essays on geography and gis, volume 2

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GIS Best Practices

Essays on Geography and GIS: Volume 2

July 2009


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Table of Contents

What Is GIS? 1

GIS: Designing Our Future 3

Implementing Geographic Information Technologies Ethically 15

GIScience for Human Rights 29

Transport 2.0: Meeting Grand Challenges with GIScience 35

Geography Education and GIS Professional Development 47

Changing the Face of Geography: GIS and the IGU 51Process Models and Next-Generation GeographicInformation Technology 63

Geographic Literacy in U.S. by 2025 75

Geography, GIS, and Mental Health 79The National Geospatial Advisory Committee: An Action Agenda 83


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GIS: Designing Our Future

By Jack Dangermond

"Man may perish by his own explosive and insidious inventions. Foran adjustment to them he leaves himself precious little time, andprogressively less as his technological wizardry runs wild and rushes on.If he is to survive at all, it cannot be through slow adjustment. It will haveto be through design more subtly considered and circumspect, through

more cautious planning in advance."With those words in 1954, in uential architect Richard Neutraopened his seminal book Survival through Design. Neutra was anearly environmentalist, taking an approach to architectural designthat applied elements of biological and behavioral sciencewhat he called biorealthe "inherent and inseparable relationship between man and nature." Fifteen years his groundbreaking book Design with Nature, landscape architect Ian McHargframework for design that helps humans achieve synergy with nature. Design and pthat take into consideration both environmental and social issues help us ensure tharesources are used appropriately and responsibly, to help us move toward a better fMcHarg's pioneering work not only had a fundamental in uence on the up-anenvironmental planning but simultaneously solidi ed the core concepts of the as well.

In the 40 years since Design with Nature was written, a better world is the comof usgeographers, planners, scientists, and othershave been striving for. Discu

book during the Keynote Address at the 1997 ESRI International User Conference,out a process by which "environmental data could be incorporated into the planninRejecting the view of a future modeled after some idyllic environmental past, he inan early adopter of the view that we should be using our dominance of earth system


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impact of humans on the environment, that massive human impacts on the earth are a fthat's not going away, and that we stand at the crossroads. Thus, our challenge is to pro

designers, engineers, planners, and others, with a set of tools and a framework for desiand managing the anthropogenic earth.

I've recently become very interested in the relatively new eld of earth systems emanagement (ESEM), which concerns itself with the design, engineering, analysis, andmanagement of complex earth systems. ESEM takes a holistic view of multiple issues aour earthnot only taking environmental, social, and other considerations into accounin the design process but also looking at challenges from an adaptive systems approachongoing analysis feeds back into the continual management of the system.

Braden Allenby, professorof civil and environmentalengineering at Arizona StateUniversity and one of ESEM'sfounders, often emphasizesthe undeniably dominant rolehumans have in earth systems.

"We live in a world that isfundamentally different fromanything that we have knownin the past," says Allenby inhis paper "The Metaphysics ofthe Anthropogenic Earth Part I:Integrative Cognitivism." "It is aworld dominated by one species,

its activities and technologies,its cultures, and the integratedeffects of its historical evolution."McHarg was already moving in this

Design for theAnthropogenic Earth

ArcSketch tool-style editing in ArcGIS 9.4 will make edit


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Allenby sees reasoned design and management in the age of the anthropogenic earmoral imperative, but the biggest obstacle to our success is that we are not set up to

even think, in this way. "We lack solid data and analytical frameworks to make assethe costs, bene ts, and normative assessments of different . . . practices," notes A"Biomass Management Systems" in Reconstructing Earth. And this is why Ithe emerging eld of GeoDesign are critical to the success of approaches such as other logical and rational models for dealing with the environmental and planning ours and future generations.

"We are being propelled into this new century with no plan, no control, no brakes."Cofounder and Chief Scientist, Sun Microsystems

The key to developing a true understanding of our complex and dynamic earth is cframework to take many different pieces of past and future data from a variety of smerge them in a single system. GIS is a sophisticated technological tool already in use by planners, engineers, and scientists to display and analyze all forms of locatireferenced data about the health, status, and history of our planet. GIS enables a Gframework for analyzing and managing anthropogenic earth issues by allowing useinventory and display large, complex spatial datasets. They can also analyze the po

interplay between various factors, getting us closer to a true understanding of how earth systems may change in the coming decades and centuries.

Carl Steinitz, an urban planner at Harvard University, originated many of the earlythe application of GIS for landscape analysis and urban planning. Steinitz developelandscape change that enables design of alternative futures. Those alternative desigbe evaluated in terms of their impact on the natural environment as well as their uthuman population, and the alternative future that is projected to achieve the best bathen be selected for implementation. With a debt of gratitude to Steinitz ("A FrameLandscape Future ), the GeoDesign framework also lets us design and test variouhelping us make the most educated and informed decisions about the best possible

Designing AlternativeFutures


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Is the earth getting hotter or colder? Is the stress human populations are putting on the contributing to climate change? What potential factors may signi cantly impact thrive and survive in the future? What additional sorts of environmental monitoring cadoing today to improve decisions in the future? We are only beginning to understand happroach these questions, let alone come up with scienti cally valid answers. Ocareful observation of the data application of scienti c principles and using GIS


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the results of GIS analysis in AutoCAD designs, as well as create, manipulate, and deCAD data is organized and attributed as GIS content.

Design professionals are creative and rely heavily on intuition, a gut feeling that sometright. GIS professionals providing input to a creative process rely heavily on analysis ascience. With GeoDesign, GIS becomes a tool for designers; they can move rapidly thriterative design process while leveraging the full analytical power of the geodatabase. Wbelieve that bringing together the worlds of design and analysis under one common infsystem framework will have huge implications.

In 2005, Bill Miller, ESRI's engineer/architect, led a small team to develop a free samp

extension that was the rst step toward true GIS-based GeoDesign tools. Released inextension allows you to quickly create features in the ArcGIS Desktop ArcMap applicaeasy-to-use sketch tools. You simply select a sketch tool and an associated symbol, thethe feature. This simple design tool automatically manages the drawing environment, ayou to conceptualize what to draw, as opposed to how to draw it. With ArcSketch, you sketch a set of alternative land-use concept plans, quickly lay out the spatial componendisaster response plan, sketch out the location of a highway, or lay out a site master pla

As a geographic sketching tool that allows users to sketch initial designs on top of GISmaps and imagery, ArcSketch was useful to many of our users, but it is only the beginnFunctionality similar to ArcSketch will be further enhanced and integrated into the coresystem at the 9.4 release. And subsequent releases of ArcGIS promise even more suppothe use of GIS for design.

ArcSketch tool-style editing in ArcGIS 9.4 will make editing simpler, with new streamfunctionality making it easier for you to complete your work.

