Challenges and Opportunities Interdisciplinary GIScience Research on Human-Environment Dynamics in Latin America

Abstract

Geospatial technologies are increasingly used to address many of the pressing socio-environmental challenges that our planet is enduring due to their analytical power and popularity in both the private and public sectors across the globe. Latin America is not an exception to this trend. In the Latin American context, the thematic scope of geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) has been diverse, ranging from database management and basic cartographic production to advanced spatial modeling applied to decision and policy making, program planning and implementation, capacity building, and analysis of environmental change. In this final chapter, we highlight the contributions of each group of researchers showcased in this book employing the questions presented at the outset of the volume as main overarching prompts. We acknowledge that the sample of chapters compiled in this book falls short of being fully representative of all the GIScience research being done in the region. Nevertheless, the volume summarizes major themes and approaches to socio - environmental (SE) research that centers on the use of GIS and RS frameworks spanning a multitude of knowledge domains in interdisciplinary settings. We conclude with a brief reflection on the challenges and opportunities of using RS and GIS in interdisciplinary SE research across the vast, culturally, and environmentally diverse region known as Latin America.