People and the Environment: Approaches for Linking Household and Community Surveys to Remote Sensing and GIS appeals to a wide range of natural, social, and spatial scientists with interests in conducting population and environment research and thereby characterizing (a) land use and land cover dynamics through remote sensing, (b) demographic and socio-economic variables through household and community surveys, and (c) local site and situation through resource endowments, geographical accessibility, and connections of people to place through GIS. Case studies are used to examine theories and practices useful in linking people and the environment. We also describe land use and land cover dynamics and the associated social, biophysical, and geographical drivers of change articulated through human-environment interactions.

Arthur Robert Hinks (1873 1945) was a renowned British astronomer and geographer. First published in 1944, as the fifth edition of a 1913 original, this book was written by Hinks to provide a general introduction to the study of maps and the surveying processes through which they are made. The text begins with a brief history of early maps, before moving through various types of modern map and methods of surveying. Numerous illustrative figures are also included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the history of cartography and geography."

This book constitutes the refereed conference proceedings of the 12th International Symposium, W2GIS 2013, held in Banff, Canada, in April 2013. The 11 revised full papers and 5 short papers presented were carefully selected from 28 submissions. The program covers a wide range of topics including Spatial Semantics and Databases, Location-based Services and Applications, Trajectory Representation and Sensor Web, Spatial Analysis and Systems and Map Generation and Modeling.

This book complements the growing body of literature exploring the relationships between arts and cartography . It is distinct from the previous ones by its main focus: The multiple ways of representing a database. In the context of the exponential increase of the volume of geospatial data available, addressing this issue becomes critical and has not yet received much attention. Furthermore, the content of the database - environmental issues in the city - gives a strong social and political texture to the project. The expected audience for this book are academic as well as students interested in the relationships between art and cartography, place and technology, power and representations. This book could serve as an inspiration for local groups and communities dealing with environmental injustice all over the world. Finally, at a local scale, this book could become a major reference for individuals, communities and institutions interested in environmental issues in the city of Montreal.

Geomatics, the handling and processing of information and data about the Earth, is one geoscience discipline that has seen major changes in the last decade, as mapping and observation systems become ever more sensitive and sophisticated. This book is a unique and in-depth survey of the field, which has a central role to play in tackling a host of environmental issues faced by society. Covering all three strands of geomatics - applications, information technology and surveying - the chapters cover the history and background of the subject, the technology employed both to collect and disseminate data, and the varied applications to which geomatics can be put, including urban planning, assessment of biodiversity, disaster management and land administration. Relevant professionals, as well as students in a variety of disciplines such as geography and surveying, will find this book required reading.
This rapidly developing field uses increasingly complex and accurate systems. Today, technology enables us to capture geo-data in full 3D as well as to disseminate it via the Web at the speed of light. We are able to continuously image the world from space at resolutions of up to 50 cm. Airborne LiDAR (laser surveying) sensors can be combined with digital camera technology to produce geometrically correct images of the Earth's surface, while integrating these with large-scale topographic maps and terrestrial as well as aerial images to produce 3D cityscapes that computer users can explore from their desktops.

Terrestrial mass movements (i.e. cliff collapses, soil creeps, mudflows, landslides etc.) are severe forms of natural disasters mostly occurring in mountainous terrain, which is subjected to specific geological, geomorphological and climatological conditions, as well as to human activities. It is a challenging task to accurately define the position, type and activity of mass movements for the purpose of creating inventory records and potential vulnerability maps. Remote sensing techniques, in combination with Geographic Information System tools, allow state-of-the-art investigation of the degree of potential mass movements and modeling surface processes for hazard and risk mapping. Similarly, through statistical prediction models, future mass-movement-prone areas can be identified and damages can to a certain extent be minimized. Issues of scale and selection of morphological attributes for the scientific analysis of mass movements call for new developments in data modeling and spatio-temporal GIS analysis.
The book is a product of a cooperation between the editors and several contributing authors, addressing current issues and recent developments in GI technology and mass movements research. Its fundamental treatment of this technology includes data modeling, topography, geology, geomorphology, remote sensing, artificial neural networks, binomial regression, fuzzy logic, spatial statistics and analysis, and scientific visualization. Both theoretical and practical issues are addressed.

