Lidar or laser radar, the depth-resolved remote measurement of atmospheric parameters with optical means, has become an important tool in the field of atmospheric and environmental remote sensing. In this volume the latest progress in the development of Lidar methods, experiments, and applications is described. The content is based on selected and thoroughly refereed papers presented at the 18th International Laser Radar Conference, Berlin, 22 - 26 July 1996. The book is divided into six parts which cover the topics of tropospheric aerosols and clouds, Lidar in space, wind, water vapor, troposheric trace gases and plumes, and stratospheric and mesospheric profiling. As a supplement to fundamental LIDAR textbooks this volume may serve as a guide through the blossoming field of modern Lidar techniques.

The book contains 31 papers on different fields of application and the problems of modelling and organizing data in structures, the processing techniques of GIS data for queries to the system and the so-called Dynamic GIS have been reported in detail. A final paper on Computer Graphics principles is included. Its contents can be ideally collected in five chapters, in the first one some experiences on data acquisition with low cost DGPS for road survey and overview on Vehicle Navigation Systems (VNS) are shown. The second on "GIS data acquisition and evaluationa collects a sort of papers treating robust statistical techniques applied to pre-processing, analysis and testing for different kinds of GIS data. Within the topic on "image acquisition and preprocessinga in particular some experiences on test and calibration of different scanners for GIS data acquisition are reported as well as some original approaches to the automatic DTM generation for cartographic and close range applications. Finally, some applications to the environmental monitoring and to the use of different kinds of geodetic data in multipurpose regional GIS, together with some examples of the applicability of multimedia technology to architecture and civil engineering is shown.

This book aims to help students, researchers and policy makers understand the latest research and development trends in the application of WebGIS for Disaster Management and Emergency Response. It is designed as a useful tool to better assess the mechanisms for planning, response and mitigation of the impact of disaster scenarios at the local, regional or national levels. It contains details on how to use WebGIS to solve real-world problems associated with Disaster Management Scenarios for the long-term sustainability. The book broadens the reader understanding of the policy and decision-making issues related to Disaster Management response and planning.

A concise text presenting the fundamental concepts in Geographical Information Systems (GIS), emphasising an understanding of techniques in management, analysis and graphic display of spatial information. Divided into five parts - the first part reviews the development and application of GIS, followed by a summary of the characteristics and representation of geographical information. It concludes with an overview of the functions provided by typical GIS systems. Part Two introduces co-ordinate systems and map projections, describes methods for digitising map data and gives an overview of remote sensing. Part Three deals with data storage and database management, as well as specialised techniques for accessing spatial data. Spatial modelling and analytical techniques for decision making form the subject of Part Four, while the final part is concerned with graphical representation, emphasising issues of graphics technology, cartographic design and map generalisation.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the ESPRIT Working Group CONTESSA Workshop on Constraint Databases and Applications, held in Friedrichshafen, Germany in September 1995.
The 10 full revised papers selected for inclusion in this volume are written by and for practitioners, researchers, and application users of core constraint database technology; they can be classified in three sections on expressiveness of the various constraint database models; implementation and optimization issues in areas like spatial databases, geographic information systems, scheduling and routing. This book is the first to focus on the extension of the important new programming paradigm of constraint processing to database design and management.

Contents:
1. Introduction Andrew Skidmore 2. Taxonomy of Environmental Models in the Spatial Sciences Andrew Skidmore 3. New Environmental Remote Sensing Systems F Van Der Meer, K Schmidt, V Bakker and W Bijker 4. Geographic Data for Environmental Modelling and Assessment Bradley C Reed, Jesslyn F Brown and Thomas R Loveland 5. The Biosphere: A Global Perspective S O Los, C J Tucker, A Anyamba, M Cherlet, G J Collatz, L Giglio, F G Hall and J A Kendall 6. Vegetation Mapping and Monitoring Curtis E Woodcock, Scott A Macomber and Lalit Kumber 7, Applications of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems in Wildlife Mapping and Modelling Jan de Leeuw, Wilbur K Ottichilo, Albertus G Toxopeus and Herbert H T Prins 8. Biodiversity Mapping and Modelling J R Busby 9. Approaches to Spatially Distributed Hydrological Modelling in a GIS Environment L Olsson and P Pilesjo 10. Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems for Natural Disaster Management C J Van Western 11. Land Use Planning and Environmental Impact Assessment Using Geographic Information Systems Egide Nizeyimana, Gary W Peterson and Joan C Looijen

