Introduction - Space-Time Integration in Geography and GIScience - page 2

concurrent sessions over three days including 300 presentations. These addressed
cutting edge space-time GIScience research challenges from theoretical foundations
to research in topical areas ranging from transportations and urban systems to
climate change and historical GIS. This symposium saw strong participation and
attendance by researchers from China.
This topic seeks to enhance research on space-time integration and bring
together two major clusters of research activity in this rapidly growing field.
Juxtaposing work side by side, from the U.S. and China, it sets the stage for
new collaborative/joint research progress, uniting the strengths of each country in
synergistic ways. In part this topic also is a first step in developing “shared language”
regarding complex concepts related to space-time integration research. Chinese and
U.S. terminology and approaches to space and time concepts and their integration
in GIScience research draw from distinct deeply established cultural, historical,
religious, and scientific traditions and foundations. That is part of what, for us,
makes this topic so exciting, and innovative. It represents a mechanism and venue
for helping to bridge ontological and philosophical divides and to create common
terminology and conversations that help translate, combine, delineate, and make
understandable these varying fundamental approaches to ideas of such core concepts
as space and time and how they interact in GIScience.
Clearly, both cultures and countries have much to gain, intellectually and
scientifically, and also pragmatically, if we can effect greater communication and
understanding at all levels, including scientifically on the topics such as those
addressed by this topic.
Research in the field of space-time integration is of course by no means limited to
the U.S. and China, and the papers that follow acknowledge precedents and ongoing
work from around the world, including Europe, Japan, Canada, and elsewhere.
However, the increasingly dynamic scholarly and research interaction between the
U.S. and China is particularly notable in these fields, witnessed by a proliferation
of conferences, publications, workshops, student and faculty exchange, and joint
research programs. In fact, many U.S. researchers are now based in China for
extended periods of time and many leading Chinese researchers are now based at
U.S. universities and research labs. The intellectual exchange between the U.S. and
China is rapidly growing and the collaborations in geography and GIScience are
increasingly open and capable of producing exciting advances.
The authorship of this topic also illustrates the already intertwined nature of
research among U.S. and Chinese scholars. Many of the following chapters are
jointly authored by U.S. and Chinese scientists. Authors include Chinese researchers
temporarily or permanently based in the U.S., and U.S. researchers who have spent
significant time working at Chinese universities and research centers.
Thus, we use the term “U.S.-based researchers” and “China-based researchers”
instead of American or Chinese researchers to reflect these existing collaborations.
The sampling of research from each country published here was selected with future
collaborations in mind.