Plenary 1:             Geospatial and Spatio-temporal Knowledge Discovery: Overview and Agenda
Dr. Harvey J. Miller
http://www.geog.utah.edu/~hmiller/vita.html
harvey.miller@geog.utah.edu
801-585-3972 (voice)

Geographic information science has moved from a data-poor and computation-poor to a data-rich and computation-rich environment. The scope, coverage and volume of digital geographic datasets are exploding. Public and private sector agencies are creating, processing and disseminating digital data at very detailed levels of geographic resolution.

New high spatial and spectral resolution remote sensing systems and other monitoring devices are gathering vast amounts of geo-referenced digital imagery, video, and sound. Geographic data collection systems allow field researchers to collect unprecedented amounts of data. Location aware technologies such as cell phones, in-vehicle navigation systems and wireless Internet clients allow tracking of individual movement behavior in space and time. Information infrastructure initiatives such as the U. S. National Spatial Data Infrastructure are facilitating data sharing and interoperability. Digital geographic data repositories on the World Wide Web are growing rapidly in both number and scope. The amount of data that geographic information processing systems can handle will continue to increase exponentially through the mid-21st century.

This presentation provides an overview and identifies research frontiers in geographic and spatio-temporal knowledge discovery. I will first provide an overview of knowledge discovery from databases (KDD), including its rationale, generic techniques and the role of visualization in this complex process. I then argue that geospatial knowledge discovery (GKD) is a meaningful, non-trivial extension of KDD since: i) geospatial information has unique and underexploited properties; ii) geographic knowledge can enhance geographic information systems and science; iii) geographic science in general is experiencing a fundamental shift due to the new data-rich environment. I also identify some research frontiers in GKD. In the final part of the presentation, I will outline the possibilities and challenges of knowledge discovery in human space-time activities. This includes the underlying theories that dictate a shift in focus from place to person, the concept of unusual activities in space and time, and issues surrounding spatio-temporal privacy protection.