Geospatial Information Technology, Rural Resource Development, and Future Geographies

Abstract

Geospatial information technologies, particularly as they relate to remote sensing and geographic information science (GIScience) are providing new perspectives for understanding rural systems. By utilizing geospatial technologies with more integrative research approaches, geographers can ask more socially relevant and innovative questions about the human–environmental system. Within remote sensing alone, there has been a significant leap forward in usable sensor systems for analyzing human dimensions of rural areas through high spatial and spectral resolution approaches. The impact of various forcing factors (e.g., water availability) in Kansas and Botswana, for example, within the context of human–environmental interactions can be more fully understood using such geospatial technology approaches. At the same time, through new infospheres, cybergeography, and sensitivity to new attitudes in learning by millinneals, future geographies are created that demand more geographic management systems (GMSs). At the center of such evolving trends, geographers are poised to provide important leadership in more fully understanding the human–environmental system as we begin the Association of American Geographers' next century.

Key Words:

• geospatial information technology
• remote sensing
• geographic information science (GIScience)
• rural systems
• human-environmental interactions
• geographic management systems (GMSs)

Acknowledgements

A special thanks to Steve Walsh, University of North Carolina, Tim Warner, West Virginia University, and Richard Marston, Oklahoma State University, for their feedback on drafts of this address.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

M. Duane Nellis

Past President