kgeographer Karl Grossner, PhD
Computing Place
Computing Place is a new research initiative building rich, computable descriptions of places by linking environmental and cultural data. Every terrestrial Earth surface location has an environmental signature—shaped by drainage basins, elevation, climate, and ecoregion characteristics—but cultural practices and historical developments in places follow their own logic. By computing statistical and thematic signatures for environment and culture systematically and comparing how they align or diverge, I hope to enable new forms of spatial and ‘placial’ analysis for gazetteers and digital humanities research in multiple fields.
A Computing Place web platform is being developed modularly. EDOP (Environmental Dimensions of Place) is the first component, now live with 190,000+ watershed profiles using HydroATLAS data, digital elevation models, and ecoregion classifications. CDOP (Cultural Dimensions of Place) will add semantic and anthropological dimensions through text embeddings and ethnographic datasets. The platform will in time link these complementary signals, offering APIs and interactive tools that existing spatial humanities infrastructures can consume to enrich their place records.
