JOSIS' 10th anniversary special feature: part two

We open this editorial with the sad news that a member of our editorial board, Christian Freska, passed away this autumn. Christian was an active and supportive member of our editorial board, bringing his unique and longstanding expertise on spatial cognition to JOSIS, as represented by his contribution to the first part of our anniversary issue [7]. We will miss him. The second part of our special tenth anniversary issue brings together nine more vision papers from members of our editorial board. With these, we have published a total of 24 vision papers authored by members of our editorial board and their colleagues. All of these papers take stock of themes related to spatial science. They look back at successful and impactful research and forward to potential future research areas and societal needs. When we planned the tenth anniversary of JOSIS, we had little idea of what was to come. As we write this editorial in December 2020 we are still in the grip of a global pandemic, which has led to the deaths of more than a million individuals. Some of us are in lockdown, others are working from home, while in some locations life has almost, at least for now, returned to normal. The progress of the pandemic, and the non-medical measures taken to control it, has been profoundly spatial. Understanding animal and human mobility, developing applications to allow contact tracing, and analyzing large volumes of data locally and globally to support government at all levels have been at the heart of both successful and unsuccessful attempts to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. Understanding the difference between relative and absolute rates of change and negotiating the effects of the modifiable areal unit problem have moved from being nerdy discussion topics to the subject of mainstream media reporting [3]. Science has arguably been very successful in developing potential solutions and understanding the process of the pandemic, with politicians worldwide (with a few notable exceptions) praising science and its contribution. Equally however, science has failed to successfully persuade many governments, societies, and individuals to change their behavior and reduce the strain put on health services worldwide. For us, as the editors of JOSIS, this points to an important issue and challenge for future years. How can we better educate societies to understand science, and use it when making decisions? How can we present our science to policy makers and politicians critically, but effectively, making clear that uncertainty is an essential part of good science, rather than an excuse not to act? These issues are not new, but as societies grapple with global issues including climate change and inequality—and develop frameworks to address these issues such as sustainable development goals—they become more and more central to our capacity to act. Suspicion and mistrust of new technologies is unsurprising given the