Greeting message from the Director

ogawa — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 08:15:47 +0000

My name is Yoshihide Sekimoto, and in fiscal year 2024 I became the sixth director of the Center for Spatial Information Science at the University of Tokyo.

The Center for Spatial Information Science was originally conceived as a national museum of cartography. It was established in 1998 as the so-called “new cartography” was evolving into new disciplines with higher and broader perspectives: first “geographic information science” and later “spatial information science,” which is the focus of the Center. After that, the goal was to become a research base for spatial information science, not only within the University of Tokyo, but also nationwide. In 2005, the Center was accredited by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) as a national Joint Usage Facility, and today we continue to support researchers nationwide as a designated Joint Usage/Research Center.

Nearly 25 years have now passed since the Center’s establishment, and in that time the scope of spatial information science has greatly expanded and become deeply rooted in daily life. Viewing digital maps on a smartphone has become commonplace, and in the wake of COVID-19, it has even become commonplace to talk about crowd congestion in a city using data on the movement patterns of people. In addition, artificial intelligence (AI) technology makes it possible not only to automatically detect damage to roads while driving, but also to create high-definition images that look like real landscapes using generative AI. Furthermore, autonomous driving technology that measures the surrounding spatial information will soon be deployed on actual roads.

At the same time, however, we are faced with an increasing number of complex social issues such as the aging of society, a declining population, the frequent occurrence of large-scale disasters, and, at the global level, security issues such as social division and regional conflicts. We therefore need to actively consider how spatial information science can contribute to solving these problems from the perspective of autonomy and sustainability.

In this sense, now that the use of spatial information is commonplace for researchers in many fields, it can be said that the first stage of our mission has been accomplished. I believe we are now entering a new stage in which we must further expand our conceptual horizon and seriously discuss how to build and lead a sustainable digital spatial society. In fact, at the University of Tokyo, the Center played a central role in establishing the Digital Spatial Society Collaborative Research Organization in 2020, and as of April 2024, nearly 80 faculty members from 18 departments are engaged in collaborative activities and discussions.

While we have a strong desire to continue in this direction, the Center is still small in size, and cooperation from all our stakeholders in Japan and abroad will be essential to maintain and operate the Center, accelerate collaboration, and keep it constantly up-to-date. Thank you for your continued support.

Apr. 1^st 2024
Center for Spatial Information Science, The University of Tokyo
Director

Yoshihide Sekimoto

Research Divisions

hisaai — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 07:25:38 +0000

CSIS comprises the following research divisions to promote spatial information science.

Division of Spatial Information Analysis

This division develops methods for extracting spatial characteristics such as the shape and distribution of various spatial phenomena including landforms, hydrology, vegetation, society, culture, language, and economy. The division also develops and applies spatial analysis theory to uncover the underlying mechanisms. In addition, the division developed a system to support spatial decision-making that contributes to the planning processes of real society, for example, to predict future phenomena or analyze policies.

Division of Spatial Information Engineering

This division conducts research on various techniques and integrates and mines methods to efficiently obtain an enormous volume of data connected to location and time generated by various sensors dispersed throughout a real space. Furthermore, data reflecting the conditions of real spaces dispersed on the Internet are collected. This division also studies extensive applications based on spatio-temporal data such as data visualization, location information services, and future prediction.

Division of Spatial Socio-Economic Research

The aim of this division is to promote theoretical and empirical studies on diverse social and economic phenomena, focusing on their spatio-temporal characteristics. Furthermore, the division develops methods to statistically analyze the spatio-temporal data needed in empirical analyses. It also constructs spatio-temporal databases that are made available to researchers across Japan to enhance empirical research in the social sciences, in particular, in urban and regional economics.

Division of Joint Usage and Research

This division reconstructs scattered spatial data and spatial knowledge to compile a spatial information base. It conducts research and development activities focused on environments that support research and educational activities related to these data and that use them in sophisticated applications. In addition to designing, implementing, and validating initiatives directed at the development of research communities, this division studies the environments, methods, and systems needed to promote social applications of the spatial information base.

Joint Organization of Digital Spatial Society Research

The Joint Organization of Digital Spatial Society Research centrally aggregates diverse and dynamic real-time spatio-temporal big data such as data from IoT devices. data-driven technology and science, while organically linking researchers in related fields within the university while constructing a digital social space that encompasses the expansion and changes in the environment, as well as the transformation and fluctuation of socio-economic systems. We will deepen it further and build new theories of real-time spatio-temporal data analysis and application. At the same time, we aim to develop research results into data-driven industries and help solve international social issues.