GIS 2016 - Special Issue in 'Transactions in GIS'

The advent, integration, and rapid adoption of geospatial and cyber technologies have prompted a phenomenal growth of the rate at which individual citizens are able to easily generate and openly share data. User-generated content (UGC) and volunteered geographic information (VGI), which is a subset of the former with geo-specific information, are two terms that have emerged to describe this plethora of information available in cyberspace. The arrival and rapidly increasing popularity of geographic exploration systems (such as Google Earth, Microsoft Bing Maps, and NASA World Wind) and social media platforms, have quickly expanded from geographic exploration to a community standard platform for global communication through geospatial information sharing. Moreover, the ever-increasing membership of cyber social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Foursquare and Flicker, are sharing dynamic information about their locations and activities. Integrated in such systems is a vast volume of VGI, that includes observables (such as vegetation, critical infrastructures, hydrography), directly physically measurable data (such as temperature, geophysical parameters), and even personal perspectives and experiences of citizen participants in the form of images, videos, and text.
Although recent advancements in geospatial technology-based tools have enabled and inspired many individuals to include geography and the spatial representation of information in their personal and professional lives in ways they had not previously imagined possible, the initial usage and utility of such information have largely been limited to gaining geographic awareness and “infotainment”. For example, following a search for a location-based service (such as restaurants and reviews, grocery stores, gas stations, movie theatres) and finding possible routes and modes of transportation to those locations, the utilization of user reviews of those services far exceeds any other routine use of VGI. However, more recently, the critical use of VGI was clearly demonstrated for disaster management during the wildfires in southern California or hurricane Sandy in the northeastern U.S., where citizens provided real-time information that was mapped to provide situational awareness to first responders and the larger community in general. Government organizations are trying to emulate the commercial sector, which has successfully incorporated “crowd-sourcing” in their business models to collect information and improve the quality of their geographic information services. However, one important issue that remains to be addressed is the credible utilization of VGI or whether VGI can be successfully used for scientific analyses and experiments that support operations and policy formulations.
The general phenomenon of VGI can also be a mode of communication between individuals possessing a wide range of scientific training and the scientific community. This connection can establish a pathway for the general public to make their own contributions to scientific efforts that capture their interest and imaginations. Citizen scientists are increasingly contributing to scientific research by engaging in observation, measurement, or computation. These individuals range from completely untrained, but interested and motivated, citizens to highly trained specialists with unique skill sets. The first group can offer tremendous volumes of data. The second, although more limited in number, can provide location- or field-specific details that may be very difficult for an individual or localized group to obtain. A critical gap exists between the time information can be made available from an individual and the time it takes to organize and provide summaries of data through more formalized channels. Facilitating the provision of information sooner, and possibly throughout a given process, by integrating those who are directly involved in the process can bridge this gap and provide much higher temporal resolution for both analysis and validation of modeling results. Analyzing ground-truth data as it becomes available and feeding it back in throughout the lifespan of a process can improve modeling accuracy and in turn the efficiency of the process being modeled. One of the most important issues to be understood is the assurance of the accuracy and validity in VGI. Determining the appropriate segment of the population and the appropriate tools for data collection and data entry are critical to understanding and mitigating this problem. One example representative of the first solution is the HoneyBeeNet [honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov]. This project gathers data from bee keepers about hive conditions which are then utilized to monitor changes in the timing of plant?pollinator interaction in order to better understand the effect of climate and land use change. Leveraging subject matter experts committed to the process improves the potential for accurate data. An example representative of this second group is the Open Street Map project [www.openstreetmap.org]. In this free open-source web-based application individuals can upload GPS readings that represent transportation routes in their area. The GPS device provides metadata about the accuracy of the data being submitted.
The rapidly expanding availability of VGI is presenting researchers with the new challenge of data curation, yet little work has been done toward investigating requirements for standards and data models needed to achieve that effectively. While data discovery, capture, and quality validation continue to be priorities on geographic information science research agendas [www.ucgis.org], these issues must now be expanded upon as data derived from VGI will not necessarily conform to traditional constructs. It is critical to understand the issues associated with determining the most appropriate sources of data, promoting the involvement of those sources, acquiring accurate and useful information, and ultimately connecting these data with scientific research and operations. Beyond validity and uncertainty, one of the most important issues to be understood is the life cycle VGI and how to curate VGI as we aspire to make it a powerful asset for scientific research, practical applications, and eventually governance.
This special issue is following up on the highly successful VGI workshop held in conjunction with the GIScience 2014 International Conference. Accepted papers will draw on those discussions and provide insight in state-of-the-art applied analyses regarding VGI data handling, scientific sensemaking and content valorization. Regular articles will be complemented with a set of expert opinion and short communication pieces that specifically aim at showing the path into the future and how VGI is driving innovation in GIScience and beyond.
Submission
All submissions will be peer reviewed. Submitted articles should not have been published or be under review elsewhere. Manuscripts should be submitted online athttp://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tgis, indicating that they are for the VGI special issue.
Prospective authors should consult the following site for guidelines and information on paper submission
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-9671/homepage/ForAuthors.html.
Schedule
Paper submission: 1 April 2015
Expected publication date: Individual articles published online as ‘Early View’ after acceptance
Compiled version of special issue in early 2016 - TGIS Vol. 20, No. 1/2
Guest editors
Christoph Aubrecht, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology & The World Bank,christoph.aubrecht-AT-ait.ac.at
Budhendra Bhaduri, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, bhaduribl-AT-ornl.gov
Michael Goodchild, University of California Santa Barbara, good-AT-geog.ucsb.edu