TRACK CHAIRS

Portrait image of Tom Horan

Tom Horan

School of Business
University of Redlands
Redlands Main Campus
Hornby Hall 204C
Tel: (909) 748-8748
Thomas_Horan@redlands.edu

Location Analytics has emerged as an important set of concepts, tools and techniques with increasingly critical applications in the private, public and non-profit sectors.  The entire geospatial industry has grown to be a worldwide market of $430 billion, fueled by advances in GIS spatial technology and a growing demand by organizations for use of location analytics across a spectrum of industries.

This minitrack explores the transformative potential of location analytics and GIS to address societal challenges, well-being, reliability, transparency, privacy, and efficiency. It covers a range of critical areas, including digital inclusivity, public health, security, environmental justice, crisis management, and more, pushing the boundaries of sustainable urban planning, agricultural practices, transportation systems, public safety measures, economic growth, cultural preservation, educational initiatives, and climate resilience. With a broad invitation for empirical and design-based research, this track is particularly keen on research contributions that explore the dynamic interplay between advanced technologies, such as AI and Blockchain, and geospatial data, spotlighting innovative solutions that meet societal demands, safeguard data integrity, and provide equitable access to information and services.

The focus of research contributions toward social good using geospatial technologies includes, but is not limited to the following:

  • Bridging the Digital Divide with Geospatial Technologies
  • Public Health and Accessibility
  • Environmental Justice and Urban Equity
  • Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Management
  • Smart Cities and Sustainable Development
  • Agricultural and Food Security using Geospatial Technologies
  • Transportation and Mobility Analysis
  • Crime Analysis and Public Safety
  • Economic Development and Market Analysis
  • Cultural Heritage and Tourism
  • Education and Community Engagement
  • Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience
  • Digital integrity and security of geospatial data
  • Predictive analytics for proactive planning
  • Innovative Governance and policymaking
  • Resilient infrastructure development using Geospatial Technologies
Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Michael Erskine (Primary Contact)
Middle Tennessee State
University michael.erskine@mtsu.edu

Asish Satpathy
Arizona State University
asatpat2@asu.edu

Andres Diaz Lopez
Arizona State University
adiazlop@asu.edu

With the proliferation of sensors, IoT, social media, and human mobility data, along with spatial imagery and remote sensing, geospatial big data presents an emerging frontier of research and innovation in the system sciences and across various sectors and industries. This mini-track invites papers that analyze and mine geospatial big data (along with non-spatial data) using cutting-edge scientific approaches to provide spatial insights to complex problems and systems in business, government, and society. Both theoretical and empirical papers are welcome in a variety of analytics contexts such as big data analytics, social media analytics, text and image analytics, web analytics, network analytics, and mobile analytics. Research papers will be solicited across a range of topics, including but not limited to:

  • Geospatial Big Data and Commercial Services: Analyses that explores the advancements in geospatial big data for business functions, including in store behavior analysis, variety and price optimization, product placement design, improve performance, labor inputs optimization, and distribution and logistics optimization.
  • Geospatial Big Data and Health Care: Analyses that addresses data advancements in clinical decision support systems, individual analytics applied for patient profiling, personalized medicine, and disease pattern identification.
  • Geospatial Big Data and the Public Sector: Analyses that explores the use of geospatial big data for improving transportation, accessibility, social services, service delivery, and policy decision-making.
  • Geospatial Big Data and Personal Location Data: Research related to indoor and outdoor individual location tracking.
  • Geospatial Big Data and Location Intelligence: Analyses that introduce and enhance such emerging areas of space-time modeling, spatial analytics, locational decision-making, geography of the sharing economy, and social media analytics.
Minitrack Chair:

