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4
Recommendations
T he overriding challenge for society with respect to GIS/GIScience
is to ensure the next generation of scientists and technologists is
produced in large numbers and is well prepared to build on the
impressive progress achieved during the last 30 years. The committee of-
fers the following recommendations in response to that challenge:
1. The mapping sciences, despite numerous attempts to formulate
one, still lack a coherent, comprehensive research agenda. Scientists from
the multiple disciplines engaged in GIS/GIScience should make a con-
certed effort to achieve consensus on such an agenda, using the most re-
cent outline proposed by the University Consortium for Geographic In-
formation Science (UCGIS) as a point of departure.
2. Private-public funding models should be thoroughly investigated
and, where feasible, should be applied to GIScience research in the United
States. A possible model is Intelligent Transportation Systems and Ser-
vices--Europe (http://www.ertico.com/ [accessed 24 May 2006]).
3. GIScience should be recognized as a coherent research specialty.
The National Science Foundation should take responsibility for coordi-
nating funding for GIS and GIScience, as recommended in Mark (1999).
4. Collaboration should be promoted among academic disciplines,
private companies, and federal, state, and local government agencies to
create a virtual network of GIScience researchers, laboratories, centers,
and corporations. For example, an Institute for Geographic Information
Science could be established under the joint auspices of the UCGIS
(Sidebar S-2), representing major research universities, and the Open
55
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56 BEYOND MAPPING
Geospatial Consortium (OGC), representing industry, government agen-
cies and laboratories, and universities (Sidebar S-3).
5. The country's colleges and universities must become more flexible
if they hope to keep pace with the GIS/GIScience industry and with gov-
ernment programs. Industry and government have taken the lead in de-
veloping and implementing digital approaches to map production; aca-
demic institutions follow as much as they lead. Accordingly:
a. Academic institutions should reconsider their internal organi-
zation and reward structures to make them more responsive to emerging
specialties like GIS/GIScience, and to reward (or at least not penalize)
faculty members who pioneer innovative topics and who engage in col-
laborative work with government agencies and private firms. Where
credit for enrollments impedes cross- and multidisciplinary education,
credit-sharing mechanisms should be employed. Devising institutional
arrangements that favor robust GIS/GIScience and the funds necessary to
sustain it will yield large dividends in the form of ready employment for
undergraduates and advanced-degree graduates.
b. To meet the need for trained GIS/GIScience professionals and
an informed citizenry, education programs in GIS/GIScience should be
implemented at all levels of education (K-20, with special attention at the
K-16 levels) in the United States. These programs should cut across tradi-
tional disciplinary borders and employ the latest technologies. The nu-
merous ways GIS and GIScience can enhance spatial thinking (NRC,
2006a, pp.166-216) offer promising mechanisms for accomplishing that
task, especially at the K-12 level. Maximum use should be made of the
National Science Foundation's programs for Research Experiences for
Undergraduates (REU) and Research at Primarily Undergraduate Institu-
tions (RUI) in pursuing this goal (NSF, 2006a,b).
c. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National
Science Foundation are to be commended for their recent programs en-
couraging needed research and organizational changes in academia. Such
programs should be expanded and broadened to ensure that the country
produces enough trained professionals to lead GIScience in the future.
d. More government-private, industry-academic partnerships are
needed, and industry should consider funding relevant academic research
and training to assure continued future innovation. The success of the
NCGIA in obtaining private-sector funding for its work provides a model
for such efforts and illustrates the benefits of academic-federal-industry
coalition building. A government-industry-academic board should be es-
tablished to promote such relationships, perhaps under the auspices of
UCGIS and OGC or as part of the Institute for Geographic Information
Science proposed in Recommendation 4. Industry and government could
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RECOMMENDATIONS 57
also expand their existing contributions to universities of serving on advi-
sory boards, offering internships, and serving as adjunct faculty.
e. The UCGIS Model Curricula Body of Knowledge1 should be
maintained and widely adopted and implemented, since it provides a
basis for determining the eligibility of education achievement claims for
GIS certification.
1http://www.ucgis.org/priorities/education/modelcurriculaproject.asp (accessed 24
May 2006).
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
mapping sciences