A state-of-the-art view of recent developments in the use of artificial neural networks for analysing remotely sensed satellite data. Neural networks, as a new form of computational paradigm, appear well suited to many of the tasks involved in this image analysis. This book demonstrates a wide range of uses of neural networks for remote sensing applications and reports the views of a large number of European experts brought together as part of a concerted action supported by the European Commission.

As corroborated by the never-sagging and even increasing interest within the last decade, the intuitive attraction of "True 3D" in geodata presentation is well worth covering its current status and recent developments in a compendium like the present one. It covers most aspects of (auto-) stereoscopic representation techniques of both topographic and thematic geodata, be they haptic or not. Theory is treated as well as are many fields of concrete applications. Displays for big audiences and special single-user applications are presented, well-established technologies like classical manual fabrication of landscape reliefs contrast with cutting-edge developments

The Internet has become the major form of map delivery. The current presentation of maps is based on the use of online services. This session examines developments related to online methods of map delivery, particularly Application Programmer Interfaces (APIs) and MapServices in general, including Google Maps API and similar services. Map mashups have had a major impact on how spatial information is presented. The advantage of using a major online mapping site is that the maps represent a common and recognizable representation of the world. Overlaying features on top of these maps provides a frame of reference for the map user. A particular advantage for thematic mapping is the ability to spatially reference thematic data.

This book, entitled Advances in Spatial Data Handling, is a compendium of papers resulting from the International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling (SDH), held in Ottawa, Canada, July 9-12, 2002. The SDH conference series has been organised as one of the main activities of the International Geographical Union (IGU) since it was first started in Zurich in 1984. In the late 1990's the IGU Commission of Geographic Information Systems was discontinued and a study group was formed to succeed it in 1997. Much like the IGU Commission, the objectives of the Study Group are to create a network of people and research centres addressing geographical information science and to facilitate exchange of information. The International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling, which is the most important activity of the IGU Study Group, has, throughout its 18 year history been highly regarded as one of the most important GIS conferences in the world.

This book explores the roles in which volunteered and professional information play within neogeography from a human factors perspective. The unique advantages of each information type are considered alongside how they may be utilised to create products and services delivering highly functional, efficient and satisfying experiences to their users. The overall aim of this book is to address the issue of how Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) can be combined with Professional Geographic Information (PGI) to satisfy the information search requirements of consumer-users via highly usable mashups. Firstly, this required the development of an understanding of the way different users perceive VGI and PGI in terms of its benefits to their activities and information needs. Secondly, the benefits that VGI may bring to the user experience of a mashup (which cannot be attained through the use of PGI) needed to be understood. In order to achieve this, a user centred design perspective was implemented throughout the research.

Optical remote sensing is of invaluable help in understanding the marine environment and its biogeochemical and physical processes. The Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS), which operated on board the Nimbus-7 satellite from late 1978 to early 1986, has been the main source of ocean colour data. Much work has been devoted to CZCS data processing and analysis techniques throughout the 1980s. After a decade of experience, the Productivity of the Global Ocean (PGO) Activity - which was established in the framework of the International Space Year 1992 (ISY '92) by SAFISY, the Space Agency Forum of ISY - sponsored a workshop aimed at providing a reference in ocean colour science and at promoting the full exploitation of the CZCS historical data in the field of biological oceanography. The present volume comprises a series of state-of-the-art contributions on theory, applications and future perspectives of ocean colour. After an introduction on the historical perspective of ocean colour, a number of articles are devoted to the CZCS theoretical background, on radiative transfer and in-water topics, as well as on calibration, atmospheric correction and pigment concentration retrieval algorithms developed for the CZCS. Further, a review is given of major applications of CZCS data around the world, carried out in the past decade. The following part of the book is centered on the application of ocean colour to the assessment of marine biological information, with particular regard to plankton biomass, primary productivity and the coupling of physical/biological models. The links between global oceanic production and climate dynamics are also addressed. Finally, the last section is devoted to future approaches and goals of ocean colour science, and to planned sensors and systems. The book is required reading for those involved in ocean colour and related disciplines, providing an overview of the current status in this field as well as stimulating the debate on new ideas and developments for upcoming ocean colour missions.

