Welcome to the International Cartographic Association
Welcome to the website of the International Cartographic AssociationGet to know the new ICA Executive Committee for the term 2023-2027
Welcome to the website of the International Cartographic Association
Get to know the new ICA Executive Committee for the term 2023-2027

18th International Conference on Location Based Services (LBS 2023) – A Report

The LBS conference series started in 2002 in Vienna, Austria, initiated by Prof. Georg Gartner from TU Wien. Since 2015, it has become the annual conference of the ICA Commission on Location Based Services. In the past years, the LBS conferences travelled around the world – with venues in Hong Kong, Salzburg, Nottingham, Shanghai, Vienna, Augsburg, Zurich, Glasgow, and Munich.

In 2023, the LBS conference was hosted by Ghent University, Belgium, on November 20-22, 2023. Around 90 participants from all over the world gathered in the historical city center of Ghent. The conference was opened by the Conference Chairs Prof. Haosheng Huang and Prof. Nico Van de Weghe.

Opening session of the 18th International Conference on Location Based Services – LBS 2023 held in Ghent, Belgium

The conference featured five keynotes by Prof. Krzysztof Janowicz from University of Vienna, Bart Rosseau from Digitaal Vlaanderen, Prof. Wim Hardyns from Ghent University (UGent), Prof. Sofie Van Hoecke from UGent-imec, and Prof. Sidharta Gautama from UGent.

A total of 50 oral presentations have been given in 10 single-stream sessions over the two and half days. Another 4 showcases were presented all the conference. These oral presentations, showcases and posters provide a general picture of recent research activities related to the domain of LBS. Such activities emerged in the last years, especially concerning issues of GeoAI, outdoor/indoor positioning, smart environment, spatial modeling, personalization, context-awarenesss, cartographic communication, novel user interfaces, crowdsourcing, social media, big data analysis, usability and privacy.

Oral sessions of LBS 2023

Oral sessions of LBS 2023

Opening session of the 18th International Conference on Location Based Services – LBS 2023 held in Ghent, Belgium

Showcases at LBS 2023

Showcases at LBS 2023

Showcases at LBS 2023

Showcases at LBS 2023

The conference also featured a “Best paper session” on the 3rd conference day.

  • The best full paper award at LBS2023 went to Eva Nuhn, Kai Hamburger and Sabine Timpf from University of Augsburg, Germany for their full paper on “Mapping olfactory cues for wayfinding – A theoretical approach and an empirical study”.
  • The winner of the best short paper award at LBS2023 is “Towards Personalized Pedestrian Route Recommendation Based on Implicit Visual Preference”, authored by Lin Che, Martin Raubal and Peter Kiefer from ETH Zurich.

With the co-sponsoring of ESRI BeLux and ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, we were also happy to offer Travel Grants to support 7 young researchers to participate in the conference.

A selection of peer-reviewed full papers will be published in the Journal of Location Based Services. Accepted work in progress submissions are included in the conference online proceeding.

Besides the technical and scientific program, the conference provided several social networking opportunities, including an ice-breaker reception on the first day and a conference dinner in a traditional restaurant with famous Ghent cuisine on the 2nd day.

More details and photos regarding LBS 2023 can be found at lbs2023.lbsconference.org.

Invitation to the 18th International Conference on Location Based Services (LBS 2023)

The ICA Commission on Location Based Services and Ghent University are pleased to invite you to the 18th International Conference on Location Based Services (LBS 2023), which will take place in Ghent, Belgium on 20-22 November 2023.

Built on the success of previous conferences in this series, LBS 2023 aims to offer a common ground to colleagues from various disciplines and practice where they can meet, interact and exchange knowledge, experience, plans and ideas on how LBS can and could be improved and on how it will influence both science and society.

Call for Papers

The Call for Papers is currently open. We call for full papers, work in progress, and showcases. High-quality full paper submissions are intended to be published in the Journal of Location Based Services. Accepted work-in-progress submissions will be published in the online proceedings of the conference (with a DOI).

We are also pleased to announce two awards at LBS 2023: one Best paper award, and one work in progress award. Meanwhile, travel grants will be available for young researchers whose submissions are accepted. More details will follow.

