Location Intelligence

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Location Intelligence is an invited track at HICSS. Now in its fifth year, this track provides a forum for scholars to integrate location data, concepts and principles of geographic information science, and location analytics in system sciences research. Location intelligence is underpinned by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) which provides digital mapping and analytical capabilities, instrumental in understanding how the world operates and humanity sees itself (Dangermond, 2024). The Location Intelligence track is comprised of four mini-tracks: (1) Location Analytics Research in System Sciences; (2) Geospatial Big Data Analytics; (3) GeoImpact: Geospatial Technologies for Social Good; and, (4) Location Analytics, Sustainability, & Climate Action.

This Location Analytics Research in System Sciences mini-track (MT) aims to foster research and collaboration in the expansive, multi-disciplinary area of locational intelligence, incorporated into the system sciences. Six papers of this MT address a diverse array of problems for integrating different types of school districts, developing indicators and forecasting demand for enhanced regional community-based integrated care systems, using improved object detection methods to determine locations for parking lots of large trucks, predicting neighborhood-level crime using socioeconomic data, implementing a new approach to use sensor-based data for simulation in multi-site small-load carrier cycles, and for geospatial and predictive modeling of social media access and usage in U.S. counties (Pick and Sarkar, 2025).

With the proliferation of sensors, IoT, satellites, cameras, social media, and smartphones, spatial imagery, remote sensing, mobile geolocation are some forms of geospatial big data that present an emerging frontier of research and innovation in the system sciences. This Geospatial Big Data Analytics MT invites papers that analyze and mine big geospatial data using cutting-edge scientific approaches to provide locational insights to complex problems and systems in business, government, and society. The five papers of this MT investigate questions in diverse areas such as microfinancing and credit assessment, sports analytics and strategy, urban planning and public transit, and business location intelligence and retail site selection decision-making (Aversa, 2025). Collectively, the papers use a range of analytical approaches including classification, regression, and hotspot analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, as well as classical theories that integrate Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation with Bayesian statistics.

The GeoImpact MT is a new addition to the Location Intelligence Track. It explores the transformative potential of location analytics and GIS to address societal challenges, well-being, reliability, transparency, privacy, and efficiency. It covers critical areas such as digital inclusion, public health, security, environmental justice, crisis management, pushing the boundaries of sustainable urban planning, agricultural practices, transportation systems, public safety measures, economic growth, cultural preservation, educational initiatives, and climate resilience. The two papers of this MT demonstrate the potential of geospatial technologies to address critical societal challenges involving population migration and identification of areas for mobile health interventions in Africa (Erskine, Satpathy, and Díaz-López, 2025).

While there are no papers in the Location Analytics, Sustainability, and Climate Action MT, it represents an important area of scholarly research that lies at the intersection of sustainability, climate science, geospatial data science, and public policy, for the understanding, modeling, prediction, and mitigation of challenges stemming from climate change. Overall, the Location Intelligence track continues to encourage interdisciplinary research that enables scholars from various backgrounds and interests across system sciences to collaborate and integrate location data and location analytics into their research agendas.

References

Aversa. J. (2025). Introduction to Geospatial Big Data Analytics Mini-track, in Proceedings of HICSS-58.

Dangermond, J. (2024). The Power of Where. Esri Press, Redlands CA.

Erskine, M.A, Satpathy, A., and Díaz-López, A. (2025). Introduction to the GeoImpact: Geospatial Technologies for Social Good Mini-track, in Proceedings of HICSS-58.

Pick, J.B, and Sarkar, A. (2025). Introduction to the Location Analytics Research in System Sciences Mini-track, in Proceedings of HICSS-58.

Thomas A. Horan
University of Redlands
thomas_horan@redlands.edu

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