Michigan State University is a founding member of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science. This national consortium is dedicated to advancing understanding of geographic processes and spatial relationships through improved theory, methods, technology, and data. Much information is available at our UCGIS site (http://www.ssc.msu.edu/~la/ucgis/).

In addition, the Department's concentration in Geographic Information Science is strengthened by close relationships with related campus research centers:

Center for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Science. The center provides state-of-the-art geospatial services to the University, the state of Michigan, and other agencies. Facilities include an advanced computer laboratory, a data processing center, an extensive imagery archive, and an array of high quality GPS receivers. The center develops and maintains extensive spatial databases, as well as GIS and cartographic software for managing, viewing, and analyzing geographic data.

Center for Global Change & Earth Observations.This extensive research program is dedicated to understanding human and physical components of global change across all spatial scales, with an emphasis on remote observation systems and spatial information technology for monitoring and analysis.

The world's largest non-governmental Landsat archive is maintained locally along with other valuable data archives on the Initiative's extensive computing facilities.