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

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

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.

Tag: Belgium, conference report

Obituary: Igor Drecki – A passionate Cartographer

It is with heavy hearts and profound sadness that we remember our friend and colleague Igor Drecki who, with his wife Iwona, met an untimely end in a car accident on July 26.

Igor was the official New Zealand representative at the general assemblies of the ICA since 1999. He was organizer of numerous ICA events in New Zealand, including the ICA Commission on Visualisation and Virtual Environments Meeting “Geovisualisation on the Web” (Taupo 2001), ICA Internet Cartography Seminar (Auckland 2005), ICA Internet Cartography Workshop (Auckland 2006), and ICA Regional Symposia on Cartography for Australasia and Oceania (Auckland 2010, 2012, 2014 and Wellington, 2016). He was also co-organizer of the 8th ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop (Taurewa 2012). In addition to being an ex-officio member of the ICA Executive Committee (since 2007), he was probably best known to many within and outside the ICA as editor of the ICA News, the official newsletter of the ICA. For his many notable contributions to the ICA, he received the Diploma for Outstanding Services to the ICA in 2017.

In 2017, Igor received the ICA Diploma for Outstanding Services from then-president Menno-Jan Kraak.

His passion for cartography started with his master studies in geography and cartography at the University of Warsaw, and it continued after he settled with his wife Iwona in New Zealand while pursuing a master’s of science degree at the University of Auckland on “Visualization of Uncertainty in Spatial Data”. His research and work experience included professional positions in academia, industry, public administration and most recently libraries and learning services. He was the responsible curator of cartographic and geographic resources of the University of Auckland Library, then latterly curator, Cartographic and Geospatial Collections at the Alexander Turnbull Library, housed within the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington.

Igor was instrumental in the success of the New Zealand Cartographic Society (NZCS). He was a member since 1989 and a life member since 2011; president from 2013 to 2018; NZCS’s (as national member) liaison to the International Cartographic Association (ICA); and director of the biennial New Zealand national cartographic conference, GeoCart, since 2001.

Igor Drecki at GeoCart 2022

Despite his impressive professional record and accomplishments, Igor was “authentic”. He had strong opinions and was ready to stand up for them; he was passionate about cartography and maps; and was a staunch advocate for cartography. But more than this, he was a person who could relate to others. He was interested to learn, discuss, exchange as well as interrelate, give, serve, help, and contribute. This was certainly true for his colleagues and his family, but also for those of us who considered Igor a friend. He was a noble man at heart.

We will miss you, Igor.

Aileen Buckley, Anthony Moore, Dusan Petrovic, Georg Gartner

Category: Commission News, General News

Tag: New Zealand, New Zealand Cartographic Society, Obituary

Invitation to Pre-ICC2023 Workshop: The Future of Atlases

Kindly note that this workshop has been CANCELLED.
Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

The ICA Commission on Atlases is happy to invite you to another interesting Atlas Workshop: „The Future of Atlases“. We want to discuss with you the possibilities and challenges of atlases, perhaps resulting in an innovative, new atlas concept.

Background

In an era dominated by digital technologies and real-time information, the future of traditional atlases has become increasingly uncertain. These once-revered compilations of maps, charts, and geographic knowledge are now facing a myriad of challenges that question their relevance and longevity in the modern world.

One of the primary issues confronting atlases is their rather static nature. Geographic features such as coastlines, borders, and urban development are in a constant state of flux, while political shifts and territorial disputes further complicate the accuracy of conventional maps. As a result, atlases often fail to capture the most up-to-date and accurate information, undermining their utility in today’s dynamic global environment.

Moreover, the climate crisis has introduced an unprecedented level of environmental instability. Rising sea levels, shifting climate zones, and extreme weather events are redefining the very geography we once took for granted. The impact of these changes is significant and demands agile cartographic solutions that can quickly adapt to the new realities.

In addition, the rise of digital mapping platforms and GPS technology has further compounded the predicament of atlases. Online maps like Google Maps and interactive navigation tools on smartphones have revolutionized the way we access and interact with geographic information. With these tools offering real-time updates and personalized directions, the traditional atlas appears cumbersome and outdated in comparison. The ease and convenience of these digital services are gradually overshadowing the once-prestigious allure of physical and digital atlases.

