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

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.

ICA News 79 now online

ICA News, Number 79, December 2022

We are pleased to announce that the 79th issue of the ICA News is now available for download:

In this issue of ICA News, we are updated on the ICC 2023 preparations by our South African colleagues and celebrate the life of Lynn Usery who passed away last year. We are invited to Vancouver in 2025 and briefed on a number of cartographic meetings and events that took place around the world. Many thanks for your support!

– Igor Drecki, Editor ICA News

fyi: The issue ICA News 78, June 2022, is still in preparation.

Category: General News
Tag:

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.

Invitation to participate in the pre-ICC2023 Workshop on Cartography Connecting Schools

The ICA Commissions on Cartography and Children and Maps and Graphics for Blind and Partially Sighted People have the pleasure to invite all interested colleagues to participate in the Joint ICA Workshop Cartography Connecting Schools on August 12th, 2023.

The workshop is a gathering of experts, researchers, professionals, and students in the field of Cartography from around the world. It will provide an excellent platform to exchange ideas, share research findings, and foster collaborations with colleagues from different countries and backgrounds.

The workshop will take place as hybrid event: We will meet at Cape Town International Convention Center (CTICC) and the participants will also be able to join via Google Meet. Registration is free.

We believe that your participation would add significant value to the event, and we would be honored if you could join us.

Please visit our workshop website for more information and registration.

eCARTO News March 2023

eCARTO News captures the latest cartographic news and developments from around the world. If you have any general cartography items of interest then please email them to David Fraser, editor of eCARTO News.

Publications

Research & Investigations

  • Where the sidewalk ends – news.mit.edu
  • Conservation of Spanish Armada invasion maps reveals red ink details were added hundreds of years later – theartnewspaper.com
  • New Research Overturns 100-Year-Old Understanding of Color Perception – scitechdaily.com
  • A universe without mathematics is beyond the scope of our imagination – phys.org
  • Ancient maps of Jupiter’s path show Babylonians’ advanced maths – newscientist.com

Maps – Collected & Exhibited

  • Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection – Stanford
  • Maps unfolded: exhibition in Amsterdam – Allard Pierson
  • 14 maps you need to see to understand Wales and the challenges we face – walesonline.co.uk
  • 40 Unusual And Fascinating Maps That Might Change Your Perspective On The World .boredpanda.com
  • Windows on Collections: Maps – youtube.com
  • The world’s languages, in 7 maps and charts – washingtonpost.com
  • Rare maps charting England’s defeat of the Spanish Armada will remain in the UK – dailymail.co.uk

Opportunity

Connections

  • Maps Chart Emotional Connection to Local Landscape – miragenews.com
  • Mapping path from smell to perception – miragenews.com
  • Fascinating map of the world reveals each country’s second language – dailymail.co.uk
  • Stanford research explores novel perspectives on the evolution of Spanish – news.stanford.edu
  • You can now try the Spanish Google Maps, unique in the world – gearrice.com
  • A new map reveals the most famous people born in Czechia – expats.cz

The Environment

  • Mapping Technology Boosts Land Managers’ Carbon Trading Options – miragenews.com
  • Mapping the risks of isolation due to sea level rise associated with global warming – phys.org
  • Return of the Gedi: space mission that maps Earth’s forests saved from destruction – theguardian.com
  • Smartphone data can help create global vegetation maps – miragenews.com
  • A Treasure Map to Falling Stars? This Glaciologist Made One – explorersweb.com
  • Study reveals map of moon’s water near its south pole – phys.org
  • Accuracy at risk as governments reject specialist mapping tools – miragenews.com
  • New mapping tools helping to protect seagrass in Dorset – miragenews.com
  • Scientists map nearly 10 billion trees, stored carbon, in Africa’s drylands – news.mongabay.com

Maps & Atlases & Globes

Virtual Mapping

  • Linux Foundation Takes on Metaverse, Physical World Mapping Challenges – linuxinsider.com

Archaeological Mapping

  • University of Bradford’s Croatia project to map ancient lands – bbc.com

History

  • This Google Maps Feature Takes Your Street Back in Time – cnet.com
  • Ireland’s maps: Retracing how they made world history – bbc.com

Industry

  • Hivemapper is 1M kilometers closer to goal of beating Google Maps – geospatialworld.net
  • Esri Joins the Overture Maps Foundation to Help Build Interoperable Open Map Data – businesswire.com

Transport Mapping

A Chat

  • Mapping reception of latitude and longitude in early modern China – miragenews.com

 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the weblink authors are their own and do not represent the official position of the ICA. The links are assembled for information and education purposes only.

