Grounded Design and GIScience - A framework for informing the design of geographical information systems and spatial data infrastructures

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1 Department of Geography, Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
2 School of Engineering, Computer & Mathematical Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
3 Interfaculty Department for Geoinformatics (Z_GIS), Universität Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.27822v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Scientific Computing and Simulation, Spatial and Geographic Information Systems
Keywords
Design Science Research, Grounded Theory, Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI), GIScience, Geographic Information Systems
Copyright
© 2019 Kmoch et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Kmoch A, Uuemaa E, Klug H. 2019. Grounded Design and GIScience - A framework for informing the design of geographical information systems and spatial data infrastructures. PeerJ Preprints 7:e27822v1

Abstract

Geographical Information Science (GIScience), also Geographical Information Science and Systems, is a multi-faceted research discipline and comprises a wide variety of topics. Investigation into data management and interoperability of geographical data and environmental data sets for scientific analysis, visualisation and modelling is an important driver of the Information Science aspect of GIScience, that underpins comprehensive Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) research and development. In this article we present the 'Grounded Design' method, a fusion of Design Science Research (DSR) and Grounded Theory (GT), and how they can act as guiding principles to link GIScience, Computer Science and Earth Sciences into a converging GI systems development framework. We explain how this bottom-up research framework can yield holistic and integrated perspectives when designing GIS and SDI systems and software. This would allow GIScience academics, GIS and SDI practitioners alike to reliably draw from interdisciplinary knowledge to consistently design and innovate GI systems.

Author Comment

This is a submission to PeerJ Computer Science for review.