The Dictionary of Human Geography

storage, integration, analysis and visualization.
Traditional surveying in the geosciences has
involved a methodological and spatially ordered
collection of data or samples of a phenomenon,
in order to better understand that which is
being investigated. The need for scientific rig-
our has not changed in research. What is new is
the more extensivesurveillanceof the Earth’s
social and natural systems (e.g. by remote
sensing) that has developed over recent
decades, and the huge amounts of data that
routinely are collected by (or to enable) the
functioning of societies (e.g. population data
fromgovernance, consumer data from com-
merce, organizational data from pubic service
management and so forth).
Increased data sharing, new technologies
and new techniques for analysis affect the the-
ory and practice of handling geographical in-
formation (Goodchild and Longley, 2005).
For example, storing extensive and multivari-
ate datasets to model and represent complex
systems (physical or social) is not best
achieved by the sorts of simplifying assump-
tions commonly used to capture and to map
socioeconomic data. A straightforward data-
base design used in GIS takes the idea that
geographical features have a fixed and unam-
biguous location which can be defined by their
coordinate position in a planar space, the
encoding of which is prioritized. Other infor-
mation, such as the height of the Earth’s
surface at the feature’s position, the height of
the feature itself or the data/time at which the
feature was observed are secondary informa-
tion, stored as ‘just another’ attribute along-
side other information about the feature (e.g.
what the feature is called, its size etc.) (Worboys,
2005). Such an approach works well when
mapping, for example, census information
collected on a particular date, once every ten
years, and describing geographical features
that are fixed intimeandspace(i.e. thecen-
suspopulation, percensus tract, on the date
of enumeration). It is not suitable for storing
or visualizing data about dynamicprocesses
where the temporal component of the analysis
is at least as important as the spatial, or
for modelling or querying genuinely three-
dimensional features – for example, rock or
soil layers, or subterranean walkways (at sub-
way stations) that can fold under themselves
and therefore occupy multiple positions in
multidimensional space (Raper, 2000).
To integrate and to extract meaningful
knowledge from data collected for different
reasons, at different times, at differentscales,
using different classification frameworks

and different ontologies, is a task that

bridges between science and computers and

that provides the structure of geo-informatics

research. It is not an easy task. As the geo-

informatics portal at the Pan-American Center

for Earth and Environmental Studies states,

‘currently, the chaotic distribution of available

data sets, lack of documentation about them,

and lack of easy-to-use access tools and

computer modeling and analysis codes are

major obstacles for scientists and educators

alike’ (http://paces.geo.utep.edu). There,

geo-informatics is described as the ‘field

in which geoscientists and computer scien-

tists are working together to provide the

means to address a variety of complex sci-

entific questions using advanced informa-

tion technologies and integrated analysis’.

Writing from an urban and regional

planning perspective, Holmberg (1994)

sums up the scope of geo-informatics which

incorporates elements of computation, sci-

ence, systems modelling and society.To

him, geo-informatics is the technological and

scientific discipline guiding the design of sys-

tems for sensing, modelling, representing,

visualizing, monitoring, processing and com-

municating geo-information. The ‘big chal-

lenge’ of geo-informatics, then, is to handle

geographical information in geographically

minded ways, to help understand geographical

systems, to undertake geographical problem

solving and to progress the development of

the geographical sciences. rh

Suggested reading

Kavanagh (2002); Wolf and Ghilani (2005).

geopiety A term coined by J.K. Wright

(1947) to refer to a reverential attitude to-

wards and caring for the Earth. After three

decades of relative obscurity, the term was

re-introduced to a new generation of geog-

raphers in the mid-1970s by Yi-Fu Tuan

(1976a). It formed an important component

of Tuan’s notion oftopophilia, which in turn

was one of the key concepts inhumanistic

geography. The implied spiritual approach

tonature, while rooted in nineteenth-century

romanticism, continues to resonate for con-

temporary romantics, including the exponents

ofdeep ecology. jsd

Suggested reading

Tuan (1976a).

geopolitics A title of an academic journal, a

catch-all category for international violence,

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_G Final Proof page 300 2.4.2009 6:30pm

GEOPIETY