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TopGeospatial Technology: Curricular Keystone Of Applied Geography
Applied geography has always been a subterranean matter within the discipline, lacking scientific credibility because of its client relationships, and appearing too vocational for serious scholars to pay much attention. Hart (1989) said it well,
Applied geography, however one chooses to define it, is essential to the good health of the discipline, but we would be foolish to ignore the fact that, from a strictly scholarly perspective, it suffers from two serious weaknesses: advocacy and parasitism. First it is difficult for an applied geographer to avoid becoming an advocate for a particular position, and second, applied geographers may be described as intellectual parasites who draw from the larder of the discipline but do little to enrich that larder (p. 20).
That was then, and this is now. For some time, parents, who have sent their children off to college, have expected them to develop employable skills, and successful geography departments have altered their curriculum and course offerings to comply with these demands. A further nudge in this direction came in 2004 when the United States Department of Labor and United State Department of Education identified geospatial technology as one of three emerging career paths, along with biotechnology and nanotechnology (Gewin 2004). This single statement from the federal government has acted as a clarion call for geographers in higher education, opening research paths and preparing students with geospatial technology skills for the workplaces. And, in 2009, the U.S. News and World Report continues to list urban and regional planners in the top 30 careers in the U.S.
The authors of this article were challenged by these situational realities. We began a series of studies that analyzed the role of geospatial technology in the education and training of applied geographers. Over several years, we collected data from United States geography departments, members of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) Applied Geography Special Group (AGSG), the “Jobs in Geography” section of the AAG Newsletter, and applied geographers themselves. What is clear from the analysis of these data sets are several trends in geospatial technology as it relates to the education and training of applied geographers.
First, courses in geospatial technology form the keystone of the applied geography curriculum across the United States. Second, within the discipline of geography, individuals that focus on research or practice in geospatial technology far outnumber any other research specialty in geography (according to the AAG specialty group statistics). Third, jobs for Ph.D.’s in geospatial technology far outnumber any other geography specialty, and these jobs can be found in academia or the private sector. And, finally, the number of undergraduate students entering jobs using geospatial technology exceeds all other jobs in geography. The remainder of this paper will discuss these trends in detail and give recommendations to geography departments who have a vested interest in preparing successful applied geographers for the public and private sector.