AutoCarto 2020 will take place on the Esri campus in Redlands, CA, May 20–22, 2020. In advance of the conference, workshops will be held on Tuesday, May 19th. They range from 90 minutes to full-day workshops. Three of them are associated to ICA commissions:

Geospatial Semantics Modeling and Visualization; the First Workshop of the International Cartography Association Commission on Geospatial Semantics

Geospatial ontologies formalize representations for sets of interrelated concepts based on their semantics from theoretical and applied perspectives. The representation and reasoning of geographic knowledge must be cohesive with many interrelated disciplines, including: language, logic, cartography, social theory, geospatial analysis, and programming. To advance research in geospatial knowledge representation and reasoning, the International Cartography Association (ICA) is sponsoring a Commission on Geospatial Semantics (CGS). The CGS will solicit abstracts for presentations on both theoretical and applied aspects of geospatial and cartographic ontologies for the First Workshop of the CGS. This half-day workshop will bring together expert and newly interested specialists and technologists from across geospatial informatics to network and develop an agenda to advance the broad role of semantic technologies in geographic information science.

Prior to the meeting we encourage prospective attendees/participants to examine the agenda and guidelines at the CGS web site (to be provided with the announcement). A range of potential topics will be suggested for the workshop and opportunities will be provided for those interested in the day’s agenda to register a topic or an issue to be included. We will accept and cover complex issues for discussion. Participants will have the opportunity to develop papers within this framework for publication by the ICA prior to the International Cartography Conference in Florence, Italy in 2021. A secondary activity immediately before the research workshop is to offer participants a hands-on tutorial addressing basic concepts of geospatial semantics with the aim of expanding the community of scholars interested in the field. This workshop will also offer an opportunity for semanticians to formalize concepts using a compatible technology where more widespread forms of geographic information systems (GIS) are inflexible.

Scholars interested in presenting a paper or participating in the session as a discussant will be able to submit their abstract through the standard submission procedures whose guidelines will be provided. The CGS will cooperate and correlate all activities with the AutoCarto 2020 organizers.

For a proposed agenda, download this PDF.

Please submit abstracts for this workshop through EasyChair.

• Organizers:
  • Dalia Varanka, U.S. Geological Survey, dvaranka@usgs.gov
    Alexander Sorokine, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, sorokina@ornl.gov
  • E. Lynn Usery, U.S. Geological Survey, usery@usgs.gov
• Duration: 4 hours
• Participants: The tutorial is open to everyone attending AutoCarto 2020.

Map Projections – Practical Selection and Use with Current Research Directions: Workshop of the International Cartography Association

Map projections are a critical part of any map design and creation. The plethora of projections that exist allow a user to select an appropriate map projection to preserve the global characteristics that are critical to the map design. Unfortunately, many users of maps and geospatial information have little understanding of map projection concepts and are not able to determine a correct map projection for the type and purpose of the map being created. This workshop will thus include a brief tutorial on map projection concepts, selection, and use. The tutorial will also include presentation of existing tools to aid in selecting the correct map projection. The workshop will conclude with several presentations of current research in map projections.

Prior to the meeting we encourage prospective attendees/participants to examine the agenda and guidelines at the Commission on Map Projections web site. Participants will have the opportunity to develop papers within this framework for publication by the ICA prior to the International Cartography Conference in Florence, Italy in 2021.

For a proposed agenda, download this PDF.

• Organizers:
  • E. Lynn Usery, U.S. Geological Survey, usery@usgs.gov, Chair Projections Commission
  • Miljenko Lapaine, University of Zagreb, mlapaine@geof.hr, Vice-Chair Map Projections Commission
• Duration: 3.5 hours
• Participants: Anticipated number of attendees, 10; maximum 20.

Cartographic and Geospatial Information Education: from Classroom to Anywhere

Conventionally, cartography has been mostly taught in classrooms with lectures and exercises, aiming to enhancing peoples’ map reading capabilities and map making skills. Nowadays, the general public has access to the wide spread of web map services, navigation apps on smart phones and open source software and datasets at no cost. Background knowledge of students entering professional training on cartography today is very different from those ten years ago. The body of knowledge for cartography and GIS has been transforming continuously by incorporating new ideas from applications and interdisciplinary research. Suites of online courses incorporate some of the new concepts and technologies and make teaching cartography and GIS more flexible and practical. Educators have been conducting reflections on these changes, which can be observed from publications in many conferences and journals.

This workshop serves as a forum to share the latest practices and insights on cartographic and GIS education in a rapidly changing landscape. The topics can include but limited to new course contents, curricular design, incorporation of online courses, education resources using open source software and datasets, teaching experience to non-specialists.

Please use the AutoCarto 2020 template and contact the organizers for submissions and detailed information.

• Organizers:
  • Tao Wang, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China, wangt@cnu.edu.cn
  • Terje Midtbø, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, terjem@ntnu.no
• Duration: 90–100 minutes (~6 presenters)
• Participants: We expect 20–30 attendees to join the session.

An overview over all workshops at AutoCarto 2020 can be found here.