Prof. Dr. ir Arnold Bregt
Professor, Geo-information
Wageningen University
The Netherlands
BIO
Arnold Bregt is professor of Geo-information Science at the Wageningen University in The Netherlands. He wrote around 250 publications on spatial statistics in soil science, spatial data uncertainty, spatial-temporal modelling, spatial data infrastructures and the application of geo-information science in the natural resources domain. His current research interests are Spatial data infrastructures, Land use modelling and spatial thinking. The last years he was and is strongly involved in a number of projects and activities concerning the development of the Spatial data infrastructures (SDI). He was one of the initiators and project leaders of the Dutch Clearinghouse for geo-information. Within Europe he has been involved in a number of working groups related to SDI developments. In the INSPIRE (The INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in Europe) initiative of the EU-commission he was chairman of the Impact analysis working group. He was also one of the initiators of the Research programme “Space for geo-information”, which was granted a subsidy of 20 million euro in 2003. In 2010 he was appointed as programme leader for the “sustainable green and blue environment” research programme.
ABSTRACT
Are men better spatial thinkers than women? Are teenagers better crisis managers than professionals? Does the use of TOMTOM lead to reduced navigation skills? Are good gamers also great spatial thinkers?
These questions and more will be experienced and discussed during the interactive seminar on spatial thinking. Spatial thinking is defined as reasoning about problems, using concepts of space and tools for support. It is considered as one of fundamental “intelligences” of mankind. We develop spatial thinking skills in early childhood and probably due to its “unconscious nature” these skills did not receive a lot of research and education attention. This has changed recently.
In the seminar an overview of the concepts and application of spatial thinking will be presented. Participants will also experience the nature of spatial thinking “life” by experiments and demonstrations. Active participation of the participants is required.