themes

• Data Mining & Knowledge Discovery

• Visualization

• Remotely-Acquired Data

• Geospatial Ontology

• Analytical Cartography

• 25 additional “short-term” challenges

UCGIS Education Priorities

• DISTANCE EDUCATION – 1996 Virtual Seminar

(UCSB)– 1998 Virtual Seminar

(OSU)

• Emerging Technologies

• “MODEL CURRICULUM”• Accreditation and

Certification• Supporting

Infrastructure• Access and Equity• Professional Education• Alternative Curricular

Design• Graduate GIS Education• Learning with GIS