Ontological Foundations for Geographic Information Science

We propose as a UCGIS research priority the topic of “Ontological Foundations for Geographic Information.” Under this umbrella we unify several interrelated research subfields, each of which deals with different perspectives on geospatial ontologies and their roles in geographic information science. While each of these subfields could be addressed separately, we believe it is important to address ontological research in a unitary, systematic fashion, embracing conceptual issues concerning what would be required to establish an exhaustive ontology of the geospatial domain, issues relating to the choice of appropriate methods for formalizing ontologies, and considerations regarding the design of ontology-driven information systems. This integrated approach is necessary, because there is a strong dependency between the methods used to specify an ontology, and the conceptual richness, robustness and tractability of the ontology itself. Likewise, information system implementations are needed as testbeds of the usefulness of every aspect of an exhaustive ontology of the geospatial domain. None of the current UCGIS research priorities provides such an integrative perspective, and therefore the topic of “Ontological Foundations for Geographic Information Science” is unique

Geographic Information Science

This chapter begins with a definition of geographic information science (GIScience). We then discuss how this research area has been influenced by recent developments in computing and data-intensive analysis, before setting out its core organizing principles from a practical perspective. The following section reflects on the key characteristics of geographic information, the problems posed by large data volumes, the relevance of geographic scale, the remit of geographic simulation, and the key achievements of GIScience to date. Our subsequent review of changing scientific practices and the changing problems facing scientists addresses developments in high-performance computing, heightened awareness of the social context of geographic information systems (GISystems), and the importance of neogeography in providing new data sources, in driving the need for new techniques, and in heightening a human-centric perspective

Geographic Information Systems and Science

Geographic information science (GISc) has established itself as a collaborative information-processing scheme that is increasing in popularity. Yet, this interdisciplinary and/or transdisciplinary system is still somewhat misunderstood. This book talks about some of the GISc domains encompassing students, researchers, and common users. Chapters focus on important aspects of GISc, keeping in mind the processing capability of GIS along with the mathematics and formulae involved in getting each solution. The book has one introductory and eight main chapters divided into five sections. The first section is more general and focuses on what GISc is and its relation to GIS and Geography, the second is about location analytics and modeling, the third on remote sensing data analysis, the fourth on big data and augmented reality, and, finally, the fifth looks over volunteered geographic information.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Leveraging the Science of Geographic Information Systems

The Center for Geographic Information Science (CGISc) at the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG) was established in the Summer of 2006. CGISc is an educational research entity that relies on the use of GIS and the science of geographic information to conduct research on human and natural phenomena distributed on the Earth’s surface. CGISc welcomes interdisciplinary collaboration, and emphasizes the development of public-private sector partnerships. CGISc also places a high priority on research that involves students. This paper first provides an overview of the CGISc. This section is followed by a discussion on the fundamental approach to conducting geographic research using GIS. The paper concludes with several significant projects and a discussion on future directions

Crowdsourcing, Citizen Science or Volunteered Geographic Information? The Current State of Crowdsourced Geographic Information

Citizens are increasingly becoming an important source of geographic information, sometimes entering domains that had until recently been the exclusive realm of authoritative agencies. This activity has a very diverse character as it can, amongst other things, be active or passive, involve spatial or aspatial data and the data provided can be variable in terms of key attributes such as format, description and quality. Unsurprisingly, therefore, there are a variety of terms used to describe data arising from citizens. In this article, the expressions used to describe citizen sensing of geographic information are reviewed and their use over time explored, prior to categorizing them and highlighting key issues in the current state of the subject. The latter involved a review of ~100 Internet sites with particular focus on their thematic topic, the nature of the data and issues such as incentives for contributors. This review suggests that most sites involve active rather than passive contribution, with citizens typically motivated by the desire to aid a worthy cause, often receiving little training. As such, this article provides a snapshot of the role of citizens in crowdsourcing geographic information and a guide to the current status of this rapidly emerging and evolving subject

Cartography and Geographic Information Science in Current Contents

The Cartography and Geographic Information Science (CaGIS) journal was published as The American Cartographer from 1974 to 1989, after that as Cartography and Geographic Information System, and since then has been published with its current name. It is published by the Cartography and Geographic Information Society, a member of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping.Časopis Cartography and Geographic Information Science (CaGIS) izlazio je od 1974. do 1989. pod naslovom The American Cartographer, potom od 1990. do 1998. ima naslov Cartography and Geographic Information System, a od 1999. izlazi pod današnjim naslovom. Izdavač časopisa je američka udruga Cartography and Geographic Information Society članica organizacije American Congress on Surveying and Mapping

Geographic Information Science in Health: Priming the Pump

Today, public health professionals, researchers, policy makers and many others are increasingly using GIS to understand the spatial and environmental factors that affect health outcomes, disease transmission, disaster response, access to health care and a myriad of other health concerns. This article discusses the establishment of the Center for Geographic Information Science and Health in the Department of Geography at the University of North Carolina Greensboro

Characterising Locality Descriptions in Crowdsourced Crisis Information

Humanitarian organisations are reluctant to use information from social media when responding to crises or conflicts, identifying trust and accuracy as principal concerns. However, the Geographic Information Science literature contains significant research into uncertainty, research we draw upon here to characterise locality descriptions in incident reports related to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. We do so using a classification developed to georeference locality descriptions in MaNIS, the Mammal Networked Information System. We found that although there are similarities between the datasets, crowdsourced crisis information presents significant challenges with respect to vagueness, ambiguity and precision (resolution)