Contribution to the GIScience 2025 conference
The biannual International Conference on Geographic Information Science (GIScience) is a major platform for the exchange of current research in the field of geographical information science. This year's conference took place at the University of Canterbury in Chistchurch, New Zealand, and attracted some 290 participants from around the world. Our colleague René Westerholt contributed to the conference in the form of two abstracts and by chairing a session. Both abstracts present joint work (with Fillipe Oliveira Feitosa, University of Münster) from our ongoing DFG project on the subject of ‘spatial weights’. One abstract, entitled ‘A hermeneutic review of how spatial weights are conceptualised in GIScience’, was presented in the ‘GIScience fundamentals’ session and presented preliminary results of a systematic literature review combined with a qualitative hermeneutic analysis to show how implicit assumptions about the meaning of ‘space’ influence the use of spatial weights. The second abstract, entitled ‘Context over convenience: a critical perspective on spatial weights in applied spatial research’, was presented in the ‘Spatial statistics’ session and offers a critique of the default use of geometric proximity-based spatial weights matrices in statistical research. It advocates for more context-specific, theory-informed models that can better capture the sometimes non-physical spatial relationships that shape spatial dynamics. In addition, René chaired a session on ‘Virtual and immersive geospatial experiences,’ which addressed aspects of spatial cognition and knowledge representation in the context of geovisualisation. The conference was inspiring, stimulated exchange, and was excellently organised (many thanks to Ben Adams, Mark Gahegan, and David O'Sullivan). We are already looking forward to the next conference in two years!
Presented abstracts:
Westerholt, R., & Feitosa, F. O. (2025). A hermeneutic review of how spatial weights are conceptualised in GIScience. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Geographic Information Science (GIScience 2025), Christchurch, New Zealand. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16798101
Feitosa, F. O., & Westerholt, R. (2025). Context over convenience: a critical perspective on spatial weights in applied spatial research. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Geographic Information Science (GIScience 2025), Christchurch, New Zealand. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16799256