The UC Atlas of Global Inequality ( www2.ucsc.edu/atlas/ ) has come a long way from the navigational atlases that enabled early explorers to travel the globe, and so has Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the technology that brings the UC Santa Cruz-based project to life.

The increasing interconnectedness of nations as a result of globalization, and the widening economic and social gaps between rich and poor countries, can now be viewed and analyzed by users of the multimedia web-based Atlas in instructional settings throughout the UC system. Thanks to the GIS technology's ability to create layered spatial representations of databases, the material is presented not as a written text or verbal lecture but through interactive presentations that employ colorful maps, graphics and tables, giving unprecedented vitality and depth to the economic and social data.

UC Santa Cruz sociology professor Ben Crow, principal investigator of the UC Atlas of Global Inequality, had for years contemplated producing an atlas showing the socioeconomic ramifications of globalization. Many years ago he had produced a hard-copy version on a related subject. The idea for an online atlas came together in the past 18 months, as Crow joined with students and instructional development specialists who knew of the potential for GIS in facilitating such an effort.

Ben Crow, UCSC professor and principal investigator for the UC Atlas of Global Inequality (Photo: Paula Murphy)

GIS -- a computer system for assembling, storing, manipulating and displaying spatially referenced data -- has roots at least as far back as the early 1960s, according to Michael Goodchild, director of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis ( www.ncgia.ucsb.edu ), a UC Santa Barbara-based consortium dedicated to research and education in GIS and related technologies. The Canadian government, concerned about underutilization of the nation's land, undertook a land-use survey in which a computerized system was utilized for measuring mapped areas and overlaying maps of the same regions with different themes. In the same decade, a University of Pennsylvania research group in landscape architecture developed a system of overlaying maps to view the composite effects of community plans. "Integrating that into GIS, which already had this idea of layers, was a no-brainer," Goodchild says. The concept was further developed at the U.S. Census Bureau in the ensuing years.

By the late 1970s, the various threads coalesced and the first commercially available GIS was released in the early 1980s. Goodchild notes that since that time, as computers have continued to become less expensive, the cost of entry into GIS has also declined, to the point where all that's needed is a PC and software that can be purchased for as little as $500. This increased accessibility has moved GIS into new fields and spawned applications not previously considered. In turn, the software has changed to reflect the broader scope. "The early architectures were essentially massive software solutions to problems of entire agencies, departments or companies," says Goodchild. "Now, they're much smaller solutions to problems that individuals face."

As someone interested in better understanding of, as well as teaching students about, economic and social global inequalities, Crow is a member of a field that is only now becoming a GIS convert. "There's a consensus that spatial dimensions of social change have been underemphasized in many disciplines," he says, "so there is now a lot of interest in understanding spatial processes and spatial representations in a number of social science fields."

For Crow's project, GIS offers two major advantages. For one, the online element makes it more accessible, more flexible in that it can be updated, and less costly to produce. But more than that, "there are certain representations that we couldn't do very well in a hard-copy publication," he says. For example, Atlas of Global Inequality users can, by running their mouse over a series of buttons, see changes over time in global statistics on life expectancy and other, similar data sets. Statistics can be shown first as color-coded gradations on a global map, with the potential for zooming in on specific regions or countries to learn more. [An archived streamed webcast of Crow demonstrating the Atlas is available from the UCLA website .]

One would be hard-pressed to find any institution of higher education in the United States that is not in some way incorporating GIS into instruction, Goodchild says. Often, he explains, it is taught as a research tool or to better prepare students for a job market in which GIS familiarity is a valuable commodity, particularly in any of the disciplines that deal with the Earth's surface -- geography, geology, anthropology, archaeology, and others.

When Goodchild's National Science Foundation-funded center was established in 1988, it was for the purpose of developing GIS teaching materials and applications, with most of the focus going to the physical sciences. But in 1999, Goodchild successfully applied for additional NSF funding to establish the Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science ( www.csiss.org ), providing tools and infrastructure to promote GIS and a more spatial perspective among social scientists and their students

"Most social sciences can benefit from the available geographical technologies," says Donald Janelle, a research professor at UC Santa Barbara and program director of CSISS. For example, Janelle says, GIS is being used by economists interested in spatial externalities -- how the events in one place can affect events in a nearby location; by sociologists seeking to define concepts of community and neighborhood and chart development over time; and by archaeologists who want to document their sites in fine detail -- often in conjunction with Global Positioning Systems -- and study patterns of information and development over time and space. The CSISS site includes a "Learning Resources" section with ideas and advice to assist instructors in incorporating the technology in their lessons.

