National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis
The National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) was founded in 1988 and hosted at three member campuses: The University of California, Santa Barbara; the State University of New York at Buffalo; and the University of Maine.
The center was founded after receiving a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Ron Abler—then at NSF—described the rationale for the NCGIA and compared it to corresponding efforts in the UK.[1]
Notable faculty involved with the NCGIA include Michael Goodchild, Michael Batty, David Mark, , Andrew Frank, , , Luc Anselin, Waldo R. Tobler amongst others. David William Rhind and Mike Goodchild compare later US and the UK approach.[2]
The research plan[3] was organized along so-called Research Initiatives, which generally started and ended with "specialist meetings", where interdisciplinary teams discussed pressing research issues. Often a publication followed:
- Initiative 1: Accuracy of spatial databases, led by Michael Goodchild[4][5]
- Initiative 2: Languages of Spatial Relations, led by David Mark and Andrew U. Frank[6]
- Initiative 3: Multiple Representations, led by Barbara Buttenfield
- Initiative 4: The Use and Value of Geographic Information, led by Harlan Onsrud and Hugh Calkins
- Initiative 5: Architecture of Very Large Spatial Databases, led by Terence Smith and Andrew U. Frank
- Initiative 6: Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS), led by Paul Densham and Michael Goodchild
- Initiative 7: Visualizing the Quality of Spatial Information, led by Kate Beard and Barbara Buttenfield
- Initiative 8: Formalizing Cartographic Knowledge, led by Barbara Buttenfield
- Initiative 9: Institutions Sharing Geographic Information, led by Harlan Onsrud and Gerard Rushton
- Initiative 10: Spatio-Temporal Reasoning in GIS, led by Max Egenhofer and Reginald Golledge
- Initiative 12: Integration of Remote Sensing and GIS, led by John Estes, Frank Davis and Jeffrey Star[7]
In 1992 the list of publications resulting from these research initiatives and other efforts of the NCGIA were published in the International Journal of Geographical Information Systems.[8]
The NCGIA produces a Core Curriculum for teaching Geographic Information Systems[9]
See also[]
- UCSB Center for Spatial Studies
- Geographic information science
- Geographic Information Systems
- University Consortium for Geographic Information Science
References[]
- ^ Abler, Ronald F. "The national science foundation national center for geographic information and analysis." International Journal of Geographical Information System 1.4 (1987): 303–326.
- ^ Goodchild, Michael F., and David W. Rhind. "The US National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis: some comparisons with the Regional Research Laboratories." The Association for Geographic Information Yearbook (1990): 226–32.
- ^ National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (1989) The research plan of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis. International Journal of Geographical Information Systems 3: 117–36. [109]
- ^ Goodchild, Michael F. NCGIA Research Initiative 1: Accuracy of spatial databases. NCGIA (National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis), 1992.
- ^ Goodchild, Michael F. "Accuracy of Spatial Databases—NCGIA Research Initiative 1, Closing Report." (1992).
- ^ http://escholarship.org/uc/item/2dm174nc
- ^ http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/research/initiatives.html
- ^ National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, International Journal of Geographical Information Systems, Vol. 6, Iss. 1, 1992
- ^ Goodchild, M.F., and K.K. Kemp, eds. 1990. NCGIA Core Curriculum in GIS. National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, University of California, Santa Barbara CA http://ibis.geog.ubc.ca/courses/klink/gis.notes/ncgia/toc.html
External links[]
- 1988 establishments in the United States
- Research institutes established in 1988
- Geographic data and information organizations in the United States