Creating features is accomplished through the use of feature templates. To get started wtemplates, you just need to start editing, which launches the Create Templates wizard. Twizard will quickly help you build a set of feature templates you can use to create newOnce you nish, the Create Features window opens with a list of templates.

Design Tools in ArcGIS


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Feature templates de ne all the informationrequired to create a new feature: the layer

where a feature will be stored, attributesnew features will be created with, and thedefault tool used to create that feature. Inthe Create Features window, choose thetemplate in which to store the new feature,click a construction tool from the palette atthe bottom of the window, and click the mapto digitize the shape of the feature. In ArcGIS9.4, the edit sketch will show a WYSIWYGpreview with the symbology used for thattemplate (layer).

Snapping is now enabled by default andhas been broadened from being within anedit session only to being available acrossArcMap. To this end, all the settings you needto work with snapping are located on the new

Snapping toolbar, including turning on and offsnapping types (edge, vertex, endpoint, andso on) and customizing the appearance of thecursor and SnapTips.

The Fields tab on the Layer Properties dialogbox has been redesigned for 9.4, makingit easier to reorder elds, turn them on oroff, sort them, and set other display andformatting properties. These properties willbe used throughout ArcMap, including theeditor's attributes dialog box, table windows,


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Integration of design tools with existing GIS functionality isimportant, but it's only the rst step. Ultimately, our visionis to expand the utility of GIS to the point that it is afoundational design system. As humanity comes to gripswith its overwhelming impact on the natural world, we arealso gaining a much better appreciation for ourinextricable link to nature. And with that, of course, comes an enormous responsibilityresponsibility made all the more gargantuan by the fact that we still have a long way totoward fully understanding the dynamics of the various systems and developing a robucomprehensive models and other tools to support these activities. As Neutra did witharchitecture in the 1950s, we need to advance a framework for design and planning thaincorporates but also embraces technology; science; and, ultimately, nature in a systemhelps us design and choose the best alternative futures.

Imagine if your initial design concept,scribbled on the back of a cocktail napkin,has the full power of GIS behind it: thesketch goes into the database, becoming alayer that can be compared to all the other

layers in the database. The experienceESRI has gained while developing CADintegration tools, ArcSketch, and thenew tools in ArcGIS 9.4 has led to anappreciation of the power that could bederived by associating drawing tools,symbology, data models, and processmodels into one integrated framework

for doing GeoDesign. Having "back ofthe napkin" design sketches available forimmediate analysis and feedback is one of ESRI's primary areas of research and develoover the coming years, and our users will see the results of these efforts in upcoming re

Meeting the Challengewith GeoDesign


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"There is now a growing interest in combining design functionality with the broadcontext that geospatial tools offer in order to engage more deeply in land-use plannMatt Ball, editor at V1 Magazine. A GeoDesign framework will provide a robusdesign professionals and nally meet the challenge of Ian McHarg, letting us trunature.

(Reprinted from the Summer 2009 issue of ArcNews magazine)


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and ensuring that all members of society have an opportunity to enjoy the minimum deof life. The roles of the law are myriad, and we naturally look to the legal system for guYet, resorting to the law is not the rst or best mechanism for de ning our relatiothers.

The preferred priority of societal controls has often been listed in the legal literature asmarketplace, private arrangements, then the law. In this priority listing, price is vieweda much better regulator of quality than laws, and support of the free will of parties, sucthrough agreements, is far more bene cial than having the law de ne what theishould be. In the context of the marketplace and private arrangements, the law serves aprimarily supporting role in ensuring open competition and the enforcement of valid coLooking to the law to de ne personal or resolve disputed relationships should be seeresort.

For resources, such as geospatial products, that can be conveyed through cyberspace, thinherent characteristics of data and information make enforcement of controls particulaproblematic. The theory is that the "invisible hand" of everybody pursuing individual einterests drives greater ef ciency and lower prices throughout the market. Howeverinvisible hand to function effectively, goods in the market should have the characteristi

being rivalrous (e.g., my consumption of an apple adversely affects your consumption same good) and excludable (e.g., I need to be able to bar your use of the good for free)market must be transparent.

There are at least three major reasons provided in the literature as to why markets fail: goods, externalities, and economies of scale.


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Illustration by Steve Pablo, ESRI.

The rst of these failure concepts is perhaps the most critical for participants in geproduct exchanges to understand. Public goods are not something de nedby the public but rather are goods that are nonrivalrous and nonexcludable. Inform


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extracted from a table in a print article, or automatically extracted from a networked daand included as a portion of the visual results from an online Web map service is protecopyright or some other legal right. Even in science, the tradition of reproducing the daothers in one's work, then citing the source is no longer suf cient. Although manto ignore legal rules when they fail to meet our day-to-day expectations or they appear unjust as applied to our circumstances, the law in many jurisdictions now assumes thatcompiled digital data of others is used without their permission, it's done at the user's operil. Just as one may not assume that any music le found openly available on tto copy legally without permission, the same holds true for most of our geographic digproducts.


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exposure would be minimized, and contributors would obtain substantial beneincreased recognition, long-term archiving of their data, peer evaluation, and credi

To meet these operational requirements, the architecture proposed would provide

Open Access License GenerationWith a few clicks, in less than a minute, uscreate ironclad open access license conditions for any of their contributed datathat licensing information to the data.

Automated Metadata GenerationWith a few clicks and typed responses, in le10 minutes, users who are not GIScience professionals would use a simple mecreating standards-based metadata.

File Provenance TrackingThe system would automatically convert any contrto several standard interchange formats and track reuse of each of thesegenerations of digital copying, aggregation, and partial extraction, ensuring thalineage is always traceable.

Peer Review Recommender SystemsThe system would enable users to not odata through standard search mechanisms but also evaluate data for its suitabiltheir needs, as well as provide feedback to contributors.

Long-Term ArchivingFiles would be archived and backed up at interconnecinstitutionally supported facilities (e.g., libraries and research centers) that wouon the contributor's continual maintenance.

Notice that the architecture proposed for the geospatial community has several parthe iTunes architecture discussed above and is morally defensible using some of tharguments. It uses an open approach to intellectual property management by allow

tracing of major abusers of license conditions but not hiding the geographic data. Bthe public goods aspects of the proposed architecture, unlike iTunes, the architectuto be provided through the competitive marketplace. Public or philanthropic fundinlikely be required to resolve the research challenges and then develop and support


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GIScience for Human Rights"Crossing Borders"

A column by Doug Richardson, Executive Director, Association of American Geog

Nearly all geographers and GIS specialists are concerned abouthuman rights and in their personal and professional lives seekmeaningful ways to act on these concerns and values. For thepast two years, the AAG has been working together with the

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)to explore an array of issues, projects, and programs thatengage GIScience, geography, and human rights.

