Automated Geography

Geography is the science and humanity of knowing about people and places. Automated geography is the modern, computer-assisted version of that quest. Formally, it is defined as the eclectic application of geographic information systems (GIS), digital remote sensing, the global positioning system, quantitative spatial modeling, spatial statistics, and related information technologies to understand spatial properties, explain geographic phenomena, solve geographic problems, and formulate theory. Its relationship to geographic information science (GISci) is analogous to the relationship that geography maintained with cartography for centuries and with remote sensing for decades, long before the advent of computers and satellite sensors.

Geographers have practiced their craft for at least 2,500 years, but their brand of analysis has always been extremely difficult due to the enormous volumes of data required to represent three-dimensional places and features, both physical and cultural. Thus, automated geography represents a historic leap forward for geographers and for society at large. During ancient times, one person could know and process a significant portion of all knowledge. The explosion of information generated by specialized disciplines during and after the Renaissance left geographers with three disappointing options. Those who studied large areas were limited to such coarse data that they often were dismissed as generalists. Those who insisted on detailed understanding were limited to such small areas that hardly anyone cared about their results. And those who limited themselves to a topical specialty sacrificed much of the holism that distinguishes geography from other disciplines. Today, automated geography restores geographers' ability to know and process a greater portion of all that is known. It enables them to study complex phenomena over large areas with sufficient spatial, temporal, and topical detail to reveal deep insights and generate new theories.

Collectively, GIS, remote sensing, and related geographic information technologies constitute a macroscope. Just as the microscope enabled people to see smaller things and the telescope enabled them to see farther, the macroscope enables them to see large phenomena in fine detail. Will this new scientific instrument turn out to be as powerful as those earlier ones? Will it generate revolutionary new theories in rapid succession as they did? Many conventional theories, developed in isolation by specialized disciplines with little thought for geographic relationships, spatial logic, or integration, have stood unchallenged for decades. The time is right for geographers and geographic information scientists to enter the fray. Automated geography ensures that they have much to offer.