重建地方：人文地理与GIS结合研究的路径

地方是很重要的地理学概念。中外学界对地方的研究有丰富积累。围绕地方的理论与现实问题,探索人文地理与GIS结合研究的路径和方法对中国地理学尤为重要。“重建地方”旨在打破学科界限,重新发现学术研究的“地方”,并将学术与生活、思想与技术紧密结合起来,反思和重建生活中的“地方”。人文地理与GIS结合研究主要聚焦于流动性的大尺度城市空间与稳定性的小尺度社区空间。通过运用开放的街景地图、3D-VQGIS等新GIS工具和方法,整合大数据与小数据,将定量与定性结合,丰富了地方性研究的方法与理论,使人文地理与GIS结合有新的方法论与可操作的手段。以地方为主题,人文地理与GIS的结合还将重塑这2个子学科,进而促进地理学发展。未来应该大力探索人文地理与GIS结合的思想、理论与方法,实现学科内的交融互动,并将其应用于解释尺度交错的现实问题,进而在理论和实践上重建地方。

Rebuild place: The thoughts of place in human geography and their connections with GIS

Place is a very important geographical concept. Scholars especially geographers have conducted extensive studies on place. Focusing on the issues and theories of place, this article explores how to couple human geography with Geographic Information System (GIS), with a focus on geographic issues in large-scale urban space and small-scale communities. This is particularly critical for geographic study in China. The main title of this article, "rebuild place", has three meanings. First, it is necessary to break disciplinary boundaries in order to rediscover the new field of "place", especially based on complex and changing theories and practice of place. Second, we should strive to change the "place" in everyday life according to the new theories. Last but not least, rebuilding place in our lives or minds will be achieved by means of coupling theories and practice, thoughts and technology, as well as human geography and GIS. Through using volunteered geographic information (VGI), 3D-VQGIS, and other new GIS methods, the theories and methods on place research can be enriched with big data and other types of data. The combination of human geography and GIS not only has practical significance, but also helps developing new methodologies. Place and scale are complex in reality and in research. For instance, issues in community and in city interact and can be transformed because some micro-scale individual or community events can affect the whole city or urban culture. Interactions at city level or community level are the same to some extent but often different. In the study of China's urbanization and rural-urban relations, it is urgent to introduce, use, and recreate the theories on place with GIS and multi-scale cases. In terms of methodology, combining human geography with GIS will reshape geography. In addition to being an indispensable concept of geography, place is also closely related to everyday life. Dealing with the challenges from evolving globalization and information and communication technologies, place is changing, and the concepts on place or placelessness are also evolving correspondingly. It is significant in geographic research and practice to couple human geography with GIS and explore the way to apply the methodology to explain changing issues in the real world with different temporal, spatial, and social scales, so as to rebuild the place theoretically and practically.