Important Dates

  • Full paper submission: 15 June 2023
  • Work in progress submission: 15 July 2023
  • Notification of full paper acceptance: 1 August 2023
  • Showcase submission: 10 September 2023
  • Notification of work in progress acceptance: 16 September 2023
  • Early registration ends, author registration deadline: 30 September 2023
  • Conference: 20-24 November 2023

Topics

We invite contributions in the following areas (but not limited to):

Geospatial Artificial intelligence (GeoAI) and LBS

  • Geography/GIScience-guided AI
  • Explainable GeoAI
  • GeoAI-enabled LBS

Context modelling and context-awareness

  • Smart environments and ambient spatial intelligence
  • Indoor spatial data modelling and mapping
  • Place modelling and understanding
  • Context modelling, personalisation, and context-aware adaptation

Mobile user interface and interaction

  • Visualisation techniques for LBS
  • Mobile human-computer interaction
  • Augmented reality and mixed reality

User studies and evaluation

  • Evaluation methodologies for LBS
  • User experiences of LBS
  • Mobile spatial cognition

Acquisition, management, and analytics of Location big data

  • Crowdsourcing and internet of things
  • Spatial data science and big data analytics
  • Computational mobility and activity analytics
  • Descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics

Ubiquitous Positioning

  • Outdoor and indoor positioning
  • Multi-sensor system and sensor fusion

Social and behavioural implications of LBS

  • Location privacy
  • Legal, ethical, and business aspects of LBS
  • Biases in location data analytics and GeoAI

Innovative LBS and applications

  • Intelligent navigation systems
  • Smart cities and sustainable mobility
  • Autonomous and connected vehicles
  • Public health
  • Location based social networks and games
  • Digital humanities

More information regarding LBS 2023 can be found at lbsconference.org.

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Registration open for “Conquering the World through Cartography”

From Tuesday 30 May till Wednesday 31 May 2023 the ICA Commission on the History of Cartography and the Belgian Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences will jointly host an international conference on colonial cartography. This will be organized as a hybrid event, both face-to-face at the Palace of the Academies in the centre of Brussels and via livestream.

Theme

The 21st century map image of continents beyond Europe is still decisively shaped by inherited aesthetics and content dating back to the turn from explorative to imperialist cartography. The symposium welcomes contributions (papers and posters) to analyse aspects of the imperialist Global North hegemony by investigating topographic mapping, hydrographic charting, and thematic mapping in personal, institutional, and regional case studies. The regional scope of the conference are overseas continents and seascapes within the time frame from about the Napoleonic wars to the European de-colonization in the mid-twentieth century (1940s to 1960s).

Programme & Registration

A provisional list of accepted oral and poster presentations can be found here.

Please visit history.icaci.org/brussels-2023 for more details and the link to the registration page. The early bird registration deadline is 5 May.

The conference’s scientific programme of lectures will take place all day on Tuesday 30 May and on Wednesday morning 31 May. Optional free tours are planned both on the afternoon of Wednesday 31 May, visiting the map collection of the AfricaMuseum, as well as on the morning of Thursday 1 June, for a visit to the Map room of the Royal Library of Belgium, themed “Not just Congo. Belgian colonial mapping in the 19th and 20th centuries”.

We hope to see many of you there!

Soetkin Vervust
Secretary ICA Commission on the History of Cartography

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Working Group on the History of ICA

Last year, the International Cartographic Association (ICA) celebrated its 60th anniversary. This milestone called for a professional approach to documenting and preserving records of our mature organisation and its rich heritage. In response, the ICA Executive Committee approved the formation of the ICA Working Group on the History of ICA at their meeting in Ghent in November 2019.

In brief, the Terms of Reference (ToR) focus on three broad areas:

  • ICA Archives – to build the Association’s archives and records
  • ICA Chronicle – to document ICA activities and achievements
  • ICA Hub – to provide support and expertise on matters relating to ICA

We are interested to hear from anyone who is willing to share their ICA archives and collections – documents, records, official correspondence, publications, photographs, conference materials, promotional brochures, and any other items of relevance. In particular, we are seeking your help with collating a full set of Minutes from the ICA General Assemblies. This task seems to be particularly challenging; we are currently missing documents from the:

  • 5th General Assembly held in Moscow in 1976 (we only have a brief report)
  • 7th General Assembly held in Perth in 1984
  • 8th General Assembly held in Morelia in 1987
  • 9th General Assembly held in Bournemouth in 1991

We would appreciate hearing back from anyone that could help us in completing the set.

Since the Working Group is still at its formation stage, we are looking forward to welcoming new members that can support our work, particularly in fulfilling Terms of Reference. If you are interested, please visit our website and get in touch.

Igor Drecki
Chair, Working Group on the History of ICA

Category: History of ICA
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First joint meeting of the ICA Executive Committee and new Commissions in Gent

On 23–24 November the entire Executive Committee met for the first joint working meeting with the newly elected Commission chairs (List of Commissions). Altogether, 22 out of 28 Commissions were present during the meeting in Gent, either through their chair or vice-chair.

On two exciting, busy working days Commission representatives and ICA officials got to know each other (better), learned about administrative guidelines and procedures for a smooth cooperation and dedicated themselves to common strategic tasks for the next four years. The President pointed out once more the important role that Commissions play in our society – it is through commissions, where the actual thematic work of ICA will be done that finally brings forward our discipline, advances cartography as a science and sets the standards for the quality and usage of our work.

