Recent Advances in Geographic Information Science

Dr. Micheal Goodchild
Associate Director of the Alexandria Digital Library Project,
National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis,
and Professor of Geography at UC Santa Barbara

Time: 1:30pm
Location: Foothills Laboratory 2, Room 1001

GIScience emerged about ten years ago as a multidisciplinary field devoted to the study of geographic information, and the fundamental principles on which geographic information technologies are based. I give a brief history of the field, and review some of the major debates within it. Uncertainty is a major issue in GIScience, and much research on the topic has occurred in the past decade. I review the motivation for research on uncertainty, and some of the most significant advances. Since the popularization of the Internet very substantial investments have been made in the infrastructure for sharing geographic information, through such initiatives as the National Spatial Data Infrastructure. I review the current state of the art, and its expression in the vision for an integrated portal to digital representations of the planet.

Topography, Microclimate, and Vegetation: GIS-based Modeling Approaches

Paul Rich
GIS Team Leader, Earth and Environmental Sciences Division
Los Alamos National Laboratory

Time: 3:30pm
Location: Foothills Laboratory 2, Room 1001

Topography has a strong influence on spatial and temporal patterns of microclimate, including such physical factors as temperature, precipitation, soil moisture, and evapotranspiration. In turn, these physical factors are major determinants of vegetation patterns. Early work on the vegetation of the University of California Big Creek Reserve provided lessons that have served well in a career of work ranging from geometric models of solar radiation, to coupling between microclimate and basic biology, to GIS-based modeling tools. A current effort focuses on merging capabilities of the predecessor solar radiation modeling tools TopoRad and the Solar Analyst as ArcRad, a new capability of ArcGIS 9. The core viewshed algorithm accounts for the geometric effects of both topography and plant canopies across a broad spectrum of temporal and spatial scales.

Monitoring and measuring landscape changes: Using imagery for building GIS based on monitoring and modeling systems

Dr. Andrew Brenner
North East Regional Manager
Space Imaging

Time: 10:30am
Location: Foothills Laboratory 2, Room 1001

The world is constantly changing, yet our datasets are static, so how can we create data management infrastructures that monitor and measure change. Imagery and remote sensing allow us to update and revise datasets in cost effective and efficient manners. These data allow us to evaluate changes spatially and temporally, enabling us to update input data into our varied models of reality.

This seminar will cover how digital imagery can be used to monitor changes in the landscape, for both terrestrial and aquatic systems. It will outline the processes that allow the development of GIS data sets from imagery, and the types of data layers that can be developed. The seminar will also show practical examples of how these data can be integrated with other GIS layers as inputs to landscape change, water quality and run off, atmospheric and habitat models. The seminar will also cover how imagery and GIS can be combined to track landscape changes, both anthropogenic and natural, within enterprise GIS systems.

1982 - 2002 NDVI Trends: Myth, Reality, or the Hand of God?

Dr. James Compton Tucker
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD

Time: 10:30am
Location: Foothills Laboratory 2, Room 1001

GIS Concepts and Technology Trends

Jack Dangermond
President and Founder
Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI)
Redlands, California

Time: 10:30am
Location: Center Green Main Auditorium

ESRI is one of the leading Geographic Information Systems companies in the world and is well-known for its ArcGIS family of software products. Jack Dangermond is a world-respected leader in the field of GIS, the author of hundreds of publications, the recipient of a number of medals, awards, lectureships, and honorary degrees, and is a great speaker.

Open GIS Consortium: Interoperability and Web Services

Dr. Carl Reed
Executive Director, Open GIS Specification Program
Open GIS Consortium
Fort Collins, Colorado