Current Knowledge in Spatial Thinking in Geography - Essay Example

? Current in Spatial Thinking in Geography Geographic knowledge is the creation of geographic reasoning and thinking with regard to the world’s natural and human trends. In his book, The nature and measurement of spatial intelligence Elliot refers to knowledge of space as phenomenal while the knowledge about space is intellectual. In geographically terms, knowledge of space is a representation of the accumulation of facts on spatial array and interrelationships. These interactions are depicted by recognition of fundamental concepts and human- environment relations. Conversely, the knowledge about space comprise of the recognition and explanation of the interrelations among geographic primeval and the modern concepts derived from the ancient geography. Going by Eliot’s depiction, it is worthwhile to note that intellectual knowledge extrapolates far much beyond observational information or simple sensory. In the field of geography, this extension is well displayed partly in the various forms of representation. Such models become critical in summarizing, analyzing and interpretation to unpack spatial existence and relational traits (Bednarz & Lee, 2011). Towards the late 20th century, there has been a significant deviation in the nature of geographic knowledge. In its history as a discipline, geographic knowledge has been declarative, thus focusing on collection and representation of the physical and human occurrences based on existence. During this period, there has been a change from the inventory dominated practice. The new dispensation sought creation of knowledge through emphasis on cognitive demands. Such demands sought to address the questions as to why and how in addition to what and where tags that initially interrogated. Consequently, the accumulation of geographic knowledge has changed to item transformation, feature and distribution matching in real-time as well as item manipulation. Such a shift has enabled solution of tasks such as understanding spatial co-linearity either in negative or positive orientations. Moreover, the logical, inductive and deductive inference has allowed for the recognition of geographic associations. This new way of reasoning and thinking in turn called for development of new data, new representation methods, new modes of spatial analysis and interpretation. More importantly, the new thinking and reasoning required that geographers must consider multiple disciplines. Traditionally, the discipline of geography has provided numerous general education courses. Physical geography introduces students to systems of the earth including anthropogenic and physical factors that shape the earth. On the other hand, human geography provides an insight on the patterns of human activities in a range of scales. However, few of such general education aspects emphasize quantitative solving of problems and technology. Therefore, it is critical for geographers to inculcate aspects of spatial literacy and thinking in institutions of learning (Bednarz & Lee, 2011). According to Goodchild (2007), spatial literacy is the ability to capture and communicate knowledge in the form of a graphical representation and understanding, recognizing and interpreting patterns. With this regard, he points out that geography is not merely a list of places on the world. The value of geography can only be achieved by organizing and discovering information. Additionally, its worth as a discipline can be realized by comprehending such basic information as scale and spatial resolution. As pointed out in National Research Council (NRC) report, Learning to Think Spatially, it is paramount to fully equip next generation of students with spatial literacy so as to work and live in the 21st century. Ultimately, spatial thinking is an integral part to the success of the students. Living beings and their immediate surroundings are situated in space. Human-environment interactions must been comprehended in terms of locations, shapes, directions, distances and patterns (NRC, 2006). In the last decade, spatial thinking has received enormous attention among scholars in geography as well as in other disciplines. Partly, this new interest may have been aroused by the publication of Learning to Think Spatially from the National Research Council’s Committee on Spatial Thinking. The authors of the study were academics from numerous fields including geography and psychology. These authors argued that spatial thinking is an amalgamation that requires a spatial thinker to understand three related components. These components are depicted as the nature of space, the methods used in representation of spatial information and the processes of spatial reasoning. Spatial thinking can be defined in terms of spatial abilities hence the term has three dimensions. The first dimension of spatial thinking is spatial visualization which is the ability to mentally represent and operate on visual stimuli. The second dimension is spatial orientation, thus the ability to picture spatially arranged elements from different viewpoints. Thirdly and lastly is the understanding of spatial relations. Spatial relations comprise the abilities to recognize spatial dispersions and spatial patterns. Additionally, spatial relations calls for connection of locations, ability to associate and correlate spatially distributed happenings. It is the ability to comprehend and employ spatial hierarchies, to regionalize, to orientate real time world frames. It is the capability to imagine maps from a descriptive verbal saying, to sketch maps and do comparative analysis of maps as well as overlay and dissolve graphical representations. Spatial thinking has been defined as skills and concepts employed in the investigation of spatial relationships in the world (Bednarz & Lee, 2011). Gersmehl Golledge et al. Janelle & Goodchild Condition Location Connection Comparison Aura Region Hierarchy Transition Analogy Pattern Spatial Association Identity Location Connectivity Distance Scale Pattern Matching Buffer Adjacency, Classification Gradient, Profile