ETHICS
Case Studies

Students develop ethical awareness and moral reasoning skills by analyzing and discussing realistic case studies. The cases in this curated collection pose some of the ethical challenges faced by geospatial professionals. Related educator resources are available on request for most cases.

Download the Case Studies

  • An Ethical Minefield Should a surveying and mapping crew chief pay a bribe to acquire data needed to conduct field reconnaissance safely?
  • Bear Baiting Should precise locations of controversial hunting stations be public information?
  • Caribou Migration Routes A GIS analyst is asked to exclude pertinent data from maps prepared for a public hearing.
  • Collateral Damage Mapping A geospatial intelligence analyst predicts the civilian casualties likely to be caused by a pre-emptive missile attack.
  • Cutting Corners on Redistricting Election mapping consultants propose to omit data from GIS analyses to cut costs and win a contract with a newly-formed Independent Election Commission. Updated October 2023
  • Energy Production and Protected Whales Should new lease blocks for oil and gas wells be established in a rare whale’s habitat in the Gulf of Mexico? New February 2024
  • Environmental Justice Web Map A GIS programmer ponders a contract for a web map that overlays toxic industrial sites and at-risk communities.
  • E-911 Contract Conflict of Interest A municipal GIS manager troubled by what appears to be a conflict of interest considers filing a formal ethics complaint.
  • Flood Insurance Mapping Confronted with increasing flood risk in her region, how can a floodplain manager reconcile conflicting obligations to her employer and her constituents?
  • Government Employee and the Press A member of the press asks a government employee to leak the results of a GIS analysis about a controversial wild land fire.
  • Low-level Radioactive Waste Siting Map A map masks potentially suitable sites for low-level radioactive waste storage facility.
  • Mapping Muslim Neighborhoods A police department’s plan to map potential terrorist enclaves brings charges of racial profiling.
  • Misleading Satellite Data Contract A sales representative is expected to withhold information that could affect availability of a data product.
  • Privacy and Planning A GIS professional considers filing an ethics complaint about lax protection of the confidentiality of a sensitive database. Updated October 2023
  • Proprietary Software in an Emergency Too few software licenses are available in the aftermath of a tsunami. Updated October 2023
  • Public Access to Government Data A governmental agency’s need to recoup user fees conflicts with a public records law. Updated October 2023
  • Sharing Alpha Software An entrepreneurial GIS programmer is tempted to use a friend’s code to win a lucrative contract.
  • Submarine Crashes into Uncharted Seamount A nuclear submarine’s crash into an uncharted seamount raises ethical issues for Navy training personnel.
  • Tidal Wetland Mapping A scope of work statement and established mapping procedures prevent a GIS analyst from adding wetlands to a conservation database.
  • Tracking Mobile Phones in Mobility Research Researchers track mobile phone users’ movements to derive predictive models of human mobility. Updated October 2023

Codes of Ethics

How to Analyze Case Studies

For an example of ethical decision making using the “Mapping Muslim Neighbors” case, see DiBiase, David, Chris Goranson, Francis Harvey and Dawn Wright (2009). The GIS Professional Ethics Project: Practical Ethics Education for GIS Pros. Proceedings of the 24th International Cartography Conference. Santiago, Chile, 15-21 November. Also in Unwin, D., K. Foote, N. Tate and D. DiBiase, Eds. (2011). Teaching Geographic Information Science and Technology in Higher Education. London: Wiley and Sons.

For more information about GIS ethics, see DiBiase, D. (2017). Professional and Practical Ethics of GIS&T. The Geographic Information Science & Technology Body of Knowledge (2nd Quarter 2017 Edition), John P. Wilson (ed.). doi: 10.22224/gistbok/2017.2.2

Related Case Study Collections

National Science Foundation Logo This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 0734888, 0734903, and 0734824. Opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Want to Learn More?

Consider Penn State’s graduate seminar GEOG 581: Spatial Data Science Ethics, or the Responsible Scholarship and Professional Practice workshop.