1 Introduction

E1. Think about the terms ‘GIS’, ‘GDS’ and ‘geocomputation’ described above. Which (if any) best describes the work you would like to do using geo* methods and software and why?

E2. Provide three reasons for using a scriptable language such as R for geocomputation instead of using a graphical user interface (GUI) based GIS such as QGIS.

E3. In the year 2000 Stan Openshaw wrote that geocomputation involved “practical work that is beneficial or useful” to others. Think about a practical problem and possible solutions that could be informed with new evidence derived from the analysis, visualization or modelling of geographic data. With a pen and paper (or computational equivalent) sketch inputs and possible outputs illustrating how geocomputation could help.