Urban development and migration from rural to urban areas are impacting prime agricultural land and natural landscapes, particularly in the less developed countries. These phenomena will persist and require serious study by those monitoring global environmental change. To address this need, various models have been devised to analyze urbanization and the physical, socioeconomic, and institutional factors impacting urban development. The most promising and rapidly developing of these paradigms take advantage of new Geographical Information System (GIS) technology. Modelling Urban Development with Geographical Information Systems and Cellular Automata presents one such cutting-edge model that is more than just predictive. It describes how the model simulates the urbanization process, and it provides theoretical context to promote understanding. Starting with a practical overview of the modelling techniques used in urban development research, the author focuses on the cellular automata model and its greatest strength - the incorporation of fuzzy set and fuzzy logic approaches through which urban development can be viewed as a spatially and temporally continuous process. Real-Life Application to Develop Future Planning Methods The text describes a landmark study underway, in which the fuzzy constrained cellular automata model has been implemented in a GIS environment to simulate urban development in Sydney, Australia. Featuring a survey of associated research and a geographical database for the Sydney simulation, this book answers many general "what if" questions for urban planners and details a new approach that they can adapt to their own testing and evaluation needs. This modeling method will provide researchers and planners with the means to not just predict population trends, but to better prepare for their consequences.

Commuting, the daily link between residences and workplaces, sets up the complex interaction between the two most important land uses (residential and employment) in a city, and dictates the configuration of urban structure. In addition to prolonged time and stress for individual commuters on traffic, commuting comes with additional societal costs including elevated crash risks, worsening air quality, and louder traffic noise, etc. These issues are important to city planners, policy researchers, and decision makers. GIS-Based Simulation and Analysis of Intra-Urban Commuting, presents GIS-based simulation, optimization and statistical approaches to measure, map, analyze, and explain commuting patterns including commuting length and efficiency. Several GIS-automated easy-to-use tools will be available, along with sample data, for readers to download and apply to their own studies. This book recognizes that reporting errors from survey data and use of aggregated zonal data are two sources of bias in estimation of wasteful commuting, it studies the temporal trend of intraurban commuting pattern based on the most recent period newly-available 2006-2010, and it focuses on commuting, and especially wasteful commuting within US cities. It includes ready-to-download GIS-based simulation tools and sample data, and an explanation of optimization and statistical techniques of how to measure commuting, as well as presenting a methodology that can be applicable to other studies. This book is an invaluable resource for students, researchers, and practitioners in geography, urban planning, public policy, transportation engineering, and other related disciplines.

Today, remote sensing technology is an essential tool for understanding the Earth and managing human-Earth interactions. There is a rapidly growing need for remote sensing and Earth observation technology that enables monitoring of world's natural resources and environments, managing exposure to natural and man-made risks and more frequently occurring disasters, and helping the sustainability and productivity of natural and human ecosystems. The improvement in temporal resolution/revisit allows for the large accumulation of images for a specific location, creating a possibility for time series image analysis and eventual real-time assessments of scene dynamics. As an authoritative text, Remote Sensing Time Series Image Processing brings together active and recognized authors in the field of time series image analysis and presents to the readers the current state of knowledge and its future directions. Divided into three parts, the first addresses methods and techniques for generating time series image datasets. In particular, it provides guidance on the selection of cloud and cloud shadow detection algorithms for various applications. Part II examines feature development and information extraction methods for time series imagery. It presents some key remote sensing-based metrics, and their major applications in ecosystems and climate change studies. Part III illustrates various applications of time series image processing in land cover change, disturbance attribution, vegetation dynamics, and urbanization. This book is intended for researchers, practitioners, and students in both remote sensing and imaging science. It can be used as a textbook by undergraduate and graduate students majoring in remote sensing, imaging science, civil and electrical engineering, geography, geosciences, planning, environmental science, land use, energy, and GIS, and as a reference book by practitioners and professionals in the government, commercial, and industrial sectors.