The future of atlases lies in their ability to adapt and evolve. Hybrid approaches, combining physical maps with digital interfaces, might offer a compromise that respects tradition while harnessing the advantages of modern technology. Collaborative efforts between cartographers, geographers, and local communities can help ensure greater accuracy and inclusivity in geographic representation.

The workshop will address these and additional issues publisher of atlases are facing today. Keywords, such as narration and storytelling, openness, participation and transparency that seem to challenge atlas productions will discussed and evaluated.

Details

Workshop date: SAT 12. August
Workshop time: 09h00-13h00
Venue: Stellenbosch University, Chamber of Mines Building
Directions from CTICC: https://goo.gl/maps/ikHB9aw6oWdmaNfV8
Registration and Contact: Eric Losang (E_Losang [a] leibniz-ifl.de)

In the afternoon, we will participate in a trip to a winery and taste fine wine. The costs for the wine trip and the return trip to Capetown will be 750 Rand (40 Euro), with 15 participants at least.

Please register as soon as possible!

– Eric Losang & René Sieber

Category: Atlases, Commission News

Tag: ICC2023, pre-conference workshop, South Africa

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.

Category: Commission News, Location Based Services

Tag: Belgium, cfp

Invitation to Pre-ICC2023 Workshop Other Cartographies

The ICA Commission on Art and Cartography invites to a workshop prior to ICC2023 in Cape Town, South Africa, on August 11, 2023.

Background

The ICC2023’s theme is SMART CARTOGRAPHY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. How can this theme be interpreted through Art? The Commission on Art & Cartography’s Terms of Reference include the directive to “advance the field of artistic and experimental cartographies, including but not limited to such subfields as narrative cartography, cinematic cartography, sensory and phenomenological approaches to mapping, locative media, performative and performance-based cartographies, and media archaeological and other research-creation or practice-led processes.” What might “sustainability” mean in terms of these and other such subfields? However the theme is interpreted, one thing is clear: other ways are needed, other points of view, other methodologies, visions, practices. What other cartographies can challenge the status quo?

The goal of this workshop is to provide an intellectual and creative space to share different ideas around artistic methodologies of mapping and engaging with space and place, particularly those that challenge the status quo of capitalism, colonialism, extractive resource development (etc., the list is long). The format of the workshop will be as follows: a morning of lightning presentations from all of the participants, to introduce each other; an afternoon of 3-4 mini-workshops that explore different methodologies or practices related to our theme of Other Cartographies.

The workshop will be hosted by the National Geospatial Information in Cape Town, South Africa on Friday, August 11^th from 10am-5pm. A catered lunch is included!

Please submit either a 100-150 word proposal if you are interested in leading a mini-workshop of about 45-60 minutes, or a short bio if interested in attending as a participant.

Submission Process & Registration

The workshop is open to everyone with an interest in alternative and sustainable mapping art practices and experimental cartographies. Registration is required and is free of charge. Please note that it is not necessary to be registered for the main ICC conference (which requires fees) to be able to attend the workshop. For more information or to register, please contact Workshop Coordinator Sharron Mirsky (see contact details on the workshop website).

Timeline

May 20, 2023 – Call for participants and workshop leaders
June 15, 2023 – Deadline for submitting abstracts and proposals (max. 150 words)
June 22, 2023 – Successful Applicants notified;
July 1, 2023 – Final program released;
August 11, 2023 – Workshop prior to the ICC 2023

Please find more information on the workshop website.

Category: Art and Cartography, Commission News

Tag: ICC2023, pre-conference workshop, South Africa

Invitation to Pre-ICC2023 Workshop on Cartographic and Geospatial Information Education: Transformation in the Era of AI

You are warmly invited to participate in and contribute your research, experiences and insights to the International Workshop on Cartographic and Geospatial Information Education: Transformation in the Era of AI, jointly organized by the Commission on Education and Training, the Working Group on the Cartographic Body of Knowledge and the Commission on Open Source Geospatial Technologies in partnership with the Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

The workshop will take place at the campus of the Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa, on August 12, 2023. It is scheduled for attendees to conveniently continue their journey to the 31st International Cartographic Conference in the same city between August 13-18, 2023.

Background

Education is recovering to a better normal after the pandemic, while facing an ever evolving digital revolution. Powerful digital technologies and tools ensure quality and sustainable education for all. Among these, artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the contents and pedagogies of cartographic and geospatial information education. Debates about roles of generative AI tools in education are being heated in various fields. What will the role of AI be in cartography and GIS education, research and practice? It is exciting to explore how educators and learners can better tap such tools for the transformation of Cartographic and Geospatial Information Education in the era of AI.

