Computing Geographically Bridging GIScience and Geography

Geographic information science (GISc) and systems (GIS) have grown rapidly in recent decades, increasingly on a separate track from geographic thought. As geography's "big ideas"--such as space, place, boundaries, scale, process, and relationality--have evolved, what does this mean for their computational representation? This book considers how key concepts have developed in geography and are represented (or not) in GISc, with a view to bridging gaps between the two. David O'Sullivan shows how revisiting the theoretical underpinnings of geography offers insights on enduring GIS challenges--including map projections, the modifiable areal unit problem, scale and map generalization, and the nature of space and place--while also enriching geographic thought. The book uses examples from across geography's subdisciplines to promote understanding. Chapters are self-contained essays that can easily form the basis of classroom discussions. The companion website provides the figures, code to produce versions of selected figures, updated web links, and other resources.

David O’Sullivan, PhD, is Professor of Geography and Geospatial Science at Te Herenga Waka--Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has previously held positions at Penn State, the University of Auckland, and the University of California, Berkeley. He has published extensively on novel approaches to the simulation of change in urban and ecological systems and the implications of different representations in GIScience in relation to wider currents in geographical thought. He is an associate editor of the International Journal of Geographical Information Science and serves on the editorial boards of the Annals of the American Association of Geographers and Transactions in GIS.
 

Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Building Bridges
- A History of My Spaces
- Plan of the Book
2. Location and Space
- The Nature of Space
- Space in Giscience
- Prospects for Relative/Relational Giscience
3. Scale and Projection
- Scale in Geographical Theory
- Scale in Giscience
- The Salience of Scale
4. Place and Meaning in Space
- From Space to Place-
- Place in Giscience
5. Lines and Areas
- Drawing Lines
- Territory and Territoriality
- When the Map Is and Is Not the Territory
- The Arbitrariness of Boundaries
- Moving On from Geometry
6. Relations, Networks, Flows
- Relations, Space, and Place
- Graph Drawings as (Possible) Projections
- Networks Are Flows Frozen in Place
7. Time and Dynamics
- Time and Space: A Coin with Two Sides
- Hägerstrand's Time Geography
- Limits to Time Geography
- Mobilities and Human Dynamics
- From Time to Dynamic Processes
8. Process and Pattern
- Process Philosophies
- The Place of Complexity Theory
- Simulation Models
- Process and Pattern Revisited
9. Doing Giscience Doing Geography
- Common Ground: A Space to Think
- Doing Giscience: Representation as a Process
- Toward Doing Differently
- Finally
References
Index
About the Author