Maps are tools used to understand space, discover territories, communicate information, and explain the results of geographical analysis. This practical handbook is about thematic cartography. With more than 120 colorful amazing illustrations, numerous boxed texts, definitions, and helpful tools, this step-by-step introduction to cartography is both the art of understanding the world and a powerful tool for explaining it. Through many hands-on tests, the reader will learn how to produce an interesting and communicative map applied to any spatial theme. Written by experienced scholars and experts in cartography, this book is an excellent resource for undergraduate students and non-cartographers interested in designing, understanding, and interpreting maps. It includes practical exercises explained in the form of a game and provides a concise, accessible, and current address of cartographic principles, allowing readers to go deeper into cartographic design. It can be read from beginning to end like an essay or just by dipping into it for information as needed.

This book presents a survey of modern theoretical and experimental techniques in studies of light scattering phenomena and radiative transfer processes in random media. It presents reviews on light scattering by sea water and bubbles, and includes a separate chapter addressing studies of the remote sensing of crystalline clouds with a focus on the shape of particles-a parameter rarely studied by passive remote sensing techniques. In particular, it offers a comprehensive analysis of polarized radiative transfer in optically active (e.g., chiral) light scattering media and explores advances in spectro-polarimetry of particulate media. Lastly it discusses new developments in light scattering for combustion monitoring.

This thesis reports on sparsity-based multipath exploitation methods for through-the-wall radar imaging. Multipath creates ambiguities in the measurements provoking unwanted ghost targets in the image. This book describes sparse reconstruction methods that are not only suppressing the ghost targets, but using multipath to one's advantage. With adopting the compressive sensing principle, fewer measurements are required for image reconstruction as compared to conventional techniques. The book describes the development of a comprehensive signal model and some associated reconstruction methods that can deal with many relevant scenarios, such as clutter from building structures, secondary reflections from interior walls, as well as stationary and moving targets, in urban radar imaging. The described methods are evaluated here using simulated as well as measured data from semi-controlled laboratory experiments.

This book presents the first comprehensive, interdisciplinary review of the rapidly developing field of air lasing. In most applications of lasers, such as cutting and engraving, the laser source is brought to the point of service where the laser beam is needed to perform its function. However, in some important applications such as remote atmospheric sensing, placing the laser at a convenient location is not an option. Current sensing schemes rely on the detection of weak backscattering of ground-based, forward-propagating optical probes, and possess limited sensitivity. The concept of air lasing (or atmospheric lasing) relies on the idea that the constituents of the air itself can be used as an active laser medium, creating a backward-propagating, impulsive, laser-like radiation emanating from a remote location in the atmosphere. This book provides important insights into the current state of development of air lasing and its applications.

This book showcases powerful new hybrid methods that combine numerical and symbolic algorithms. Hybrid algorithm research is currently one of the most promising directions in the context of geosciences mathematics and computer mathematics in general. One important topic addressed here with a broad range of applications is the solution of multivariate polynomial systems by means of resultants and Groebner bases. But that's barely the beginning, as the authors proceed to discuss genetic algorithms, integer programming, symbolic regression, parallel computing, and many other topics. The book is strictly goal-oriented, focusing on the solution of fundamental problems in the geosciences, such as positioning and point cloud problems. As such, at no point does it discuss purely theoretical mathematics. "The book delivers hybrid symbolic-numeric solutions, which are a large and growing area at the boundary of mathematics and computer science." Dr. Daniel Li chtbau

This book is published open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. Over the past decades, rapid developments in digital and sensing technologies, such as the Cloud, Web and Internet of Things, have dramatically changed the way we live and work. The digital transformation is revolutionizing our ability to monitor our planet and transforming the way we access, process and exploit Earth Observation data from satellites. This book reviews these megatrends and their implications for the Earth Observation community as well as the wider data economy. It provides insight into new paradigms of Open Science and Innovation applied to space data, which are characterized by openness, access to large volume of complex data, wide availability of new community tools, new techniques for big data analytics such as Artificial Intelligence, unprecedented level of computing power, and new types of collaboration among researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs and citizen scientists. In addition, this book aims to provide readers with some reflections on the future of Earth Observation, highlighting through a series of use cases not just the new opportunities created by the New Space revolution, but also the new challenges that must be addressed in order to make the most of the large volume of complex and diverse data delivered by the new generation of satellites.

