A Research Agenda for Geographic Information Science
Features
Summary
A close relationship exists between GIS and numerous applications, including cartography, photogrammetry, geodesy, surveying, computer and information science, and statistics, among others. Scientists coined the term "geographic information science (GIScience)" to describe the theory behind these fields. A Research Agenda for Geographic Information Science extensively details the issues and fundamental scientific problems that must be solved if the use of GIS in these and other fields is to advance.
Immediately following the founding of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS), the group identified in a Research Agenda the topics that represented major challenges to the GIS research community. The first chapter of this book delivers an introduction to the agenda and to the collective guidance that the agenda provides to researchers.
Chapters 2-10 discuss nine original research challenges. Chapters 11-14 provide the basis of the agenda's four "Emerging Themes." Each chapter, written by researchers involved in the conception of the topics, discusses basic research elements, the UCGIS approach, the need for the National research agenda, contributions to knowledge and society, and offers a complete set of references.
The final section draws general conclusions about the UCGIS approach and the defined research challenges.
Table of Contents
Introduction to the UCGIS Research Agenda
Spatial Data Acquisition and Integration
Cognition of Geographic Information
Scale
Extensions to Geographic Representations
Spatial Analysis and Modeling in a GIS Environment
Research Issues on Uncertainty in Geographic Data and
GIS-Based Analysis
The Future of the Spatial Information Infrastructure
Distributed and Mobile Computing
GIS and Society: Interrelation, Integration, and
Transformation
Geographic Visualization
Ontological Foundations for Geographic Information Science
Remotely-Acquired Data and Information in GIScience
Geospatial Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery
Postscript on the UCGIS and Research
Editorial Reviews
"The publication of this book is a significant milestone in the development of GIScience…"
Michael F. Goodchild, University of California, Santa Barbara, from The Foreword
