Defining a Research Agenda for GeoVisualization

• Activity Number: 391
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 15, 2002 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: University Consortium for Geographic Information Science
• Author(s): Alan MacEachren*+
• Affiliation(s): Pennsylvania State University
• Keywords: representation ; visualization ; exploratory data analysis ; knowledge discovery ; inferfaces ; cognition

Abstract

Geovisualization is developing as a multidisciplinary research domain. Its roots are in cartography, exploratory data analysis, and scientific visualization. A focus of research thus far has been on developing, implementing, and assessing visually-enabled methods and tools that facilitate data exploration, knowledge construction, and problem solving. This presentation details efforts to define a research agenda for geovisualization. Emphasis is on the International Cartographic Association Commission on Visualization and Virtual Environments effort to define an international, multidisciplinary research agenda for geovisualization. Findings from that activity will be summarized and selected research projects that have begun to tackle the challenges will be highlighted. Two complementary research agenda efforts in the U.S. will also be considered (by the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science and by the National Research Council Board on Computer Science and Telecommunications). Differences in the challenges identified by these groups will be discussed and the need for and potential of cross-disciplinary collaboration in meeting the challenges will be considered.