定量地理学的一种发展趋势——GeoComputation(英文)

The developing tendency of Quantitative Geography--GeoComputation

随着计算机及相关的信息获取技术的不断进步,各种类型的数据库逐步建立并以越来越低的成本提供大批量数据.科学研究的重点自然地转向现有数据库中的数据挖掘或者称为隐含信息提取.空间数据因其量大、多维和存在自相关等原因,其数据挖掘较其他数据类型更为复杂,20世纪90年代中期StanOpenshaw认为空间数据挖掘已成为定量地理学中一个重要分支,并以GeoComputation命名这个新的学科.本文讨论了GeoComputation的内容体系和各种定义,并论证其作为一个学科的必要性和合理性.

With the progress of computers and other relevant technologies, more and more data are available from various databases at less and less cost. Naturally researchers and practitioners focus on the next step, i.e. data mining or knowledge discovery in an established database. To overcome the hardship of data mining in a spatial database, all the relevant approaches are utilized such as 'neural networks', 'cellular automata', 'genetic algorithms', 'expert systems', 'fuzzy modelling', 'dynamic modelling' and so on. In the middle of 1990s, Stan Openshaw recommended using 'GeoComputation' to name this new uprising field and his proposal was agreed by many experts who were engaged in it. This article introduces several representative definitions of GeoComputation and extracts its core meaning and current situation. Then it discusses the three most important reasons supporting GeoComputation as a discipline, demonstrates one of them, and analyzes nuances among Geomatics, GIScience, and GeoComputation.