Spring 2000 Headlines
Vol. 2, No. 1

UCGIS Considers Emerging Themes in GIScience

One item on the agenda of the Summer Assembly will be a discussion of geoscience areas where future research is either necessary to clarify an issue or now possible because of the advances of technology and the development of new analytical tools - or both. Consortium members proposing seven "emerging themes for research" will present an introduction to each topic. Discussion and debate on these topics will be the major work of the Assembly. Members will vote on acceptance of the topics at the Council meeting. These seven include:

• The integration of high volume, aircraft and satellite sensor data into other, older geospatial data sets to maximize utility. (George Hepner, University of Utah for ASPRS, Bethesda, MD)
• The development of new methods and tools with which to "mine" geographic data, to discover and to extract useful information in large, heterogeneous databases. (May Yuan, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK)
• The evolution of general citizen participation in geographic information systems as part of broad issues in public policy-making. (Nancy Obermeyer, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN)
• The definition of categories ("ontologies") of geographic phenomena for GIS software systems to enhance the accessibility and use of data, and to order the way in which geographic data are modeled, stored and manipulated. (Max Engenhofer, University of Maine, Orono, ME and David Mark, The State University of New York, Buffalo)
• The scientific visualization of geographic data to enhance its understanding and communication. (Aileen Buckley, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR)
• The enrichment of spatial theory (analytical cartography) through the integration of cartography, mathematics, geography, computer science and image analysis. (Harold Moellering, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH)
• The analysis of the development of geographic information science from the perspectives of the discipline of science and technology studies. (Francis Harvey, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, and Nicholas Chrisman, University of Washington, Seattle, WA)

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Student Travel Grants and Presentations

Graduate students from GIScience-related disciplines countrywide competed for a small number of travel grants to attend this summer's UCGIS membership meeting. The grant winners come from 30 universities throughout the United States. The students will present their research at a poster session. There are six students from among the grant winners whose scholarship was judged to have exceptional merit. These six will present a paper on their research to the full assembly. They include:

• Steven Manson (Clark University, Worcester, MA). A model projecting short-term land use and ground cover change scenarios in the Yucatan Peninsula.
• Sorin Matei (USC, Los Angeles, CA). Mapping and modeling the influence of mass media on perceptions of public safety and quality of life ("comfort") in Los Angeles neighborhoods.
• Jeremy Mennis (Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA). Geographic Information System database representation design.
• Joseph Messina (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC). A model predicting land use and land cover changes associated with the expansion of agriculture in the Amazon watershed of Ecuador, as one example of population-environment interaction.
• Soe Win Myint (Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA). Research evaluating the feasibility of high-resolution image classification of urban features data through non-traditional methods.
• Austin Troy (UC Berkeley, Oakland, CA). A study of the market price effects of natural hazard disclosure requirements (flood and wildfire) on real estate in California.

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UCGIS Awards FGDC Grants to Member Institutions

Three grants of $30,000 each were awarded in response to the UCGIS RFP Exploratory Studies of the NSGIC/FGDC Framework Survey. Grant recipients are:

• University of Kentucky, Francis Harvey, Principal Investigator
• Rutgers University, David Tulloch, Principal Investigator
• University of Wisconsin, Madison, Stephen Ventura, Principal Investigator

A second UCGIS RFP, Usability of User Interfaces to the National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse, was awarded to Oregon State University. Principal Investigators Dawn Wright and Cherri Pancake won a $63,000 grant to develop multi-level "humane" interfaces.

The State University of New York, Principal Investigator Alan MacPherson, was recently awarded a $45,000 grant in response to the UCGIS RFP Evaluation of FGDC's NSDI Grants Program.

The University of Wyoming completed a grant, Development of a Course Material Package and Marketing Strategy for the Geospatial Data Community, in 1999.

The cooperative partnership with FGDC began with a small grant of $50,000. As our member institutions have provided useful and timely research to FGDC, the number and dollar amount of the grants has grown. These grant opportunities are open only to UCGIS member institutions, and are a significant benefit of membership. UCGIS anticipates that the cooperative partnership with FGDC, and other funding agencies, will continue to grow.

Look for more research opportunities in the coming year on the UCGIS web page, www.ucgis.org/f2oppor.html. The UCGIS Research Projects Committee, headed by Max Egenhofer, circulates solicitations, reviews proposals, and recommends awards.

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UCGIS and USGS Host Symposia on GIScience and Vector-Borne Disease

A program of joint research (the Human Health Initiative, HHI) is underway with scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Geological Survey to examine the environmental influences on vector-borne diseases. The topic encompasses the incorporation of geographic information systems, remote sensing and spatial analysis tools into examining the environmental influences on vector-borne diseases. USGS has asked UCGIS to organize two meetings where scientists from government agencies, private sector, and academic institutions will investigate how GI Science can be incorporated into disease research.

The goals of the meetings are to:

• inform the scientific community about the research currently being conducted by USGS and UCGIS members, and
• facilitate development of a network among researchers interested in the integration of geographic analysis to understand these diseases better.

For more information, contact Suzy Jampoler, execdir@ucgis.org, or Art Getis, arthur.getis@sdsu.edu.

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Avoiding Listserv Lunacy
by Dawn Wright

• Remember that a listserv allows you not only to receive messages as part of your subscription but to send them to all others subscribers as well. There is no need to ask someone to forward them for you - you already have the power!
• Many people refer to UCGIS email transactions as coming from "the list." UCGIS actually has 12 different UCGIS mailing lists for various levels of communication. They include:
  • all@ucgis.org
  • board@ucgis.org
  • chairs@ucgis.org
  • lead-delegate@ucgis.org
  • delegates @ucgis.org
  • members@ucgis.org
  These are described at www.ucgis.org/faddresses.html.

  There are over 450 people subscribed to "all@ucgis.org" but the majority of them are subscribed to at least 1 or 2 other listservs. For example, the typical UCGIS delegate is subscribed to "all", "delegates", AND "members."

• Because we have hundreds of people subscribed to our lists, the UCGIS community is strongly encouraged to take advantage of the "self-serve" options available via our Lyris listserv software. The easiest way to do this is begin at www.ucgis.org/f2acontac.html and click on the link that says "View, subscribe, or unsubscribe from email listservs via the Web". No password is required, only your primary email address.
• Please remember that Lyris and other kinds of listserv software identify you by your email address, so when attempting to post messages to a UCGIS list you must always use the same email account that matches your subscriptions. And once again, it is likely that you have more than 1 subscription.

talk@ucgis.org

for the general discussion of scientific or policy issues related to GIScience. Anyone with an interest in GIScience may subscribe and participate. You may subscribe to "talk" in 1 of 2 ways:

1. Via the web - dusk.geo.orst.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=talk
2. Via email - send an empty email with no subject to join-talk@ucgis.org To unsubscribe, send an empty email with no subject to leave-talk@ucgis.org

   These procedures may be used for any of the other UCGIS listserv as well, substituting the prefix of the listserv address ("all", "members", etc.) for "talk".

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