CaGIS+UCGIS Symposium

Societal grand challenges related to issues such as climate change, water scarcity, and food insecurity continue to increase in their complexity and uncertainty. In response, geospatial technologies, methods, and practices continue to evolve but not always in the way they did in the past. The objective of this interactive session is to engage conference participants in a ‘futures thinking’ exploration of the higher education geospatial community in the broader geospatial ecosystem. (Re-)considering our social networks both within and beyond the academy can provide important context for establishing a strategic compass to guide organizations such as CAGIS and UCGIS over the next decade and beyond. Understanding cross-disciplinary and intersectoral relationships provides useful initial insight into understanding how drivers of change – ranging from artificial intelligence advancements to calls for increased use inspired research – may influence geospatial research and education in the future and impact the directions we take regarding technology platform development, interdisciplinary co-production of knowledge, and innovation partnerships.