1999年,加州大学教授迈克尔·弗兰克·古德柴尔德(Michael Frank Goodchild,1944年2月24日——)联袂埃里克·谢泼德(Eric Sheppard,1950年10月1日——)等4人将Varenius Project的基本情况发文于International Journal of Geographical Information Science IJGIS,顺势正式提出地理信息科学是由“地理信息技术”引发的一系列基础性研究问题,并划定了三大研究分支:
地理学和空间思想不可分割,1969年,在计量革命和地理信息系统发展之际,美籍瑞士裔学者沃尔多·鲁道夫·托布勒(Waldo Rudolph Tobler,1930年11月16日—2018年2月20日)提出了托布勒地理学第一定律(Tobler’s First Law of geography, TFL)。定律原文如下:
All attribute values on a geographic surface are related to each other, but closer values are more strongly related than are more distant ones.
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