We are delighted to announce that the 17th edition of the Conference on Spatial Information Theory (COSIT) will be held in York, United Kingdom, from September 22nd to 25th, 2026!

Established in 1993, COSIT is a biennial international conference series concerned with theoretical aspects of space and spatial information. Spatial information theory examines how space and the external environment is experienced, represented, and communicated by humans, agents and machines.

With the goal of advancing the field of spatial information science and its bordering research areas, work presented at COSIT has explored how decoding and making sense of space shapes human agency in different contexts. Spatial information theory builds on a variety of perspectives on space; it advances computational models of spaces, it challenges consolidated methods in spatial analysis and Geographic Information Science and addresses how cognitive representations of space can be incorporated in formal models of space, at different scales, from geographic to personal space.

We welcome contributions from across any areas under the COSIT topics listed below. This COSIT’s edition theme will be Cognition and Flows, recognising the value of considering the cognitive foundations of human behaviour and their role in shaping large-scale geographic flows and interactions. Given the growing wealth in large, detailed behavioural and environmental data capturing the real world, never have we had such opportunity to close the gap between our understanding of human spatial behaviour and aggregated flows e.g., mobility, migration, inequalities, economic activity, spread of information, etc. In addition to any topics related to spatial information and cognition, we particularly encourage submissions that explore how cognition and behaviour shape the production of flows, their evolution, and ultimately influence the nature of spaces and societies.

COSIT Topics

COSIT is an intensive, single-track conference held over four days, featuring paper presentations and special thematic sessions. It presents original research that spans a wide range of interdisciplinary topics, such as spatial cognition, wayfinding and navigation, spatial reasoning, place and space, human computer interaction, intelligent agents, urban analytics and their interactions with other disciplines, including spatial analysis, Geographic Information Science, neuroscience, cartography, philosophy of mind, and computer science.

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

activity-based models of spatial knowledge
behavioural and cognitive geography
cartography and geographic visualisation
causal and statistical models of space
cognitive representations of geographic information
cognitive aspects of urban and transport analysis
concepts of spatial information, such as fields, objects, events, networks, and processes
context awareness in physical and social spaces
experienced and perceived spatial phenomena (e.g. liveability, walkability)
explainable geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI) and spatially informed AI
imagery data and spatial representation
knowledge representation for space and time
large-language models (LLMs) and foundation models (FMs), and their utility in spatial cognition and representation
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
social and cultural organisation of space
spatial agent-based simulations of human and social phenomena
spatial and temporal language
spatial cognition and neuroscience
spatial decision support, impact of model design
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
validity of spatial information methods