Introduction to the Varenius project

This paper introduces a special issue of the journal on the subject of Project Varenius, a threeyear effort funded by the US National Science Foundation to advance geographic information science. Geographic information is first defined as an abstraction of primitive tuples linking geographic locations to general descriptors. Geographic concepts originate in the human mind, and are instantiated in geographic information. Geographic information technologies apply digital methods to geographic information. Finally, geographic information science is defined as the set of basic research issues arising from these technologies. Three motivations are presented for research in this area: scientific, technological, and societal. Within the project, geographic information science is structured by a three-part framework that includes cognitive, computational, and societal issues. The paper ends with an introduction to these three parts, which define the infrastructure of the project and are discussed at length by the subsequent three papers.