Geographic Information Systems and. Science: Today and Tomorrow. Michael F.
Goodchild. University of California. Santa Barbara ...
Geographic Information Systems and Science: Today and Tomorrow Michael F. Goodchild University of California Santa Barbara
Geospatial technologies • Positioning on the Earth’s surface – GPS, RFID
• Acquisition systems – remote sensing – volunteered geographic information
• Data dissemination – geoportals – virtual globes
• Analysis – searching for patterns and anomalies – testing hypotheses, modeling change
Positioning technologies • Navigation – sextant – chronometer
Positioning technologies • Surveying – measurement with respect to a known point – tape, compass, clinometer
• GPS, Galileo – accurate timing of signals from satellites – easily incorporated into mobile devices
Dynamic geographic information • Live feed to desktop, laptop, mobile phone – integrated with other map data – www.aircoach.ie
Pacific Rim Trade - LA/LB ports 2002 = 10 million TEU containers 2003 = 11.8 million TEU containers 2004 = 13 million TEU containers 2005 = 14,194,442 TEU containers 2006 = 15.33 - estimated 8% growth
Destination estimates? 50% Intermodal train (21% on-dock rail from ship) 50% Local distribution warehouses for local consumption and outbound distribution On-dock rail – containers move from ship to train instead of being trucked to the rail ramps 23% In Los Angeles 27% in Long Beach Combined 1.5 million containers in 2005! This reduces the dwell time on dock and the amount of gate and yard transactions for the marine terminal further reducing yard congestion
L002: Port terminals
L002: LA Basin, 4 months
RFID • Radio frequency identification – scanning without the laser – active or passive
• Tracking of objects – goods from production to retail display to sale – construction materials – pets, livestock, children, parolees
NYC Office of Emergency Management and NY Office of Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure Coordination
Street Images + Extraction + Annotation
360°Panoramic + Ad Annotation
www.wikimapia.org
www.flickr.com
www.openstreetmap.org
Neogeography • A breaking down of the traditional barriers between expert and non-expert • The engagement of thousands of individuals in the production of geographic information
Andrew Curtis, Department of Geography, Louisiana State University http://ncg.nuim.ie/ncg/events/20060125/
1. Google Earth image 2. 1843 map of London from David Rumsey collection 3. Pump and death locations from my own web site
Multiple attribution Shapes —— ESRI ~~~
USGS
Names D’aowaga Lake Tahoe Sierra Lake
Types +Water Body Plate carre
- Lake - Reservoir
Analysis • Mining spatial data for patterns and anomalies • Making inferences about disease prevalence and transmission • Testing hypotheses about cause
Source: Mason et al., Atlas of Cancer Mortality for U.S. Counties, NCI, 1975
www.csiss.org
Geographic information science • The science behind the systems • The fundamental issues raised by the technologies • The principles implemented in the technologies
Major discoveries in GIScience • Theories of representation – discrete objects and continuous fields – object fields, metamaps – unification
• Models of uncertainty – error propagation – downscaling
• Principles of spatial cognition • Theories of the geographic world – spatial dependence, spatial heterogeneity
Future prospects • Knowing where everything is (at all times) – – – – – – –
every mobile phone every vehicle every farm animal every item in a store every construction beam every asset for emergency response every victim of a disaster
• Representation of 3D structures – and positioning inside them – extending navigation to indoors
The role of the citizen • • • •
Placenames, streets, social characteristics Early notification of change Early reports of damage from a disaster Both producer and consumer of geographic information • The local expert
Access • Systems that are easy to use, open to all • A technology of design – simulations of future landscapes – evaluation of the effects of natural processes and human actions
A technology of dynamics • Real-time, continuous monitoring • The state of the world at all times – the state of the transportation network – the state of human health – the state of the environment
• Sensor networks – static – carried on moving objects – humans as sensors
The grand challenges of GIScience • Representing the full range of conditions and phenomena on a dynamic Earth – 4D, unary and binary
• Providing simulations of real processes that are indistinguishable from reality • Managing the flow of data from a host of sensors • Communicating knowledge of abstract phenomena and uncertainty to the non-expert user • Capturing the local geographic knowledge of citizens • Making it possible to search efficiently over a distributed, global data resource • Preserving what we know about the geographic world for future generations
Concluding points • A rapidly expanding area of technology • Raising some fundamental questions – presenting some grand scientific challenges
• Prompting a rethinking of how we educate
