GISSG Sponsored
Sessions (as of Nov. 6, 2007):
1.
Name of the
session: Applications of
Fuzzy Sets and Systems in Geography
Organizers:
Ola Ahlqvist
Department of
Geography; the Ohio State University
E-mail: ahlqvist.1@osu.edu
Liem Tran
Department of
Geography; the University of Tennessee at Knoxville
E-mail: ltran1@utk.edu
Session
Description: Regular paper
session. The session is an avenue for geographers and other professionals to
present their cutting-edge applications of fuzzy sets and systems in various
fields of geography, including human geography, physical geography, and GIS
& remote sensing.
2.
Name of the
session: Current Status and
Future of Fuzzy Sets and Systems in Geography
Organizers:
Ola Ahlqvist
Department of
Geography; the Ohio State University
E-mail: ahlqvist.1@osu.edu
Liem Tran
Department of
Geography; the University of Tennessee at Knoxville
E-mail: ltran1@utk.edu
Session
Description: Panel discussion.
Since the introduction of fuzzy logic in 1970's, fuzzy sets and systems have
been applied widely and successfully in many fields. However, except from those
in GIS and remote sensing, the fuzzy applications in geography arguably are
still rare (e.g., human geography) and unbalanced from one subfield to another.
The session is to discuss the
current status and future of fuzzy sets and systems and different subfields of
geography.
3.
Name of the
session: Geospatial
Technology and Tools for Urban Water Resources
Organizer:
Patrick Lawrence
Department of
Geography and Planning
University of
Toledo
E-mail: patrick.lawrence@utoledo.edu
Session
Description: This session will
consist of paper presentations focusing on the application of GIS and remote
sensing to address varied water resource issues in urban areas. Topics could
include: water quality assessment, storm water management, hydrographic
modeling, water management, surface runoff studies, wetland and riparian
evaluations, environmental monitoring, data management, spatial data analysis,
information management, water policy and planning implications.
4.
Name of the
session: Time Geography:
Emerging Theoretical Developments, Implementations, and
Applications
Organizers:
Hongbo Yu, Oklahoma State
University, Email: hongbo.yu@okstate.edu
Shih-Lung
Shaw, The University of
Tennessee, Email: sshaw@utk.edu
Session
Description: Originally designed
to investigate various constraints of human activities in time and space, the
time-geographic framework provides an integrated space-time environment to
effectively and efficiently investigate the spatio-temporal characteristics of human activities and
their interactions. There have been revived research interests in time geography
in recent years. These research efforts include extending the time-geographic
framework to accommodate the emerging hybrid environment of physical and virtual
spaces, providing computational models and representations of the framework,
developing GIS designs to implement the framework, and applying the framework to
facilitate studies such as travel behaviors, activity patterns, accessibility
assessment, urban structure, animal ecology, etc. This session will provide
researchers a forum to share experiences and exchange ideas on recent
theoretical developments, implementations, and applications of time
geography.
5.
Name of the
session: GIS in
public health.
Organizer:
Zhiyong Hu, University of West
Florida, zhu@uwf.edu
Session
description: In recent years, GIS has become a popular
research and analytical tool in public health. This session covers the use of
GIS and remote sensing in public health. Example topics include mapping disease
patterns, environmental
exposure assessment using remote sensing and GIS, spatial statistics and GIS for
public health data, analyzing spatial and
temporal trends of diseases, assessing medical resource allocation, analyzing
the geographical relationship between environments and
diseases.
6.
Name of the
session: Marine
Geomorphology as a Determinant for Essential Life Habitat: An Ecosystem Management Approach to
Planning for Marine Reserve Networks
Organizers:
Will Heyman, Texas A&M
University, wheyman@geog.tamu.edu
Dawn
Wright, Oregon State
University, dawn@dusk.geo.orst.edu
Session
description: Marine resources
are in decline throughout most of the world’s oceans and traditional,
species-specific and/or catch based means to manage these resources are failing
and are instead turning to ecosystem-based approaches. As attractive as it sounds, the concept
has not yet been effectively translated into action. The reauthorization of the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management as the Sustainable
Fisheries Act in 2006 provides renewed incentive for innovative ways to
implement ecosystem-based management.
The goal of these three sessions is to examine critically the growing
body of data suggesting that the underlying geology and geomorphology of marine
environments dictates the location of critical life habitat for a variety marine
species. For example, it is becoming clearer that spawning aggregations of many
species of commercially important reef fishes commonly occur at the windward
edge of reef promontories that jut into deep water. As another example,
seamounts serve as attractors for pelagic fishes.
