Date and Venue

May 15, 2013
Room 303, Fok Ying Tung Remote Sensing Science Building, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

May 17, 2013
Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

Introduction

Since the establishment of the National Center of Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) in 1988, GIS research has grown deeper and more diversified across human, physical, and computational dimensions. The rise of Geographic Information Science (GIScience) inspires new inquiries into the fundamentals of geographic information and through the fundamental understanding, ingests spatial perspectives for new insights, novel syntheses and innovative solutions. Now 25 years later, GIScience research continues thriving, and GIS and related geospatial technologies feed the insatiable social appetite for information about locations and geographic contexts.

This workshop retrospects the history of GI research development and looks forward to the coming research challenges. Dr. David Mark, one of the NCGIA founders, will take us back to the trailblazer journey that paved the way for today’s GIScience aspirations. While quantitative and computational approaches remain dominant in GIScience research, qualitative and mixed methods have been gaining attraction since late 90s. Dr. Mark will introduce ethnographical research in GIScience to examine cultural differences in geographic conceptualization and epistemology. Dr. Hui Lin, a founder of Chinese Professionals in GIS (CPGIS), has unmatched knowledge on GIScience research development in China and US. He will overview the GI research challenges and opportunities on the development of GIS to virtual geographic environments (VGE). Dr. Lin Liu, an academic leader, former CPGIS president, and prominent researcher in spatial analysis and modeling, will highlight exciting GIScience research in geo-simulation and modeling.  Dr. May Yuan, associate editor of the International Journal of Geographical Information Science and member of Mapping Science Committee at the U.S. National Research Council, will highlight new ideas and trends in space-time research in GIScience.  Dr. JInfeng Wang, chair of Commission on Theory & Methodology, China Association of GIS, has been very actively working on spatial statistics. He will present his latest research on Spatial Sampling and Statistical Inference. Dr. Xia Li, director of the Center for Remote Sensing and GIS of Sun Yat-sen University, is a very productive researcher in urban modeling and simulation. He will give an overview on the knowledge transfer for geographic simulation and analysis. Dr. Bo Huang, Executive Editor of Annals of GIS, has broad interests in geographic information. He will lead a discussion on spatial intelligence in the workshop.

The workshop will end with a panel session on the future of GIScience with perspectives from China, US, and both. Questions and comments are invited throughout the workshop for interactive and stimulating discussions. Workshop participants shall gain a profound appreciation of GIScience and ideas for future research development.  Young researchers, Ph.D. students in particular, are welcome to join this important meeting.

Organisers

• Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University