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on Spatial Information Theory, COSIT'95, held near Vienna, Austria, in September 1995.
Spatial Information Theory brings together three fields of research of paramount importance for geographic information systems technology, namely spatial reasoning, representation of space, and human understanding of space. The book contains 36 fully revised papers selected from a total of 78 submissions and gives a comprehensive state-of-the-art report on this exciting multidisciplinary - and highly interdisciplinary - area of research and development.

A significant part of understanding how people use geographic information and technology concerns human cognition. This book provides the first comprehensive in-depth examination of the cognitive aspects of human-computer interaction for geographic information systems (GIS). Cognitive aspects are treated in relation to individual, group, behavioral, institutional, and cultural perspectives. Extensions of GIS in the form of spatial decision support systems and SDSS for groups are part of the geographic information technology considered. Audience: Geographic information users, systems analysts and system designers, researchers in human-computer interaction will find this book an information resource for understanding cognitive aspects of geographic information technology use, and the methods appropriate for examining this use.

This volume constitutes the proceedings of the International Workshop on Advanced Research in Geographic Information Systems, IGIS '94, held in Ascona, Switzerland in February/March 1994.
The 28 carefully refereed and revised papers address all current aspects of GIS research and their advanced applications to spatial and environmental data engineering. Among the topics covered are GIS theory, spatial databases, spatial data structures, environmental modelling and control, data modelling, object-orientation, pattern recognition, and optimization. In addition, software and non-commercial as well as commercial GIS are analysed.

Climate adaptation is a timely yet complex topic that does not fit squarely into any one disciplinary realm. Geospatial Applications for Climate Adaptation Planning presents an overview of the range of strategies, tools, and techniques that must be used to assess myriad overlapping vulnerabilities and to formulate appropriate climate-relevant solutions at multiple scales and in varying contexts. Organized into four sections, the book includes 15 chapters. Each chapter is grounded in the literature and presents case studies designed by the authors, as well as many examples from a diverse international group of scholars and entities in the public and private sectors. Areas covered include: Climate Change and Climate Adaptation Planning: Context and Concepts Geospatial Technologies: Fundamentals and Terminology GIS and Climate Vulnerability Assessments Technical Approaches to Formulating Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies Geospatial Applications for Climate Adaptation Planning is aimed at advanced students, researchers, and entities in the public and private sectors. It also provides supplementary reading for courses in planning, public administration, policy studies, and disaster management.

eBook available with sample pages: HB:0415125715

Written by leading global experts, including pioneers in the field, the four-volume set on Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation, Second Edition, reviews existing state-of-the-art knowledge, highlights advances made in different areas, and provides guidance for the appropriate use of hyperspectral data in the study and management of agricultural crops and natural vegetation. Volume IV, Advanced Applications in Remote Sensing of Agricultural Crops and Natural Vegetation discusses the use of hyperspectral or imaging spectroscopy data in numerous specific and advanced applications, such as forest management, precision farming, managing invasive species, and local to global land cover change detection. It emphasizes the importance of hyperspectral remote sensing tools for studying vegetation processes and functions as well as the appropriate use of hyperspectral data for vegetation management practices. The concluding chapter provides readers with useful guidance on the highlights and essence of Volume IV through the editors' perspective. Key Features of Volume IV: Guides readers to harness the capabilities of the most recent advances in applying hyperspectral remote sensing technology to the study of terrestrial vegetation. Includes specific applications on agriculture, crop management practices, study of crop stress and diseases, crop characteristics based on inputs (e.g., nitrogen, irrigation), study of vegetation impacted by heavy metals, gross and net primary productivity studies, light use efficiency studies, crop water use and actual evapotranspiration studies, phenology monitoring, land use and land cover studies, global change studies, plant species detection, wetland and forest characterization and mapping, crop productivity and crop water productivity mapping, and modeling. Encompasses hyperspectral or imaging spectroscopy data in narrow wavebands used across visible, red-edge, near-infrared, far-infrared, shortwave infrared, and thermal portions of the spectrum. Explains the implementation of hyperspectral remote sensing data processing mechanisms in a standard, fast, and efficient manner for their applications. Discusses cloud computing to overcome hyperspectral remote sensing massive big data challenges. Provides hyperspectral analysis of rocky surfaces on the earth and other planetary systems.