This book reports the latest results in the study of Bistatic/Multistatic SAR system and signal processing techniques. Novel research ideas and experimental verification have been collected on all kinds of configurations of Bistatic/Multistatic SAR system, including the preliminary construction of system model, imaging algorithm design, mission design and the corresponding application representations etc. Handy well-prepared tables are provided for readers' quick-reference, and the practical design of an interferometric SAR system is illustrated step by step. The book will be of interest to university researchers, R&D engineers and graduate students in Remote Sensing who wish to learn the core principles, methods, algorithms, and applications of Bistatic/Multistatic SAR system.

This book covers the basics of processing and spectral analysis of monovariate discrete-time signals. The approach is practical, the aim being to acquaint the reader with the indications for and drawbacks of the various methods and to highlight possible misuses. The book is rich in original ideas, visualized in new and illuminating ways, and is structured so that parts can be skipped without loss of continuity. Many examples are included, based on synthetic data and real measurements from the fields of physics, biology, medicine, macroeconomics etc., and a complete set of MATLAB exercises requiring no previous experience of programming is provided. Prior advanced mathematical skills are not needed in order to understand the contents: a good command of basic mathematical analysis is sufficient. Where more advanced mathematical tools are necessary, they are included in an Appendix and presented in an easy-to-follow way. With this book, digital signal processing leaves the domain of engineering to address the needs of scientists and scholars in traditionally less quantitative disciplines, now facing increasing amounts of data.

This is a book about how ecologists can integrate remote sensing and GIS in their daily work. It will allow ecologists to get started with the application of remote sensing and to understand its potential and limitations. Using practical examples, the book covers all necessary steps from planning field campaigns to deriving ecologically relevant information through remote sensing and modelling of species distributions. All practical examples in this book rely on OpenSource software and freely available data sets. Quantum GIS (QGIS) is introduced for basic GIS data handling, and in-depth spatial analytics and statistics are conducted with the software packages R and GRASS. Readers will learn how to apply remote sensing within ecological research projects, how to approach spatial data sampling and how to interpret remote sensing derived products. The authors discuss a wide range of statistical analyses with regard to satellite data as well as specialised topics such as time-series analysis. Extended scripts on how to create professional looking maps and graphics are also provided. This book is a valuable resource for students and scientists in the fields of conservation and ecology interested in learning how to get started in applying remote sensing in ecological research and conservation planning.

This book contains papers presented at the 6th Global Workshop on Digital Soil Mapping, held 11-14 November 2014 at the Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences of Nanjing, China. Digital soil mapping is advancing on different fronts at different paces throughout the world. The researches and applications on DSM are moving from method development to realizations in different scales and regions, serving the generation of national and continental to global soil grids. Meanwhile, new ideas and insights on mapping complex soil-landscapes such as flat plains,anthropogenically altered agriculture and urban spaces are emerging, with the help of new paradigms and models.The goal of the sixth workshop was to review and discuss the state of the art in digital soil mapping, and to explore strategies for bridging research, production, and environmental applications. This book provides a very useful and comprehensive overview of the status of digital soil mapping, in which graduate students, scientists and specialists working within the field of geography can find the spatial prediction approaches and related theory.

The book provides an overview of the state-of-the-art of map construction algorithms, which use tracking data in the form of trajectories to generate vector maps. The most common trajectory type is GPS-based trajectories. It introduces three emerging algorithmic categories, outlines their general algorithmic ideas, and discusses three representative algorithms in greater detail. To quantify map construction algorithms, the authors include specific datasets and evaluation measures. The datasets, source code of map construction algorithms and evaluation measures are publicly available on http://www.mapconstruction.org. The web site serves as a repository for map construction data and algorithms and researchers can contribute by uploading their own code and benchmark data. Map Construction Algorithms is an excellent resource for professionals working in computational geometry, spatial databases, and GIS. Advanced-level students studying computer science, geography and mathematics will also find this book a useful tool.

