GI DAYS 2008 - Geospatial Processing

GI Days 2008 - Geospatial Processing will be held from June 16-17, 2008 at Münster, Germany. GI Days 2008 provides an opportunity for GI researchers and industry to meet and exchange the latest in GI research topics, findings and new research areas. GI Days is an event for the exchange and enrichment of ideas. The theme for GI Days 2008 is interoperability and spatial processing in GI applications.

Application areas include but are not limited to disaster and risk management, mobile applications, ubiquitous geocomputing, navigation and location based services. The organising committee invites submissions over a wide array of topics in GI science.

Call for Papers

GI Days 2008 offers an English and a German track. Full papers (max. 6000 words), Short papers (max. 2000 words) and posters (max. 500 words abstract) are welcomed and are expected to cover visionary and innovative preliminary research findings, ideas,and/or results.

Accepted contributions will be published in the ifgiPrints series (with ISBN). The
program committee will attempt to prepare a special issue in one of the GI science
journals for the best submissions of the conference.

For more details download the PDF or visit the conference website.

Workshop "Semantic Web meets GeospatialApplications"

Workshop on “Semantic Web meets Geospatial Applications” will be held in conjunction with AGILE 2008, Girona, Spain on 5th of May 2008. This information has been at website of Muenster Semantic Interoperability Lab.

This workshop will bring together researchers from different communities to investigate current strategies and discuss future research collaborations. How can experts in ontology and semantic web technologies help to approach the heterogeneity problems arising in geospatial web service infrastructures? On the other side, how can experts on geospatial information technology and spatial domain knowledge contribute to improving semantic web personalisation and applications?

The idea of the workshop is:

• to hear presentations on current research at the junction of ontology, semantic and geospatial research,
• to address issues related to retrieval and personalization mechanisms when applied to spatial information on the web,
• to learn about ongoing activities in research projects that provide successful test cases for combining semantic web technologies with geospatial personalisation and applications, and
• to discuss the challenges and research priorities for a Geospatial Semantic Web Research Agenda based on participants' position papers that express their attitudes and visions on topics related to the Geospatial Semantic Web, Ontologies and Semantic Web Services for geospatial information.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Geospatial information visualisation on the Web
• Geospatial applications on the Web
• Geospatial information retrieval on the Web
• Geospatial semantics on the Web
• Ontologies for the geospatial Web
• Semantic mediation for geospatial information
• Information retrieval and machine learning for automating semantic annotation of geospatial information
• Semantic Web Services for geospatial applications

Submission Instructions

We invite submissions of short papers (max 3000 words), position papers (max 1500 words), or demonstrations (max 1500 words). All papers will be peer-reviewed, and should be formatted in the style of Springer LNCS. Please send your submissions to agile-workshop08@listserv.uni-muenster.de

Accepted papers and demonstrations will be invited for presentation at the workshop. Papers will be presented in plenary talks; demonstrations will be presented in a demo session. We will invite a selection of papers presented at the workshop to be extended and submitted to a special issue of the International Journal of Web Engineering and Technology (InterScience Publishers).

Important Dates

Deadline for submission: 22 Feb 2008
Notification of acceptance: 21 March 2008
Final paper versions due: 04 April 2008
Workshop: 05 May 2008

Source: http://musil.uni-muenster.de/events/agile/

Network of Young Researcher in GIScience

A good news for young researchers out there in the field of GIScience (though we must have discovered it a little late :D) is that there's Network of Young Researchers in GISc at XING which was formed out of the GI-Days 2007 - Young Researchers Forum that took place from 10-12 September, 2007.

"After the conference discussion raised on how we are going to proceed from here. Should the concept of a European young researchers conference be continued? Do we even have the need for a more comprehensive approach of a GI Students Network in Europe? Such a network could support organizing conferences, workshops and summer schools; support networking and collaboration between students, researchers and industry; and provide information on mobility measures, student grants, etc."

A survey at GI-Days 2007 has shown that there is significant request from young researchers for such a network. To discuss these and other questions Network of Young Researcher in GISc at XING was formed. Currently the group has84 members, and 16 Articles. It is greatly encouraged to join this group to be a part of the upcoming young research community.

Source: Report of the 5th Münster GI-Days 2007 - Young Researchers Forum

University of Buffalo: Assoc/Full Professor Job opportunity

The University at Buffalo, Department of Geography is accepting applications for an Associate/Full Professor position in Geographic Information Science (GIScience), with an anticipated start date of August, 2008. Candidates with a Ph.D. in Geography or a related discipline and outstanding academic records, who will further strengthen the Department's research and teaching program in GIScience, are strongly encouraged to apply.