Written by leading global experts, including pioneers in the field, the four-volume set on Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation, Second Edition, reviews existing state-of-the-art knowledge, highlights advances made in different areas, and provides guidance for the appropriate use of hyperspectral data in the study and management of agricultural crops and natural vegetation. Volume I, Fundamentals, Sensor Systems, Spectral Libraries, and Data Mining for Vegetation introduces the fundamentals of hyperspectral or imaging spectroscopy data, including hyperspectral data processes, sensor systems, spectral libraries, and data mining and analysis, covering both the strengths and limitations of these topics. This book also presents and discusses hyperspectral narrowband data acquired in numerous unique spectral bands in the entire length of the spectrum from various ground-based, airborne, and spaceborne platforms. The concluding chapter provides readers with useful guidance on the highlights and essence of Volume I through the editors' perspective. Key Features of Volume I: Provides the fundamentals of hyperspectral remote sensing used in agricultural crops and vegetation studies. Discusses the latest advances in hyperspectral remote sensing of ecosystems and croplands. Develops online hyperspectral libraries, proximal sensing and phenotyping for understanding, modeling, mapping, and monitoring crop and vegetation traits. Implements reflectance spectroscopy of soils and vegetation. Enumerates hyperspectral data mining and data processing methods, approaches, and machine learning algorithms. Explores methods and approaches for data mining and overcoming data redundancy; Highlights the advanced methods for hyperspectral data processing steps by developing or implementing appropriate algorithms and coding the same for processing on a cloud computing platform like the Google Earth Engine. Integrates hyperspectral with other data, such as the LiDAR data, in the study of vegetation. Includes best global expertise on hyperspectral remote sensing of agriculture, crop water use, plant species detection, crop productivity and water productivity mapping, and modeling.

Written by leading global experts, including pioneers in the field, the four-volume set on Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation, Second Edition, reviews existing state-of- the-art knowledge, highlights advances made in different areas, and provides guidance for the appropriate use of hyperspectral data in the study and management of agricultural crops and natural vegetation. Volume II, Hyperspectral Indices and Image Classifications for Agriculture and Vegetation evaluates the performance of hyperspectral narrowband or imaging spectroscopy data with specific emphasis on the uses and applications of hyperspectral narrowband vegetation indices in characterizing, modeling, mapping, and monitoring agricultural crops and vegetation. This volume presents and discusses topics such as the non-invasive quantification of foliar pigments, leaf nitrogen concentration of cereal crop, the estimation of nitrogen content in crops and pastures, and forest leaf chlorophyll content, among others. The concluding chapter provides readers with useful guidance on the highlights and essence of Volume II through the editors' perspective. Key Features of Volume II: Provides the fundamentals of hyperspectral narrowband vegetation indices and hyperspectral derivative vegetation indices and their applications in agriculture and vegetation studies. Discusses the latest advances in hyperspectral image classification methods and their applications. Explains the massively big hyperspectral sensing data processing on cloud computing architectures. Highlights the state-of-the-art methods in the field of hyperspectral narrowband vegetation indices for monitoring agriculture, vegetation, and their properties such as plant water content, nitrogen, chlorophyll, and others at leaf, canopy, field, and landscape scales. Includes best global expertise on hyperspectral remote sensing of agriculture, crop water use, plant species detection, crop productivity and water productivity mapping, and modeling.

