2024-2025 Community Champions Theme

This year, the Community Champions will contribute to I-GUIDE’s recently announced Spatial AI Challenge (https://i-guide.io/spatial-ai-challenge-2024/). This Challenge focuses on AI-ready spatial data and related machine learning models and applications while promoting FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data principles, and responsible and open science practices.

This year's Community Champions have been announced! Congratulations to Seda Şalap-Ayça, Yingjie Hu, Xinyue Ye, and Song Gao! Read more.

The FGDC Steering Committee has approved the 2025 – 2035 National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Strategic Plan. The new strategic plan was also endorsed by the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) on October 16, 2024. The final strategic plan, Building the Geospatial Future Together – the NSDI Strategic Plan 2025 - 2035 is posted at: https://www.fgdc.gov/nsdi-plan/nsdistrategicplan2035.

The NSDI strategic plan is a key component of the GDA and a path forward for our ongoing NSDI activities. The NSDI strategic plan was developed with inputs from a variety of sources, including FGDC agencies, the National Geospatial Advisory Committee, and geospatial partner organizations. The plan expanded the previously more Federally focused strategic plan and developed a broader nationally scoped plan, designed to encourage active engagement and leadership from multiple sectors. The new plan presents a bold vision for the future of the NSDI in the U.S., emphasizing collaboration, partnerships, innovation, and technological advancement to create a seamlessly interconnected national geospatial ecosystem that delivers actionable insights to address the complex challenges of our time. The FGDC will work collaboratively with partners on implementation of the plan.

Dr. Jieun Lee, associate professor of Geography, GIS, and Sustainability at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC), will lead the project as Principal Investigator. Co-Principal Investigators are Dr. Gary Langham, Executive Director of the American Association of Geographers (AAG); Dr. Amy Rock, Executive Director of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS), and Dr. Laxmi Ramasubramanian, Associate Provost for Faculty Success, The City University of New York, College of Staten Island (CUNY-CSI).

The GAIA partnership reflects years of work on the issue of supporting women who teach geography and all geospatial sciences in the United States but were born in different countries, many of whom are women of color. The project builds upon the Golden Compass project, developed by Dr. Lee as an extension of her participation in UCGIS’ TRELIS program, which focused on mentoring foreign-born women faculty (FBWF) and gathering insights for faculty equity and inclusion.

More details can be found in the UCGIS announcement, and the AAG website. Additional information will be released following the kickoff meeting in September 2024.

GIS&T Body of Knowledge

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