GIS - An Overview of Applications


Book Description

GIS - An Overview of Applications is a compilation of reviews that give an overview of the latest advances in Geographic Information System (GIS) technology. The multidisciplinary nature of the book gives readers perspectives in research fields as diverse as forest management, land use and cover, tourism, environment impact assessment, climate change studies, biodiversity and health care and mobility studies. The book is a suitable reference for graduates involved in data engineering and GIS courses as well as working professionals in the field of data engineering, analysis and management.




TORUS 2 - Toward an Open Resource Using Services


Book Description

This book, presented in three volumes, examines environmental disciplines in relation to major players in contemporary science: Big Data, artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Today, there is a real sense of urgency regarding the evolution of computer technology, the ever-increasing volume of data, threats to our climate and the sustainable development of our planet. As such, we need to reduce technology just as much as we need to bridge the global socio-economic gap between the North and South; between universal free access to data (open data) and free software (open source). In this book, we pay particular attention to certain environmental subjects, in order to enrich our understanding of cloud computing. These subjects are: erosion; urban air pollution and atmospheric pollution in Southeast Asia; melting permafrost (causing the accelerated release of soil organic carbon in the atmosphere); alert systems of environmental hazards (such as forest fires, prospective modeling of socio-spatial practices and land use); and web fountains of geographical data. Finally, this book asks the question: in order to find a pattern in the data, how do we move from a traditional computing model-based world to pure mathematical research? After thorough examination of this topic, we conclude that this goal is both transdisciplinary and achievable.




GIS Applications in Agriculture


Book Description

As the first volume in a unique series concentrating on in-depth discussions of GIS topics, GIS Applications in Agriculture examines ways that this powerful technology can help farmers/firms to produce a greater abundance of crops with more efficiency and at lower costs. Each chapter describes the nature of the problem, examines the purpose of the GIS application, describes methods used to develop the application, provides results, and offers a conclusion as well as other supportive information. When appropriate, it presents the underlying statistical approach for the GIS software that is used. This text also includes a CD-ROM that features data sets and the full color maps produced by the use of GIS.




Geographical Information Systems


Book Description

The late 20th century has witnessed increasing crises in the world's marine fisheries. A causal analysis of these reveals that a common element are various manifestations of spatial inequity. This most frequently includes the inequity of access rights to the resource, but factors such as variations in resource depletion, spatio-temporal variations in stock recruitment, the imposition of regulatory zoning, destruction of marine ecosystems and the siting of mariculture facilities are other examples. To resolve some of these problems, management practices must be improved. As has been shown in other fields where spatially related problems occur, there is now a promising tool, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), which, combined with other analytical tools and models, could allow for improved spatial management. GIS are basically integrated computer based systems which allow for the input of digital geo-referenced data to produce maps plus other textual, graphical and tabular output. The essential usefulness of GIS however, lies in its ability to manipulate data in a large number of ways and to perform various analytical functions so as to produce output which makes for more efficient decision making.As with many computer based systems, the key to GIS success lies in the acquisition of suitable data. The various means by which both primary and secondary data can be located, gathered, accessed and stored are described.




GIS and the Social Sciences


Book Description

GIS and the Social Sciences offers a uniquely social science approach on the theory and application of GIS with a range of modern examples. It explores how human geography can engage with a variety of important policy issues through linking together GIS and spatial analysis, and demonstrates the importance of applied GIS and spatial analysis for solving real-world problems in both the public and private sector. The book introduces basic theoretical material from a social science perspective and discusses how data are handled in GIS, what the standard commands within GIS packages are, and what they can offer in terms of spatial analysis. It covers the range of applications for which GIS has been primarily used in the social sciences, offering a global perspective of examples at a range of spatial scales. The book explores the use of GIS in crime, health, education, retail location, urban planning, transport, geodemographics, emergency planning and poverty/income inequalities. It is supplemented with practical activities and datasets that are linked to the content of each chapter and provided on an eResource page. The examples are written using ArcMap to show how the user can access data and put the theory in the textbook to applied use using proprietary GIS software. This book serves as a useful guide to a social science approach to GIS techniques and applications. It provides a range of modern applications of GIS with associated practicals to work through, and demonstrates how researcher and policy makers alike can use GIS to plan services more effectively. It will prove to be of great interest to geographers, as well as the broader social sciences, such as sociology, crime science, health, business and marketing.




GIS for Environmental Applications


Book Description

GIS for Environmental Applications provides a practical introduction to the principles, methods, techniques and tools in GIS for spatial data management, analysis, modelling and visualisation, and their applications in environmental problem solving and decision making. It covers the fundamental concepts, principles and techniques in spatial data, spatial data management, spatial analysis and modelling, spatial visualisation, spatial interpolation, spatial statistics, and remote sensing data analysis, as well as demonstrates the typical environmental applications of GIS, including terrain analysis, hydrological modelling, land use analysis and modelling, ecological modelling, and ecosystem service valuation. Case studies are used in the text to contextualise these subjects in the real world, examples and detailed tutorials are provided in each chapter to show how the GIS techniques and tools introduced in the chapter can be implemented using ESRI ArcGIS (a popular GIS software system for environmental applications) and other third party extensions to ArcGIS to address. The emphasis is placed on how to apply or implement the concepts and techniques of GIS through illustrative examples with step-by-step instructions and numerous annotated screen shots. The features include: Over 350 figures and tables illustrating how to apply or implement the concepts and techniques of GIS Learning objectives along with the end-of-chapter review questions Authoritative references at the end of each chapter GIS data files for all examples as well as PowerPoint presentations for each chapter downloadable from the companion website. GIS for Environmental Applications weaves theory and practice together, assimilates the most current GIS knowledge and tools relevant to environmental research, management and planning, and provides step-by-step tutorials with practical applications. This volume will be an indispensable resource for any students taking a module on GIS for the environment.










GIS for Web Developers


Book Description

With this book readers can become real geographic programmers using the Java programming language. They will find working code examples in Java using some of the many GIS-oriented applications and APIs, and be able to display GIS data on the Web, manipulate GIS data, and programmatically store and retrieve it in geographically enabled databases.




GIS Algorithms


Book Description

Geographic information systems (GIS) have become increasingly important in helping us understand complex social, economic, and natural dynamics where spatial components play a key role. The critical algorithms used in GIS, however, are notoriously difficult to both teach and understand, in part due to the lack of a coherent representation. GIS Algorithms attempts to address this problem by combining rigorous formal language with example case studies and student exercises. Using Python code throughout, Xiao breaks the subject down into three fundamental areas: Geometric Algorithms Spatial Indexing Spatial Analysis and Modelling With its comprehensive coverage of the many algorithms involved, GIS Algorithms is a key new textbook in this complex and critical area of geography.