The broad
implications of these findings suggest that geomorphology might be used as a
proxy for (or at least help to identify) critical life habitat for marine
species, and thus serve to advance the application of the ecosystem-based
management and the design of marine reserve networks. Our goal is to bring together a group of
experts who are examining this problem specifically, present papers, and publish
them all together with a synthesis and policy statement, within a special issue
of a peer-reviewed journal. In this way, we hope to advance collaboration
between scientists from various disciplines and marine managers towards more
efficient conservation and management of marine systems.
Papers are welcome in
the areas of:
- essential benthic habitat and
geomorphology
- marine GIS and/or remote sensing for the purposes of
integrating geomorphology and biology
- applications for marine reserve network
design
These will be
combined into at least 3 sessions that will include invited presenters as
well.
7.
Name of the
session: Critical GIS and
Urban Governance
Organizers:
Wen Lin (wenlin@uwm.edu), Geography Department,
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee;
Falguni Mukherjee (falguni@uwm.edu), Geography Department,
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Session
description: Recently, critical
GIS studies have presented a vibrant and diverse body of work, investigating the
dynamic and complex interrelations and interactions between geospatial
technologies and society (Harvey, Kwan and Pavlovskaya
2005; O’Sullivan 2006). Efforts have been made to document the ongoing
engagement of critical GIS and potential directions (e.g., Sheppard 2005;
Chrisman 2005) as well as to explore methodological challenges (e.g., the
‘Research design and methodologies for critical GIS research’ sessions organized
at 2007 AAG meeting). Nonetheless, much remains to be explored on GIS as social
constructions in the realm of urban governance, as geospatial technologies have
increasingly been involved in urban governance practices in various societies.
This paper session thus is an attempt to contribute to critical GIS research
through the aspect of examining GIS-related practices in urban
governance.
8.
Name of
session: Geospatial
Semantic Web Technologies for geospatial interoperability
Organizers:
Chuanrong
Zhang
(Department of Geography, Kent State University, czhang2@kent.edu),
Zhong-Ren
Peng
(Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Florida), zpeng@uwm.edu,
Tian
Zhao
(Department of Computer Science, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, tzhao@uwm.edu )
Session
description: The
advancement of Geospatial Semantic Web technologies is making an important
contribution to facilitate geospatial interoperability at the semantic level.
Many Geospatial Semantic Web applications have been developed in diverse fields.
There is a great need to organize a session or multiple sessions to demonstrate
recent development of Geospatial Semantic Web technologies and their innovative
applications in different fields.
Topics include, but are not limited
to:
9.
Name of the
session: Geographic
Information Retrieval
Organizer:
Brian Tomaszewski, Penn State
University
Session
description: This session
welcomes the submission of abstracts dealing with any aspect of Geographic Information Retrieval (GIR),
which can be defined as the retrieval and relevance ranking of unstructured or
partially structured information sources based on theme and geographic scope
(Purves and Jones 2006).
Paper topics include (but are not limited
to):
10.
Name of session:
Spatial Data Mining
and Exploratory Data Analysis
Organizers:
Diansheng Guo,
Department of Geography, University of South Carolina
http://people.cas.sc.edu/guod
Jeremy Mennis, Department of Geography and Urban Studies
Temple
University, Email: jmennis@temple.edu
Session description:
This session will
address new research in the theory, design, implementation, and application of
data mining and exploratory data analysis techniques to spatial and spatio-temporal data. Potential topics
include:
* Spatial data mining and knowledge
discovery
* Visualization/visual data mining/visual
analytics
* Exploratory spatial data
analysis
* New
software tools
* Applications of spatial data mining to
social and physical science data
11.
Name of session:
Perspectives on
Geographic Complexity
Organizers: Li An, San Diego State University, lan@mail.sdsu.edu
Alison Heppenstall, University of Leeds, A.J.Heppenstall@leeds.ac.uk
Dawn Parker, George
Mason University, dparker3@gmu.edu
Moira Zellner, University of Illinois at Chicago, mzellner@uic.edu
Session description:
There is growing
interest in understanding the complexity
of human,
socioeconomic, and biophysical systems. In parallel, an
ever-increasing number of
complexity-based models (e.g., agent-based
models, genetic algorithms,
and cellular automata) have appeared in the
geographical literature. The
growing sophistication and range of
applications of these models in
complexity-based research has
precipitated thought about
potential and challenges in this area, and
future directions for
research. The proposed sessions will focus on the
following
areas:
1. Theory: Common and
unique complexity characteristics/factors in
geographic systems, current and
evolving geographical and complexity
theories, epistemological and
ontological considerations, role of
deterministic complexity (e.g.,
chaos, non-linearity).
