A mere 8 miles west of Goleta, California lies a monumental (and previously invisible) geospatial
point of reference: 120 degrees West, or more simply put, 1/3 of the way around the Earth. This line
of longitude is a major global point of reference for projection systems, serving as the dividing line
between zones 10 and 11 in the Universal Transverse Mercator projection system.
An unusual new university center devoted to spatial reasoning and technologies in planning, research, and
teaching will introduce itself to the campus with speakers and a reception on Thursday, May 29, say organizers.
The free event, "Connecting Our Region Through GIS and Geospatial Technologies," will welcome the public to the
Corwin Pavilion, beginning with a poster session at 2 p.m.
For more information, read the online version of 93106.
Goleta Valley Voice article on the spatial@ucsb event "Connecting Our Region through GIS and Geospatial Technologies" (May 29, 2008).
With roots in geography and a reach into subjects ranging from music and
psychology to black studies, spatial thinking is big at UC Santa Barbara.
It all comes together at the UCSB Center for Spatial Studies, known
as spatial@ucsb.
Our children today have few opportunities to freely explore open fields, meadows, creeks, woods, or even the neighborhoods in which they live. Unorganized and unsupervised exploration, however, teaches them spatial reasoning skills in geographic space -- skills that cannot be learned by indoor play or passive vehicular movement.