This collaborative work has resulted in substantivedevelopments in three areas of human rights activity thatintersect geography and GIS:

The creation of a new Science and Human Rights Coalition,1.of which the AAG is a founding member and co-organizer

Cooperation around an AAAS project on Geospatial Technologies and Human2.

The development of an AAG Geography and Human Rights Clearinghouse3.

I am pleased to report on progress to date on these new programs and invite the ideand participation of the ESRI user community as we move forward.

For the past two years, the AAG has worked closely with AAAS and a team of otheand professional associations to help develop the conceptual and organizational fraa proposed new Science and Human Rights Coalition, to be hosted by AAAS. The network of individuals and scienti c organizations that recognize a role for scien

Science and HumanRights Coalition


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expand the knowledge base of human rights organizations regarding scienti cand technologies that can be applied in human rights work. Scienti c associatiogoals of the coalition are invited to participate as members. Individual scholars and sciare encouraged to participate through their scienti c organizations but may also bafliated members.

The village of Bir Kedouas, on the Chad side of the Chad/Sudan border, in October 2004.This QuickBird satellite image pictures the village before it suffered attack by the Janjawid.

(Copyright 2008 DigitalGlobe. Produced by AAAS.)

The formal launch of the new Science and Human Rights Coalition will occur January2009, in Washington, D.C. Speakers will include Mary Robinson, former United NatioCommissioner for Human Rights and the former president of Ireland The AAG is a fo


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The AAG alsosupports andprovides input to theAAAS GeospatialTechnologies andHuman Rightsproject, which ispart of the AAASScience and HumanRights Coalition.This project isfunded by theMacArthur and OakFoundations todevelopapplications, as wellas human andinformationresources thatimprove the use ofgeospatial technologies and analysis by the nongovernmental organizational (NGOrights community. Working in partnership since 2006 with well-known groups, sucInternational and Human Rights Watch, as well as numerous small, locally based othe project has engaged in several efforts to bring high-resolution satellite imageryGIS, and geographic analysis and methods into wider use by human rights organizsuch tools and analyses were occasionally used in the past, the project seeks to exppotential for an integrated approach to monitoring, documenting, and preventing h

abuses. Such a system would draw together numerous satellite imagery programs wextensive network of on-the-ground NGOs and other human rights observers to fulas objectively and as quickly as possible, ongoing atrocities around the world so thinterventions might occur This project has also bene ted from imagery analy

GeospatialTechnologies and

Human Rights Project

The village of Bir Kedouas following attacks by Janjawid ghters in Januathat burning destroyed 89 homes, as well as crops and other struc

(Copyright 2008 DigitalGlobe. Produced by AAAS


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documentation efforts in Burma and the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. In such remote reggovernments often are able to commit atrocities against their citizens with near impuniand satellite observations can often be the only method of authoritatively corroboratingwitness reporting for international NGO and governmental human rights organizationsa more limited extent, such imagery can occasionally be effective as a proactive protecand warning mechanism, allowing innocent people to escape from harm's way or deterattacks on monitored villages or sites. In addition, the project is currently engaged in esupport indigenous land rights in Guatemala, document adverse impacts of aerial defolin Colombia, and explore applications and needs of local human rights organizations inregions.

The AAG and the AAAS also recentlyentered into an agreement, supported byfunding from the MacArthur Foundation, todevelop an inventory of geographicresearch and scholarship relating to humanrights. This inventory and resultant detailedbibliography will form the foundation of anew AAG Geography and Human Rights

Clearinghouse, which will be housed on theAAG Web site. We invite all AAG membersand ESRI users, as well as others, tocontribute to this clearinghouse. Amongnumerous applications and uses of thisbody of research, the AAG and AAASparticularly seek to identify research andproject work that is substantive enough to

be valuable as evidence or in support ofexpert testimony in international tribunalsinvestigating human rights abuses. Wewould very much appreciate it if you could

AAG Geographyand Human RightsClearinghouse


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Transport 2.0: Meeting Grand Challenges withGIScience

By Harvey J. Miller

Transportation is vital to contemporary economies and lifestyles. But inthe 21st century, we are facing unprecedented challenges. Demand fortransportation has increased dramatically over the past decades. Bothtransportation and communication technologies have made the world moremobile and interdependent. International trade relationships have altered thedynamics of manufacturing and consumption, heavily increasing the volumeof freight traf c. Personal travel demand continues to rise at all geographicscales from local to global.

While in the past the strategy for managing transportation demand wassimply to build more infrastructure, we are facing severe nancial, environmconstraints to expanding infrastructure. The convergence of ballooning demand an

expansion has created enormous pressures on transportation systems. Our only chogreater understanding of these complex systems and more informed decision makitransportation professionals and the public who use these systems.

This article describes the major challenges facing transportation in the 21st centurydiscusses the role of geographic information science (GIScience) and technology icreate new ways of exploring and understanding transportation systems with the goimproving decision making by both professionals and casual users. We also describby the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the U.S. National Academies to idresearch and development required to achieve this vision over a decadal time fram

The TRB periodically identi es critical transportation issues based on their potenthe nation's economy and quality of life Other critical issues such as institutional

Grand Challenges inTransportation


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is now old and used beyond its designed service life. This problem is not limited to higinland waterways and rail networks, as well as many sewer and water systems, have simproblems. The need to rehabilitate this infrastructure is occurring when higher demandbeing placed on transportation systems and public investment is declining. How do weand renovate saturated transportation systems without substantial increases in resource

Congestion. Traf c congestion is a daily fact of life for many of the nation's and worlcommuters. Estimates of the costs in money and gasoline lost by U.S. commuters everyrange in the billions of dollars and gallons, respectively. In most cities, congestion is nolimited to rush hours in the morning and evening; it has spread to many locations and hof the clock. The burden of congestion is not limited to people; freight bottlenecks at p

shipment delays at the local and regional levels place enormous costs on businesses anconsumers. The growing need for ef cient and responsive transportation to supporteconomy and mobile lifestyles is occurring in an era when the ability to expand networincreasingly limited. Can we maintain current or achieve improved levels of performansubstantial physical expansion?

Energy and the environment. The United States, as wellas a burgeoning number of countries in the world, hasan overwhelming reliance on the most energy-intensivetransportation technologies, namely, automobiles andplanes. The ability to continue reliance on petroleum-based transportation technologies is questionable inthe short run but certainly impossible over the longrun. Transportation systems have a direct and largeenvironmental footprint, particularly with respect to airquality and contributions to global climate change. Overhalf the U.S. population lives in cities that do not meetfederal clean air standards. Transportation also hasan enormous indirect footprint through inducing othersystems, such as cities, to manifest environmentally


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are great and require new modes of thinking and analysis for their solution. Indeedtransportation challenges offer a type of "moon shot": vital problems whose solutiolong-term vision, as well as major scienti c and technological advances.