2. Methods: cellular
automata, agent-based models, genetic algorithms,
genetic programs, networks,
hybrid models, adaptation of classic
statistical
models.
3. Issues:
spatiotemporal patterning and space-time dynamic analysis,
representation of complex systems,
rule development, multiple-scale
interactions and structure, self
organizing systems, adaptation,
learning and evolution,
validation and verification, tool integration.
4. Applications:
Political, institutional and socio-economic systems,
human-environment interactions, earth
systems and ecology, landscape
ecology, policy decision
support. Exemplar applications may include
analysis of land-use and
land-cover change, natural resource management
and sustainability, and
adaptive institutions for public goods problems.
12.
Name of the
session: "Emerging
Computational Techniques and Technologies in GeoComputation"
Organizers: Sanjay Rana,
University College London, s.rana@ucl.ac.uk
Session description:
The aim of the
session is to bring together the research on any topic in computational
techniques and technologies used in GeoComputation.
The motivation behind the session is to provide a generic and interdisciplinary
platform to researchers whose research incorporates a considerable amount of
computational resources and techniques, thus somehow different from the more
geography and technology-application oriented topics at the
conference.
The choice of topic
is solely at the discretion of the researcher however this year we would
particularly like to welcome research in Health
Informatics.
13.
Name of the
Session: “Urban growth and its
impact on the environment”
Organized by: Chandana Mitra, Department of
Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, USA
Session description: Although
currently only 1.2% of the Earth’s land is considered urban, the spatial
coverage and density of cities are expected to rapidly increase in the near
future. It is estimated that by the year 2025, 60% of the world population will
live in cities (UNFP, 1999, Shepehrd 2005). Thus, it
is necessary for us to understand how the urban environment affects the physical
and climatic pattern in and around the city.
The aim of this paper
session is to provide a platform for scholars dealing with urban atmospheres,
including observational, modeling, theoretical, forecasting, and applied
studies.
Potential topics
may include the following:
-
Observational studies, using urban land use projection models as
well as weather/environmental and regional / global climate models, including
remote sensing, GIS and different datasets.
- Studies
dealing with urban climate like urban heat island, wind movement and
precipitation.
-
Empirical and observational studies on the influence of urban growth on
air quality
-
Studies on city planning and its direct/indirect influence on urban
environment.
-
Studies on coastal-urban interactions;
-
Water and energy balances
Please send an
email stating your paper title, PIN, and abstract no later than *October 31* to
Chandana Mitra at chandana@uga.edu. Persons with additional
program suggestions are encouraged to contact the program
chair.
14.
Name of the
session: Species
Distribution Modeling Roundtable
Organized by:
Jennifer A. Miller, Department of
Geography and the Environment, The University of Texas
at Austin
Session description:
Research focused on
species distribution modeling (SDM), predicting plant or animal species
distributions as a function of environmental relationships, has dramatically
increased in the past 20 years. The habitat maps generated by SDM are an
important component in resource management and conservation efforts and, as they
are based on an analytical paradigm, the data can be managed more efficiently
and presented more effectively than allowed by traditional cartographic formats.
The modeling aspect of SDM (where, for example, changes in spatial scale, data,
methods, ecological assumptions, and even how the maps are produced can be
explored extensively) has been a more recent focus of attention, particularly in
the context of examining the potential effects of changing environmental
conditions on species distributions.
As SDM draws upon GIS (systems and
science), biogeography, and spatial analysis, Geography can provide a unique
framework for exploring these issues. This panel session will consist of 10-14
short presentations on research (or research-in-progress) on aspects of SDM such
as (but not limited to):
Model conceptualization:
Data issues:
Evaluation/Assessment:
Technical details
(‘notes from the field’):
The presentations
will be followed by an interactive roundtable (see http://aag.org/annualmeetings/2008/papers.htm#isp
for more information on the session format).
If you are interested in
participating in this session or would like more information, please email me
(jennifer.miller@austin.utexas.edu)
as soon as possible.
15.
