外文翻译--地理信息系统和科学的现状及发展趋势.doc

外文资料与中文翻译 外文资料： Geographic information systems and science: today and tomorrow Michael F. Goodchild University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060, USA Abstract Geographic information is defined as information linking locations on or near the Earth’s surface to properties of those locations. The technologies for handling such information include GPS, remote sensing, and geographic information systems. Behind the technologies are a set of fundamental, researchable issues whose study has been termed geographic information science. I review these technologies under four headings: positioning, data acquisition, data dissemination, and analysis. Recent research has led to substantial advances in specific areas of GIScience. I outline five future scenarios that are all technically feasible given current technology, and discuss the research advances that will be needed to make them a reality. In the conclusion I comment on the changing needs of education in geographic information systems and science. Keywords: Geographic information system; remote sensing; geographic information science; GPS 1 Introduction Over the past four decades massive progress has been made in developing and implementing tools that acquire, store, analyze, and share geographic information—that is, information describing the characteristics of specified locations on the Earth’s surface. More formally, geographic information can be defined as instances or aggregations of primitive atomic tuples of the form x,z where x defines a location on or near the Earth’s surface, and may include the temporal dimension, and z defines one or more attributes of that location. Goodchild, Cova, and Yuan [1] have shown how this fundamental form underlies all of the myriad formats of geographic information that are now in widespread use. The technologies that have been developed for handling such information include systems for acquiring imagery from aircraft or space, otherwise known as remote-sensing systems; t