Reflections and speculations on the progress in Geographic Information Systems (GIS): a geographic perspective

• Published in: International journal of geographical information science : IJGIS Vol. 33; no. 2; pp. 346 - 367
• Main Authors: Lü, Guonian, Batty, Michael, Strobl, Josef, Lin, Hui, Zhu, A-Xing, Chen, Min
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis 01-02-2019; Taylor & Francis LLC
• Subjects: Data processing; Environment models; Geographic Information Science (GIScience); Geographic information systems; Geographic Information Systems (GIS); geographic perspective; geographic process; Geography; improvement ideas; Information processing; Remote sensing; Satellite navigation systems; Workflow
• ISSN: 1365-8816; 1365-8824; 1362-3087
• DOI: 10.1080/13658816.2018.1533136

Great strides have been made in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) research over the past half-century. However, this progress has created both opportunities and challenges. From a geographic perspective, certain challenges remain, including the modelling of geographic-featured environments with GIS data model, the enhancement of GIS's analysis functions for comprehensive geographic analysis and achieving human-oriented geographic information presentation. Several basic theoretical and technical ideas that follow the workflow and processes of geographic information induction, geographic scenario modelling, geographic process analysis and geographic environment representation are proposed to fill the gaps between GIS and geography. We also call for designing methods for big geographic data-oriented analysis, making best use of videos and developing virtual geographic scenario-based GIS for further evolution.