Geotechnologies and the Environment: Environmental Applications and Mana- ment presents an engaging and diverse array of physically-oriented GIScience applications that have been organized using four broad themes. While the book's themes are by no means mutually exclusive, Hoalst-Pullen and Patterson provide an elegant overview of the eld that frames the collection's subsequent thematic str- ture - Wilderness and Wildlife Response; Glaciers; Wetlands and Watersheds; and Human Health and the Environment. Over the course of the volume, the contrib- ing authors move beyond basic (and in some respects cliched) landscape ecology of land use change to explore human-environment dynamics heretofore not emp- sized in the applied literature. In doing so, the collection presents a compelling case for the importance of developing new physically-oriented GIScience applications that reside at the nexus of social and natural systems with the explicit intent of informing public policy and/or the decision making practices of resource managers. Individually, the chapters themselves are intentionally diverse. The diversity of the approaches, their spatial context, and emphases on management applications demonstrate the many ways in which geotechnologies can be used to address small and big problems in both developed and developing regions. The collection's int- nal coherence is derived - like the book series - from its explicit appeal to a wide variety of human-environment interactions with potential policy linkages.

Water is vital to life, maintenance of ecological balance, economic development, and sustenance of civilization. Planning and management of water resources and its optimal use are a matter of urgency for most countries of the world, and even more so for India with a huge population. Growing population and expanding economic activities exert increasing demands on water for varied needs--domestic, industrial, agricultural, power generation, navigation, recreation, etc. In India, agriculture is the highest user of water. The past three decades have witnessed numerous advances as well as have presented intriguing challenges and exciting opportunities in hydrology and water resources. Compounding them has been the growing environmental consciousness. Nowhere are these challenges more apparent than in India. As we approach the twenty first century, it is entirely fitting to take stock of what has been accomplished and what remains to be accomplished, and what accomplishments are relevant, with particular reference to Indian conditions."

The Arctic sea ice is characterized by profound changes caused by surface melting processes and the formation of melt ponds in summer. Melt ponds contribute to the ice-albedo feedback as they reduce the surface albedo of sea ice, and hence accelerate the decay of Arctic sea ice. To quantify the melting of the entire Arctic sea ice, satellite based observations are necessary. Due to different spectral properties of snow, ice, and water, theoretically, multi-spectral optical sensors are necessary for the analysis of these distinct surface types. This study demonstrates the potential of optical sensors to detect melt ponds on Arctic sea ice. For the first time, an Arctic-wide, multi-annual melt pond data set for the years 2000-2011 has been created and analyzed.

The Ninth International Conference on Basement Tectonics was held at the Australian National University in Canberra 2-6 July 1990. The opening keynote address was given by Prof. R.W.R. Rutland, Director of the Bureau of Mineral Resources. Other keynote speakers were E.S.T. O'Driscoll, an Australian consultant, and Prof P. Bankwitz, Central Institute for Physics of the Earth, Potsdam, GDR. Technical sessions were arranged by session conveners on the following five topic- i) The structure of the Australian craton and cover basins; ii) Basement structure of continental regions; iii) Structural patterns and mineral deposits; iv) Techniques for analysing basement structures; v) Structural patterns in oceanic crust. The arrangement of papers for this Proceedings Volume has been simplified. Part 1 deals with Australia, Part 2 with other areas and Part 3 lists the titles of all the papers read at the conference. Abstracts of these papers are available in Geological Society of Australia Abstracts No 26 and may be purchased for $AI0 from the Geological Society of Australia Office, ANA House, 301 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000. Field trips to view aspects of the Lachlan Fold Belt and the Sydney Basin were assisted by H.J. Harrington, D. Branagan, D. Wyborn, B. Drummond and M.J. Rick~d. A longer field trip, aborted through low enrolments, was organized by H.J. Harrington with assistance from W. Preiss, N. Cook, R. Glenn, A. Grady, and P. James; this assistance is gratefully acknowledged.

