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AGILE: GIScience Series Open-access proceedings of the Association of Geographic Information Laboratories in Europe
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Articles | Volume 3
AGILE GIScience Ser., 3, 7, 2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/agile-giss-3-7-2022
AGILE GIScience Ser., 3, 7, 2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/agile-giss-3-7-2022
 
10 Jun 2022
10 Jun 2022

Six GIScience Ideas That Must Die

Krzysztof Janowicz1,2, Rui Zhu2, Judith Verstegen3, Grant McKenzie4, Bruno Martins5, and Ling Cai2 Krzysztof Janowicz et al.
  • 1Department of Geography and Regional Research, University of Vienna, Austria
  • 2Center for Spatial Studies, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
  • 3Laboratory of Geo-information Science and Remote Sensing, Wageningen University, Gelderland, the Netherlands
  • 4Department of Geography, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  • 5Instituto Superior Técnico and INESC-ID, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

Keywords: Modeling Space and Place, Volunteered Geographic Information, Data Science and Machine Learning, GIScience Application Domains

Abstract. In 2015, John Brockman edited a volume of chapters contributed by leading thinkers from various domains discussing common scientific ideas hindering further scientific progress. While starting with the provocative slogan of This Idea Must Die, the book’s chapters and their authors (for most parts) do not argue that those existing – often foundational scientific theories from various domains – are false, but instead that their widespread, and often unquestioned, utilization has started to hinder the evolution of new theories. Through this work, we would like to foster a similar discussion in our community, by suggesting six ideas in GIScience/geoinformatics that may benefit from retiring to make room for new perspectives. Our suggestions are somewhat controversial, and readers are encouraged to keep an open mind.

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