The ICA Commissions on Cartography and Sustainable Development, and Multiscale Cartography, invite contributions to a joint workshop on the role of multiscale cartography in advancing sustainability. Together in this workshop we will explore how cartographic methods and data management can support Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by addressing challenges across multiple spatial scales, emphasizing design, production, and data gaps. Special attention will be given to sustainability in terms of energy use and computational efficiency, following recent advancements in green cartography.
Sustainable development seeks to meet present needs without compromising future generations (United Nations). To achieve global SDGs, local action is essential. Mapping at multiple scales is key for localizing global objectives, coordinating actions, and addressing complex sustainability challenges.
The workshop will focus on the intersection of multiscale cartography, sustainability, and data quality, highlighting advancements in AI-driven techniques for generalization and automated quality assessments for both original and generalized data. As geospatial data grows in volume and resolution, developing robust methods to ensure accuracy and fitness for use remains a priority.
We invite contributions on topics including, but not limited to:
Cartographic generalization for sustainability and SDGs
Mapping service accessibility and data gaps
Green cartography and energy-efficient mapping
Development and dissemination of multiscale data for sustainability
Quality assessment techniques for generalized geospatial data
Addressing the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP)
AI/ML applications in map generalization and sustainability
Program
To be announced…based on your submissions 🙂
Registration
Registration is done via the ICC conference registration system. Please visit the ICC 2025 website
If you only plan to attend online, you just need to use the link above, no need for registration.
Submissions
You are invited to submit a 2-page paper, on ongoing research or position papers, following the general guidelines of the ICA conference abstracts.
The proceedings of the workshop will be published online with the CC-BY licence, on this page. Papers should be submitted to EasyChair.
As the workshop promotes open science, we strongly encourage that the datasets used in the presented research are made available, as well as the code. The code can be deposited in a platform such as Github, while the datasets can be uploaded to Zenodo.org or similar repositories, and the DOI should be mentioned in the paper.
The proceedings will be published openly on this website (CC-BY licence).
The workshop will be open to researchers and practitioners interested in cartography for sustainability, map generalisation and multiple representation, regardless of submission or acceptance of an abstract.
Important dates
Submission deadline: 15th April 2025, submitted to EasyChair.
Notification of acceptance: by 9th May, 2025
Workshop: Sunday, 17th August, 2025
Organizing and Scientific Committee
Carolyn Fish, University of Oregon, USA
Izabela Karsznia, University of Warsaw, Poland
Nicolas Regnauld, Esri, France
Britta Ricker, Utrecht University, Netherlands
Timofey Samsonov, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
Lawrence V. Stanislawski, USGS, USA
Guillaume Touya, LASTIG, IGN-ENSG, Univ. Gustave Eiffel, France.
The First Cartography and Sustainable Development Workshop in Aruba
You are formally invited to the first ICA Workshop on Cartography and Sustainable Development at the University of Aruba, in Oranjestad, Aruba.
Sustainable Development is a global challenge that requires local solutions. The formal definition is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland Report WCED 1987:43). Sustainable Development is inherently interdisciplinary since it tackles both ecology and social issues. Cartography and maps are pivotal for recognizing global trends and for identifying where localized interventions need to take place for sustainable development.
This first workshop hosted by the Commission of Cartography and Sustainable Development will be held on Aruba, a small island in the Caribbean. Small islands face magnified sustainability challenges due to their small size, limited resources, and geographic isolation. These characteristics come together in concepts related to “island metabolism” referring to the visibility and materiality of challenges like resource management associated with Sustainable Development. Cartography can help illuminate these challenges and more, to different people, enabling collaborative solutions and decision making. Yet, collecting and sharing spatial data are a significant challenge and necessary for map making.
The aim of this workshop is to bring cartographers, sustainability experts, and islanders into open dialog about Sustainable Development and cartography; to identify tangible solutions to Sustainable Development, through the use of maps; to identify solutions for making maps to illuminate Sustainable Development challenges and solutions. During this workshop, you are invited to share your expertise and insights about sustainable development and cartography. Moreover, you are offered the valuable opportunity to learn about and tour the beautiful island of Aruba beyond the façade of tourism marketing. Abstracts submitted in this call for presentations, once reviewed and accepted, will be open access and published by the International Cartography Association like those found here Publications International Cartographic Association.
Call for Presentations:
We invite you to submit an abstract for the First ICA Workshop on Cartography and Sustainable Development. The theme of the workshop is Mapping for Sustainable Development. This first workshop is topically intentional, expansive, and inclusive. Since the workshop is held on a small island, we are particularly interested in sustainability topics and cartography challenges that relate to mapping small islands, but any topic related to Sustainable Development is welcome. Extended abstracts will be shared as short oral presentations; lightening talks and posters are also welcome.
We seek three kinds of presentations:
Extended Abstract: Presentations based on extended abstract should be no longer than two pages using the ICA Template. Extended abstracts are allotted a 20-minute oral presentation, with 15 minutes for the presentation and 5 minutes for discussion (subject to change based on submission volume). Extended abstract presentations can cover completed research, existing sustainable policies and practices, and/or community-engaged scholarship, among other topics. Please Use Template found here.
Lightening Talk: Lightening talk presentations based on short abstract should be no longer than 250 words and still submitted using the ICA Template (link above). Extended abstracts are allotted a 10-minute oral presentation, with 5 minutes for the presentation and 5 minutes for discussion. Paper presentations can cover research in progress, prospective sustainable development policies and practices, and/or technical demonstrations, among other topics.
Poster Presentation: Poster presentations are welcome. Poster presentations displaying student work and research are encouraged. A poster hall will be set up to showcase posters.
When you have signed up via the google form above – you will recieve a confirmation email including a link to submit your abstract or lightening talk description.
