Spatial Database Transfer Standards


Book Description

Since the 1960's individuals and organisations throughout the world have been building geographic databases used in conjunction with geographic hardware and software systems to collect, analyse, display and archive digital data. Through the years it was recognised that efficiencies could be gained if the geographic database built by one group could be used by multiple users across different computer systems and formats. Therefore, it was acknowledged that spatial database transfer standards were needed to facilitate the exchange and transfer of digital geographic data.Throughout the 1980's several organisations worldwide began working on the problem of producing spatial database transfer standards. As this work was initiated, research workers began to informally compare notes and developments. The International Cartographic Association [ICA], recognising the worldwide importance of standards, organised a Standards Working Group. The initial goal of this working group was to produce a monograph reporting on the present state of development in digital database transfer standards.This book is a unique collection of reports by individual nations and international organisations that describe existing geographic standards and summarize efforts to develop geographic database transfer standards worldwide.




Manual of Geospatial Science and Technology


Book Description

Professionals in local and national government and in the private sector frequently need to draw on Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS), often in an integrated manner. This manual shows a hands-on operator how to work across the range of geospatial science and technology, whether as a user or as a contractor of services employing these technologies, and without either specialist education or substantial experience. The manual covers the fundamentals of each of these topical areas, providing the requisite mathematics, computer science and physics necessary to understand how the technologies work, assuming some elementary background in calculus and physics. It also shows how the technologies can be used together and focuses on their commonalities. A number of applications such as mapping and environmental modeling are presented, and a website accompanies the book.







Manual of Geospatial Science and Technology


Book Description

Following in the tradition of its popular predecessor, the Manual of Geospatial Science and Technology, Second Edition continues to be the authoritative volume that covers all aspects of the field, both basic and applied, and includes a focus on initiating, planning, and managing GIS projects. This comprehensive resource, which contains contributio




Spatial Database Transfer Standards 2: Characteristics for Assessing Standards and Full Descriptions of the National and International Standards in the World


Book Description

This book represents five and a half years of work by the ICA Commission on Standards for the Transfer of Spatial Data during the 1991- 95 ICA cycle. The effort began with the Commission working to develop a set of scientific characteristics by which every kind of spatial data transfer standard could be understood and assessed. This implies that every facet of the transfer process must be understood so that the scientific characteristics could be most efficiently specified. The members of the Commission spent hours looking at their own standard and many others, to ascertain how to specify most effectively the characteristic or subcharacteristic in question. The result is a set of internationally agreed scientific characteristics with 13 broad primary level classes of characteristics, 85 secondary characteristics, and about 220 tertiary characteristics that recognizes almost every possible capability that a spatial data transfer standard might have. It is recognized that no one standard possesses all of these characteristics, but contains a subset of these characteristics. However, these characteristics have been specified in such a way to facilitate understanding of individual standards, and use by interested parties of making comparisons for their own purposes. Although individual applications of a standard may be for different purposes, this set of characteristics provides a uniform measure by which the various standards may be assessed. The book presents an Introduction and four general chapters that describe the spatial data transfer standards activities happening in Europe, North America, Asia/Pacific, and the ISO community. This provides the context so the reader can more easily understand the scientific and technical framework from which a particular standard has come. The third section is a complete listing of all of the three levels of characteristics and their meaning by the inclusion of a set of definitions for terms used in the book. The fourth section, and by far the largest, contains 22 chapters that assess each of the major national and international spatial data transfer standards in the world in terms of all three levels of characteristics. Each assessment has been done by a Commission member who has been an active participant in the development of the standard being assessed in the native language of that standard. A cross-table chart is also provided.




Introduction to Integrated Geo-information Management


Book Description

This book was inspired by the revolution in geographical information systems during the late 1970s and 1980s which introduced to many the concept of computer-based information systems for spatially referenced data. The map, the aerial photograph and the satellite image were wedded to a database of textual information through the rapidly developing technology of powerful graphics workstations. This brought the skills of the geographer to a wide range of disciplines and specialists. But this book is not about the basic concepts of geographical information systems themselves. It is not about hardware or software per se, nor the integral concepts of geo-referenced data handling built into such systems; these are to be found in a growing number of introductory texts on the subject. Instead the focus of this book is on of geo-information management. the much wider issues While an understanding of the systems, their capabilities and limitations is necessary, of greater importance to the long term application of geographical understanding to problem solving is the wider context of information handling. Spatial data are becoming increasingly important in understanding the issues that confront the world. Chapter 1 is a discussion of the general issues which relate to management and information systems. It concludes with review of spatial decision support systems which are of increasing importance to the GIS community.




The History of Cartography, Volume 6


Book Description

For more than thirty years, the History of Cartography Project has charted the course for scholarship on cartography, bringing together research from a variety of disciplines on the creation, dissemination, and use of maps. Volume 6, Cartography in the Twentieth Century, continues this tradition with a groundbreaking survey of the century just ended and a new full-color, encyclopedic format. The twentieth century is a pivotal period in map history. The transition from paper to digital formats led to previously unimaginable dynamic and interactive maps. Geographic information systems radically altered cartographic institutions and reduced the skill required to create maps. Satellite positioning and mobile communications revolutionized wayfinding. Mapping evolved as an important tool for coping with complexity, organizing knowledge, and influencing public opinion in all parts of the globe and at all levels of society. Volume 6 covers these changes comprehensively, while thoroughly demonstrating the far-reaching effects of maps on science, technology, and society—and vice versa. The lavishly produced volume includes more than five hundred articles accompanied by more than a thousand images. Hundreds of expert contributors provide both original research, often based on their own participation in the developments they describe, and interpretations of larger trends in cartography. Designed for use by both scholars and the general public, this definitive volume is a reference work of first resort for all who study and love maps.




Geographic Information Systems


Book Description

Technological changes are revolutionising cartography and there is a growing convergence between geographic information systems and computer assisted cartography. This book describes in detail the relationship between geographic information systems and modern cartography and considers all aspects from data collection to presentation and applications. Written by some of the world's leading cartographers, the book examines the emergence of electronic mapping systems and stresses both analysis and visualisation.




World Spatial Metadata Standards


Book Description

Introduction to spatial metadata standards in the world -- Regional summaries of spatial metadata developments and associated activities -- Scientific and technical characteristics for assessing metadata standards for geographic datasets -- Scientific and technical assessments with full descriptions of the spatial metadata standards -- Crosstable of national and international spatial metadata standards and associated characteristics.




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