1. Center for Geographic Analysis Harvard Uniaversity, On May 5, 2006, Harvard Returned to Geography under a bright spotlight. Some say it was Geography that Returned to Harvard. Certainly the presence of the past, present, and next presidents of the AAG showed that at least some geographers were coming to Harvard, if only for a day. The presence of David Maguire and Jack Dangermond from ESRI made clear that this event was not being ignored by the GIS software industry either. But the reality is that our efforts will continue to depend on each one of us in the geographic analysis profession to build on what we have already created, so that geographic analysis will contribute to excellence in teaching and research of many disciplines.
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2.The Association of American Geographers (AAG) is a scientific and educational society founded in 1904. Its 9,000+ members share interests in the theory, methods, and practice of geography and geographic education. The AAG holds annual meetings and regional events and publishes a newsletter, journals, and books. The association supports and recognizes its members through its grants and awards programs.Learn more about geography and geographers, find out about jobs and careers in geography, and discover the AAG.
3. National Center for Geographic Information Analysis (NCGIA), Department of Geography, UC Santa Barbara, University of California. The National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis is an independent research consortium dedicated to basic research and education in geographic information science and its related technologies, including geographic information systems (GIS). The three member institutions are the University of California, Santa Barbara; the University at Buffalo; and the University of Maine. The consortium was formed in 1988 to respond to a competition for funding from the National Science Foundation, and continues to receive much of its funding from that source.
Topics of current research within the NCGIA consortium include:
Accuracy and uncertainty in spatial data. Adopted as the first topic when the consortium was formed in 1988, uncertainty has emerged over the past decade as a problem of critical significance for geographic information and GIS.
Cognition. Research on this topic within the consortium is motivated by the need for a better understanding of how the human mind and computer can work together to solve problems that have geographic dimensions, using GIS. NCGIA research on cognition examines how people think about and reason with geographic concepts, and how the design of systems can be made more consistent with these principles.
Modeling and representation. Although GIS has its roots in the art of making paper maps, its capabilities go far beyond what can be done with traditional products. GIS databases can represent phenomena that change through time, or objects that have three-dimensional form. Research in these areas addresses the modeling of new kinds of information that could not be dealt with on paper maps, and associated methods of analysis and decision-making.