Session title:
Dynamics GIS
Session organizers:
May Yuan, University
of Oklahoma, myuan@ou.edu
and Kathleen Stewart
Hornsby, University of Iowa
Session
description: The session expands
upon the UCGIS workshop on Visualization and Computation of Dynamics in
Geographic Domains to solicit leading research on theoretical and methodological
advances in addressing dynamics in GIS frameworks. Dynamics in geographic
domains cuts across a wide spectrum of spatiotemporal themes, ranging from
individual travel activities to global environmental change. On one scale,
dynamics reflects the movement patterns or the change to entities over time,
where entities go in and out of existence, as well as the internal evolution of
properties of entities; on another scale, dynamics is manifested through
interactions among geographic systems, restructuring these systems, and
developing new systems. Presentations in the session will highlight multiple GIS
approaches to advance our understanding of dynamics in geographic
domains.
16.
Session
title: Wildfires in a
changing environment: How much worse could it get?
Session
organizers: Crystal Kolden, Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, Beth
Hall, State Climate Office/Department of Geography, University of New
Hampshire
Session description:
Wildfires continue to
break records for size and destruction of human infrastructure, leaving many to
wonder “How much worse can it get?”
Geographers and others who study past, present, and future wildfire dynamics in
connection with a changing environment are in a unique position to try and
answer that question through integrative, interdisciplinary frameworks that try
to capture the complexities of the wildfire environment and how humans interact
with it. This paper session will cover a broad range of topics dealing with
wildfire; from new understandings of how past wildfire regimes shaped modern
ecosystems to predictions of how future wildland-urban
interfaces will be shaped by the hazards associated with the potential megafires of the future. We encourage submissions that
address a wide range of wildfire topics such as (but not limited
to):
1) understanding paleofire regimes in
the context of historic and modern fire regimes
2) monitoring and measuring the fire
environment
3) modeling fire dynamics in modern and future
ecosystems
4) wildfire in the context of climate
change
5) assessing fire potential and fire
danger
6) human-fire
environment interactions
7) addressing wildfires of the future: how much worse could it
get?
If you wish to
participate in this session, please send an email indicating your intent to
Crystal Kolden at ckolden@clarku.edu by October 15,
2007. You must register for the conference online, then send your PIN, abstract
title, and abstract (limit 250 words) to Crystal Kolden
(ckolden@clarku.edu)
or Beth Hall (bhall@unh.edu) by October 26, 2007. All questions may be
sent to Crystal Kolden or Beth
Hall.
17.
Session
title: Impacts of Internet
GIS and Virtual Globes on Cartographic Research
Session
organizers: Ming-Hsiang Tsou
Department
of Geography, San Diego State University
Email: mtsou@mail.sdsu.edu
Website:
http://map.sdsu.edu/tsou/
André
Skupin
Department
of Geography, San Diego State University
Email:
skupin@mail.sdsu.edu
Website:
http://geography.sdsu.edu/People/Pages/skupin/index.htm
Session description:
Internet GIS and
virtual globes have the potential to significantly alter how maps and other
cartographic artifacts are designed, generated, distributed, and interacted
with. Such innovative tools as Google Earth, Virtual Earth, or ArcGIS Explorer point toward new research directions and new
mapping challenges for cartographers. This session will address the impact of
these new applications and tools on cartographic research and the challenges
involved in providing effective Internet-based map design. There is a potential
to introduce novel visualization methods, develop new cartographic skills, and
possibly a need for new paradigms in dealing with such issues as abstraction and
map projection. Potential topics
for this session include, but are not limited to the
following:
•
dynamic map representation in Web applications
(Google Maps, Yahoo Maps)
•
mash-ups and map API applications for Internet
mapping services
•
3D or temporal data representation on virtual
globes
•
on-line generalization methods
•
vector data compression for Web mapping
services
•
multimedia cartography on the
Internet
•
Web-based collaborative mapping tools and virtual communities
•
new on-line mapping formats and technologies
(PDF, Flash, FLEX, or web services)
To present a paper in
the session:
1. Register and
submit your abstract online
(http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/).
2. Email your
presenter identification number (PIN), paper title, and abstract to both session
organizers by October 26, 2007.
18.
Name of
session: SDSS Development:
Learning from Real World Experiences
Session Organizer:
Jochen
Albrecht
Department of
Geography, Hunter College, CUNY Earth and Environmental Sciences Program, The
Graduate Center, CUNY jochen@hunter.cuny.edu
Session
description: Spatial decision
support systems (SDSS) have been studied as a (set of) methods and academically
classified according to a wide range of criteria.
