Exploring Abandoned GIS Research to Augment Applied Geography Education

Abstract

Applied geography has enjoyed a revival in large part due to the increased availability of geospatial software often resulting in its wholesale adoption in applied geography programs throughout academia. One unintended consequence of this adoption is that much of the conceptual content responsible for the historical development of GIS is largely not covered in the applied geography coursework. When applied geography programs focus on software application without considering its limitations, the applied geography student gets the misconception that the geographic underpinnings upon which the software is based are thoroughly understood and tested. A result of this, applied geography students often employ the tools with little or no understanding of their limitations for modeling real geographic processes. This article proposes that one aspect of an applied geography curriculum must include the study of the underlying principles upon which the software is based, and perhaps more importantly, the study of concepts that were abandoned in the early days of tool development.