The successful candidate is expected to provide graduate and undergraduate instruction, supervise graduate students and is expected to establish a rigorous research program in GIScience and Extreme Events and provide leadership in bridging the two. Candidates should describe in their cover letter how they would contribute to GIScience and Extreme Events research.

Only e-applications are being accepted. Please submit CV and cover letter to: www.ubjobs.buffalo.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=51330. The search committee will begin to evaluate applications on January 1, 2008, and the position will remain open until filled. Letters of reference are not requested at this time.

Source: Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard University

University of Buffalo GI Science Program for Doctoral Students

The University at Buffalo offers a doctoral degree concentration in Geographic Information Science – an emerging
interdisciplinary field that incorporates innovative research in environmental science, social science, information
science, and engineering.

The goal of the program is to prepare Ph.D. students with the interdisciplinary background and the technical, professional
and personal skills needed for careers in Geographic Information Science. Students in the GI Science concentration at the University at Buffalo take a core of courses in GI Science, while also completing requirements for doctorates in any of seven discipline-based departments:

Anthropology | Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering | Computer Science and Engineering | Geography | Geology | Industrial Engineering | Philosophy

GI Science students obtain research training through individualized faculty mentoring, and participate in active research programs under three broad themes: Geographic Information Science, Geographic Environmental Science, and Geographic Social Science. Students also gain a wealth of practical experience through internships, international opportunities, and participation in workshops, conferences, and fieldwork. By awarding degrees in traditional disciplines, while having an inherently interdisciplinary curriculum, the GI Science Concentration allows students to combine an innovative program of study suited to our rapidly changing world with the solid credentials of an established doctoral degree.

Enriched fellowships (Two years of funding as NSF IGERT fellows, including stipends of $30,000 per year, plus additional years of support at enriched university rates.) are available to applicants who are US Citizens orPermanent Residents. Other funding is available from the participatingacademic departments.

Deadlines

Applications submitted by February 1 will receive full consideration for funding for the following Fall semester. Applications will be accepted until April 15, or as funding remains available. For further information, visit the website www.geog.buffalo.edu/giscience/
or email at ncgia[AT]buffalo.edu

National Research Council Calibrates Research for The National Map

This is an add-on to the news on the USGS GIScience report published in this blog. On 22 Jan, 2008 USGS issued a press release on the report.

The main points to be noted out pertaining to the report are:

• The National Map is being developed by the USGS as a trusted, nationally consistent geospatial framework to serve a broad range of uses by scientists, communities, government officials, and the public.
• To accelerate the incorporation of partner data into national databases, the NRC study calls for further research to advance automated integration, fusion, and generalization of data at widely varying scales, resolutions and qualities.
• The report also calls for new high priority research in user-centered design of Web map interfaces, re-invention of topographic maps in electronic form, and robust data characterization that conveys geographic context.

Another impressing point of the news report is the one of the recommendations of the report that the NRC study recommends additional research to transform The National Map database into a geographic knowledgebase. This long term effort would enable knowledge discovery and analysis to, in the words of the report, go "far beyond the typical mapping portal" to "deliver enormous power to The National Map application and lead to its clear differentiation from other web-based products.

The news release can be accessed over here

Workshop on Computational GeoInformatics'08

A International Workshop on Computational GeoInformatics - COMPGEO'08 is being organised in conjunction with 'The 2008 International Conference on Computational Science and its Applications (ICCSA 2008)'. The workshop will be held from June 30th to July 3rd, 2008 at University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.

It aims at bringing together researchers and developers from different disciplines working with geospatial information. The workshop focuses on computational aspects of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), more specifically on the management and processing of 2D & 3D spatial data, including temporal aspects and uncertainty.

Topics of interest include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:

• novel geospatial data processing and management mechanisms
• spatiotemporal data modelling and reasoning
• 3D modelling and GIS
• modelling and analysis of terrains
• modelling uncertainty in geospatial information
• spatial and spatiotemporal statistics
• geospatial and spatiotemporal data mining and outlier detection
• use of computational geometry for GIS problems
• automated mapping and map generalisation
• use of intelligent and dense wireless sensor networks for GIS
• fine-grained, terrestrial monitoring platforms
• geo-visualisation and geo-visual analytics
• visualisation of geospatial uncertainty
• new applications of GIS such as crisis management, environmental monitoring, oceanography, 3D cadastre, traffic management, etc.

Call for Papers

The committee invites you to submit a paper of 10-16 pages (theme paper) formatted in LNCS Springer style. For templates of the paper please consult author instructions from the conference web page.

Proceedings

Papers accepted to CompGeo'08 will be published in the ICCSA Conference proceedings, in Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series.