With the exception of
some studies in the realm of Public Participation GIS, however, there are very
few comparative studies that examine how the adoption and use of SDSS fares in
the highly politicized world of
policymaking. Several factors influence the
design and implementation of
SDSS. Some practical considerations that
emphasize the tensions between theory and practice include: (i) on-the-fly
changes in project scope and
definition: (ii) limited access
to data after 9/11, (iii) managing the conflicting demands of different interest
groups seeking to use the SDSS; and finally, (iv) negotiating between academic
goals on one side and client expectations on the other.
We invite
presentations containing descriptions of particular SDSS design efforts that
provide rich contextual information as well as critical reflections on the disconnect between theory and practice. One of the goals of this session is to
investigate the development of more innovative process
models that integrate
technical and organizational factors.
Please submit your
abstract of no more than 250 words and your personal identification number
(received from the AAG after applying online at
http://www.aag.org/) to: jochen@hunter.cuny.edu
19.
Session
name: Cyberinfrastructure
Organizers:
Rob Raskin (NASA JPL)
Chaowei
Phil Yang (NASA ASP GIO/GMU)
Session
description: The
flourishing developments of shared geographic data, information, knowledge and
computing resources have produced many products to facilitate the easy use of
geographic resources. For example: 1) Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth
have changed how we explore geographic extent; 2) OGC developed multiple web
services to facilitate communication among GIS components that are widely used
in assembling services, such as spatial web portals; 3) Geographically
distributed sensor webs have opened up the possibilities for real-time control
of complex systems such as urban traffic; 4) Knowledge representation systems
enable the enterprise to accumulate knowledge and make smart decisions. These
evolutions adopt cyberinfrastructure to facilitate
geographic research, development, and education. If approved by the AAG Council in
November, Cyberinfrastructure will be the newest AAG
Specialty Group.
The
Cyberinfrastructure sessions are
organized to capture the experiences gained on research, development, and
education of the advancements in relevant areas of Geography and Geospatial
Science. Topics include but are not limited to:
·
Distributed
Geospatial Information Processing
·
Sensor
Webs
·
Internet
GIS
·
Google
Earth, Virtual Earth, et al. for geographic research
·
Spatial
Web Portals
·
Digital
Libraries
·
Knowledge
Management, Concept Spaces, and Ontologies
·
Standards
and Interoperability
·
Data
and computing grids for geography and geospatial sciences
·
Data
and Service Quality
·
Applications
and education in the above areas
Please
submit your PIN and abstract of no more than 250 words to Rob Raskin
(raskin@jpl.nasa.gov) or Chaowei Phil Yang
(cyang3@gmu.edu) by Monday, October 29, 2007, after submitting your abstracts
through the AAG website and receiving the PIN.
20.
Session
title: Remote Sensing and
GIS for Urban Analysis
Special Paper Session
in Honor of Dr. Chor-Pang Lo
Session
description: The urban
environment is characterized by highly dynamic changes in biophysical and
socio-economic domains, and urban
environment management involves
procedures of mapping and monitoring which require reliable information base and
robust
analytical technologies. Remote
sensing and GIS, given their cost-effectiveness and technological soundness, are
increasingly being
used to develop useful
sources of information and to support decision making in connection with a wide
array of urban applications.
Nevertheless, the
urban environment, because of its complex and highly dynamic landscape, has been
challenging the applicability and
robustness of these methods and
technologies.
In more than three
decades, Prof. Chor-Pang Lo of the University of
Georgia has made great contributions to the study of the
urban
environment through the use of
remote sensing, GIS, and census statistics. His research includes land use and
land cover change,
population estimation, quality
of the life assessment, urban heat island, and so on. He is a highly prolific
researcher and author with
numerous publications
including high-quality journal papers and three major textbooks on remote
sensing or geographic information
systems (Geographical
Applications of Aerial Photography, Crane, Russak, and
Co.,1976; Applied Remote Sensing, Longman, 1986;
Concepts and
Techniques in Geographic Information Systems, Prentice Hall,2002, 2007) that have been adopted by many
universities
in the United States
and other countries. Equally important, he trained graduate students at both
master and doctoral levels, who
themselves have become
successful academicians. His dedication to urban remote sensing has inspired a
new generation of scholars
working to better understand
the complex and highly dynamic urban environment. Dr. Lo received the
Outstanding Contributions Award
and Medal from AAG
Remote Sensing Specialty Group (2001), the William Owen Creative Research Award
in the Social Sciences from
the University of
Georgia (2001), the Research Honors Award from AAG Southeastern Division (2002),
and the Distinguished Service
Award from AAG China
Specialty Group (2005).