Call for participation

This workshop will bring together educators and experts to share the latest work, best practices and developments on related themes. Suggested topics of interest can include, but are not limited to, the following:

Developing the Body of Knowledge for cartography
AI-powered teaching and learning in cartography and GIS
Integrating AI into cartographic and geospatial information education
Curriculum design for cartographic and geospatial information education
Developing on-line educational resources for cartography and GIS teaching
Best practices in teaching and learning in cartography and geospatial information
Open source software and datasets in cartographic and geospatial information education
Integrating cartography into education of geomatics, geography and other disciplines
Partnerships and collaborations between universities and industry in GIS
Experiences in teaching cartography and GIS in general education
Cartographic and geospatial information education in Africa

The workshop is designed to be hybrid depending on local conditions and open to all interested researchers in cartographic and geospatial information education. We cordially invite you to join forum to exchange thoughts on the Education Transformation in the Era of AI.

Submission Details

You are mostly welcome to present your work in this workshop by submitting abstracts to the organizers, using the ICA abstract template.

The deadline for submitting abstracts is June 06, 2023. Acceptance notification will be sent out before June 30, 2023. Authors of accepted submissions are expected to present their works in the workshop. Selected papers will be invited for a further review for an edited volume planned next year.

Please find more information on the workshop website.

Organizing Committee

Silvana Camboim, Federal University of Paraná, Brazil
Terje Midtbø, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Zahn Münch, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Stefan Peters, University of South Australia, Australia
Tao Wang, Capital Normal University, China

Category: Cartographic Body of Knowledge, Commission News, Education and Training, Open Source Geospatial Technologies, Working Group News

Tag: ICC2023, pre-conference workshop, South Africa

The Atlas Cookbook – finally published!

The ICA Commission on Atlases (CoA) proudly announces the publication of The Atlas Cookbook – 10 ingredients how to edit an atlas.

The intention of The Atlas Cookbook is to advise atlas authors in a general way:

to give an overview over the realization phases,
to show how to start a new atlas project (which is always the hardest part),
and how to deal with conceptual, organizational, graphical or publishing issues.

What’s in it?

We divided The Atlas Cookbook in 10 chapters, which reflect a viable and practicable way to carry out an atlas project. The chapters start with Organization & Marketing, followed by Editorial Aspects. After the administrative issues are addressed, the book focuses on Atlas Use and Data Management. Other components to be considered in the atlas process include the use of Multimedia Elements and the Atlas GUI Design, followed by detailed chapters on Map Design and on Interactive Atlas Functionality. And finally, Prototyping and Evaluation describes the last steps before publishing the atlas.

A peak inside chapter 8 by Ernst Spiess.

A peak into chapter 8 by Ernst Spiess.

For whom?

The Atlas Cookbook is intended for atlas makers, map producers, and all kind of cartographers; it can be read as a whole, but even just a single chapter can help!

The Atlas Cookbook is written at a management level, not in a technical way. Most comments and recommendations apply to current and emerging digital technologies, but many sections are also valid and useful for editing printed atlases.

And where to get?

To get a digital copy, we offer the The Atlas Cookbook as a PDF on the CoA Website. You can download it for free and use it according to the CC license.

Additionally, we produced a printed book in a limited edition of 200 copies, supported by ICA and ETH Zurich. If you’d like to receive a printed edition (also free of charge), please send your postal address together with some kind words and good reasons to René Sieber, the current chairman of the CoA: sieberr [at] ethz.ch

Category: Atlases, Commission News

Tag: The Atlas Cookbook

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

Category: Commission News, History of Cartography

Tag: Belgium

Call for Presentations: ICC 2023 Pre-Conference Workshop on Cartography and AI (MapAI)

The ICA Commissions on Visual Analytics and Cognitive Issues in Geographic Information Visualization are pleased to announce a Workshop on Cartography and AI (MapAI 2023) taking place on August 12, 2023 in Stellenbosch, South Africa before the ICC 2023.

