National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis

This document presents a revised and updated research agenda for geographic information and analysis, including references and linkages to NCGIA research initiatives.

The first 42 months of the NCGIA have demonstrated that a multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary center for the advancement of fundamental geographic and GIS research can function effectively. The new research plan builds on the previous one, but also reflects the advancement in our thinking. The five research areas listed in the original solicitation from the National Science Foundation, often referred to as "the five bullets", are herein replaced by three general research areas: spatial representation; spatial analysis; and spatial informatics. This new framework serves as the common base from which individual research efforts can be selected and planned, and into which they are integrated. Research at the NCGIA will continue to focus on the data-intensive modeling of spatial phenomena and spatial processes, both physical and human, within computational systems. This viewpoint is crucial for modeling of all spatial data, independent of the data source, their disciplinary nature, and the analytical methods used. We see this as the scientific goal of the NCGIA, and the sections which follow detail the specific fundamental scientific questions that we have identified within this overall objective.