A Research Agenda for Geographic Information Science / Edition 1

by Robert B. McMaster, E. Lynn Usery

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780849327285
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/30/2004
Series:	CRC Handbook Series in Nutrition and Food , #3
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

McMaster, Robert B.; Usery, E. Lynn

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.