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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

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 With these tools offering real-time updates and personalized directions, the traditional atlas appears cumbersome and outdated in comparison.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

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 11th 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.

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

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.

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.

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/

Invitation to Pre-ICC Online Workshop on Challenges and Opportunities of Cartography and Geospatial Information Education in the Classroom and in the Cloud

Online workshop on October 28, 2021

Cartography and geospatial information education has always gradually been changing its contents, as well as corresponding effective approaches to deliver resilient education. COVID-19 has caused an unprecedented impact on every aspect of society since December of 2019. According to UNESCO monitoring, more than one billion students have experienced school closure. Cartography and geospatial information education is no exception. With the help of rapidly improving online meeting tools, some institutions have set teaching and learning onto digital platforms, though some may choose other ways to continue sharing knowledge. Shifting from typical classroom lecturing and face-to-face meeting to online and hybrid learning poses challenges for us, but it also offers opportunities.

The ICA Commission on Education and Training is organizing an online workshop “Challenges and Opportunities of Cartography and GIS Education: in the Classroom and in the Cloud” on October 28, 2021. The workshop will be scheduled 12.30–16.30pm GMT.

A preliminary workshop program as well as details on how to join our workshop is available on our ICA-CET website: education.icaci.org/pre-icc2021-cet-workshop/

The workshop is free of charge and open to all interested with cartography and geospatial information education. We hope the workshop can be a platform for educators and researchers to exchange and share best practices and experiences.

We are very much looking forward to meeting you during our online workshop.

Kind regards
Tao and Stefan

Invitation to Pre-ICC Joint Workshop on Cartography Connecting Schools

The 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 December 2-3, 2021.

General Information

The participation in the online event is free, but previous registration is needed. Both commissions plan to organize the event using the Google Meet platform. More detailed information will be published on the workshop website.

A special session will be dedicated to Latin-America with presentations in Spanish language. However, interested colleagues should submit their registration, as well as their abstracts or papers in English for its publication in the proceedings.

Digital proceedings with ISBN code will be available for all the registered participants.

Deadlines

  • Deadline for the submission of papers and abstracts with registration form: October 31, 2021
  • Notification of the authors: November 12, 2021
  • Deadline for the submission of the registration form (without full paper, only participant): November 29, 2021

Please, send your submission and/or registration form to the following e-mail address: jointica2021 [at] gmail.com

Organizing Committee

  • Carla Cristina R. G. de Sena, Chair, ICA Commission on Cartography and Children (Brazil)
  • Waldirene Ribeiro do Carmo, Chair, ICA Commission on Maps and Graphics for Blind and Partially Sighted People (Brazil)
  • José Jesús Reyes Nunez, Vice-Chair, ICA Commission on Cartography and Children (Hungary)
  • Alejandra Coll Escanilla, Vice-Chair, ICA Commission on Maps and Graphics for Blind and Partially Sighted People (Chile)
  • Barbara Jordão, ICA Commission on Cartography and Children (Brazil)

 

Please find more information on the symposium website: jointica2021.elte.hu/

New venue for Pre-ICC Workshop on Abstraction, Scale & Perception

The ICA Commissions on Cognitive Issues in Geographic Information Visualization and on Generalisation and Multiple Representation, are pleased to invite you to a one-day workshop on 15th July 2019, with several sessions of talks, a demo session and a brainstorming session to finish the day!

Please be careful, the location has change: It will be held at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) – Room “Venus” (7th Floor) – 9:00–16:30.

For more information on the workshop visit: icc2019abstraction.wordpress.com

If you want to join us, please register here.

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