GIS: Where are the Frontiers Now?

Abstract Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have undergone a state change. The discipline can now differentiate activities of science and engineering from the more narrow focus of just systems . There has also been a paradigm shift towards geocomputation as an appropriate approach towards both scientific investigation and building engineering solutions. This paper discusses these issues and goes on to identify three areas at the current forefront of GIS: spatial data mining, computational modelling of spatial processes and location-based services. Introduction Keeping track of advances in GIS used to be easy. The 1970’s and 1980’s saw the implementation of new algorithms, advancements of the interfaces and the search for new and increasingly complex applications. Most of this though was in a data-poor environment that slowed GIS diffusion. Journals reporting GIS research were few and the number of conferences such as the GIS/LIS, the AutoCarto and the Spatial Data Handling series were manageable as an information flow. Now, if I go to an on-line database such as Science Direct and put in the keyword ‘GIS’ I get a list of over 1500 articles that are less than three years since publication. And that is just one keyword in one on-line database. As well as articles from the mainstream GIS journals such as the