Dr. Lo plans to
retire in Spring 2008 after several decades of
outstanding research, teaching, and academic services. We wish
him
well, and would like to
have a special paper session dedicated to Prof. Lo. In this session, potential
topics may include but not limited
to the
following:
! Remotely sensed
data requirements for urban landscape characterization;
! Digital image
processing procedures for deriving accurate and consistent information on urban
attributes from remotely
sensed
data;
! Analytical
techniques and methodologies for deriving indicators of social and economic
conditions that prevail within urban
landscape;
! Urban landscape
change monitoring and mapping case studies;
! Impacts of
urbanization upon ecological and social environments;
! Urban landscape
simulation and predictive modeling based on remotely sensed
data;
! Interface between
remote sensing/GIS and urban geography, and
! Urban remote sensing education.
Abstract submission
details are available in recent issues of the AAG newsletter and at the AAG
website
(http://aag.org/annualmeetings/2008/abstract.htm).
Please note that the AAG is now using online submission of abstracts
and
registration materials (check
AAG's webpage for details). Whenever possible, please go through the online
submission, and then send
us an email containing:
(1) Your name, presentation title, and abstract; and (2) The "Participant
Number" assigned to you by the online
registration system. The deadline
for receiving all application materials from presenters is October 31,
2007.
Session organizers: Drs. Xiaojun Yang and Victor Mesev
Department of
Geography
Florida State
University
Tallahassee, FL
32306, USA
850-644-8379
850-644-5913
(fax)
xyang@fsu.edu or vmesev@fsu.edu
21.
SESSION
TITLE: Ethics Education for
Graduate Programs in Geographic Information Science and
Technology
SESSION
DESCRIPTION: With support from
the National Science Foundation, a team of professional ethicists and academic
geographers is developing a model curriculum for graduate seminars in “ethics
for future geospatial technology professionals.” Project deliverables will
include open educational resources to advance formal ethics education in
geographic information science and technology (GIS&T), including recommended
readings; instruments that allow students to self-assess their moral reasoning
abilities; protocols for graduate student interviews of GIS&T professionals;
case studies that illuminate ethical challenges confronting practitioners; and
digital video recordings of invited guest presenters. Following a brief project
description, panelists and audience members will be invited to contribute to the
project by addressing the following questions:
�X Should formal ethics
education be a required element of graduate education in
GIS&T?
�X How does ethics
education currently manifest in panelists’ and audience members’ GIS&T
graduate programs?
�X What educational
objectives should a seminar in GIS&T ethics seek to
achieve?
�X What educational
resources would be most effective in advancing formal ethics education in
GIS&T graduate programs?
�X What case studies
exist that effectively illustrate ethical problems in
GIS&T?
�X What are the potential
advantages and risks of student interviews of GIS&T practitioners to
identify ethical case studies?
Panelists
(confirmed): Jeremy Crampton, Jerome Dobson, Harlan
Onsrud, Dawn
Wright
Organizer and
Chair: David DiBiase (dibiase@psu.edu
22.
Session
name: Envisioning a
Post-Proprietary Geography
Session
organizers: ORGANIZERS: David
DiBiase, Darrell Fuhriman,
and Sam Smith (Pennsylvania State University)
CHAIR AND CONTACT:
David DiBiase (dibiase@psu.edu)
Session
description: “Post-Proprietary”
or “Open” Geography is a vision of an academic discipline that is strongly
committed to open educational resources—including open access journals—as well
as open source software and public domain data.
We seek panelists
with diverse backgrounds, including (but not limited to) journal editors,
publishers, graduate students, software developers, librarians, and textbook
authors. The primary requirement is an interest in (whether pro or con) and
familiarity with implications of a Post-Proprietary Geography.
Panelists and
attendees will discuss the benefits and challenges that a commitment to open
access poses for Geography. Here “open” refers to intellectual property that is
freely available and licensed for use by anyone with minimal restrictions.
“Educational resources” include the “courseware” produced by educators—such as
lecture notes and syllabi—as well as the contents of textbooks and peer-reviewed
journals.