During the first day, the EC members and Commission representatives actively discussed «burning issues» for all commissions and how the society and members in general could even better help commissions to achieve their goals. The second day was followed by a presentation on the new ICA publication on the UN Sustainable Development Goals which was the successful result of a joint commission effort in the past. The final topic to conclude the meeting consisted of an intense discussion and group work on the best means and ways to join forces between commissions, which lead to already very concrete steps for the near future.

The next joint meeting of the Executive Committee and the ICA Commissions will take place on 19 September 2020 in Vienna on the occasion of the EuroCarto 2020 conference. ICA President Tim Trainor and Secretary General Thomas Schulz already look forward to this meeting and seeing the first results of our work commences in Gent.

We thank everyone present for making the long way to Belgium and actively participate in this fantastic meeting!

 

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Outcome of the first meeting of the new ICA Executive Committee in Gent

On 22 November the newly elected Executive Committee met for the first physical meeting during the 2019‒2023 term in Gent (Belgium).

A full day of intense discussions and a huge list of work items on the desk set out the agenda for ICA for the next four years. Following ICA’s Strategic Plan and the President’s motto, that «Maps make a difference» and that «Cartography is more relevant than ever today in an increasingly complex world», the EC discussed next steps and necessary actions in order to reach these goals and make our discipline and society visible and heard by decision makers and a larger audience.

The Executive Committee at the commission meeting in Ghent, Belgium

The Executive Committee at the commission meeting in Ghent, Belgium

Achieving the goals of the next term is of course a collaborative project that the EC, national members, affiliate members and ICA commissions need to undertake together. Every member of the Executive Committee has an important role to play in this context as a coordinator, enabler and facilitator. Hence, each EC member were given specific tasks and roles for the next four years. And all Vice-Presidents were assigned a liaison with commissions and working groups. The list of Liaisons for all current ICA commissions can be found here: https://icaci.org/executive-committee/

4 new Working Groups for the term 2019‒2023

As some of the strategic tasks that the new Executive Committee wants to tackle during the next term are very specific or transversal in character and not fully covered by existing commission work, four new Working Groups were set up by the EC during the meeting:

  • Cartography and Sustainable Development (Philippe De Maeyer)
  • Cartographic Body of Knowledge (Terje Midtbø)
  • History of ICA (László Zentai)
  • New Research Agenda in Cartography (Liqiu Meng)

The respective EC members (in brackets) will help with startup and organization, find members and supporters, and lay out the work schedule for the next 4 years.

Nominations of Heads of Committees and ICA Officers

Furthermore, the EC nominated the new Heads of ICA Committees and Officers to the ICA Secretariat who will help to keep the society running and inform members and the public in the best possible way through the various channels. Congratulations to the following nominations for the next term 2019-2023! It is a pleasure to work (or continue to work) together with this excellent team!

  • Publication Committee – Georg Gartner (AT)
  • Statutes and By-laws Committee – Derek Clarke (SA) & Christine Zanine (FR)
  • Selection of Award Recipients Committee – Ferjan Ormeling (NL)
  • eCarto Newsletter Editor – David Fraser (AU)
  • ICA News Editor – Igor Drecki (NZ)
  • ICA Webmasters – Manuela Schmidt & Felix Ortag (AT)
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President’s Blog: Gerhard Mercator

Gerhard Mercator

Gerhard Mercator.
Engraving by Frans Hogenberg.

In the year 2012 the world of cartography is celebrating the 500th Birthday of Gerhard Mercator. What Isaac Newton might be for the domain of physics and Charles Darwin for the discipline of biology is Mercator for the domain of Cartography, an outstanding representative who has influenced the discipline in a unique way.

By looking at the life and work of Gerhard Mercator one can argue, that not only his remarkable maps, globes, atlas and projection should be remembered, but also his attitude as person and mapmaker.

Cartographers like to get hold of data sources, validate and cross-check them, aggregate and order the derived information in a useful way and display that information by applying good design with the possibilities contemporary technologies offer. This is what Mercator has done in his times and this is what cartography is aiming to do with nowadays tools as well.

Several activities are taking place in the year 2012 to acknowledge Mercator’s birthday. One of those has taken place just recently close to his birthplace “Rupelmonde” in the Belgian city of Sint-Niklaas. ICA Commission Chair Philippe de Maeyer and his staff from the University of Gent managed to organize a most interesting programme including visits to the worldwide only permanent Mercator-museum and an excellent temporary “Mercator Digitaal” exhibition.

The opportunity to look at artefacts being produced by somebody like Gerhard Mercator can be recommended to all nowadays cartographers and GI scientists as I found it a true inspiration for the acknowledgement of the beauty and the challenges of our discipline.

If you know of further Mercator-related events, feel free to post them in the comments.

The last Map of the Month for this year is online: Parc National des Virguna

This month’s ICA Map of the Month is a map based on a satellite image and depicts the Parc National des Virguna.
At the last ICC in Chile it won the first jury prize in the category “Maps based on satellite images and remote sensing”.

Get more information and zoom in on the map!

Category: General News
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