In his 1993 book Mirror Worlds: Or the Day Software Puts the Universe in a ShoebWill Happen and What It Will Mean, computer scientist David Gelernter describyou look at your computer and see realitythe real-time status of an entire compatransportation system, or city.

Illustration by Fred Estrada, ESRI.

You start with a broad, geographic overview, perhaps a digital globe. You zoom in city. As you get closer, you see patternscolors, shapes, and owsdraperepresenting the real-time status of its systems and infrastructure. Some patterns arsome change shape, color, or intensity as the city changes in real time. As you zoomthe representations automatically change to re ect greater detail. At the largesee vehiclesautomobiles, planes, trains, shipsmoving through a photorealistic,dimensional model of the city's buildings, roads, tracks, and waterways. But it is noAlthough they re ect real conditions, most of the vehicles are synthetic, except fodirect interest to you (your car, your eet, a delivery truck with a package for yothese objects are augmented with text, sound, and imagery, re ecting someyour attention or may capture your interest. You can even enter some of the buildin

Mirror Worlds


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Geography Education and GIS ProfessionalDevelopment"Crossing Borders"


In economically turbulent times, many students and collegegraduates will likely be wondering what options they haveat their disposal. Is it time to jump into the job market, or isgraduate school a better option? Indeed, many geographydepartments are hearing from students who are curious aboutadvancing their career options and the value of an advanceddegree in geographic information science (GIScience) forfuture employment. Fortunately, even in dif cult times, GISand GIScience students still enjoy growing opportunities topursue geospatial work in business, government, and nonpro torganizations where spatial, environmental, and interdisciplinaryskills are needed. Having strong academic preparation ingeography and GIScience will only expand the career opportunities available to stuallowing graduates to enter the job market at a higher level and advance more rapithe ranks after being hired.

Within the past few years, a number of studies in the United States and the United have addressed the issue of employability, a term describing the readiness of an indobtain and then maintain employment (Mistry, White, and Berardi 2006; Donert 20

Cheung, and Schlemper 2008see www.aag.org for full citations). All of these stuto some important ndings. First, hundreds of employer organizations across a bthe business, government, and nonpro t (BGN) sectors seek individuals who spatially and use geographic technologies to collect integrate and analyze data on


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educational foundation they see as important to success in the GIS elds. Beducational and career pipeline, students, parents, and teachers all need more inforabout the wide variety of GIScience career options available and the preparation resuccess in these careers.

Given that context, the AAG has identi ed broad areas of critical data needs anfuture work so that future graduates have a clearer sense of the opportunities availa

Better data on the geographic and general skills that graduates employed in BGuse in their daily work

Local, regional, and national estimates of employers' demand for geographic askills in different types of BGN organizations

Comparisons and assessments of undergraduate and graduate curricula in geogpreparation in BGN careers

Continued development of disciplinary infrastructure to enhance graduate advpreparation, and transition support for early career geography and GIS professorganizations, modeled after the success of recent National Science Foundatioprograms, such as the Geography Faculty Development Alliance, and the AAGDepartments and Graduate Education (EDGE) in Geography program

Geography graduate and undergraduate programs have undertaken a leading role nproviding the broad-based GIScience and GIS educational and research programs nstudents and employers across BGN sectors. Thanks to the hard work and goodwilindividuals in the geography, GIS, and GIScience communities, including notably friends and colleagues within the ESRI education community, we are collectively dcapacity for meeting the educational needs of our next generation of students and e

For more information on educational programs available in geography, GIS, and Gwww.aag.org/education.


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Changing the Face of Geography: GIS and the IGU

By Roger F. Tomlinson

Geographersincluding those of the International Geographical Union(IGU)have as their task the description and explanation of the livingspace of humans and the resulting spatial structure of society. Thedevelopment of formal views of these concerns forms the basis forthe modern science of geography. The extent and complexity of theworld we live in make this task hard. The volumes of data that resultfrom even cursory global investigation are a serious impediment to ourunderstanding. Fifty years ago, it was not possible to handle any largeset of the hard-copy maps and data that were being gathered, much lessanalyze them in any ef cient way. The resulting inabilityindeed thefailureto ask questions, let alone consider in depth the role of variousinteracting in uences shaping the individual and societal factors, left uswith a deep and generally unrecognized ignorance of space and timebehavior.

The advent of computers as information processing tools and the development of Gmeasurably assisted geographers in their work. These new tools are being added todiscipline. Just as the advent of the telescope by Galileo increased the knowledge oheavens and the concepts of space and the advent of the microscope revolutionizedwith its ability to add resolution and depth to inquiry, so the advent of the tools of Gimpacted the discipline of geography. The quality of questions asked is rising, and and use of spatial analysis are becoming more sophisticated. We are digging deepe

spatial variables in considering factors that otherwise would not be explored. The tbetween effort and inquiry is shifting in favor of inquiry. Workers are able to exchareasoning (decision models) very easily. This is contributing to the awareness of gethe growing number of people becoming involved in the eld There is an inc


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great virtue). There is an urgent demand for the use of geographic science in governmerelative to society, and to address the pressing issues facing the world. Geographers havmajor contributions to make to these issues.

There is, for example, broad agreement in the scienti c community that the earthchanging and that it is partly human induced. Very little is known, however, about the simpacts of climate change, and there are very important geographic questions that needbe answered about changes in biogeochemical cycles, ecosystems, water resources, anresource utilization; continued atmospheric pollution; and the overall economic, politicand social implications. Geographers can contribute to the body of knowledge about clchange by synthesizing, analyzing, and modeling possible impacts.


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Similarly, with respect to human health and well-being, understanding of a populatthe distribution of disease in an area, and the environment's effect on health and diis central to human existence and a quintessentially geographic problem. There aresignicant issues about the accessibility of health care and spatial distribution of hproviders.

Globalization is about interaction and integration among people, companies, and gof different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aidinformation technology. It has effects on the environment, culture, political systemdevelopment and prosperity, and human physical well-being in societies around theAgain, the analysis of these conditions has a strong spatial component.

Societal security is an essential goal of all governments and one that has become indifcult to ful ll in recent years. In an area of asymmetric warfare, sociopolitical sbecome ever more complex, and their impacts affect different communities and sogroups in different ways.

Sustainability entails meeting the needs of the present without compromising the afuture generations to meet their own needs, and it still remains a problem, especialaccelerated environmental change and the current food crisis. Geographers have a

to contribute to understanding and solving this complex, multidimensional, essentiproblem.

Underpinning social diversity means understanding and generalizing the processesheterogeneity: de ning characteristics of patterns and processes on the surface oUnderstanding these processes, which account for social diversity, difference, and ikey to good governance.