Coordinate Pattern, Arrangement, Distribution, Order, Sequence Spatial Association, Overlay/Dissolve, Interpolation Projection, Transformation Objects and Fields Location Network Distance Scale Neighborhood and Region Spatial Dependence, Spatial Heterogeneity The assimilation of georeferenced data into the representation framework and applied uses in humanities and social sciences has been an ongoing undertaking over the past years. However, it has gained immense impetus in recent decades with the emergence of technological innovations. These technologies have been extremely vital in the computation and illustration as proven by advent of novel information sources. Intuitive accomplishments have been forwarded through spatial thinking on a variety of submission over the precedent centuries. Yet, the methodical advancement of computational tools for management of spatial data started in the 1960s. Currently, GIS and software designed for development of images and pattern identification are widely used. Furthermore, scientific visualization is in widespread use in numerous disciplines. Functions for usage, analysis and representation of spatial information are now accessible in normal statistical and mathematical enclosures. The emergence of Web era during the early 1990s aided in making of digital images voluntarily sharable. This is well depicted by the availability of images of globe from space and of spatial model from earth. GIS and GPS have become ever-present tools in numerous disciplines and in everyday activities. The complexity of official GIS has been overridden with the advancement of Google Earth which has enabled access to some of its functions (Goodchild, 2011). The surge of information from a massive amount of sensors has developed drastically recently. This has seen calls being made that all surveillances in environmental sciences be referenced geographically. The straightforward accessibility of GPS has enabled spatial analysis and modeling. It enables users to tackle issues of importance to humanities and sciences. The capability to reason about and to draw deductions from spatial prototype has been crucial in a majority of inventions. Consequently, location has attained a central importance in science owing to the advancements. This achievement is equally attributable to the applications of geospatial technologies (Goodchild & Janelle, 2010). Combined with the progress of emerging tentative tools for inspection and mapping, the momentum of relevance within social sciences has been a proof of spatial thinking. Spatial thinking though various platforms has continued to play enormous roles in human sciences. For instance, the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (http://www.ecai.org) has been an important agent of distribution of spatial thinking. Through this avenue, scholars have been able to record human cultural tradition as well as report the role of location or space within societies. Equally important platform on the worth of spatial viewpoint is the Spatial History Project at Stanford University. The avenue combines scholars at the connection of geography and history that employ GIS services in their research. Most importantly, they focus on data mining large datasets of maps, texts and images. These enormous datasets are incorporated to produce active, digital visualizations of variance over space and instance. Essentially, there are other facets of moment and space that connect research procedures of scholars in social sciences and geography. For instance, due to the multifaceted nature of spatial data, numerous methodological issues regarding digital space-based data have arisen. It is now possible to have central repositories across remotely accessed libraries with spatial data. Advancement in the field of querying of spatial data will have to meet various prerequisites. Moreover, it is now possible to share information geographically through volunteer procedures such as VGI. Other aspects of spatial thinking include spatialization visualization. These elements have called for replica based strategies as opposed to the conventional approaches of semantics. Additionally, respatialization is another area of current trend in spatial thinking in geography. Through this strategy, it is possible to address the changing zonal linkages through coordinates (Goodchild, 2011). The amassing body of writing on spatial theory and thinking in various disciplines indentifies and specifies fundamental constituents of a spatial viewpoint. A number of these models are acquired informally during childhood while others are recognized during graduate levels. It is therefore vital to engage students in sufficient training, theory, research and techniques of spatial thinking (Tsou & Yanow, 2010). References Bednarz, R., & Lee, J. (2011). The components of spatial thinking: empirical evidence. International Conference: Spatial Thinking and Geographic Information Sciences (pp. 103-107). 2011: Elsevier Gersmehl, P. (1999). Activities and readings in the geography of the United States (ARGUS) Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. Golledge, R. (2002). The Nature of Geographic Knowledge. Annals of the Association of American Geographers , 1-14. Goodchild, M. (2007). Citizens as sensors: The world of volunteered geography. GeoJournal, 211-221. Goodchild, M. (2011). Spatial Thinking and the GIS User Interface. International Conference: Spatial Thinking and Geographic Information Sciences (pp. 3-11). 2011: Elsevier . Goodchild, M., & Janelle, D. (2010). Toward critical spatial thinking in the social sciences and humanities. GeoJournal , 3-13. Huynh, M. T. (2009). The role of geospatial thinking and geographic skills in effective problem solving with GIS: K-16 education. Ontario: Springer-Verlag. Tsou, M.-H., & Yanow, K. (2010). Enhancing General Education with Geographic Information Science and Spatial Literacy. URISA Journal , 45-53. National Research Council (NRC). 2006. Learning to think spatially: GIS as a support system in the K-12 curriculum. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Read More