Geographic Data Science

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that the emergence of “Big Data” is having a profound and often controversial impact on the production of knowledge. In this context, Data Science has developed as an interdisciplinary approach that turns such “Big Data” into information. This article argues for the positive role that Geography can have on Data Science when being applied to spatially explicit problems; and inversely, makes the case that there is much that Geography and Geographical Analysis could learn from Data Science. We propose a deeper integration through an ambitious research agenda, including systems engineering, new methodological development, and work toward addressing some acute challenges around epistemology. We argue that such issues must be resolved in order to realize a Geographic Data Science, and that such goal would be a desirable one.