The following are illustrations of some of the ways in which GIS is being used to esituations.

Climate The Palmer Drought Severity Index is the basis for agricultural relief fomajor distress Of particular interest is the analysis of drought on nuclear power pla


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Human Impact The rst human impact map of population density in two hemispheof CO 2 emissions in the atmosphere, using real-time Jet Propulsion Laboratory satellitinformation.

Population Density Population density is provided as an element in the calculatioimpact and the human footprint.

Human Footprint The human footprint aims to measure the extent of human interfon the earth's surface, using updated data on human population density, land transformhuman access, electrical power infrastructure, and settlements. This latest version wasproduced in 2008. The work was produced by the Humanitarian Information Unit of ththe Geographer and Global Issues (director, Dr. Lee Schwartz) of the Bureau of IntelligResearch in the U.S. Department of State.

Human Health Human health examines the interaction of spatial variables, includinU.S. Department of Agriculture's work with animal in uence on human health; theavian u in China by location; the tracing of the acute respiratory syndrome outbreak and Hong Kong to identify its origins; the National Cancer Institute's analysis of enviroeffects on cancer incidents; and the relationship between smoking and birth weight in pOntario, Canada.

Avian Flu Avian u and bird migration routes illustrate the correlation between knooutbreaks of avian u and bird migration corridors to assist in the process of identifysource and the diffusion of the disease. The same GIS application allows users to identquarantine stations, u shot clinics, and local public health departments.

Ambulance Location The process of prepositioning ambulances for better serviceexamined. Contours of actual demand (call density) and the existing position of ambulmeet that demand are calculated to optimize response travel times, affecting the efambulance organization and survival rate in the area.

Flu Vaccine Distribution Access to in uenza vaccine distributions is compared distribution with access buffer zones of a one mile and a two mile radius around points


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Guyana. Further analysis and understanding of the AIDS epidemic in Africa, particUganda, Tanzania, Zambia, and Malawi, come from analyzing patient data by gendthe percentage of HIV-positive individuals in four categories (25 percent, 510 pe1015 percent, and more than 15 percent of the population). Similarly, HIV prevalyouth by rst-order administrative divisions in the countries concerned is examinea percentage of the general population and by gender. These studies underpin the edelivery of AIDS relief in sub-Saharan Africa and the monitoring and analysis of peffectiveness.

Illustration by Elizabeth Davies, ESRI.

The analysis of life and death in Africa is one with broad scope. It includes infant maccess to drinking water, overall AIDS infections, gross national income, and life ecountry. Bringing these variables together over a continent allows workers to bettethe measures necessary to improve the national condition.

Food Riots 20072008 The human condition of the world, particularly the foand 2008, is tracked and illustrated. This is the rst instance of a worldwide d

Afghanistan Opium Cultivation With Afghanistan supplying 80 percent of tthis is a global issue. This map compares population density in Afghanistan with arcultivation. The Taliban is operating extensively in the southern area of the country


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Where to Plant a Billion Trees The Green Belt Movement, spearheaded by Nobewinner Wangari Maathai, is a political/environmental, and very successful, movement object of planting a billion trees in Africa. Peter Ndunda is the GIS coordinator for the actively working in East and West Africa to overlay soil types, climate, animal habitat, density, and tribal lands to determine the most effective sites for planting. Without the Gwould be planted in unfavorable sites. Their survival would be dubious, and popular posupport would wither away.

Plant Hardiness Zone Migration The Nature Conservancy at the University of Whas calculated plant hardiness zones for 1960, 2008, and 2099. The movement north ofthe boreal forest and the ameliorating of temperatures in the Arctic islands are particula

noticeable. Implications for habitat can be measured and better appreciated.Arctic Sea Ice The Arctic sea ice conditions are put into perspective. National AeroSpace Administration (NASA) data shows that Arctic perennial sea ice, which normallthe summer melt season and remains year-round, shrank abruptly by 14 percent betwee2004 and 2005. The loss of perennial ice in the east Arctic Ocean was even higher, nea50 percent during that time as some of the ice moved from the east Arctic to the west. Toverall decrease in winter Arctic perennial sea ice totals 720,000 square kilometers (28square miles)an area the size of Texas. Perennial ice can be 3 or more meters (10 or mfeet) thick. It was replaced by new, seasonal ice only about 0.3 to 2 meters (1 to 7 feet)that is more vulnerable to summer melt. The decrease in the perennial ice raises the pothat Arctic sea ice will retreat to another record low extent this year. This follows a serilow ice-cover years observed over the past four summers from active and passive micrsatellite data.

Travel History By tracking the ights of one company over the course of a year anunderstanding environmental impact routes, the use of increasingly high-cost fuel and

distribution of future corporate locations/regional of ces become understood.Hydro Watershed The hydro watershed of the Neuse River in North Carolina is asophisticated exercise in ood probability and control based on rainfall and evapora


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2,700 U.S. employees, with 100 Ph.D. and 1,500 master's recipients, and adds numerougraduates each year).

Using the assumption that every $1 million of investment in data and GIS requires at letrained person for the investment to be used effectively, there is a shortfall of at least 3,trained people per year in North America alone, compared to the output from all univeand technical colleges in North America. Students are realizing that geography offers copportunities and interesting jobs throughout the working world.


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Under the leadership of Dieter Steiner, it provided a three-week workshop in Nigeria osensing methods for regional and national planning in July 1978, funded by the CanadiInternational Development Agency and UNESCO. The working materials for this workincluded a three-volume text on the recent applications of remote-sensing technology fthe commission.

From 1980 to 1988, the work of the Commission on Geographical Data Sensing and Prwas led by Marble. The activity concentrated principally on specialist meetings addresmajor scienti c concerns in the development of GIS. In 1988, the commission was renCommission on Geographic Information Systems under the chairmanship of professor Kubo from Japan.

In all, the IGU carried out supervision of $1.5 million in grants and contracts between 1980. The communication foundation had been laid, academic geographers were increreceiving recognition for their work, regularly published journals were becoming availand GIS conferences worldwide provided a necessary continuation of the work begun bInternational Geographical Union. In short, the IGU was the organization that nourishegrowth of GIS and let it be a coherent part of geography for the bene t of the dwhole.

Generous contributions to this paper were made by Dr. David Maguire and Dr. Duane MThe author also wishes to thank John Calkins and Jay Loteria for graphic assistance.

