Research Needs in Geographic Information Systems / Computer Science

Geographic information systems are a part of the "building whole systems" tradition of computer science, combining aspects from many disciplines within the field. To understand the research needs at the intersection of computing and GIS, we need to understand the goals and purpose of GIS users and developers. A GIS is not a "database with spatial spice" or "nomadic computing with location thrown in". Geographic information systems, like statistical systems or software development systems, serve the needs of real users and define a framework for modeling the world. This paper attempts to characterize GIS in the context of conventional computer science thinking. I also address several specific research themes: encouraging "whole system" development, scientific and end-user computing, and architectures for loosely-coupled distributed computing. Introduction A geographic information system (GIS) is a complex software system, which use concepts and techniques from many aspects of computing (graphics, languages, data structures, etc.). Before we characterize how GIS uses elements from these different specialties within computing, we should understand GIS as a holistic system. A GIS is not just an "application" of database, graphics, computational geometry; it is a unique synthesis of techniques drawn from these fields as well as others. Geographic information systems are driven by their own set of requirements and system concepts. A GIS is a formal computer system for working with geographic data. A GIS is a sort of "macroscope" for organizing, viewing, and analyzing information is a geographic context. The geographic information model involves more than simply recognizing that objects have a spatial location there are other important aspects as well: information is abstracted and synthesized into "small-scale" models, information is presented and manipulated visually, the model deals with concepts like connectivity and adjacency. Finally, a geographic information system acts as a tool for integrating information from many sources the geographic information model acts as a unifying conceptual model which can provide a unified framework for many different information themes. Geographic information systems support many of the roles that have been traditionally been held by mapping and geographic thinking. Nearly anything can be "put on the map", resulting in a unified model of separate themes. Simply mapping information doesn't always lead to conceptual breakthroughs (for example, Snow's discovery of the relationship between cholera and water pumps is more complex than often stated [Brody, 2000]), but there are many subjects that are inherently interdisciplinary in their use of