Keynote Speakers and Abstracts

Pete Atkinson : Space-time Modelling of Environmental Data

Biography

Pete Atkinson is Head of Geography and Environment at the University of Southampton. He has research interests in a range of spatial modelling approaches including statistical models and process models applied to remote sensing data. His application interests include a range of environmental issues including near-Earth object impacts, landsliding and flooding; disease and ecological systems and risk; land surface changes and vegetation phenology. Increasingly, his research has focused on global scale phenomena.

Abstract

The earliest goal of remote sensing in the 1970s was to monitor changes on the Earth's surface over large areas through systematic and repeatable measurement. However, until recently, difficulties associated with processing the data (in particular, through atmospheric correction and geometric correction of large time-series), and insufficiently long time-series of images have meant that this goal has been difficult to realize. However, the recent availability of three main sources of imagery have changed this situation. Specifically, AVHRR and GIMMS imagery have been provided for a long time but at coarse spatial resolution. Since 2000 MODIS and MERIS imagery has been provided at 1 km (and finer) spatial resolutions with daily revisit capability. And since 2006, the Landsat archive dating back to 1972 has been made freely available, providing global data every 16 days with a 30 m spatial resolution. These data sources can now be processed adequately to provide coherent image stacks that can be used to investigate changes on the Earth's surface. This paper demonstrates the use of space-time MODIS and MERIS imagery to investigate the vegetation phenology of the major tropical vegetation types in India. It also demonstrates the use of Landsat TM image stacks to investigate morphological changes in the planform of the Ganges mega-river in India. Some of the difficulties in producing the maps are discussed and the solutions adopted are explained.

Mei-Po Kwan : Qualitative GIS

Biography

Mei-Po Kwan is Distinguished Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Geographic Analysis Core of the Initiative in Population Research (IPR) at the Ohio State University. She is currently Editor of Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Her work in GIScience focuses on qualitative GIS, geocomputation, 3D geovisualization, network-based 3D topological data models, and GIS-based intelligent emergency response systems (GIERS). Her application interests include geographic analysis of accessibility, geographies of health, information and communication technologies (ICT), research method, and geographies of gender, race and religion.

Abstract

GIS have been largely understood as a tool for the storage and analysis of quantitative data since the early days of their development. This understanding has foreclosed many opportunities to use GIS in qualitative or mixed-method research. In this presentation I provide a brief overview of the important developments in Qualitative GIS (QGIS) in the last or so decade (e.g., participatory qualitative GIS, geo-ethnography, grounded visualization, geo-narrative, and emotional GIS). I focus in greater detail on using GIS to analyze narrative materials collected in mixed-method research. This approach to GIS-based narrative analysis (called geo-narrative) is based on extending current GIS's capabilities for the analysis and interpretation of narrative materials such as oral histories, life histories, and biographies. A case example based on a study on the lives of the Muslim women in Columbus, Ohio after 11 September 2001 is used to illustrate the approach. Further, I discuss some important directions for the future development of QGIS. I explore the promise of using GIS and geospatial technologies to address questions of human mobilities in light of the new mobilities paradigm. I also suggest that QGIS is powerful tool for helping researchers to recover the silenced voices of marginalized individuals and social groups and to expand their attention to locations or places individuals do not go, cannot go or fear to visit (the absent and the silenced).

Tyler Mitchell : Open Requirements for your Professional Toolkit

Biography

Tyler Mitchell originally worked in GIS for forestry and natural resource management. He wrote a key book on web-based mapping, and was until recently the Executive Director for the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). Now, after years of promoting open-source solutions to geospatial problems, he is working for a hybrid commercial/open-source business intelligence company, and is well-placed to speak about the position of open source in academia and industry.

Abstract

If you've ever had to post a public message to a discussion list for help with your research, then you already know the value of having open communication with your peers. There is no question that having an open attitude gets you further ahead - from answering quick questions on Twitter, or sharing your research history on LinkedIn, making connections and solving problems is critical. Access to open geodata - via data clearinghouses or open geospatial specifications - is an increasingly critical component for many research projects but quickly powering much of this access behind-the-scenes, is open source software.

Open source geospatial software serves a key role in both professional and academic research circles. In some venues it is nothing new, in others it is rocking the boat and in yet others it is slowly creeping in. The professional or researcher who ignores open source software cannot serve their own needs as well as those who embrace it. It will become increasingly so, as demand for answers outside of a black box grows and as demand for solutions built on open standards continues. Researchers moving into industry also need a well-rounded professional toolkit, especially in the consulting world.

In this talk, learn more about the important components that you should have as part of your professional toolkit - now and into the future. Today's GIS practitioner needs to tool-up in a number of categories: GIS, databases and web development. Within each category you will learn about several power tools that every analyst should have readily available. Simple command line tools for data management will be introduced as well as introductory examples of working with spatial databases and putting up simple web-based maps. All of the examples will be shown using open source, freely available, software that you can keep in you toolkit long after your research project is completed.