报告题目：Topological and Scaling Ways of Thinking for Advanced Spatial Analysis
报告人：Bin Jiang 瑞典耶夫勒大学教授
报告时间：2013年5月22日（星期三）下午13:30 -15:00
报告地点：商学院三教102会议室
主持人：吴玉鸣教授
邀请部门：城市与区域分析实验室、经济发展研究所

报告内容：
Conventional spatial analysis is much dominated by two stubborn mindsets: one is geometric in terms of sizes, shapes, and positions; and another is a Gaussian way of thinking when comes to spatial statistics for characterizing spatial properties such as spatial dependence and spatial heterogeneity. In contrast to these two mindsets, I believe that topological and scaling thinking represents something of a paradigm shift in advanced spatial analysis for better understanding geographic forms and processes, or urban structure and dynamics in particular. Topology refers to topological relationships of numerous geographic features, while scaling is often characterized by a power law distribution or a heavy tailed distribution in general. Simply put, topology implies that everything links to everything else at all scales, NOT in the sense of first law of geography; scaling indicates that there are far more small things than large ones, NOT just more small things than large ones. In this talk, I will concentrate on the two ways of thinking for advanced spatial analysis to address why they are important. I will draw upon some of our recent studies using BIG data or volunteered geographic information for advanced spatial analysis of urban structure and dynamics. If time permits, I will talk about something on why the scaling patterns have positive emotional or aesthetic impacts on human beings or human well-being. My take home message is that for advanced spatial analysis we must go beyond the geometric and Gaussian ways of thinking, and advocate the topology and scaling.

报告人简介：
Dr. Bin Jiang is Professor in GeoInformatics and Computational Geography（地理信息科学与计算地理学）at University of Gävle（耶夫勒大学）, Sweden. He is also affiliated to Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) at Stockholm via KTH Research School. He worked in the past with The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the University College London’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. He is the founder and chair of the International Cartographic Association Commission on Geospatial Analysis and Modeling. He has been coordinating the NordForsk-funded Nordic Network in Geographic Information Science. His research interest is geospatial analysis and modeling, in particular topological analysis of urban street networks in the context of geographic information systems. Currently, he is an Associate Editor of the international journal Computer, Environment and Urban Systems, and academic editor of PLOS ONE.