This book presents current applications of remote sensing techniques for clouds and precipitation for the benefit of students, educators, and scientists. It covers ground-based systems such as weather radars and spaceborne instruments on satellites. Measurements and modeling of precipitation are at the core of weather forecasting, and long-term observations of the cloud system are vital to improving atmospheric models and climate projections. The first section of the book focuses on the use of ground-based weather radars to observe and measure precipitation and to detect and forecast storms, thunderstorms, and tornadoes. It also discusses the observation of clouds using ground-based millimeter radar. The second part of the book concentrates on spaceborne remote sensing of clouds and precipitation. It includes cases from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, using satellite radars to observe precipitation systems. Then, the focus is on global cloud observations from the ClaudSat, Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO), including a perspective on the Earth Clouds, Aerosols, and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) satellite. It also addresses global atmospheric water vapor profiling for clear and cloudy conditions using microwave observations. The final part of this volume provides a perspective into advances in cloud modeling using remote sensing observations.

This book is an introduction to techniques and applications of optical methods for materials Characterization in civil and environmental engineering. Emphasizing chemical sensing and diagnostics, it is written for students and researchers studying the physical and chemical processes in manmade or natural materials. Optical Phenomenology and Applications - Health Monitoring for Infrastructure Materials and the Environment, describes the utility of optical-sensing technologies in applications that include monitoring of transport processes and reaction chemistries in materials of the infrastructure and the subsurface environment. Many of the applications reviewed will address long standing issues in infrastructure health monitoring such as the alkali silica reaction, the role of pH in materials degradation, and the remote and inset characterization of the subsurface environment. The remarkable growth in photonics has contributed immensely to transforming bench-top optical instruments to compact field deployable systems. This has also contributed to optical sensors for environmental sensing and infrastructure health monitoring. Application of optical waveguides and full field imaging for civil and environmental engineering application is introduced and chemical and physical recognition strategies are presented; this is followed by range of filed deployable applications. Emphasizing system robustness, and long-term durability, examples covered include in-situ monitoring of transport phenomena, imaging degradation chemistries, and remote sensing of the subsurface ground water.

This book explores the new materials and the resultant new field of piezotronics. The growth and alignment of the zinc oxide nanostructures are discussed in detail because of its wide adoption in this field and its significance in optics, health, and sensing applications. The characterization of the piezotronic effect and how to distinguish it from other similar but, fundamentally different effects, like piezoresistive effect is also considered. The huge potential in the wearable and flexible devices, as well as organic materials, is further examined. The stain/stress sensing is introduced as an example of an application with piezotronic materials.

This book addresses space science and communication - one of the main pillars of space science sustainability, an area that has recently become of great importance. In this regard, research and development play a crucial role in sustainability development. However, obtaining essential data in the physical world to interpret the universe and to predict what could happen in the future is a challenging undertaking. Accordingly, providing valid information to understand trends, evaluate needs, and create sustainable development policies and programs in the best interest of all the people is indispensable. This book was prepared in conjunction with the fifth meeting of the 2017 International Conference on Space Science and Communication (IconSpace2017), held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 3-5 May 2017 to introduce graduate stuandents, researchers, lecturers, engineers, geospatialists, meteorologists, climatologists, astronomers and practitioners to the latest applications of space science, telecommunications, meteorology, remote sensing and related fields. The individual papers discuss a broad range of space science and technology applications, e.g. the formation of global warming from space, environmental and remote sensing, communication systems, and smart materials for space applications.

This book highlights the application of Geographical Information System (GIS) and nature based algorithms to solve the problems of water and water based renewable energy resources. The irregularity in availability of resources and inefficiency in utilization of the available resources has reduced the potentiality of water and water based renewable energy resources. In recent years various soft computation methods (SCM) along with GIS were adopted to solve critical problems. The book collects various studies where many SCMs were used along with GIS to provide a solution for optimal utilization of natural resources for satisfying the basic needs of the population as well as fulfilling their burgeoning energy demands. The articles depict innovative application of soft computation techniques to identify the root cause and to mitigate the uncertainty for optimal utilization of the available water resources. The advantage of SCM and GIS were used to maximize the utilization of water resources under cost and time constraints in face of climatic abnormalities and effect of rapid urbanization.