Joe Aversa
Ryerson University
javersa@torontomu.ca

This minitrack provides a research forum aiming to discuss the varied facets of LocationAnalytics (or Geographic Information Systems [GIS]) for sustainable development and climate action. The present time is characterized by emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence(AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing services, and advanced data analytics, which can improve economic conditions and reduce societal harms. Industry trends increasingly focus on sustainable business practices, responsiveness to climate change, and related social and environmental issues. Location analytics (or GIS) is one of the key technologies of the present time; IoTs generate an enormous amount of data, a big portion of which is spatial (or location)data that can be stored in the Cloud and analyzed in real time for better decision-making and prediction. Location data and spatial features embedded in such emerging technologies often facilitate and accelerate digital innovations, e.g., technological advancements in connected vehicles, connected homes, smart cities, and Industrial IoTs, which are bound to create not just extensive opportunities for economic gains, but also a positive externality of ecological sustainability.

This minitrack solicits and invites completed research papers from both academics and practitioners across the following topics, but not limited to:

  • Location analytics and environmental sustainability, e.g., environmental quality analyzed using location analytics
  • GIS for climate action, e.g., location analysis of greenhouse gas emissions
  • Location analytics for biodiversity, e.g., biodiversity hotspot analysis using GIS,
  • Location analytics for addressing climate, water, energy, and agriculture as described by the United Nations SDGs
  • Location analytics and Industry 4.0, e.g., the role of location analytics in Industry 4.0
  • Urban issues and integrating GIS in smart cities
  • GIS applications in urban climate challenges
  • Societal issues with big spatial data
  • Mobile location-based applications and services
  • Socio-technical aspects of location analytics involved with sustainable development
  • Benefits of GIS and location analytics
  • Emerging areas of GIS and location analytics
Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Namchul Shin (Primary Contact)
Pace University
nshin@pace.edu

Daniel Farkas
Pace University
dfarkas@pace.edu

This minitrack aims to foster research and collaboration in the expansive, multi-disciplinary area of locational intelligence. Digital transformation is leading to application of locational data for organizational intelligence and decision making in the areas of business operations, marketing, management information systems, supply chain management and logistics, environment, natural resources, healthcare, retail, sharing economy, public safety, risk mitigation and disaster management, among others. Scholarly research papers are sought that apply a variety of theories and empirical techniques, quantitative, and qualitative, to understand how location, geography, and related data are increasingly important to incorporate into the system sciences. There is a need to develop new theories and modify existing ones for the systems sciences that incorporate spatial data, locational intelligence, and geographical concepts. Current concepts of data science, big data, trust, and privacy need attention in addressing locational intelligence research questions. Research papers will be solicited across a range of topics, including but not limited to:

  • Spatial Business: Analyses that address a range of business functions, including marketing, customer relations, operations, logistics, supply chain, asset and risk management, corporate social responsibility.
  • Spatial Health and Healthcare: Analyses that address locational dimensions of health and delivery of healthcare.
  • Industry Clusters and Community Development: Analyses that address spatial aspects of economic development and community impacts, including infrastructure, workforce, environmental impacts, and social inequalities.
  • Emergency Management and Public Safety: Studies of systems for locational intelligence and decision-making in crises and emergencies.
  • Location Analytics for Spatial Big Data: Analyses that introduce and enhance such emerging areas of space-time modeling, spatial analytics, locational decision-making, geography of the sharing economy, and spatially referenced social media.
  • Spatial Theory, Concepts and Methods: Analyses that explore innovative approaches to advancing spatial theory, concepts, and methods.
  • Locational Data Privacy and Security: Research on the issues and problems of locational data privacy and security.
  • Novel Theories, Methods, and Applications of Geo-AI in business, society, for example, for humanitarian assistance, disaster response, climate change and climate action, agriculture, public health, urban planning and smart cities.
  • Novel Theories and Applications of Geo-Blockchain in Business and Society
  • Advances in Indoor Positioning Systems, Location Tracking, and Wayfinding
  • Geospatial Analytics and Digital Twins
Minitrack Co-Chairs:

James Pick (Primary Contact)
University of Redlands
James_Pick@redlands.edu

Avijit Sarkar
University of Redlands
Avijit_Sarkar@redlands.edu