Potential benefits of
a Post-Proprietary Geography include wider and faster knowledge dissemination;
expanded access to educational opportunity; reduction of duplicative efforts;
and improved quality and impact that accrue from participatory knowledge
production. Challenges include quality control; unfamiliarity with business
models that make openness viable and sustainable; potential damage to desirable
industry relationships; and prevailing conceptions of knowledge as a private
rather than public good.
23.
Session
name: Session on
Measurement and Modeling of Land Use and Cover Change
Session
Organizer:
Robert Gilmore Pontius Jr, Clark University,
rpontius@clarku.edu
Session
description: The papers in this
session focus on methods that allow researchers to learn about changes in the
land, primarily those changes that are induced by humans. The first paper
presents results from an agent-based land change model in The Amazon. The second
paper examines a technique to detect human influence on land cover in China. The
third paper examines how spatial-dependence in errors can influence the
measurement of land change in Michigan. The fourth paper examines how to detect
systematic processes of land cover change in Ghana.
24.
Session
Title: The Geography of the
Holocaust: Challenges and Opportunities
Format:
Panel
Co-organizers: Waitman Beorn (University of North
Carolina Chapel Hill) and Alberto Giordano (Texas State
University)
Participants: Waitman Beorn (University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill), Alberto Giordano (Texas State University), Anne
Knowles (Middlebury College), Marc Masurovsky (United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum), Kenneth Foote (University of
Colorado)
Chair: Kenneth Foote
(University of Colorado)
Session description:
In the summer of
2007, a two-week workshop was held at the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington, DC. The objective of the workshop, which was sponsored by
the Museum's Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, was to bring together a
group of geographers and historians to consider how geographical questions and
methods might contribute to Holocaust Studies. Scholars at the workshop
identified a series of core geographical research questions and innovative
methodological approaches (including historical GIS) to answer them. In this
session, the panelists report on the results of the workshop and discuss a
series of possible research questions on the geography of the Holocaust. More
specifically, the panelists will address: a) the role of spatial and temporal
scales in analyzing the historical and geographical dimensions of the Holocaust;
b) the role geovisualization can play in exploring and
communicating the Holocaust; c) issues of metadata and accuracy as they relate
to historical spatial information and specifically to Holocaust data; d) what
spatial analytical techniques appear particularly promising for exploring the
spatial patterns of the Holocaust; e) the challenges of creating GIS databases
using existing sources on the Holocaust. The panel will also discuss a project
to create a Historical GIS of the Holocaust.
25.
Session
title: Cognitive Issues in
Geographic Information Visualization
Organizers: Sara Irina Fabrikant (University of Zurich) Email: sara@geo.uzh.ch, http://www.geo.unizh.ch/gia/aboutus/homepages/sara/
Amy Lobben
(University of Oregon) Email: lobben@uoregon.edu,
http://geography.uoregon.edu/department/faculty-staff/faculty/lobben/index.html
Session description:
We
invite papers within the interdisciplinary research area of geographic
information visualization and cognition. Specifically of interest are
theoretical and empirical contributions exploring the human-geovisualization display interface.
This includes (but is not limited to):
~ geovisualization design research (2D/3D,
animated/virtual/immersive, static/interactive/mobile, etc.)
~ the application of cognitive theories and methods to
understanding geovisualization displays & geovis tool use
~ the application of geovisualization
displays & tools to understanding spatial cognition
~ reasoning, inference & decision making with geovisualization displays & tools
~ human-geovisualization interaction research
Participants
In addition to
geographers, GIScientists, and cartographers, we are
also looking for speakers from a broad range of disciplines, including but not
limited to psychology, cognitive science, education, HCI,
etc.
To be included in
this session, please:
1. Register and
submit your abstract online following the AAG Guidelines
(http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/).
2. Email your
presenter identification number (PIN), paper title, and abstract to both of the
session organizers by October 26, 2007.
26.
Session title:
Semantic Similarity and Semantic Relatedness in
Geography
Co-chairs: Brent
Hecht and Martin Raubal
Session description:
The
analysis of the relations between spatial concepts, instances of spatial
concepts, and non-spatial entities is a fundamental part of geography. In this
session, we examine the large spatial and geographic import of two major classes
of quantitative measures of these relations - semantic similarity and semantic
relatedness. Both classes have been of growing interest in the fields of
computer science and cognitive science. The usefulness of semantic similarity
and semantic relatedness in geography is shown through both explication of a
spatial theoretical framework and demonstration of important
applications.