"Whether it's psychologists interested in mental maps or economists analyzing marketing patterns, researchers from many disciplines have been interested in spatial thinking for a long time," Janelle observes. "GIS makes it feasible for these people to embrace such thinking more formally, making use of far more sophisticated techniques in ways that can lead to new insights."

UCB's Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative

At UC Berkeley, the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI) ( www.ecai.org ) uses GIS to develop map-based representations of data sets and information about culture and history. Complex combinations of data from multiple disciplines can be compiled with the help of the ECAI Metadata Clearinghouse, a system that draws on digital-library technology to create a catalogue of cultural data so that resources relevant to a particular place, time or thematic interest can be quickly identified. The files can then be retrieved with the help of time-enabled map browsers.

Projects developed by researchers from disparate fields who never would have thought of their own work in conjunction with the other's can suddenly be linked in a single visual environment to show previously undetected relationships. "GIS gives us a way of bringing together diverse information in one place, using the maps as an integrative tool," explains Ruth Mostern, a doctoral candidate in history at UC Berkeley and head of collections development for ECAI. "In a project about history and culture, it would be impossible to integrate such a variety of digital projects without that kind of spatial information."

ECAI has more recently begun to explore educational applications. With funding for a pilot study from the UC Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), the program is determining the best ways for using dynamic digital maps in a classroom environment, starting with courses in Chinese History and Near Eastern Studies.

"We think of this not just as being a new kind of technology, but as a new way of thinking," says Mostern. "In our fields, we are used to teaching by reading notes from a podium, and maybe showing a few slides. We're finding that GIS energizes us about the work we're doing, because you can learn so much from looking at a map. So much of human activity is organized according to place and time."

Scholars who have worked with GIS recognize that it is still at a relatively early stage, and that both the technology itself and the way it's applied as a research and instructional tool will continue to evolve. "People in the humanities and history have been so text-based in the past that it's a challenge to develop maps for students that are sophisticated enough to make the point better than words," says Mostern. "It's something we're still exploring."

But Goodchild of UC Santa Barbara's NCGIA has no doubt that such issues will be resolved. "Everyone at least knows what GIS is now, whereas 10 years ago that wasn't the case," he says. "There is now a much greater awareness of the value of the spatial perspective, and that is having a profound effect in broadening its use."

At UC Berkeley, the Geographic Information Science Center ( www.gisc.berkeley.edu ) was established in 1998 to coordinate GIS resources and expertise across the campus and promote the use of the technology in the classroom. "We have integrated GIS into several courses, and not just those that are teaching about GIS and remote sensing and survey," says John Radke, the center's director. "GIS is now used in courses that are teaching about things like land-use planning and environmental issues, where in the past when they needed spatial data, they would put together maps by hand.

"If you're a professor now and you want to move this technology into your classroom -- whether the subject is land-use planning or the pattern of growth and development of 18th-century churches -- it's no longer expensive or difficult to implement."

Radke sees three waves of GIS use in instruction. The first involves teaching GIS basics so that students can use it in research or jobs after graduation -- a category in which most universities engage. The second, on a more advanced level, employs the technology to teach students about spatial analysis. The students in these courses already know the basics of GIS and are given the tools to conduct advanced assessments. And the third phase of GIS classroom use finds it in disciplines whose instructors previously would not have even thought of using the technology. "They didn't know about it," says Radke. "They would synthesize spatial information in their minds, and now they're realizing that if they learn a little bit about GIS they can go from integrating two or three variables to integrating 25-30, making the analysis much more sophisticated.

"One of these days we'll all realize that GIS is simply adding spatial dimension to data," Radke says. "Almost everything we learn about can occupy a spatial dimension of some sort. Eventually GIS will, I hope, become so ubiquitous that it will be second nature to students and instructors, and centers like ours won't be needed."