Dr. Roger F. Tomlinson, CM, is president of Tomlinson Associates Ltd. Consulting Geo17 Kippewa Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 3G3 Canada. He was chairman of the InternaGeographical Union GIS Commission for 12 years, and he is known as the "father of Gresult of his work in using computers to model land inventories for the Canadian goverthe early 1960s. He is the author of many works, including Thinking About GIS,2007, ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

(Reprinted from the Spring 2009 issue of ArcNews magazine)

Acknowledgments

About the Author


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Process Models and Next-Generation GeographicInformation Technology

By Paul M. Torrens

Much of the inner workings of geographic information systems isorganized around data models: computational structures (rastersand vectors are common variants) that determine how GIS stores,

organizes, and displays various types of information for differentpurposes. Put simply, data models treat the world in terms of objectsthat represent entities and their related attributes. In GIS, there isusually no dedicated model of the processes that govern dynamics,adaptation, and evolution of a system. For many years, GIS hasadvanced the potential for unifying representations of entities andprocesses, and recently, the long-standing promise of consociatingthe two is beginning to be realized, enabling a burgeoning paradigmshift to a new style of GIS.

The next generation of geographic information systems will be driven by process mare usually composed of algorithms and heuristics that will act on users' requests foperform some service for them, connect to digital networks to contextualize those rinteract seamlessly with other databases and processes to achieve users' goals. Alteprocess models may be used as a synthetic representation of system parts to build aphenomena "in silico" that can be subjected to experimentation and what-if scenarways that are not possible "on the ground." Geoprocessing has been featured with

priority in GIS for some time, and conventional GIS already relies on geoprocessinanalysis and data manipulation.

Process models represent an evolution from these existing technologies catalyzed


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The cloud of Wi-Fi signals that envelops central Salt Lake City, Utah, generated by approximately 1,700 acce

Much of the work in developing process models is nding its way into GIS frelds, however, and developments in information technology for the Weband forgeographic data on the Webhave been particularly in uential A massive g


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cognitive abilities that will enable more sophisticated spatial reasoning to be included iroutines.

Gaming is just one application of process models in virtual worlds. The actions and intof synthetic avatars representing real-world people can be traced with perfect accuracyworlds because they are digital by their very nature, and often, that data may be associathe data shadows that users cast from their real-world telecommunications and transactactivities in the tangible world. Virtual worlds are seen by many as terra novae retailing, marketing, research, and online collaboration in which avatar representationspeople mix with process models that study them, mimic missing components of their syphysical or social environments, mine data, perform calculations, and reason about the

and interactions.


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Dr. Paul M. Torrens is an associate professor in the School of Geographical Sciences atState University and director of its Geosimulation Research Laboratory. His work earnFaculty Early Career Development Award from the U.S. National Science Foundation

and he was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers bPresident George W. Bush in 2008. The Presidential Early Career Award is the highest that the U.S. government bestows on young scientists; Torrens is the rst geogthe award.


About the Author


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Geographic Literacy in U.S. by 2025"Geo Learning"

A column by Daniel C. Edelson, Vice President for Education, National Geographi

For more than a decade, the National Geographic Society andESRI have worked together to advance the cause of geographicliteracy in the United States.

This new ArcNews column represents the next step in thatcollaboration. We are reaching out to the ESRI user community, thelargest organization of GIS professionals in the world, to engageyou in this important campaign.

In this inaugural column, I will address the questions of whatgeographic literacy is and why GIS professionals have such animportant role to play in our campaign to increase the rate ofgeographic literacy in the United States. In future "Geo Learning"

columns, I will describe specic ways that you can get involved in this effort.

It's no secret that Americans know next to nothing about geography. The most receGeographic/Roper Poll (2006) found that half the 1824-year-old Americans survelocate New York on a map of the United States, and nearly 6 in 10 could not locate

One-third of the young adults in the survey gave the wrong answer when asked to continent where the Amazon rain forest is located. And, after being at war with Iraqyears, 63 percent of young Americans could not identify Iraq on a map of the Midd

If you're like me, you nd it hard to believe those statistics because they are so dibut they are true. However, by paying too much attention to these statistics, we couteach American schoolchildren a lot of disconnected geographic facts about the wo


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literacy is the community of GIS professionals, and that is why the National Geogrand ESRI want to enlist you in our long-term campaign to create a geographically society.

So, what have we done historically, where are we now, and where do we hope to gohelp?

Beginning more than 20 years ago, the National Geographic Society took up the cageographic literacy and created an education foundation to fund geography educatSince then, we established a national network of state "geography alliances," whichuniversity-based organizations that advocate for geography education and provide development for teachers. Funded by a combination of proceeds from National Geprograms, state governments, and private philanthropies, these alliances were succestablishing K12 standards for geographic literacy in all 50 U.S. states; WashingtPuerto Rico.

The state geography alliances also created geography education materials and trainthousands of K12 teachers in their states. While teacher professional developmenkey to improving geographic literacy, it is also the biggest challenge. Most teachersresponsible for teaching geographic content, whether it's in the context of science o

studies, have never received any training in geography themselves.In 20 years, the National Geographic-funded Alliance Network has had an impressraw numbers, but percentage-wise, it is just a drop in the bucket. That means, todaysituation in which we have a powerful infrastructure for reforming education, but wthe resources to bring about that reform.

For that reason, we are in the process of launching the second phase of our campaigeographic literacy. The goal of this campaign is to approach universal geographic

Speci cally, we set a goal to achieve 80 percent rates of geographic literacy in all 2025, where geographic literacy is de ned as the ability of students to apply geand understanding in their personal and civic lives. We set a second goal to achiev


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The year 2025 seems far away, but because educational reform is a slow process, and wcurrently have the necessary resources, this reform is an ambitious goal. To achieve ouwe are working with the Alliance Network and other like-minded organizations, such a

Association of American Geographers, National Council for Geographic Education, anon three parallel tasks:

Create a combination of top-down policy and bottom-up consumer demand for geoliteracy.

Obtain suf cient resources in the form of federal, state, and philanthropic fundinglarge-scale reform effort.

Create and implement plans for large-scale educational reform at the state and locaThere are important roles for GIS professionals and other applied geographers to play three of these strands, and in upcoming columns I will challenge you, the ESRI user coto play your part.



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Geography, GIS, and Mental Health"Crossing Borders"


For those of you who were hoping this column might offer agroundbreaking treatise on the state of mind of geographers andGIScientists, you can stop reading here. I'm saving that projectfor when I retire.

What I would like to discuss here are the opportunities andneeds for geography and GIScience to participate in therapidly expanding eld of mental health research, a relativelyunexplored area for geographers but one in which geographyand GIS can, I'm convinced, be a signi cant and potentiallyparadigm-changing contributor. It is also a research area inwhich geographers and GIS specialists can engage with andhelp address enormous human and societal needs.