27.
Session Title:
Informing GIScience with Indigenous Knowledge
Chair: Karen
Kemp
Session Description:
Knowledge of
indigenous peoples is acquired through experience, observation, trial and error.
Close connection with the land is essential for survival and spiritual
wellbeing. There is much to learn from these traditional knowledge bases that
can inform GIScience at its most fundamental levels.
28.
Session
Title: Hazards, GIS, and
Remote Sensing
Chair:
Rutherford
Platt
Session
Description: With each major
hazard event in recent years, innovative applications of digital geographic
information emerge. The broad theme of this session is any and all research
associated with the collection and exploitation of digital geographic
information before, during or after a hazard event. This includes, but is not
limited to:
* Methods for
modeling and mapping hazardscapes, risk, and
vulnerability
* Change detection in
hazards
* Spatial decision
support systems in emergency management
* Dynamic geographic
modeling in emergencies
* GIS/RS applications
in mitigation, preparedness, response, or recovery
* Geographic
information in hazards and the media
* Uncertainty in
geographic data and modeling in emergencies
* The changing role
of geographic information in hazards
Research on all types
of hazards is welcome; past sessions have featured papers on wildfires,
hurricanes, drought, floods, and tsunamis. Thanks to the presenters and all who
attended these sessions in San Francisco. We are excited to extend the tradition
in Boston, home of the great molasses disaster of 1919!
29.
Session title:
Bridging the Gap
Between Analytic and Deliberative Spatial Decision Support
Organizers: Claus Rinner (Department of Geography, Ryerson University), Rob
Feick (Department of Geography, University of
Waterloo)
Contact: crinner at ryerson.ca
Session description:
Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) have been described as suitable platforms to generate
specialized decision support systems in a variety of domains. The GIS methods
used for decision support include spatial analysis, multi-criteria evaluation,
and cartographic visualization. In addition to these analytic methods, recent
research in GIScience has dealt with enabling public participation, discussion,
and negotiation in spatial decision-making. These deliberative approaches
include map annotation and map-based communication tools. It has been argued
that analytic and deliberative elements have to be integrated in order to enable
“meaningful participation”. Participants in this session will provide examples
of GIS-based technology and case studies to support both, the analytic and
deliberative processes in spatial decision-making. Special attention will be
given to analytic-deliberative decision support in sustainable community
planning.
30.
Session title: The
Participatory Geoweb
Organizer: Renee
Sieber
Session description:
The
Geoweb—the intersection of geospatial technologies and
information and
Web 2.0—has created a paradigm shift in GIScience. A
significant
contribution of the Geoweb is its seeming facility to
engage the
public, whether this is accomplished through
geo-referenced
user generated contact, screen scrapings and mashups,
or the geolocation of stories and points of interests on digital
earths. A small,
albeit uncritical, literature is emerging on the
participation of
the public in this emerging medium.
Presentations in this session showcase
applications of and frame a
critical
research agenda for the Participatory Geoweb, which is
the
involvement of
advocacy nonprofits, local communities, and
marginalized
peoples—the civil society—in the Geoweb (including the
creation of
virtual civil societies). They build on prior research in
participatory
GIS, and look towards assessing the varied technologies
of the
participatory Geoweb, understanding the nature of
public, the
extent to which
participation is actually occurring and the
association
between participation and empowerment. Because this is a
new medium, and
(potentially) a new way of thinking about distributed
online
geospatial information, existing lessons of PGIS do not
necessarily
transfer. Finally, application and research agendas
demonstrate the
importance of responding to actual needs of people
and remaining
relevant to the civil society that has become
transfixed (at
least momentarily) by the Geoweb.
31.
Session
Title: Methodological approaches to
Historical
GIS
Organizers: Lex
Berman (Harvard Univ) & Ian Gregory (Lancaster
Univ, UK) Chair: Peter K. Bol (Harvard Univ)
Discussant: Ian
Gregory
Session description:
This
session will discuss practical approaches to Historical GIS from four
angles: first, the development of
an application for analysis of change over time that makes use of existing
Historical GIS data. Second, the representation of historical enumeration districts and
how to use and interpret measures of spatial segregation. Third, the examination
of cartographic uncertainty in georeferencing ancient
maps. And fourth, an examination of the structural content of both Print
Historical Atlases and Historical GIS.