This volume collects the papers presented at the European Conference on Spatial Information Theory (COSIT '93) held on the island of Elba, Italy, inSeptember 1993. Spatial information theory includes disciplinary topics and interdisciplinary issues dealing with the conceptualization and formalization of large-scale (geographic) space. It contributes towards a consistent theoretical basis for Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Geographic information systems are widely used in administration, planning, and science in many different countries, and for a wide variety ofapplications. Research results which relevant for GIS are distributed between many disciplines and contacts between researchers have been limited. At the same time, the development of GIS has been hinderedby the lack of a sound theoretical base. This conference was intended to help remedies these problems.

This book is based on the premise that research necessary to advance the utility of geographic informatior. systems must extend far beyond concerns with technical issues. The search for formalisms and generalizable principles relative to the behavior and needs of individuals, organizations and institutions is just as important in enabling optimal use of geographic information innovations. This book consists of papers prepared by participants in the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) on "Modeling the Diffusion and Use of Geographic Information Technologies. " The workshop was held AprilS-II, 1992, in Sounion, Greece. The idea for the workshop and this volume arose from discussions among U. S. and European researchers who had been involved in carrying out studies on the use and diffusion of geographic information innovations and actively involved in critically analyzing each other's work. We felt the time was ripe for reporting studies recently accomplished by the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (U. S. A. ), the Economic and Social Research Council (U. K. ), and others relative to these research topics. A workshop would allow contact among and international comparisons with those who were working independently on similar problems with similar or alternative approaches. It would also allow the bringing together of scholars in technology diffusion, management information systems, and sociology with scholars from the GIS community.

Based on the Lectures given during the Eurocourse on 'Imaging Spectroscopy: Fundamentals and Prospective Applications', held at the Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy, October 23-27, 1989

Spatial database management has become an important subarea of current database research. Research in this area is often characterized by interdisciplinary cooperation: computer scientists work with geographers andenvironmental scientists to provide better access to spatial databases of steadily increasing size. After the First Symposium on Large Spatial Databases (SSD '89) was held in Santa Barbara, California, in 1989 (and its proceedings published as Volume 409 of this series), a second symposium (SSD'91) was held in Zurich, Switzerland. This proceedings volume contains the papers presented at SSD '91. Topics include spatial data models and access methods, performance studies, geometric algorithms, spatial query languages and user interfaces, geographic information systems, and object-oriented techniques.

Spatial Webs charts the cultural heritage and identity of Anatolia, focusing on projects that incorporate Geographic Information Systems and other analytical tools in spatially significant research into the past. An important new contribution to archaeology and cultural heritage research, the volume brings together multidisciplinary researchers engaged in creating and using spatialized data resources for interactive web-mapping applications. The topics explored include sociospatial differentiation in bostancibasi registers, identity mapping the Jewish communities of medieval Anatolia, and the Turkey Cultural Heritage Map of the Hrant Dink Foundation.

This monograph describes methods for extending relational database systems for geographic applications. The ways in which a relational database system is supplemented with unconventional spatial indexing structures, additional spatial subsystems and query processors are described in great detail. The work presents an extensive survey of existing spatial indexing techniques and a taxonomy of the extensions to the multidimensional indexing structures. An extensive experimental analysis of spatial indexes is presented. The work covers the following areas: - the design of geographic information systems (GIS) - extended query languages for GIS - spatial indexing mechanisms - query processing strategies. The author presents his own skd-trees and extended query optimization strategies. The survey of spatial indexing structures for non-zero sized objects provides a framework for workers in the field of spatial information systems to evaluate spatial access methods. The consideration of query optimization will assist understanding of the role of that topic in GIS.