Linking People, Place, and Policy: A GIScience Approach describes a breadth of research associated with the study of human-environment interactions, with particular emphasis on land use and land cover dynamics. This book examines the social, biophysical, and geographical drivers of land use and land cover patterns and their dynamics, which are interpreted within a policy-relevant context. Concepts, tools, and techniques within Geographic Information Science serve as the unifying methodological framework in which landscapes in Thailand, Ecuador, Kenya, Cambodia, China, Brazil, Nepal, and the United States are examined through analyses conducted using quantitative, qualitative, and image-based techniques.

Linking People, Place, and Policy: A GIScience Approach addresses a need for a comprehensive and rigorous treatment of GIScience for research and study within the context of human-environment interactions. The human dimensions research community, land use and land cover change programs, and human and landscape ecology communities, among others, are collectively viewing the landscape within a spatially-explicit perspective, where people are viewed as agents of landscape change that shape and are shaped by the landscape, and where landscape form and function are assessed within a space-time context. This book articulates some of these challenges and opportunities.

Spatial information is pervaded by uncertainty. Indeed, geographical data is often obtained by an imperfect interpretation of remote sensing images, while people attach ill-defined or ambiguous labels to places and their properties. As another example, medical images are often the result of measurements by imprecise sensors (e.g. MRI scans). Moreover, by processing spatial information in real-world applications, additional uncertainty is introduced, e.g. due to the use of interpolation/extrapolation techniques or to conflicts that are detected in an information fusion step. To the best of our knowledge, this book presents the first overview of spatial uncertainty which goes beyond the setting of geographical information systems. Uncertainty issues are especially addressed from a representation and reasoning point of view. In particular, the book consists of 14 chapters, which are clustered around three central topics. The first of these topics is about the uncertainty in meaning of linguistic descriptions of spatial scenes. Second, the issue of reasoning about spatial relations and dealing with inconsistency in information merging is studied. Finally, interpolation and prediction of spatial phenomena are investigated, both at the methodological level and from an application-oriented perspective. The concept of uncertainty by itself is understood in a broad sense, including both quantitative and more qualitative approaches, dealing with variability, epistemic uncertainty, as well as with vagueness of terms.

The Earth s magnetic and gravity field play an important role in global and regional geodynamics. Satellite exploration of these fields has received great attention in recent years. Research satellites such as CHAMP and GRACE as well as the ESA explorer GOCE apply new measurement techniques, thus allowing the recovery of the gravitational and magnetic field with unprecedented accuracy and resolution, spatial as well as temporal. Combined with terrestrial observations and computer models, this data will help develop a more detailed understanding of the Earth as a system. In Germany, many of the processing, modelling and interpreting methodologies for these new observation techniques are developed under the umbrella of the R&D-programme GEOTECHNOLOGIEN, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The research projects focus on a better understanding of the spatial and temporal variations in the magnetic and gravity field and their relationship to the dynamics of the Earth s interior and global change processes.

This volume presents the results of the multidisciplinary studies covered by the programme for the period 2005-2008. It includes the following topics: High-accuracy gravity field models, near-real-time provision and usage of CHAMP and GRACE atmospheric sounding, sea level variations, improved GRACE gravity time series and their validation by ocean bottom pressure measurements, integration of space geodetic techniques as a basis for the Global Geodetic-Geophysical Observing System (GGOS), high-resolution magnetic field models and global magnetisation maps and time-variable gravity and surface mass processes."

This book contains twenty-eight papers by participants in the NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) on "Cognitive and Linguistic Aspects of Geographic Space," held in Las Navas del Maxques, Spain, July 8-20, 1990. The NATO ASI marked a stage in a two-year research project at the U. S. National Center for Geographic Infonnation and Analysis (NCOIA). In 1987, the U. S. National Science Foundation issued a solicitation for proposals to establish the NCGIA-and one element of that solicitation was a call for research on a "fundamental theory of spatial relations." We felt that such a fundamental theory could be searched for in mathematics (geometry, topology) or in cognitive science, but that a simultaneous search in these two seemingly disparate research areas might produce novel results. Thus, as part of the NCGIA proposal from a consortium consisting of the University of California at Santa Barbara, the State University of New York at Buffalo, and the University of Maine, we proposed that the second major Research Initiative (two year, multidisciplinary research project) of the NCOIA would address these issues, and would be called "Languages of Spatial Relations" The grant to establish the NCOIA was awarded to our consortium late in 1988.