This book gathers selected and expanded contributions presented at the 4th Symposium on Space Optical Instruments and Applications, which was held in Delft, the Netherlands, on October 16-18, 2017. This conference series is organized by the Sino-Holland Space Optical Instruments Laboratory, a cooperative platform between China and the Netherlands. The symposium focused on key technological problems regarding optical instruments and their applications in a space context. It covered the latest developments, experiments and results on the theory, instrumentation and applications of space optics. The book is split into five main sections: The first covers optical remote sensing system design, the second focuses on advanced optical system design, and the third addresses remote sensor calibration and measurement. Remote sensing data processing and information extraction are then presented, followed by a final section on remote sensing data applications.

These proceedings present selected research papers from CSNC 2018, held during 23rd-25th May in Harbin, China. The theme of CSNC 2018 is Location, Time of Augmentation. These papers discuss the technologies and applications of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and the latest progress made in the China BeiDou System (BDS) especially. They are divided into 12 topics to match the corresponding sessions in CSNC 2018, which broadly covered key topics in GNSS. Readers can learn about the BDS and keep abreast of the latest advances in GNSS techniques and applications.

These proceedings present selected research papers from CSNC 2018, held during 23rd-25th May in Harbin, China. The theme of CSNC 2018 is Location, Time of Augmentation. These papers discuss the technologies and applications of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and the latest progress made in the China BeiDou System (BDS) especially. They are divided into 12 topics to match the corresponding sessions in CSNC 2018, which broadly covered key topics in GNSS. Readers can learn about the BDS and keep abreast of the latest advances in GNSS techniques and applications.

Plane and Geodetic Surveying blends together theory and practice, conventional techniques and satellite-based methods, to provide the ideal book for students of surveying. It gives detailed guidance on how and when the principal surveying instruments (total stations, levels and navigational satellite receivers) should be used. It fully and clearly explains the concepts and formulae needed to convert instrument readings into useful and reliable results. It offers rigorous explanations of the theoretical background to surveying, while at the same time providing a wealth of useful advice about conducting a survey in practice. The book also contains an accompanying least square adjustment program that is available for free download. What's New in the Second Edition: Revises and updates the text to reflect recent developments in satellite navigation, laser scanners and total stations Provides a more rigorous treatment of how to calculate and use mean earth curvature in geodetic geometry Includes substantial additional information on precise levelling, spherical and ellipsoidal geometry, trigonometric heighting and setting out Offers a fuller description of mapping systems, including the State Plane Coordinate System This book is essential for all students of surveying and for practitioners who need a 'stand-alone' text for further reading.

This book highlights studies of differentiation problems of natural geosystems because of anthropogenic impact. The systematic methodology of comprehensive ecological assessment of anthropogenic impact on natural geosystems and their differentiations on the level of technogenic conditionality for ensuring rational environmental management and environmental protection are discussed. The practical importance of this book lies in the evidence-based recommendations and actions for conservation and quality management of the environment in order to decrease the degree of anthropogenic impact and in prevention of degradation processes. The book is useful to the researchers, industrial, scientific, and other organizations in establishing the purpose of the problem and solution to environmental protection and rational environmental management.

This book provides an information fusion model with information fusion theory, geographic information system technology and modern mathematical methods to evaluate the risks of groundwater inrushes from aquifers underlying coal seams. In this new model, the water inrush vulnerable index was calculated with variable weights theory. It overcomes the defect of the traditional vulnerability index method that assumes constant weights for the factors controlling the water inrush. Mine water inrush events often occur during coal mine construction and production; they account for a large proportion of the nation's coal mine disasters and accidents in China. Between 2005 and 2014, 513 water inrush incidents have occurred with a total loss of 2,753 lives. As mining depths and mining intensity continue to increase, the hydrogeological conditions encountered are becoming more complex. The innovative model presented here was applied to two coal mines in China with proved better results than the traditional vulnerability index method.