Abstract: The concept of human oriented geographic information systems(GIS) is introduced in terms of the relationship theory of human-land. The fundamental framework of current GIS is mainly designed from the land/landscape centered perspective.Human-oriented GIS aims to study the representation, computation,simulation and analysis of human distribution in time and space,and of the spatiotemporal characteristics and laws of social and economic organizations and activity behavior within geographic environments.Here,human is defined,in a broader context,as individuals,groups,or organizations within the natural and social environments.Major characteristics,(agent-based) modeling,data model of spatiotemporal behavior,and visualization in human(oriented) GIS are discussed.