4 Nov 2014| Salzburg, Austria-- The GI_Forum 2015 provides a platform for dialogue among geospatial minds in an ongoing effort to support the creation of an informed GISociety. Bearing in mind different perspectives from a variety of professions, presentations, workshops and exhibitions will concentrate on innovations in education, science and technologies, in the spatial domain and their possible contribution to a more just, ethical and sustainable society. Prominent keynote speakers will highlight new developments, offer insights into trends and visions, and at the same time be available for our Young Researchers' Corner for more individualized interaction with young researchers.

Themes & Application Fields. GI_Forum solicits contributions in full paper and extended abstract versions in, but not limited to the following topics:

• Advances in GIScience
• Innovations in geospatial technologies
• Monitoring Global Change
• Citizenship and education
• Empirical research in education
• Learning Environments in Primary and Secondary Education

This year the GI_Forum will host a number of specialty sessions, tracks and workshops:

• School on the cloud - Special Track. We welcome papers and posters that focus on the (dis)advantages of cloud-based geoinformation for (secondary and postsecondary) learning or cloud-based environments for GI related education. Invited are both best practice examples, or research papers on specific competence models.
  • EO-based support of Humanitarian Operations (EO4Hum) - Special Workshop within “Global Change” track. We especially welcome papers and posters demonstrating experiences and solutions using Earth observation (EO) methods and tools to support humanitarian operations.
  • Geoinformation for Public Health / Health GIS – Special Session. Most public health aspects include a clear spatial dimension, spatial analysis, GIS, remote sensing and spatial statistics have recently advanced in tackling efforts to benefit the health of populations at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. This special session welcomes contributions from related research and application fields, including new methods, tools and technologies for geospatial health, spatial epidemiology and health/medical geography. The sessions will be complemented by and coordinated with additional HealthGIS sessions at the German speaking  AGIT conference.
  • Hydrology GIS - Special Workshop "GI Science in Hydrology". We welcome papers and posters that demonstrate experiences and solutions in dealing with spatial-temporal approaches in hydrological ground- and surface water applications with a special focus on nutrient modelling.

GI_Forum is organized by the  Department of Geoinformatics – Z_GIS in cooperation with the  Austrian Academy of Sciences and runs concurrently with the highly regarded German language conference on Applied Geoinformatics – AGIT. The two symposia share the innovative AGIT EXPO exhibit and stimulating social events.

Submission: Types & Deadlines. GI_Forum 2015 gives authors choices about the type of submission they want to make in order to accommodate a variety of interdisciplinary contributions. Submissions must be in English language. The review is double-blind. Consult the author information guidelines published at the conference website for further details. Publication will be both hardcopy and online (see  www.austriaca.at/gi_forum). The publication is included in Thomson Reuters Conference Proceedings Citation Index.

Conference stipends: A total of 5 conference stipends are available for outstanding international contributions from MSc/PhD/PostDoc researchers. These stipends are € 400 each and will typically cover both the conference fees and accommodation during the conference. Stipends are available for full-paper contributions in English only. They are awarded based on the results of an international review process.

We will accept online submissions only, starting from December, 1^st 2014 at www.gi-forum.org. We are looking forward to your contribution!


Contact:

MMag.^a Simone Dürr
Networks and GISociety
University of Salzburg
Department of Geoinformatics
Z_GIS
Hellbrunnerstr. 34
5020 Salzburg, Austria
Phone: +43 (0)662 8044 7585
Fax +43 (0)662 8044 182
E-mail:  Email Contact
www.zgis.at