Please fill in the form below no later than September 12, 2025. You will have until October 18 to submit your abstract.Â
More about the Workshop:
Each day will be a mix of formal presentations and outdoor excursions.
This workshop will utilize Sustainable Tourism principles as much as possible and support locally owned restaurants, hotels and tour operators.
In addition to the traditional research talks, Eric Mijts, the Founding Director of the Sustainable Island Solutions through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (SISSTEM) Program and Director of Research at the University of Aruba, will take us on a curated tour where we will learn about sustainability initiatives across the island. Government officials, including the SDG Task Force and NGOs from the island of Aruba, will share their sustainability and cartography challenges and innovative solutions.
At this workshop we will discuss, document and reflect how we as a commission are thinking about Cartography and Sustainable Development.
Preliminary Schedule (subject to change based on number of participants)
Time Blocks
Day 1 Jan 27th Monday
Day 2 Jan 28th Tuesday
Day 3 Jan 29th Wed.
9-10:15
Welcome and Presentations by Aruban SDG Task Force Members
Sustaianble Development Island Bus Tour
Sustainable Development Sailing Tour
Coffee Break 10:15-11
Workshop Participants Meet and Greet
includes lunch
Visit Coastal island off of Aruba, beautiful mangroves, decomissioned dump
World Cafe – Organized Discussion -Questions posed to workshop participants to discuss goals moving forward for Cartography and Sustainable Development
The cost of the conference varies based on what activities you plan to attend. Payment for the conference and conference activies will be collected in cash, in person, at the event.
Cost for attending the workshop excluding tours is $30 USD (Includes all coffee breaks).
Cost for attending all activities on Day One and Day Two is $100 USD (Includes Bus tour and lunch on day two, and all coffee breaks.)
Cost for attending all activities on Day One, Two and Three is $200 USD (includes a boat tour, bus tour and all coffee breaks)
Mangroves and baby Mangroves in Aruba – Mangroves are highly protected ecosystem as they provide erosion control, biodiversity and habitat for many different species, and they are an important carbon sink. Mangoves are linked to SDG 15.1.1 and SDG indicator 6.6.1One of many beautiful murals in San Nicolas, Aruba which will be viewed on the island tourn on day 2.
Special Issue – Cartography and Sustainable Development
Guest Editors: Britta Ricker and Carolyn Fish
The International Cartographic Association’s Commission of Cartography and Sustainable Development invites submissions for a Special Issue of the International Journal of Cartography, published by Taylor and Francis. (http://www.tandfonline.com/tica)
The aim of the Journal is to provide a vehicle for publishing key documents from all areas of the ICA research, teaching and professional community’s expertise, and in so doing, to define contemporary cartography and GIScience. The Journal covers a number of areas of endeavour in cartography and GIScience, both traditional and transitional.
Access to resources necessary to sustain life are not accessible to all. The reasons for this are complex and interwoven. Sustainable Development is the process of meeting the necessities of the present without compromising the opportunities of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable Development is an inherently interdisciplinary challenge and addresses issues of environmental, social, and economic justice and equity. It requires changes to current understandings of development to improve human wellbeing through environmental preservation, and social equity, and economic opportunity and development. Cartography can help reduce complexity by illustrating both current realities and future possibilities to reveal spatial patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. Maps and cartographic visualizations can aid in identifying where to employ local solutions to global challenges, indicating where opportunities could be had, illuminating injustice, and guiding informed decision-making processes more broadly. Well-designed maps employing effective cartographic principles can illuminate strategies to reach a sustainable world.
We invite paper submissions that provide pragmatic, conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and/or empirical basis for supporting and advancing Sustainable Development initiatives through cartography and/or geovisualization. We welcome a wide range of topical issues that address sustainable development including (but are not limited to):
The use or modification of maps to advance ecological, social, or economic opportunity, development, and/or justice
How cartography is an effective tool to illuminate gaps, where sustainable development initiatives are needed
How visualizations can be employed to reify or evaluate challenges associated with Sustainable Development
Identifying solutions or challenges faced at different (spatial and administrative) scales (or levels of geography and government) in terms of specific variables related to Sustainable Development
Addressing Sustainable Development as it related to cartographic design, production and data management
Communicating missing data that could advance Sustainable Development action
Exploring issues of scale (either geographic or temporal) in Sustainable Development and cartography
Investigating the application of participatory approaches to Sustainable Development and cartography
Mapping the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Timeline:
September 8th, 2023 – Authors Submit Title and short abstract (100-200 words max) (send these expressions of interest to Guest Editors Britta Ricker b.a.ricker@uu.nl and Carolyn Fish cfish11@uoregon.edu)Â
September 15th, 2023 – Notification of selected submissions an invitation to submit a full paper
December 15th, 2023 – Full papers due
All submissions and reviewing for papers submitted to the International Journal of Cartography are handled electronically through the Taylor and Francis on-line facility. This manages the paper-handling process – from submission, to review and revision to publishing. All papers are double-blind reviewed.
As soon as papers are accepted, typeset, and approved by the author they are published on-line (and article DOI provided). This speeds-up the time taken from paper acceptance to publishing. Once all papers for a particular issue are in-hand the print version of the Journal is published. All papers are published with abstracts in English and French. Additionally, at the authors’ request, and if the author provides the abstract in their mother tongue, it is possible to include a third abstract, in the Authors’ mother tongue.
Contact:
Please contact Britta Ricker b.a.ricker@uu.nl and/or Carolyn Fish cfish11@uoregon.edu with any questions and with submissions to the Special Issue
Welcome to the International Cartographic Association‘s Commission for Cartography and Sustainable Development website. Here you will find information about our commission, current opportunities, past events, and learning materials.
