Professor Shih-Lung Shaw
University of Tennessee Knoxville
Geographic information science (GIScience) and geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI) traditionally have placed an emphasis on locations in physical space without paying sufficient attention to humans. This presentation begins with the question of “What does ‘geo’ mean in GIScience and GeoAI?” and proposes a human-centered space-place framework for future development of GIScience and GeoAI. Humans are dynamic and living entities who must fulfill various needs in their lives via different activities and interactions (collectively known as human dynamics). In the meantime, out world has transitioned into a hybrid physical-virtual world enabled by modern technologies. The growing dominance of virtual space in fulfilling human needs (e.g., online shopping, Zoom meetings, online social networks, etc.) presents challenges to the future of GIScience and GeoAI. It is critical to have future GIScience and GeoAI better consider humans and move beyond the conventional focus on locations in absolute space. The human-centered space-place framework, which integrates the concepts of location in absolute space, locale in relative space, identity in relational space, and sense of place in mental space, extends the current focus of GIScience and GeoAI to better address changing human dynamics in a hybrid physical-virtual world. Examples will be provided to illustrate broader theoretical and practical implications of this framework to GIScience/GeoAI research and applications.
Dr. Shih-Lung Shaw is Chancellor’s Professor and Alvin and Sally Beaman Professor of Geography and Sustainability at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research interests cover GIS for transportation, space-time GIS, time geography, transportation planning, and human dynamics. His recent research has focused on space-time analytics of human dynamics in a hybrid physical-virtual world. Dr. Shaw is a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a Fellow of the American Association of Geographers (AAG). He is a recipient of the Edward L. Ullman Award for Outstanding Contributions to Transportation Geography and the Outstanding Scholar Award in Regional Development and Planning from the American Association of Geographers (AAG). He served as the President of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) as well as Interim Associate Provost for International Education and Head of the Department of Geography at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Dr. Shaw is the lead editor of Springer’s Human Dynamics in Smart Cities book series. He also serves on editorial boards of several journals including Annals of the American Association of Geographers, International Journal of Geographical Information Science, Journal of Transport Geography, Travel Behavior and Society, Computational Urban Science, among others.