Call for Participation

The Cartographer in the Loop

Balancing technological innovation with human expertise

CaGIS 2026, St. Louis, MO

The Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CaGIS) is pleased to announce the second CaGIS Conference in St. Louis, Missouri on September 8-11, 2026. The theme of the conference will be The Cartographer in the Loop: Balancing Technological Innovation with Human Expertise. The CaGIS Conference series continues the tradition of AutoCarto, and seeks to engage the next generation of researchers in the core scientific, technological, and societal issues at the intersection of cartography and GISscience.

Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and other technologies are positioned to substantially disrupt many industries and other areas of society, potentially leading to vast improvements in efficiency but also dominating the attention space, reducing the visibility and reach of experts, and devaluing creative/artistic contributions. The effects of these innovations on the disciplines of Cartography and GIScience are proving to be substantial, but the nature of these changes are difficult to assess. In this conference we seek to showcase research and engage the community in vigorous discussion of questions related to the effects of these emerging technologies on our discipline and the changing role of expertise in cartography and GIScience, from data analysis, modeling and visualization to cartographic production, and knowledge dissemination.

Major questions for the conference include:

How have advances in geospatial applications of AI/ML impacted efficiency of cartography and GIScience practitioners?
How can cartographers and GIScientists gain from these efficiencies? What new opportunities will arise for geospatial practitioners to expand their expertise, and what tasks should be relegated to AI/ML?
How can we ensure ethical, transparent, and trustworthy GeoAI? What methods can detect, quantify, and visualize geographic or algorithmic bias in spatial modeling and automation? How can we enhance the explainability of AI-driven geospatial models and decision-support systems?
What roles should the cartographer in the loop play in ensuring interpretability, ethical decision-making, and the responsible use of data, maps & spatial analyses?
How should we design geospatial foundation models to make cartography and geospatial analysis more accessible and impactful? How should foundation models be developed and tested for widespread adoption?
How are digital twin models being used in geovisualization and visual analytics? How effective are they in promoting geovisual understanding of physical environments?
How do cartographers and geospatial data stewards mediate ownership of, responsibility for, and access to the massive datasets driving technological advances in geospatial analysis?
How can geospatial scientists visualize and communicate spatiotemporal uncertainty to improve people’s understanding of model outputs and predictions?
Which advancements in automated cartography are helping cartographers do their jobs better? Which are harming the profession?

While the theme of this meeting is on the changing nature of the relationship between technology and expertise, abstracts on other topics related to cartography and GIScience are also welcome, especially:

Impacts and implications of supercomputing and cyberinfrastructure
Geovisual analytics
Cartographic generalization and multiscale cartography
Web maps, interactive maps and crowdsourcing applications
Virtual reality, digital twins, and other representations of physical space in virtual space
Cognitive maps and geospatial reasoning
LLMs and agentic AI in geospatial applications
Computer vision models, automated feature extraction, object detection, scene interpretation
Applications in environment, health, climate, disasters, urban systems, mobility, and social dynamics
Innovative cartographic techniques and practices

The 2025 CaGIS Annual Conference is being co-hosted with Geo-Resolution, a premier geospatial conference focused on GEOINT, GeoAI, and emerging technologies. Geo-Resolution is jointly organized by Saint Louis University and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), bringing together leading academic and government experts to advance research, innovation, and collaboration in the geospatial sciences. Registrants will have the opportunity to attend keynotes and talks at Geo-Resolution without missing CaGIS Conference events, and both conferences will share a poster session. Don’t miss this chance to discuss geospatial at the intersection of government, academia, and industry.

CaGIS Conference & Geo-Resolution Schedule

Tuesday, Sept 8	Wednesday Sept 9	Thursday Sept 10	Friday Sept 11
CaGIS Conference	CaGIS Conference	Geo-Resolution	CaGIS Conference Workshops

Submission Categories & Instructions

We invite submissions of research papers, vision papers, posters/lightning talks and workshops. Curious about how to format your submission? CaGIS has prepared a helpful template (Word doc) for your use. Detailed submission instructions will be posted to the conference website soon.

Research paper:

Submit a 1500-word abstract that includes the research question, brief literature review and description of methods, and a brief description of findings.
The editor of the Cartography and Geographic Information Science journal and the journal’s editorial board will review these 1500 word abstracts and will invite submission of full papers to be considered for publication in a special issue of the journal by the end of 2026.
Research paper abstracts are due March 15, 2026

Vision paper:

Submit a 1000-word statement that explores the role of the human in the loop within GIScience and Cartography—how human expertise, interpretation, and ethical judgment complement automation and AI-driven analysis—and sets an agenda for advancing research, pedagogy, and interdisciplinary collaboration in this evolving landscape.
Vision paper statements are due March 15, 2026.

Poster or Lightning Talk:

Submit a 500-word abstract
Posters and lightning talks are visual-forward presentations that should highlight interesting pieces of research and insights that capture attention through engaging graphics and quick explanation.
Dissertation research should be submitted as a research paper. Lightning talks are an opportunity to present a unique finding, a stunning map, a contradictory thought, or something else easily explained and shown in 5 minutes.
Posters and lightning talk abstracts are due April 15, 2026.

Workshop proposal for a 90- or 180-minute session:

Submit a 500-word abstract outlining the workshop. Include expectations for participants (prerequisites, technology requirements), and proposed length.
Workshop proposals are due March 15, 2026

All submissions will be reviewed by the program committee. Because of the limited number of sessions planned for this conference, all abstracts may not be selected for presentation. The final decision on acceptances for the program will depend on the relevance of submissions to the topics of GIScience, Cartography, and the conference theme, as well as space availability. Participants whose abstracts are selected are expected to acknowledge receipt of the acceptance letter by email, verifying their intent to attend and make a presentation at the conference, and are required to register before June 15, 2026, to be included in the program. An edited conference proceedings of all accepted abstracts and position papers will be available online on the CaGIS websites.

Extended abstracts will be published on the CaGIS website. If an extended abstract is later developed into a full paper and submitted to a journal, authors are advised to substantially revise the title and manuscript to avoid violating double-blind review standards.

Key Dates:

March 15, 2026 Extended abstracts, vision papers, and workshop proposals due
April 15, 2026 Posters and lightning talk abstracts due
May 1, 2026 Abstract Acceptance Decisions Issued
May 1, 2026 Early Registration Opens