Important Dates

• February 3rd, 2008: Deadline for draft paper submission.
• March 31st, 2008: Notification of Acceptance
• April 15th, 2008: Camera Ready Papers and Pre-registration.
• June 30 - July 3, 2008: ICCSA'08 conference in Perugia (Italy)

For more details visit the COMPGEO'08 website.

Geosensor Networks workshop by EuroSDR & ISPRS

Geosensor Networks workshop by EuroSDR & ISPRS is scheduled to be held from February 20 – 22, 2008 at Hannover, Germany.The workshop concentrates on recent developments and future directions of Geosensor Networks which relate both to geodetic and non-geodetic applications. The workshop aims at bringing together researchers, technology developers and users of the different involved disciplines and thus at providing a forum for fruitful discussions.

Invited experts from Europe and overseas will provide an overview of the state-of-the-art, the potential and the impact of Geosensor Networks. In addition to the presentations, there will be ample time to discuss relevant issues and open questions. The workshop language is English.

The hosts for this workshop are

• LGN the State Mapping Agency of Lower Saxony in Germany.
• Institite of Photogrammetryt and GeoInformation, Leibniz University of Hannover
• Institute of Cartography and Geoinformatics, Leibniz University of Hannover

Workshop topics

Topics of the workshop include basic concepts,research issues as well as applications:
Scientific and technical aspects of Geosensor Networks (sensor network design, communication, positioning)

• The OGC Sensor Web Enabling Initiative
• Information extraction from sensor network data
• Geo-Applications (geoscientific, environ-mental)
• Geosensor Networks and National Mapping and Cadastre Agencies & INSPIRE
• Geosensor Networks beyond geodetic applications Geosensor Networks and security

Supporting organizations

1. EuroSDR: European Spatial Data Research
2. ISPRS: International Society for Photogrammetryand Remote Sensing
   

For More information visit this Geosensor Networks Wrokshop site

Dr. Russell G. Congalton named Editor-in-Chief

Dr. Russell G. Congalton has been named Editor-in-Chief of Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (PE&RS), the journal of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS). Dr. Congalton replaces Dr. James Merchant, who has performed outstanding service in that role since 2001.

Dr. Congalton is professor of Remote Sensing and GIS, Department of Natural Resources, at the University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire.

Source: GIS Development

Technorati Profile

GI_Forum 2008: Call for Papers

The Geoinformatics Forum Salzburg (GI_Forum) invites papers to be presented on emerging topics and research papers at the GI_Forum 2008 which is scheduled for July 1-4, 2008, at Salzburg University, Austria.

The following is the Call for papers issue given by the conference organisers.

GI_Forum focuses on an international audience that shares an interest in Applied Geoinformatics. This Call for Papers aims at researchers who design, develop and apply advanced methods and techniques of Geoinformatics to a broad range of application domains.

Themes & Application Fields We solicit papers on emerging and established topics and research outcomes related to Geoinformatics methodology. The following is by no means an exhaustive list of symposium topics:

1. Geospatial data acquisition
2. Spatial analysis and knowledge extraction
3. Advanced visualisation and cartography
4. Distributed and mobile services
5. Dynamic modelling and simulation

Submission: Types & Deadlines

GI_Forum 2008 gives authors choices about the type of submission they want to make in order to accommodate a variety of interdisciplinary contributions. A submission must be written in English language according to the formatting guidelines published on the conference website.

Deadline for submission of full papers and extended abstracts for publication: February 1, 2008.
Late deadline for submission of extended abstracts for poster presentation:May, 18 2008.

We will accept only online submissions starting from December 2007 at www.gi-forum.org

Publication

Accepted submissions will be published by Wichmann Verlag as a book.

We are looking forward to your contribution!

Conference Chair: Josef Strobl
Programme Chair: Adrijana Car
E-mail: office [AT] gi-forum.org

UCGIS Winter Meeting 2008

University Consortium for Geographic Information science (UCGIS) winter 2008 meeting is scheduled to be held from 7 – 8 February, 2008 at Washington DC. The central topic for UCGIS’ 2008 Winter Meeting is GIScience and Cyberinfrastructure: Making Connections.

The meeting is aimed at providing an opportunity and to hear from federal agencies that support advanced geospatial research and also to describe current GIS research projects, focusing this year on cyberinfrastructure.

There are presentations proposed to be given by the following Organisations: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory | NSF | NOAA | The Open Source Center in the Office of the National Director of Intelligence | NGA

Source: UCGIS

New Report - GIScience research the USGS

The National Academic Press has published a new report titled “A Research Agenda for Geographic Information Science at the United States Geological Survey”.

To maintain its prominence, realize its potential, and fulfill its mission to develop and distribute these national data assets in a fast-moving information technology environment, USGS needs a coordinated geographic information science (GIScience) research presence that provides the scientific underpinning for these operations and exerts leadership in research that is critical to serving USGS’s unique role. USGS founded its Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS) in 2006 to perform this task.

