Towards settlement science: a research agenda for urban geography

Originally presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers (held in Chicago, Illinois, in March of 2006), this collection of papers addresses issues of human population distribution, specifically the use of new science and technology applications to geolocate precisely where human beings are on the surface of our planet. Ranging from metrics to measure error in global population datasets, to the delicate job of defining neighborhood boundaries both socially and spatially, to the technique of merging census and biophysical data to yield a composite vulnerability map for a hazard-prone area, these articles showcase the growing power of geographic information systems combined with satellite imagery resources to provide a far fuller representation of where we are. All the papers take as their premise the necessity of going ‘‘below’’ the national level in data specificity to examine conditions closer to the ground. This has the effect of moving the science of human population settlement a step closer to creation of meaningful regions with coherent and agreed-upon characteristics defined through geodemographic methods. Through these future efforts we can envision a new data-driven definition of human residence, rendered not merely in terms of state affiliation or latitude-longitude of population centroids but socially-defined place characteristics. We live in an auspicious time for urban and population geography, on the cusp of an era in which new remotely-sensed data and global positioning system (GPS)-enabled ground sensing data can be used to create meaningful new delineations of conditions relating to population settlement on the ground as they vary around the world. We have an opening for applying the best thinking of demographers, urban geographers, remote sensing (R/S) experts, planners, development practitioners and disaster first-responders to develop a system of population estimation and place characterization that can be used for multiple research aims and program applications. In effect, our striving to apply the best in geospatial technology and innovative thinking to solve the challenge of human geolocation requires us to understand the spatial characteristics of populations, by going beyond mere delineation of urban extents and the simple arithmetic projection of population growth rates, and into the realm of compiling, modeling, and analyzing qualities of the populations themselves expressed in meaningful units. The papers in this special issue explore a range of methodologies and approaches and examine conceptual issues surrounding such spatial population modeling. Besides setting the context for the papers, this introduction will: initiate discussion of ‘‘where D. R. Rain (&) The George Washington University, 1957 E St., NW, Suite 512, Washington, DC 20052, USA e-mail: david.rain@gwu.edu