Final Note

As we enter the 21st century, we envision a dramatic increase in the role of visual representation in the geo-, environmental and social sciences and in the application of those sciences in business, public policy, and other arenas. Papers included in this special issue are representative of the kinds of research that must be undertaken if geographic/cartographic visualization is to fulfill this role. The issue contains a carefully selected sampling from a growing international effort to link traditional cartographic and GIS methods with those of ViSC and computer graphics in order to develop and apply geographic/cartographic visualization methods and tools. For an extended discussion of these activities and of the evolving research agenda for geographic/cartographic visualization, see:

http://www.itc.nl/~carto/kraak and
http://www.geovista.psu.edu/ica/icavis/poland1.html

 

New concepts in exploration of spatial data

Visualization tool/system development

Integration of visualization tools and application in particular problem domains

Commentary