We are pleased to announce that the Conference on Spatial Information Theory (COSIT) will be held in Canada for the first time, the 16th in this international conference series! Established in 1993, COSIT is concerned with theoretical aspects of space and spatial information, aimed at advancing spatial information science and its emerging research frontiers.

Spatial information theory is the interdisciplinary study of information about spaces and environments at the scale of human experience, including its representation and its role in communication. In particular, spatial information theory studies how the interpretation of spatial information influences the behavior of human and artificial agents. It draws together numerous threads between computational and formal models of space; the mental representation of space by humans and other animals; and the various ways human and artificial agents communicate information about space. Space is thereby studied on various scales, including the space in geographic maps as well as the space of the human body.

COSIT is an open community that encourages the adoption of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary methodologies and theories to advance knowledge of space and spatial information. For the thirty years that COSIT has been around, participants have explored spatial information theory from a multitude of perspectives, showcasing original and impactful research in spatial language and linguistics, spatial cognition, neuroscience, spatial reasoning, navigation, movement analysis, geographic information systems, spatial data science, semantics, philosophy of space, geostatistics, cartography, environmental modeling and design, place and space, artificial intelligence, robotics, location-based systems, and human-computer interaction, just to name a few! In order to maximize engagement and dissemination of ideas at the conference, COSIT runs as an intensive, single-track conference consisting of paper presentations and special thematic sessions over four days.

Our use of spatial technologies in everyday life has changed dramatically since the first COSIT. Today, geospatial technologies are ubiquitous, we are drowning in spatial data, and recently AI tools that compute over language stand to significantly change how information systems communicate spatial information all while being generally opaque about what spatial knowledge they represent. At the same time the spatial environments that are represented in information systems reflect a reality of a world facing a series of complex and challenging social and environmental issues spanning from urban planning to climate change. It is with this context that we have chosen the theme for this year’s COSIT: spatial information theory for transparent translational research. In addition to original research papers on spatial information theory from any discipline, we especially welcome papers that make the link between spatial information theory and benefits to humanity, the biosphere, and the planet.

Themes

We welcome contributions covering conference-relevant themes, such as but not limited to:

    activity-based models of spatial knowledge
    cartography and geographic visualization
    causal and statistical models of space
    cognitive aspects of geographic information
    cognitive-behavioral geography, naive geography
    concepts of spatial information, such as fields, objects, events, networks, and processes
    context awareness in physical and social spaces
    explainable geospatial artificial intelligence (geoAI) and spatially informed AI
    geographic question-answering (geoQA)
    knowledge representation for space and time
    natural (human) language descriptions of space and place
    navigation, wayfinding, and mobility of sentient beings and robots
    ontology of space and time
    place and spatial information theory
    quality and interoperability of spatial data
    security and privacy for spatial data
    semantic spaces
    social and cultural organization of space
    spatial and temporal language
    spatial aspects of social networks, volunteered geographic information
    spatial cognition and neuroscience
    spatial computing and design
    spatial decision support, impact of model design
    spatial (digital) humanities
    spatial information retrieval and encoding of geographic texts
    spatial learning and knowledge acquisition
    spatial storytelling and interactive narratives
    theory and practice of spatial and temporal reasoning
    user interfaces, virtual spaces, and collaborative spaces
    validity of spatial information methods