This issue of
These geotechnologies have undergone substantial growth. Some of them make it possible to offer a narrative to accompany the visualisation of online geographic information systems based on GIS cloud, thus integrating storytelling techniques with interactive online maps in what are known as storytelling digital maps (SDMs). Among the technologies and platforms that enable the creation of these products, this special issue is closely linked to online maps, with a particular emphasis on ArcGIS StoryMaps.
The growth in functionalities supports creation, co-creation, collaborative and participatory work, as well as the final design. This, in turn, allows data to be presented within cartography, with the possibility of producing the cartographic outputs in real time as the data are being collected, thereby advancing research, knowledge transfer, and educational objectives. One indicator of the development of these geotechnologies is the constant increase in the number of story maps on ArcGIS Online StoryMaps platform.
Furthermore, the growing number of researchers and educators who are using these tools is being accompanied by an increasing number of institutions that are making their data visible through them. Notable examples include the United Nations, the European Environment Agency, and the Spanish National Geographic Institute, which uses them, for instance, to provide information on land cover, as well as the Spanish National Statistics Institute, which disseminates the most relevant results of the latest livestock census in this way. Many other international organisations and the different governments of Autonomous Communities in Spain have also adopted these technologies.
The aforementioned increase in the use of GIS Cloud tools can be explained by their usability, as they readily support the creation of a website that combines interactive digital cartography with other resources (text, images, graphics, videos, sound, hypertext, etc.), all brought together in a common narrative based on territorially referenced data.
A wide variety of topics are covered, in which geotechnologies are used for research, teaching, knowledge transfer, and dissemination, with special attention to the technique of digital story maps. The subjects of the articles range from digital humanities, social sciences and territorial key topics related to global change, tourism, migration, entrepreneurship, and cities, among others, to the geography of health. Teaching, research, and dissemination constitute the main vehicles or motivations underpinning the topics addressed, in many cases framed within national and international projects. The territorial scope encompasses the European Union, with France, Italy, Poland, and Spain as particular countries, as well as Peru and Africa.
A total of 29 authors (13 women and 16 men) from 11 different universities (4 of them foreign) have contributed to this issue.