It has long been a dream to realize machines with flexible visual perception capability. Research on digital image processing by computers was initiated about 30 years ago, and since then a wide variety of image processing algorithms have been devised. Using such image processing algorithms and advanced hardware technologies, many practical ma chines with visual recognition capability have been implemented and are used in various fields: optical character readers and design chart readers in offices, position-sensing and inspection systems in factories, computer tomography and medical X-ray and microscope examination systems in hospitals, and so on. Although these machines are useful for specific tasks, their capabilities are limited. That is, they can analyze only simple images which are recorded under very carefully adjusted photographic conditions: objects to be recognized are isolated against a uniform background and under well-controlled artificial lighting. In the late 1970s, many image understanding systems were de veloped to study the automatic interpretation of complex natural scenes. They introduced artificial intelligence techniques to represent the knowl edge about scenes and to realize flexible control structures. The first author developed an automatic aerial photograph interpretation system based on the blackboard model (Naga1980). Although these systems could analyze fairly complex scenes, their capabilities were still limited; the types of recognizable objects were limited and various recognition vii viii Preface errors occurred due to noise and the imperfection of segmentation algorithms."

Within the framework of Ispra Courses, a course on "Applications of Remote Sensing to Agrometeorology" was held from April 6th to 10th, 1987 at the Joint Research Centre of the European Communities, Ispra Italy. The purpose of the course was to familiarize scientists, active in Agrometeorology and related fields, with remote sensing techniques and their potential applications in their respective disciplines. Conventional ground investigations in various fields of natural sciences such as hydrology, pedology and agrometeorology can be supple mented by a range of instruments carried by airborne or earth orbiting platforms. The last few years, in particular, have seen many developments in this respect and a growing amount of information can now be derived not only from dedicated earth resources satellites such as the LANDSAT and SPOT, but also from other platforms such as METEOSAT and the series of NOAA-TIROS. Future platforms (ERS-l, Space Station, etc.) with their advanced sensors will further broaden the range of applications open to the investigators. The use of these data sources, together with field investigations, can lead, at a reduced cost, to a better characterization of the spatial and temporal properties of natural systems.

GPS-Techniques Applied to Geodesy and Surveying contains the proceedings of an international workshop held in April 1988 at the Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany. It presents a state-of-the-art description of GPS techniques applied to geodesy and surveying with emphasis on monitoring time dependent phenomena. Theoretical, numerical, instrumental and rather general aspects of modern satellite positioning are treated. The articles are easy to read; the book addresses newcomers to the field as well as experts.

An authoritative guide to the essential techniques and most recent advances in urban remote sensing Techniques and Methods in Urban Remote Sensing offers a comprehensive guide to the recent theories, methods, techniques, and applications in urban remote sensing. Written by a noted expert on the subject, this book explores the requirements for mapping impervious surfaces and examines the issue of scale. The book covers a range of topics and includes illustrative examples of commonly used methods for estimating and mapping urban impervious surfaces, explains how to determine urban thermal landscape and surface energy balance, and offers information on impacts of urbanization on land surface temperature, water quality, and environmental health. Techniques and Methods in Urban Remote Sensing brings together in one volume the latest opportunities for combining ever-increasing computational power, more plentiful and capable data, and more advanced algorithms. This allows the technologies of remote sensing and GIS to become mature and to gain wider and better applications in environments, ecosystems, resources, geosciences, geography and urban studies. This important book: Contains a comprehensive resource to the latest developments in urban remote sensing Explains urban heat islands modeling and analysis Includes information on estimating urban surface energy fluxes Offers a guide to generating data on land surface temperature Written for professionals and students of environmental, ecological, civic and urban studies, Techniques and Methods in Urban Remote Sensing meets the demand for an updated resource that addresses the recent advances urban remote sensing.

Wireless Sensor Networks overcome the difficulties of other monitoring systems. However, they require further efficiencies for Outdoor Environment Monitoring (OEM) applications due to their harsh operational conditions, huge targeted areas, limited energy budget, and required 3D setups. A fundamental issue in defeating these practical challenges is deployment planning. The deployment plan is a key factor of many intrinsic properties of OEM networks, summarized in connectivity, lifetime, fault-tolerance, and cost-effectiveness. This book investigates the problem of WSNs deployments that address these properties in order to overcome the unique challenges and circumstances in OEM applications.