To be held at the University of Canterbury for four days in August next year, the conference is expected to attract 300 delegates from around the world who specialise in geographic information science.
The field encompasses geographic computing, both urban and movement analytics, digital mapping and GeoAI.
The conference in Christchurch will mark the first time the meeting has been held in New Zealand and just the second time the meeting has been held in the Southern Hemisphere – after Melbourne hosted it in 2018.
“For international GI scientists, our city will be a living classroom,” said head of business events at ChristchurchNZ, Megan Crum, of the win.
“We are an ideal example of a bicultural and multicultural community experiencing fast demographic and economic change, urban growth and rebuilding, alongside a diverse biosphere and sometimes turbulent physical geography.
“Christchurch is also a gateway to Antarctica, and it has an economy tied to the land through a large agricultural sector plus a fast-growing technology sector,” she said.
While the University of Canterbury is the organiser, the event is being held in partnership with several other New Zealand universities – the University of Auckland, Massey University and the University of Otago.
The meeting also has support from ChristchurchNZ and Tourism New Zealand.
Benjamin Adams, associate professor of computer science and software engineering at the University of Canterbury, is the conference chair.
“As our organisation team demonstrates, we have a strong and growing local research community in GI science working across all of New Zealand’s universities,” said Adams.
“New Zealand is a place where interesting and varied GI science research is being conducted and, crucially, where the application of geographic information science is felt across all sectors of society.”