Acoustic Signal Processing for Ocean Explortion has two major goals: (i) to present signal processing algorithms that take into account the models of acoustic propagation in the ocean and; (ii) to give a perspective of the broad set of techniques, problems, and applications arising in ocean exploration. The book discusses related issues and problems focused in model based acoustic signal processing methods. Besides addressing the problem of the propagation of acoustics in the ocean, it presents relevant acoustic signal processing methods like matched field processing, array processing, and localization and detection techniques. These more traditional contexts are herein enlarged to include imaging and mapping, and new signal representation models like time/frequency and wavelet transforms. Several applied aspects of these topics, such as the application of acoustics to fisheries, sea floor swath mapping by swath bathymetry and side scan sonar, autonomous underwater vehicles and communications in underwater are also considered.

Over the past 20 years the costs of natural disasters have escalated significantly. The lives of over 800 million people have been disrupted and the number of catastrophes has nearly quadrupled. At present, the increasing global threat of natural disasters, in spite of our increased knowledge, is ominous. With the growth in world population, the increasing of resources in newly developing areas, and the increasing cost and sophistication of engineering structures and technical installations, there is an urgent need to seek to understand the potential threats posed by natural hazards and to ascertain the best ways of mitigating their damaging effects. To meet this urgent threat, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in December 22, 1989 passed a Resolution which declared the 1990s to be the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR). As a contribution to the decade, the International Symposium Hazards--91 was held in Perugia, Italy, during 4--9 August 1991. The conference was attended by specialists from 34 countries, and a total of 110 papers were presented at 20 sessions, covering a very broad range of topics which proved to be of significant value for future research. The sixteen articles included in this book provide a unique overview of the state-of-the-science in geophysical hazards including climatic, atmospheric, hydrological and geological hazards. Furthermore, the results of a panel on the IDNDR and the recommendations adopted during the meeting are presented at the end of this volume. Recent Studies in Geophysical Hazards is thus an excellent reference source for scientists, engineers, and policy makers.

Through the results of a developed case study of information system for low temperature geothermal energy, GIS to Support Cost-effective Decisions on Renewable Sources addresses the issue of the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in evaluating cost-effectiveness of renewable resource exploitation on a regional scale. Focusing on the design of a Decision Support System, a process is presented aimed to transform geographic data into knowledge useful for analysis and decision-making on the economic exploitation of geothermal energy. This detailed description includes a literature review and technical issues related to data collection, data mining, decision analysis for the informative system developed for the case study. A multi-disciplinary approach to GIS design is presented which is also an innovative example of fusion of georeferenced data acquired from multiple sources including remote sensing, networks of sensors and socio-economic censuses. GIS to Support Cost-effective Decisions on Renewable Sources is a useful, practical reference for engineers, managers and researchers involved in the design of GIS, decision support systems, investment planning/strategy in renewable energy and ICT innovation in this field.

The diversity of life is displayed by a diversity the biodiversity elements. These unique of structural and functional elements. Many approaches are usually tailored to the region of aspects of this diversity are critical for main the world where the scientists' work is focused. taining the healthy functioning of biological This book presents accounts of many tech systems both within short and long time scales. niques that are currently being used in different Some highly diverse features of nature arise parts of the globe by conservation scientists. simply from the heterogeneous patterns that Many different techniques are necessary to comprise the web of nature. Many of these handle the differences in data types and data features contribute to the beauty and quality of coverages that occur across the globe. Also, a life. Humans do not yet understand enough variety of mapping approaches are needed about the complexity of nature to distinguish today to strengthen the many diverse critical those elements that act to support natural conservation objectives. These objectives include vitality from those elements that contribute the identification of the distribution patterns exclusively to our experience of beauty and for a species or habitat type and the placement quality in life. of protected area boundaries.