Motivation

Cartographers have assessed the potential use of artificial intelligence for mapping for decades. Early work on expert systems explored AI as early as the 1980s (e.g., Buttenfield 1984; Fisher & Mackaness 1987; Brassel & Weibel, 1988; Johnson & Basoglu 1989). The AI tools of the time were limited by the (lack of) availability of computing power and data. More recently, as AI tools have become both more powerful and easier to use, a few cartographers and computer scientists have begun experimenting with artificial intelligence technologies to see how they might be applied to maps and mapping processes (e.g., Kang et al., 2019; Zhao et al, 2021; Christophe et al., 2022; Zhou et al, 2022; Santos et al., 2023). Others have made initial efforts to review the potential of AI technologies for cartography (Kang et al., 2022), laying out some possibilities and also some points of caution by identifying ethical issues these technologies raise and/or exacerbate. The 2022 launches of DALL·E 2, ChatGPT, and other AI platforms have caught the attention of the general public by making artificial intelligence technologies easy to use for a range of everyday tasks. Some cartographers have already put these to use for assisting their mapping practice (see, for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCOpxy3wk-o). There is much more for cartographers to explore, including the potential impacts of the use of AI on map users’ and map makers’ cognitive processes (see Keskin & Kettunen, 2023 for an initial investigation).

In this workshop, we aim to bring together ideation and practical experimentation to collaboratively explore some of the potential and limits of current AI technologies for cartographic practice and map use.

Call for Presentations

The first half of our planned 1-day workshop will be for participants to present Lightning Talks. In 5 minutes presenters will showcase either one major challenge or one significant opportunity you see that intersects between AI and Cartography.

These presentations should focus on frontiers in cartographic research that intersect with AI tools or techniques, and creative/unorthodox approaches are welcomed. Work-in-progress is the intended target, versus projects that are already fully completed.

Example topics could include, but are not limited to:

Implications of deepfake maps and satellite images
Machine-learning / AI based map updating based on image input
AI-generated wayfinding directions
Geographic aspects of algorithmic bias
Automated means of iterating design elements in cartographic layouts
Explainable AI & mapping
Natural language interaction with maps
Mapping with ChatGPT, DALL-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, etc…
Human-machine collaboration using maps

Workshop presentations will be used to motivate group discussions and hands-on experimentation in the second half of the planned 1-day workshop. We are excited to work together to push the limits of various AI mechanisms for cartographic design and inquiry, learning along the way about where the frontiers lie for future research and applications of AI in Cartography.

Submission Details

Please submit an abstract of <250 words that showcases either one major challenge or one significant opportunity that intersects AI and Cartography by May 15, 2023 to EasyChair. All submissions will be reviewed by the workshop organizers for clarity and fit with workshop themes. A final workshop agenda including accepted talks will be communicated by June 23, 2023.

Venue & Workshop Logistics

This workshop will take place on August 12, 2023 in Stellenbosch, South Africa. If you are attending the ICC 2023 in Cape Town, Stellenbosch is roughly an hour away by Taxi/Private Car. We recommend staying in Stellenbosch for 1 or 2 nights if you prefer not to commute to/from Cape Town. Stellenbosch is famous for its wineries and there are many scenic hotels located on wineries nearby.

We will notify authors and publish a preliminary workshop schedule by June 23, 2023.

Organizers

Amy L. Griffin, RMIT
Anthony C. Robinson, Penn State University
Arzu Çöltekin, FHNW – University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland

Please find more information on the workshop website.

Category: Cognitive Issues in Geographic Information Visualization, Commission News, Visual Analytics

Tag: ICC2023, pre-conference workshop, South Africa

Announcement: Pre-ICC2023 Workshop on OGC Standards for making geospatial data, maps and charts findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable

The ICA Commission on SDI and Standards and the Open Geospatial Consortium will jointly organize the pre-ICC 2023 Workshop on OGC Standards for making geospatial data, maps and charts findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.

The workshop will be held on August 11, 2023 at the Colophon Room, SANBI, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Cape Town.

Workshop program

Introduction to the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and its standards by Gobe Hobona, Director of Product Management for Standards, OGC
Technical foundations of OGC standards by Franz-Josef Behr, Co-Chair: ICA Commission on SDI & Standards
OGC API Standards by Gobe Hobona, Director of Product Management for Standards, OGC
Further into OGC API Standards by Gobe Hobona, Director of Product Management for Standards, OGC

For more information visit the workshop website.

Category: Commission News, SDI and Standards

Tag: ICC2023, OGC, pre-conference workshop, South Africa