International Journal of Cartography, Issue 9.1, 2023 published

Cover International Journal of CartographyThe new issue of the International Journal of Cartography is now available on the Journal website

The list of papers published is provided below:

  • Leilani A. Arthurs, Sarah P. Baumann, Joel M. Rice & Shelby Dianne Litton, in their contribution, The Development of Individuals’ Map-Reading Skill: What Research and Theory Tell Us, addressed the question: “How do individuals develop map-reading skill from childhood to adulthood?”.  Their research analysed articles related to ‘Fischer’s skill theory’ and subsequently developed a theory of map-reading skill development.
  • The Second Engraver of the Mercator-Thevet Map, by A. Terry Bahill, reports on research undertaken to identify the two engravers of a map held by the US Library of Congress accredited to Gerald Mercator and André Thevet (1569).
  • Martin Davis’s and Alexander Kent’s research analysed symbology from the global mapping initiatives of Soviet 1:10,000 city plans of La Paz, Bolivia (1977), Port-au-Prince, Haiti (1983) and Frankfurt am Main, West Germany (1983).  It compared the symbology employed in the Soviet maps with contemporary OpenStreetMap coverage of the same cities.  Their paper, Soviet city plans and OpenStreetMap: a comparative analysis, reports that results from the research indicate that Soviet and OSM symbologies are similarly comprehensive regarding some topographic features, but dissimilar in the way that physical and urban environments are portrayed.
  • Use of Cartosat-1 elevation data for local-scale terrain studies in India: A case study by Rahul Ranade describes the application of CartoDEM to develop a coarse geographic narrative of the terrain at the tehsil level.  This was undertaken in a study area in Udaipur district of Rajasthan, India.
  • Chenyu Zuo, Linfang Ding, Xiaoyu Liu, Hui Zhang and Liqiu Meng contribute a paper entitled Map-based Dashboard Design with Open Government Data for Learning and Analysis of Industrial Innovation Environment. Their paper reports that they designed and implemented a map-based dashboard – InDash – to represent spatial and semantic information of the industrial innovation environment at different levels of detail. Twenty-four relevant factors –  from economy, habitation, infrastructure, and research & development – were employed to illustrate the design.
  • Well-Being Evocative Places: Validating the Conceptual Model of an Evocative Place Based on the Inter-Rater Reliability Test by Alenka Poplin, Erin Duffer and Georg Gartner complete the research papers in this issue.  Here, data was collected relating to evocative places – places that evoke emotions, memories and images – and descriptions were collected in a series of mapping experiments undertaken in three cities. The Conceptual Model of an Evocative Place (CMEP) was designed based on the collected data from the three cities studied.  It was then evaluated using the Inter-Rater Reliability test as a framework.
  • As is usual in all issues of this Journal we include an Invited essay from Imre Demhardt.  His piece in this issue is entitled: Allegorical Maps in human shapes.

Two Book Reviews are also included:

  • Visual analytics for data scientists by Natalia Andrienko, Gennady Andrienko, Georg Fuchs, Aidan Slingsby, Cagatay Turkay and Stefan Wrobel, Springer International Publishing (Switzerland), 2021, 440 pp., GBP 75 (hardback) ISBN 9783030561451. Reviewed by Sarah Battersby.
  • Newcastle Upon Tyne: Mapping the City by Michael Barke, Brian Robson and Anthony Champion, Edinburgh, Birlinn, 2021, GBP 30 (hardback)  ISBN 9781780277264. Reviewed by Peter Vujakovic.

Also, you may have papers that you might wish to publish in the Journal. We would welcome the submission of appropriate papers.

William Cartwright, Melbourne, Australia
Anne Ruas, Paris, France
Editors, International Journal of Cartography

Category: General News

For our national members: upcoming deadlines for the 31st ICC and 19th General Assembly

We kindly invite all our members to the 31st International Cartographic Conference (ICC2023) and to the 19th General Assembly of the International Cartographic Association! As you know, the conference, organised by the South African National Committee for ICA, will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, from 13 to 18 August 2023. All those active in cartography and geographic information sciences are warmly invited and encouraged to participate in this major event for our profession.

This is a reminder of important deadlines for our national members, which are soon coming up and cannot be extended. Please take note of these deadlines and act accordingly, if your country wants to actively participate in the conference and the future development of our Association through the next General Assembly.

Details about the different deadlines and tasks can be found in the following letters by the Secretary-General and Treasurer:

 

Summary of important upcoming dates for the ICC and General Assembly 2023

DateDeadlineReport to
NowContact for Barbara Petchenik CompetitionICA Commission
NowContact for International Cartographic ExhibitionLocal Organisers
12 March 2023ALL nominations to the General AssemblyICA Secretary-General
12 May 2023Agenda for the General Assembly availableAll delegates
15 May 2023Early-bird registration closesAll participants
15 May 2023International Cartographic ExhibitionLocal Organisers
15 May 2023Technical ExhibitionLocal Organisers
30 June 2023Name delegates for the General AssemblyICA Secretary-General
12 July 2023National ReportICA Secretary-General
31 July 2023ObituariesICA Secretary-General

Thomas Schulz
Secretary-General and Treasurer of ICA

eCARTO News February 2023

eCARTO News captures the latest cartographic news and developments from around the world. If you have any general cartography items of interest then please email them to David Fraser, editor of eCARTO News.