As many of you know, the AAG has been working for several years to try to build rwith the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on behalf of geography and GIS and hresearchers in the many different NIH centers better understand what geography anGIScientists have to offer to the eld of medical research. This work has continnew inroads for geography at several NIH institutes, as well as in the broader medicommunities outside NIH. For example, the AAG and the NIH's National Institute Abuse (NIDA) have jointly sponsored special symposia at AAG's Annual Meetingof the past four years on the previously relatively unexplored research area of geogdrug addiction. That ongoing effort has now drawn attention throughout NIH and rpublication of a book entitled Geography and Drug Addiction, which is beingmedical research circles and is available from the AAG


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Examples of the dozens of research themes with geographic dimensions we discusgenetic and environmental interactions in schizophrenia, research on the consequeof refugee displacement, psychiatric morbidity of homelessness, psychopathology

Holocaust survivors and their children, urbanicity and psychoses, the global econoof mental disorders, public policy and the measurement of happiness, and searchinwith environmental interactions in complex disorders. Plans are under way to folloorganizationally and individually to help link these research programs with geogra

As one NIH scientist noted at our session, "To date, most mental health research halargely on biomedical pathways. Increasingly, however, researchers are consideringpeople's environmentsthe physical and cultural contexts in which they liveinprevalence and consequence of mental health disorders." The AAG will continue tothese issues of geography's potential role in medical research at all institutes of NIHencourage geographers, GIScientists, and GIS specialists to also consider how youtogether with researchers at NIH's National Institute of Mental Health to help addrcomplex but pressing mental health research and human needs.

Contact www.aag.org or www.nimh.nih.gov.


For MoreInformation


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The National Geospatial Advisory Committee: AnAction Agenda

By Anne Hale Miglarese, NGAC Chairperson

In January of 2008, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced themembership of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC). This annouas no surprise to geospatial professionals following the activities of the Federal GeData Committee (FGDC) or spatial data development and coordination in the Unit

fact, for years, many nonfederal organizations and individuals have called for a voprovide input into U.S. federal government activities related to geospatial program

For the most part, the federal government was quite willing to receive informal inpforums to discuss its spatial activities, but listening was often an ad hoc and casualdefense of the government staff, federal law restricts the in uence of nonfedofcial federal programs and activities. Their informal approach was the only apprpossible without setting up what is known as a federal advisory committee under ththe Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).

Illustration by Marina Murad, ESRI.


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Management of federal geospatial resources: OMB Circular A-16CommentsRecommendations on geospatial life cycle management strategies and revisionCircular A-16 data themes being developed and coordinated through the Geosp

Business initiativeData initiatives: Reviews and recommendations, including recommendations oof speci c programmatic or data initiatives, which include the following: ImaNation (IFTN), national land parcel data, and the National Map

At this meeting, the committee received brie ngs from federal staff on severalsuch as an overview of FGDC activities; a general introduction to the Geospatial LBusiness activity and OMB Circular A-16; and an introduction to the Nationathe Nation, Elevation for the Nation, and Geospatial One-Stop.

Additionally, signi cant time was spent allowing each member of the committee ttheir views, concerns, and passions related to the work of the committee. From thisdiscussion, many similarities emerged, and the cohesion of the group began.

The committee has been a long time in the making and hopes its efforts are not judimpact it makes in the rst few months but by the quality of the advice and guidato the chair of the FGDC in the years to come. It is anticipated that the committee wwide range of topics over the next two years. Many of these issues and subjects maand reported in short order. Many will take more time, and several should be vieweterm projects requiring detailed analysis and discussion.

Agenda items raised as actions in the rst meeting were assigned to subcommbrought back to the full committee for its endorsement in the June meeting. One suthe creation of a mission statement:

Getting Started: AnAction Agenda


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The National Geospatial Advisory Committee mission is to provide strategies regardcreation, management, and dissemination of cohesive geospatial data, information, a

knowledge to enable commercial, academic, and nonpro t organizations and government to more effectively

Empower and serve the public.

Protect our homeland.

Foster economic growth.

Advance science.

Manage our resources.

Prepare for and respond to emergencies.

Govern our nation.

With a mission statement complete, the committee was asked by Cason to evaluate andrecommendations on the Imagery for the Nation initiative. After hours of debate, the fostatement was endorsed by the NGAC:

Whereas seamless coverage orthophotography has been demonstrated to have crossutility; whereas all levels of government are currently investing in orthophotographywithout coordination or leveraging the investment; and whereas IFTN

Provides nancial incentives for all levels of government to cooperate in creatipublication of public domain data

NGAC Endorsement ofImagery for the Nation


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Establishes a regular schedule for delivery so customers and partners can pl

Is the model for the development of other critical national geospatial data laNGAC fully endorses the concept of Imagery for the Nation. However, before itand implemented the following issues need to be resolved:

A procurement strategy that uses a best practices procurement process and dthe contracting agency(s), procurement methods, and vehicles must be detaiprocurement plan should cover small business participation. The federal comshould clearly speak to the intent of whether this information will be procur

information that will go into the public domain or will be licensed as data pFurther, the government needs a funding and acquisition timeline that allowcompanies to engage in strategic planning for capital equipment acquisitionstaf ng that allows the demand to be met in a timely fashion without creatinof oversupply in the marketplace due to the lack of a clear procurement stra

The committee requested a clear statement of policy from the federal governon how it intends to ensure that funding associated with the IFTN initiative monitored to make certain it is not used to underwrite projects that competeprivate-sector services offered in the geospatial community.

The development and publication of an integrated strategy for funding andimplementing the data development initiative of the NSDI are critical. Whilacknowledged that the IFTN initiative is thoughtfully conceived and well vethe geospatial community, largely due to the efforts of the National States GInformation Council and the National Digital Orthophotography Program, ithat this program not be implemented without careful consideration of the o

initiatives developing within the community. Speci cally, the other progbe analyzed and synchronized with IFTN include Elevation for the Nation, for the Nation, and Transportation for the Nation. The geospatial community


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the geospatial white paper will be simple and focus on why geospatial technology to the federal government, a few high-pro le activities that could be embracedadministration, and the location and title of presidentially appointed positions with

agencies that have traditionally had signi cant in uence on geospatial policy The subcommittee will be working over the summer on fully developing the transithe full committee anticipates nalizing the document at its October meeting.

Illustration by Suzanne Davis, ESRI.

Also, during the committee's rst meeting, there was signi cant discussion ogeospatial world has changed dramatically over the past decade and how, as a comit must acknowledge that change and anticipate the future to make sound recomme

for geospatial investments in the public sector. These changes have occurred at all government, academia, and the private sector. To lay a foundation and context for tdeliberations over the next few years, the committee is developing a changiwhite paper that describes this change from a technical level, a social level, and a gstandpoint. There are many everyday examples; all one has to do is look at how getechnology is being embedded in consumer applications on cell phones to see the c

Perhaps the best example of this fundamental change occurring within the spatial cis to look at the progression of where framework spatial data is generated. In yearsmapping data was generated at the federal level through federal programs, eventuaits way to state and local governments. However, often, the data was out of date byit was distributed to nonfederal governments or, even more typically, was not built

The ChangingLandscape


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assertion of change has just begun. With the in uence of Garmin, Google, MicrosTele Atlas, Yahoo, and many other talented and nancially enabled businesses molocal search arena on the backbone of geography, it is certain that this is only the begin

this changing paradigm of where data is created and where partnerships are located.

