Ethical Implications of Technical Limitations in Geographic Information Systems

A geographic information system (GIS) allows a user to combine digitized data sets from multiple sources to produce a customized map. Like traditional paper maps, GIS maps should be accurate. Unlike traditional maps, however, technical limitations raise new ethical issues for geographic information systems. These technical limitations include unavoidable inaccuracies introduced by the digitization of continuous data, the projection of three-dimensional data onto a two-dimensional plane, and incompatibilities of data sets stored in different formats. Consistency checks and technical standards may mitigate the harmful consequences of these technical limitations. 1 A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (Graeff, 2006). The views, opinions, and conclusions of this paper and not necessarily those of the National Science Foundation or the University of Illinois. 2 Current address: 90 St. Marks Place, Apt. L6, Staten Island, NY 10301. Supported by the Alumni Fund, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 3 Contact author. Coordinated Science Laboratory, 1308 W. Main St., Urbana, IL 61801. E-mail [email protected]. Supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant IIS-0832843.