This paper carries out an analysis and reflection on how technoscience reaches Geography through Geographic Information Technologies, how it impacts the production of geographic knowledge and how it derives in the possibility of digital experimentation in the discipline in an environment called geo-digital reality. It is shown that advances in GIT have allowed overcoming old limitations, enriching more and more the observations made by Geography, and it is also highlighted the promising future of digital experimentation in Geography through all the possibilities offered by current technological developments.

This paper presents a brief review of risk studies in Geography since the beginning of the 20th century, from approaches focused on physical-natural components or social aspects, to perspectives that incorporate a systemic approach seeking to understand and explain risk issues at a spatial level. The systemic approach considers principles of interaction between multiple variables and a dynamic organization of processes, as part of a new formulation of the scientific vision of the world. From this perspective, the Complex Systems Theory (CST) is presented as the appropriate conceptual-analytical framework for risk studies in Geography. Finally, the analysis and geographic information integration capabilities of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based on spatial analysis are explained, which position it as a fundamental conceptual and methodological tool in risk analysis from a systemic approach.

Taking the geographic information industry as the research object, using the authorized invention patent data, this paper puts forward the research method of industrial innovation chain structure based on the geographic information industry chain. Then, from the perspective of overall structure and specific regional structure, the development status of the innovation chain is quantitatively evaluated, which is helpful to all countries in the world. The structural integrity and leading links of the innovation chain especially in China, the United States and Japan are compared and analyzed. The results show that: (1) from the perspective of the overall structure, the global innovation chain presents an “inverted triangle” structure due to the weak innovation ability of downstream links. From the perspective of specific regional structure, the innovation chain of geographic information industry in most countries and regions is incomplete, and there are broken links or isolated links. The global innovation chain except China has cracks between the upstream and downstream due to the relative weakness of the midstream links, showing “hourglass-shaped” structure with a wide upper part, narrow lower part and narrow middle part. (2) Relatively speaking, China’s industrial innovation chain is relatively complete, and the midstream link has significant comparative advantages in the global market. However, the industry university research cooperation in the innovation chain is weak, the degree of marketization is low, and the technological competitiveness lags behind that of the United States.

Land suitability analysis using geographic information systems (GIS) is one of the most widely used method today. In this type of studies, GIS and geo-spatial statistical tools are used to evaluate land units and present the results in suitability maps. The present work aims to characterize the suitability of soils in the province of Catamarca for pecan nut production according to the variables: rockiness, salinity, risk of water-logging, depth, texture and drainage described in the Soil Map of Argentina at a scale of 1:500,000 published by the National Institute of Agricultural Technology. A classification of the suitability of the soil cartographic units was made according to crop requirements, applying the methodology proposed by FAO. The standardization of variables made by omega score and the calculation of the spatial classification score were carried out as a result of the synthesis of the spatial distribution of soil suitability. The applied methodology allowed obtaining the soil suitability map resulting in a total of 60,662 km² suitable for pecan nut production, which accounts for 59.8% of the total area of the province.

Through the combination of the geographic information systems (GIS) and the integrated information model, the stability of regional bank slope was comprehensively evaluated. First, a regional bank slope stability evaluation index system was established through studying seven selected factors (slope grade, slope direction, mountain shadow, elevation, stratigraphic lithology, geological structure and river action) that have an impact on the stability of the slope. Then, each factor was rasterized by GIS. According to the integrated information model, the evaluation index distribution map based on rasterized factors was obtained to evaluate the stability of the regional bank slope. Through the analysis of an actual project, it was concluded that the geological structure and stratigraphic lithology have a significant impact on the evaluation results. Most of the research areas were in the relatively low stable areas. The low and the relatively low stable areas accounted for 15.2% and 51.5% of the total study area respectively. The accuracy of slope evaluation results in the study area reached 95.41%.