Given CEGIS’s size and resources, it needs focus among the huge list of possible research topics encompassed by its mission. Consequently, USGS asked the National Research Council’s Mapping Science Committee to convene a study panel charged to

1. Identify current and future USGS needs for GIScience capabilities;
2. Assess current capabilities in GIScience research at the USGS and recommend strategies for strengthening these capabilities and for collaborating with others to maximize research productivity
3. Using knowledge of the current state of the art in GIScience, make recommendations regarding the most effective research areas for CEGIS to pursue.

A special committee was formed for this and over a course of 11 months, the committee met three times and received input from many. This report is the result of the recommendations made by the committee at various workshop and public committee meetings held as part of this study. The review of this report was overseen by Michael Goodchild, University of California, Santa Barbara.


You can read the report online or download it for free at the following link

GEOBIA 2008 - Pixels, Objects, Intelligence

GEOBIA, the 2nd International Conference on Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis is scheduled to be held from August, 6-7, 2008 Alberta, Canada. GEOBIA is a recent sub-discipline of Geographic Information Science devoted to developing semi-automated methods to partition remote sensing imagery into meaningful image-objects, and assessing their characteristics through spatial, spectral and temporal scales. Its applications range from agriculture and natural resource management, to national defense and global climate change. Its economic impact spans from data collection, hardware and software vendors, developers and users, to recipients of sound sustainable environmental policy.

GEOBIA 2008 will be held at the University of Calgary (UofC), Alberta, Canada August, 6-7, 2008. This event is being co-organised in partnership with the Canadian Space Agency, the ASPRS and the ISPRS.

The Organization committee is lead by Dr Geoffrey Hay (Geography, UofC) with Co-Chairs Dr Thomas Blaschke (Z_GIS: Austria), and Dr Danielle Marceau (Geomatics Engineering, UofC). The scientific committee includes ten Remote Sensing and GIS experts from academia, government and industry working throughout North-America and Europe.

As a part of the conference the organising committee is inviting researchers to submit an abstract of up to 350 words before January 21, 2008 through the GEOBIA, 2008 conference on-line system. For more details and guidelines on submitting the abstracts visit this link

Call for Papers for the ISPRS Spring 2009 issue

The International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISRPS) Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing is inviting research articles to be submitted to its Spring 2009 issue. The theme for the issue is on “Image analysis and image engineering in close range photogrammetry”.

The following is the news issued by ISPRS:

Driven by progress in sensor technology, algorithms and data processing capabilities, close range photogrammetry has found a wide range of new application fields over the past two decades. A central issue in many developments is the integration of sensor technology with reliable data processing schemes to generate highly automated photogrammetric measurement systems. Many promisingnew application fields are found in using photogrammetric techniques in industrial design, production and quality control processes as well as in robotics, virtual reality or quantitative biomedical imaging. Sophisticated image engineering approaches were developed to support the reliability of image analysis procedures and to achieve success rates beyond 99.9% in fully automatic multi-ocular photogrammetric 3D measurement systems.

You are encouraged to contribute to the special issue by submitting your latest research and development results in the field of close range photogrammetry, more specifically:

- Automation of photogrammetric data processing, optimization of precision and reliability
- Online or real-time close range photogrammetric measurement systems
- Image engineering, CAD/CAM-based techniques
- Photogrammetric network design, precision verification strategies
- 3D object tracking, motion analysis and deformation measurement techniques
- Biometry, quantitative medical image analysis, human body measurement
- New imaging sensors, sensor modeling and calibration techniques
- Sensor fusion concepts

Papers must be original contributions, not previously published or submitted to other journals. Paperspublished or submitted for publication in conference proceedings may be considered provided that they are considerably extended and improved. Substantive research and relevant-for-practice paperswill be preferred. Papers must follow the instructions for authors which are available here.

You can submit the full manuscript to by March 1, 2008 at this website

New chair at Z_GIS for Geoinformatics - Location Based

Dr. Euro Beinat has been selected for the new endowed chair in 'Geoinformatics - Location Based Services' at Salzburg University. Starting from Jan 1, Prof. Beinat will be assigned to the Centre for Geoinformatics as well as to the Department of Geography and Geology and will offer classes and thesis supervision in LBS. The June 2008 summer school in LBS will be one of next year's highlights.

Prof. Beinat's research is focused on the following topics:

• Realtime location awareness
• Development of location based systems for highly dynamic and critical environments, and
• A social science perspective on dynamic cities.

Current research initiatives are jointly implemented together with the SENSEable City Lab at MIT Boston and the SPINlab at VU Amsterdam.

Source: GIScience Blog