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Geoinformatics_03-2009
article free esri publication on best practices essays on geography and gis essays on geography and gis is a free esri publication that contains 10 essays on the relationship between geography and gis. this publication will appeal to a wide audience that is not (yet) familiar with gis and wants to know what it s all about. mostly written by academics, these accessible and enthusiastic contributions will convince every reader that geography and gis matter. by eric van rees cyberinfrastructures in exploration in the age of digital earth , dawn j. right addresses the concept of cyberinfrastructures , a term that refers to traditional modes of scientific research being replaced or extended by information networks. these infrastructures can help people in their discovery of new spaces. they are not limited to physical spaces, but also include information spaces such as databases. similar thoughts and examples like the ones from right are put forward in living inside networks of knowledge by nick chrisman. in addition to sharing knowledge, data and initiatives through different networks, he also makes a plea for new ways of using technology rather than creating new technologies. he states that people don t see they re still using the same technologies over and over again, and therefore not fulfilling their potential. as to the realization of life s higher objectives . goodchild notes that this concept of spatial literacy, as with gis, needs a place in postsecondary education, an area that is notoriously resistant to change. dynamics and gis in september 2008, esri announced the availability of essays on geography , a free downloadable publication containing 10 essays that focus on the relationship between gis and geography. the essays were previously published in arcnews magazine, and now for the first time are available to a wider audience. the essays, relatively short in length, cover a broad range of topics. read as a whole, they give the reader a good overview of the concepts behind gis, namely geographical thinking and how people use gis for spatial analysis. the writers are primarily from the academic world, apart from the authors of the last three essays who are with esri s business partner, american forests. the essays, not too long and not too technical, address successes and challenges in the field of gis and geography. they are not about offering easy solutions, but give the reader an idea of the current state of flux in gis education, research and everyday use and pose challenging questions for the readers themselves. spatial thinking beginning with the basics, the publication opens with a definition of gis: a geographic information system is a technological tool for comprehending geography and making intelligent decisions. in what holds us together arthur getis explains what lies behind spatial thinking, that is, the concept of conceiving distance and moving in space. as people grow up, they develop a sense of distance and direction. this spatial thinking returns when talking about gis: now computers help spatial scientists perform spatial analysis. even if we eliminate the aid of the computer, people still have the ability to perform spatial analysis and think geographically. in the fourth r? rethinking gis education by michael f. goodchild, both j.b. owens and arthur getis thoughts on geography and education return. goodchild introduces the concept of spatial literacy , a skill added to reading, writing and arithmetic as the skills that are considered essential as much to basic functioning dynamics gis: realizing the dynamic nature of reality by may yuan is about integrating space and time to produce a dynamic view of reality in a gis. although many breakthroughs have occurred in developing a method to do this, there is a lot of work still to be done. rather than telling what the end model looks like, yuan explains what processes make up a system and how different systems are linked hierarchically in time and space (for instance, a storm that develops and moves in time and space, but is part of a bigger, large-scale climate system) and what needs to be done to embed all this into a gis. what historians want from gis by j.b. owens takes a look at what gis can offer historians when carrying out historical research. he sees many opportunities to modernize historical research and explains why historians are hesitant to implement new techniques in their work. on the other hand, owens repeats yuan s argument that what historians need is dynamic gis with spatial-temporal models, as opposed to static, linear models that comprise current gis. perhaps the most important statement owen april/may 2009 32
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