GIS Resources: Ebooks

Key Concepts and Techniques in GIS is a concise overview of the fundamental ideas that inform geographic information science. It provides detailed descriptions of the concepts and techniques that anyone using GIS software must fully understand to analyse spatial data. Short and clearly focussed chapters provide explanations of: spatial relationships and spatial data the creation of digital data, the use and access of existing data, the combination of data the use of modelling techniques and the essential functions of map algebra spatial statistics and spatial analysis geocomputation - including discussion of neural networks, cellular automata, and agent-based modelling Illustrated throughout with explanatory figures, the text also includes a glossary, cross referenced to discussion in the text. Written very much from a user's perspective, Key Concepts and Techniques in GIS is highly readable refresher course for intermediate level students and practitioners of GIS in the social and the natural sciences.

Statistical analysis of geographic data has been greatly enhanced in recent years with the advent of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software. Yet GIS users have struggles to synchronize their applications of spatial information with practical, quantitative statistics. ArcView, one of the most powerful GIS-compatible systems, has become the most popular software among geographers precisely because of its capacity for spatial-quantitative synthesis. Now geographers Jay Lee and David Wong have produced the first handbook for applied ArcView use, bringing the theoretical underpinnings of classical statistics into the earth science environment. Employing points, lines, and polygons to model real-world geographic forms, this easy-to-use resource provides geographers with a valuable bridge between theory and the software necessary to apply it. It contains sections on point distribution, point pattern analysis, linear features, network analysis, and spatial autocorrelation analysis. Statistical Analysis with ArcView GIS also features: Examples that show steps of statistical calculations-as well as ways to interpret the results. More than 100 illustrations, including statistical charts, maps, and ArcView screen captures. Helpful end-of-chapter references. Suitable for professionals as well as students of geography, this book is an important tool for anyone involved in the statistical analysis of GIS data.

Geographic Information Systems are computer-based systems for geographic analysis. They have been developed over the past twenty five years and are now widely used. A recent research direction has been the development of geocomputation , representing computer-based geographical analysis beyond the traditional bounds of GIS. In geocomputation, the computer is the research environment itself, not merely a tool. A key to geocomputation it that highly powered computing can be used with sufficient data to avaid traditional parametric approaches altogether. The term geocomputation includes the use of computer-based techniques such as artificial neural networks, genetic programming and fuzzy logic, but in a geographical context. This new book in the prestigious Innovations in GIS series, presents the latest research in geocomputational techniques as presented in the GIS UK Annual Conference.

Geographic information systems (GIS) have spurred a renewed interest in the influence of geographical space on human behavior and cultural development. Ideally GIS enables humanities scholars to discover relationships of memory, artifact, and experience that exist in a particular place and across time. Although successfully used by other disciplines, efforts by humanists to apply GIS and the spatial analytic method in their studies have been limited and halting. The Spatial Humanities aims to re-orient--and perhaps revolutionize--humanities scholarship by critically engaging the technology and specifically directing it to the subject matter of the humanities. To this end, the contributors explore the potential of spatial methods such as text-based geographical analysis, multimedia GIS, animated maps, deep contingency, deep mapping, and the geo-spatial semantic web.

Written at a practical level, suited to the business audience, thisexceptional book explores the business environment of makingGIS successful. It applies academic rigor to practical andcommercial implementation issues and offers viewpoints from allparties involved in GIS implementation. Achieving BusinessSuccess with GIS provides tangible advice ranging fromtechnical and financial to organizational and commercial. It isunique in that it does not stop short of providing, without hype orembellishment, practical advice and real examples regarding thetotal cost of ownership of a project or finance and returninvestment of GIS products. Achieving Business Success withGIS highlights that the use of GIS technology needs to befocused on the business issues, not the technology. The book begins by describing the use of GIS in a global contextwithin a business environment as the background to outlining theneed for organizations to have a strategy for their GIS. Thebook then goes on to explore the elements of a GIS strategy andexplains issues which are relevant for such approaches and how togo about developing it. In the closing chapters of this book, the process of specifyingand tendering for a GIS are discussed to ensure that the focus ofthe reader remains on the business issues of theorganization. This is followed by examples of the best andworst Geographic Information Systems including a discussion onGoogle Earth and Web 2.0. The combination of the statistics from the GIS / Spatial surveysand the author's consulting experiences make this book aninvaluable resource for GIS managers in government (federal, stateand local) and utilities, organisations using GIS, and students andlecturers in this field.

The report describes potential applications of geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial analysis by HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research for understanding housing needs, addressing broader issues of urban poverty and community development, and improving access to information and services by the many users of HUD's data. It offers a vision of HUD as an important player in providing urban data to federal initiatives towards a spatial data infrastructure for the nation.

This book is written in a helpful, practical style with numerous hands-on recipes and chapters to help you save time and effort by using Python to power ArcGIS to create shortcuts, scripts, tools, and customizations."Programming ArcGIS 10.1 with Python Cookbook" is written for GIS professionals who wish to revolutionize their ArcGIS workflow with Python. Basic Python or programming knowledge is essential(?).

A geographic information system (GIS) is any system that captures, stores, analyzes, manages and presents data that are linked to locations. In the simplest terms, GIS is the merging of cartography, statistical analysis and database technology, and can be used in archaeology, geography, cartography, remote sensing, land surveying, public utility management and natural resource management. This new book presents topical research in the study of GIS, including GIS in the spatial decision making process; GIS for wide-range species conservation planning and forestry; GIS in rainwater harvesting, estimating the environmental effects on residential property and traffic-related environmental pollution in the GIS.

Sustainability has been increasingly embraced as an overarching policy goal, and communities have been called to be active participants on the path towards attaining a balance between fundamental human needs and ecological resilience. Community-based organizations (CBOs) can benefit from using GIS in building community assets and developing well-conceived sustainability initiatives, but GIS has not yet been widely used for those purposes in CBOs. This book illustrates how geographic information (such as maps) can be useful in community development drawing from service-learning GIS projects, and argue that economic theories of sustainability and spatial thinking can be of help in building sustainable community. It also discusses the application of vehicle routing problems for sustainable waste collection; spatio-temporal visualization and analysis techniques in GIS; GIS applications in modern crop protection; role of geographic information system for water quality evaluation; and the use of remote sensing and GIS for groundwater potential mapping in crystalline basement rocks.