I have been invited to present my graduation thesis at a Japanese geography and GIS conference called 2011年度 空間情報科学研究センター シンポジウム – CSIS Days 2011 in November. CSIS is the Center for Spatial Information Science (jap. 空間情報科学研究センター) at Tokyo University (jap. 東京大学). Tokyo University is considered to be the No. 1 university in Japan, also CSIS is regarded the top-notch institution for geospatial analysis in Japan, so apparently I’m quite thrilled by the fact that they showed interest in my work.

While written almost five years ago, I believe that the topic of my graduation thesis is still of interest. It was titled “Spatial Modelling and Analysis of Large Man-Made Loss Events Using GIS” and covers a new approach of analyzing the spatial relationship between man-made incidents and the location where they occur using a GIS tool. Man-made incidents can be everything from a traffic accident to a fire in a building, a panic at a soccer stadium or the spill of toxic substances from industrial facilities, so it covers basically every incident that is triggered by human behavior instead of natural processes (i.e. NatCat), yet excluding acts of terrorism. For my study I focused on air traffic incidents, while excluding those happening during cruise flight, the reason being the unlikely relationship between an accident happening in high altitudes and the respective location on the ground. I am soon about to post a more detailed summary of my research here on my website.

At the conference in November I will give a brief 5 minute overview of my study, accompanied by a poster, and followed by a discussion with the audience. For people interested in my past research or in getting an overview of contemporary geography and GIS research in Japan, here are the details of the conference:

Name: 年度 空間情報科学研究センター シンポジウム – CSIS Days 2011
Date: November 10-11, 2011
Venue: Tokyo University, Kashiwa Campus,
Website: http://www.csis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/csisdays2011/ (in Japanese)
Attendance is free, no registration required

It should be mentioned, though, that this conference is aimed at Japanese researchers or foreign researchers residing in Japan. Therefore most of the presentations as well as all the information on the website and at the conference will be in Japanese.