Young Cartographers

  • Students harness GIS technology to help with earthquake recovery efforts in Turkey and Syria – clarku.edu
  • Ouray teen launches San Juan maps business – ouraynews.com
  • A TikTokker has created a map of new London boroughs – with hilarious results – timeout.com

Education

Theory & Practice

  • What new symbols would you add to Ordnance Survey maps? – t3.com

Geospatial Understanding

  • Making sense of place through personal connection to location – youtube.com

Conservation

Maps & Atlases & Globes

Mapping Related

  • The mysterious doodles hidden in a 1,300-year-old book – bbc.com

Geological Mapping

  • Flights Above Puerto Rico To Map Geology – usgs.gov
  • The First Geological Map of Yellowstone National Park – usgs.gov

History

Industry

  • How BMW-, Mercedes-owned map specialist Here aims to stay a step ahead of Google – autonews.com
  • Navman Quits Market As Google Maps Takes Over – channelnews.com.au
  • Mappedin Raises Series A to Accelerate Growth as Demand for Indoor Mapping Increases – yahoo.com
  • Esri Joins the Overture Maps Foundation to Help Build Interoperable Open Map Data – businesswire.com

Vegetation Mapping

  • Purdue launches new AI-based global forest mapping project – purdue.edu
  • Bluesky Tree Map Enhances Online Urban Forest Mapping Platform – einnews.com
  • Accuracy at risk as governments reject specialist forest mapping tools – phys.org
  • A new vegetation mapping of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau based on terrain-climate-remote sensing – eurekalert.org

Risk & Awareness Mapping

  • Maps Show How Landscapes Stop Fires – miragenews.com
  • Groundbreaking map shows toxic ‘forever chemicals’ in more than 330 wildlife species – ewg.org
  • Sensitivity Mapping: Accelerating offshore wind expansion and protecting nature – birdlife.org
  • Mexico: Mapping Dengue Fever Hotspots – com
  • Take a Look at This Map of PFAS Pollution Across the UK and Europe – envirotech-online.com
  • County’s latest seawater intrusion maps reveal an intractable problem that’s getting worse. – montereycountyweekly.com
  • Recount with digital map leads to doubling of listed Japanese islands – kyodonews.net

Out of This world

  • Over a Billion Galaxies Shine in New Sky Map – gizmodo.com
  • NASA device maps out dust storms from space to curb climate change – deseret.com
  • NASA’s SWOT Mission Aims To Map Earth’s Surface Water – dogonews.com
  • Scientists release newly accurate map of all the matter in the universe – uchicago.edu
  • Astronomers map the “dark chemistry” of outer space – earth.com

Esoteric Map Themes

  • Mapping Melbourne’s ‘ghost signs’ – theguardian.com
  • SBS World News introduces First Nations place names in nightly national weather forecast – sbs.com.au
  • Hiker Finds Out the Hard Way That a Traditional Map Is Better Than Google Maps – autoevolution.com

Opinion

  • The Growing Demand for Electronic Cartography Market 2023 – marketwatch.com
  • Google Maps Rival Says the Future of Navigation Is All About Car Sensors – autoevolution.com
  • What’s old is new again, paper maps making a comeback – cbsnews.com

 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the weblink authors are their own and do not represent the official position of the ICA. The links are assembled for information and education purposes only.

Call for Papers: Pre-ICC2023 Symposium on Location-based Big Data and GeoAI 2023 (LocBigDataAI 2023)

The ICA Commission on Location Based ServicesCommission on Geospatial Analysis and Modelling, and Working Group on Digital Transformation of National Mapping Agencies will jointly organize the pre-ICC 2023 Symposium on Location-Based Big Data and GeoAI (LocBigDataAI 2023).

The symposium will be held in hybrid mode, and will be associated with ICC 2023. It is a follow-up of the successful previous conferences of ICLSM 2015LSMTD 2017, and LocBigData 2019.

Conference Topics

Acquisition, management, and analytics of location-based big data

  • Crowdsourcing and Internet of Things
  • Data management, cleaning, and integration
  • Geovisual analytics
  • Computational mobility and activity analysis
  • Descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive analytics

Geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI)

  • Big data analytics and machine/deep learning
  • Spatially explicit AI techniques
  • Geography/GIScience-guided AI
  • Explainable GeoAI
  • Integration of data- and theory-driven approaches

Applications of location-based big data and GeoAI

  • Human spatial behavior, activity, and mobility
  • Place modelling and understanding
  • Transportation and traffic
  • Social network analysis
  • Public health
  • Smart and sustainable cities

Social and ethical issues of location-based big data and GeoAI

  • Data quality and representativeness
  • Bias of LocBigData and GeoAI
  • Social inequality in cyber and physical space
  • (Geo)privacy and ethical issues
  • Governance of LocBigData and GeoAI

Call for papers (CFP as a PDF)

You are invited to submit work-in-progress or position papers with a length of 400-1200 words in PDF format at EasyChair. If accepted, at least one of the authors must attend (online or in-person) the symposium to present the work.  Authors of selected submissions will be invited to submit full papers for considerations for publications in a journal special issue.

Important dates

  • Short papers Due: April 15, 2023
  • Acceptance notification: May 15, 2023
  • Symposium: August 12, 2023

For more information visit the conference website: https://lbs.icaci.org/locbigdata2023/

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