National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis

This 1997 workshop in Santa Barbara, CA was the first of several workshops in Project Varenius, a three-year research program by NCGIA (the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis), to advance the field of geographic information science, with funding anticipated from the National Science Foundation. The Varenius project identified three strategic areas for research in geographic information science: cognitive models of geographic space; computational implementations of geographic concepts; and geographies of the information society. The third area included issues of fundamental significance raised by the growth of geographic information and associated technologies. It includes impacts of digital geographic information and associated technologies on society; the social, institutional, and economic issues that they raise; the kinds of geographies being constructed in virtual worlds; and the future roles of geographic information in society. Background information and position papers by invited participants are presented.