ABSTRACT
Geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial analysis are influenced by representations at three levels: data models, formalization, and visualization. This chapter reviews major research progresses in geographic representations and outlines the limitations of the geographic representations, elaborate fundamental research questions in the area, and present a case study in geographic representations. It proposes a research agenda including research topics of short-term, intermediate, and long-term scopes. The chapter summarizes key ideas and arguments and specify conditions for success in this ambitious agenda. Representing geography is one of the focal research areas in the development of GIS. The cartographic paradigm poses four major limitations to geographic representations: volumetric and temporal objects, heterogeneous types of geospatial data from an integrated global perspective and at multiple scales, dynamic geographic processes and their interactions and data quality and uncertainty. Geographic representations able to support information needed in sciences and applications to ensure the usefulness of GIS data to modeling and decision making.