In years past, most mapping data was generated at the federal level through federal programs and then eventuallymade its way to state and local governments. However, often the data was out of date by the time it reached nonfed


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Academic and Private-SectorRepresentatives

Public-Sector Representatives

Sean Ahearn, Hunter College, City Universityof New York

Timothy M. Bennett, NativeView

Allen Carroll, National Geographic Society Michael Byrne, State of CaliforniaDavid Cowen, University of South Carolina Donald Dittmar, Waukesha County,Jack Dangermond, ESRI Dennis Goreham, State of UtahKass Green, The Alta Vista Company Randall L. Johnson, Metropolitan C

St. Paul, Minnesota

David Maune, Dewberry Randy Johnson, Hennepin CountyAnne Hale Miglarese, Booz Allen Hamilton(Chairperson)

Jerry Johnston, U.S. EnvironmeProtection Agency

Charles Mondello, Pictometry International Barney Krucoff, District of ColumbKim Nelson, Microsoft Corporation Timothy Loewenstein, Buffalo Co

NebraskaMatthew O'Connell, GeoEye Zsolt Nagy, State of North Carolina

John Palatiello, Management Association forPrivate Photogrammetric Surveyors

Jay Parrish, State of Pennsylvan

G. Michael Ritchie, Photo Science Gene Schiller, Southwest Florida WManagement District

David Schell, Open Geospatial Consortium Steven Wallach, U.S. National GeospIntelligence Agency (Vice Chair

Christopher Tucker, ERDAS, Inc.



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Global Dialogues: GIScience and SustainableDevelopment in Africa"Crossing Borders"

A column by Doug Richardson,Executive Director, Association of American Geograph

The Association of American Geographers recently had the opportunity to participate wof African geographers, GIScientists, and environmental scientistsin a new dialogue around the theme of Geospatial Science and

Sustainable Development in Africa. These discussions, whichwere initiated in March 2008 and have already generated severalpromising new areas of research and educational collaboration,were sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Global Dialogueson Emerging Science and Technology (GDEST) program. Follow-onactivities and continuing interactions resulting from these dialogueshave the potential to generate considerable ongoing and long-term cooperation among African and U.S. scientists in geographic

research, geographic information science (GIScience) educationand GIS applications, sustainability science, and many relatedelds.

Five other GDEST programs also have been undertaken, including dialogues in Japan on nanotechnologies), China (biotechnology), and Germany (quantum computing). Hothe recent Africa GDEST program is the rst to be initiated on a continental scale aaddress geography-related research elds, such as geospatial science and sustaina

The Global Dialogues on Emerging Science and Technology program focusing on GeoScience and Sustainable Development in Africa began in March 2008 with site visits togovernmental ministries, and nongovernmental organizations in nine African countries


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(AARSE), African Geo Information Research Network (AGIRN), African Referen(AFREF), Environmental Information Systems Africa (EIS-AFRICA), Mapping AfAfrica, and university networks (e.g., University Network for Disaster Risk Reduc

Africa [UNEDRA]), are vital infrastructures of communication and coordination foeducation, and applications collaboration. Descriptions of and linkages to these anexisting African networks can be accessed directly through the AAG Web site at wdeveloping.

The U.S. GDEST delegation representatives, both individually and in coordinationembassies in the countries visited, are currently following up on contacts and acqumade during the site visits and will be continuing discussions on speci c propportunities for partnerships and collaboration were identi ed. A report on tprogram's progress and ndings is under development and will be made availabfuture.

I would like to thank Lee Schwartz, director of the Of ce of the Geographer anat the U.S. Department of State, together with Nina Fedoroff and Andrew Reynoldof the Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State, for providing key and logistical support essential to the success of the African GDEST program. Moson behalf of all of the participants, I would like to express our deep appreciation to

colleagues for the opportunity to learn from them during these dialogues and for thand guidance on how to sustain ongoing interactions and useful collaborative activyears ahead.

More information on African geography and GIS research, education, and sustainadevelopment activities, as well as collaborative needs and opportunities, is availabupdated regularly on the AAG Web site (www.aag.org).



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Get Involved with Geo-Education Reform"Geo Learning"

A column by Daniel C. Edelson, Vice President for Education, National Geographi

We've got a problem in our country. The rate of geographicliteracymeaning the number of people who can synthesizegeographic information from a variety of sources and draw a soundconclusionis abysmally low. On the other hand, ArcNews goes toalmost a million individuals who earn their living by doing that kindof geographic reasoning every day.

So, what we have is an enormous geographic literacy gap. Wehave a solid core of geographic experts, including the readers ofArcNews, but once we get outside that group, there is a dramaticdrop-off in the level of geographic understanding and skills. As thecompanies and agencies that are struggling to ll openings for GISprofessionals can attest, we can certainly use more geographic

experts in our country. However, from a societal perspective, I believe the gap in exbetween experts and the rest of the population is a much bigger problem.

For our society to function effectively in the modern world, we need the vast majorpopulation to be either geographically competent or geographically pro cieI use to describe nonexpert levels of geographic literacy. Geographically competenindividuals who are prepared for everyday geographic reasoning, such as choosingto live or evaluating a ballot initiative that would affect land use. In a well-functionsystem, most students would achieve geographic competence by the end of middle

Geographically pro cient describes college readiness in geographic skills and ungeographically uent individual is prepared for college-level coursework in subje


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A rough estimate of the distribution of geographic literacy among 18-year-olds in the U.S. today (left) and the distribution that National Geographic is committed to achieving by 2025 (right).

While there are no statistics on the distribution among different levels of geographic litin the United States, there is pretty good evidence that a majority of Americans are notgeographically competent. Our goal is to ip this distribution over the next couple


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tortoises than it is about hares. So, if you do talk to a neighbor, call your senator, orGeoMentor, don't do it as a quick x. Be prepared to stick with it for a while. Ifbe able to make a change.



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Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers aroundthe world the power to think and plan geographically.The market leader in geographic information system(GIS) solutions, ESRI software is used in more than

300,000 organizations worldwide including eachof the 200 largest cities in the United States, mostnational governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune500 companies, and more than 5,000 colleges anduniversities. ESRI applications, running on more than onemillion desktops and thousands of Web and enterpriseservers, provide the backbone for the worlds mappingand spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that providescomplete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server,and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.

essays on geography and gis, volume 2

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