There are two traditions in geography: space and place. The typical spatial perspective is based on geometric reference systems that include coordinates, distances, topologies, and directions; while the alternative platial perspective is usually characterized by place names and descriptions as well as semantic relationships between places. In the past decades, space-based geographic information systems have already made important progress in terms of theories, models, functionalities, systems and applications. In contrast place-based GIS (PBGIS) are not yet well developed, although there is an increasing interest in platial and especially relational approaches. Place-related research could capture the semantic and cognitive nature of notions of place and thus is considered important to fill the gap between human users and computer-based geographic assistance systems. The research focuses on exploring the state of the art of PBGIS, to discuss emerging theories, models, techniques and applications for the novel PBGIS, which constitute the research area of GIScience perspective on place. Could a new interdisciplinary research field, namely place-based information systems or science (PIS), emerge between GIS\GIScience, social science, and big linked-data on the Semantic Web?

1. Place-Based GIS: The Next
Frontier of GIScience Research
Presenter: Song Gao
Advisory Committee: Krzysztof Janowicz, Michael F. Goodchild,
and Helen Couclelis
Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara
Email： sgao@geog.ucsb.edu

2. • Coordinates
• Distance
• Direction
• Projection
• Topology
• Scale
• Placename
• Description
• Experience
• Affordance
• Culture
• Semantics
Space and Place
PBGIS ?

3. Research Questions
• What are the distinctions between place and space
in GIS?
• When and where do we need PBGIS?
• What should be the basic elements of PBGIS?
• How to develop platial theories, models and
techniques analogous to their spatial counterparts?

5. Where is UC Santa Barbara ?
• Spatial Approach -- Geometry
• Point: (lat 34.41254, long -119.84813)
• Polygon: a region

6. Where is UC Santa Barbara ?
• Platial Approach – Narrative
• UCSB is one part of UC system. The main
campus is located on a 1,022-acre site near Isla
Vista and Goleta, California, United States,
approximately 8 miles from Downtown Santa
Barbara and 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

7. Spatial Hierarchy (Distance)

8. Platial Hierarchy (Partof)

9. Paris is partOf Île-de-France
Marne-la-Vallée is partOf Île-de-France
Disneyland Paris is part of Paris in human minds
but is not contained in the Paris municipality
A place hierarchy does not necessarily require
spatial containment

10. Sense of Place
• Cognitively defined
• Hierarchically organized
• Semantically interlinked

12. Data
• Place Names in Gazetteers (ADL Gazetteer at
UCSB)
• Natural Language Descriptions about Place
• Social Media
• Linked Data Cloud
Question: What data structures are better to present, store,
and manage the platial data?

13. System

14. Functionality

16. Spatial Join or Platial Join

17. Platial JOIN
• Attach the attributes/properties or characteristics from the
join entities to the target place using semantics.
• In other words, the Platial Join operation involves the
aggregation of properties (attributes) from one or multiple
place entities S to the target place entity T based on merge
rules and their predicates P, including the“part-whole”
relation, the “locatedAt” relation, or other spatial relationships
e.g., touch, overlap, equals, contains, inside, and intersects.
Song Gao, Krzysztof Janowicz, Grant McKenzie, Linna Li. Towards Platial Joins and Buffers
in Place-Based GIS. In ACM SIGSPATIAL COMP'13, Nov. 5, 2013, Orlando, FL, USA.

19. Platial JOIN
• Cities & Towns
• Counties in California

20. Spatial Buffer or Platial Buffer
• Neighboring places

21. Platial Buffer
• There are two understandings of platial buffers:
(1) One method still applies the Euclidean-distance buffer
on place, which must consider cognitive context due to the
uncertainty of qualitative spatial reasoning (QSR) about
distances and directions referring to places.
(2) An alternative way to process it, is based on the
topological distance (connectivity or hierarchy) and
semantic relations between places.
Song Gao, Krzysztof Janowicz, Grant McKenzie, Linna Li. Towards Platial Joins and Buffers
in Place-Based GIS. In ACM SIGSPATIAL COMP'13, Nov. 5, 2013, Orlando, FL, USA.

22. Platial Configuration
Platial Buffer on DBpedia
Subway Systems
Schematic Maps

23. Wrap up
• Space v.s. Place in GIScience
• PBGIS in different contexts
• Platial Join and Buffer
• Formalize the platial functionality
Reference:
Song Gao, Krzysztof Janowicz, Grant McKenzie, Linna Li. Towards Platial
Joins and Buffers in Place-Based GIS. In ACM SIGSPATIAL COMP'13, Nov.
5, 2013, Orlando, FL, USA.

24. Questions & Comments ?
Thanks for your attention!
Email: sgao@geog.ucsb.edu
Website: www.geog.ucsb.edu/~sgao/