Flooding is one of the most devastating natural hazards in the world. Available records suggest that both flood frequency and severity are on the rise and this is likely to worsen in the context of climate change. As population, infrastructure and poverty grow rapidly in developing countries, particularly in urban agglomerations of 10 million people or more, floods could cause widespread devastation, economic damage and loss of life. Assessment of vulnerability and risk from naturally occurring phenomena is therefore imperative in order to achieve urban sustainability. This book uses geospatial techniques to evaluate hazards, risk and vulnerability at a metropolitan scale in a data-scarce country. An empirical study was performed using remote sensing, GIS and census data. This research offers a new approach to mapping population, infrastructures and communities at risk which can greatly contribute to the deeper understanding of flood disasters in a rapidly expanding megacity. Examples shown in this book are from Dhaka Megacity, however, the techniques and methods can easily be implemented in medium to large cities of similar characteristics. The book is essential reading for hazard researchers, geospatial scientists, disaster management professionals, geographers, urban planners, and social scientists. Ashraf M. Dewan is currently a Lecturer in the Department of Spatial Sciences at Curtin University, Western Australia (on leave from his substantive position as Associate Professor in the Geography & Environment Department at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh).

This book is the definitive guide to the techniques and applications of position location, covering both terrestrial and satellite systems. It gives all the techniques, theoretical models, and algorithms that engineers need to improve their current location schemes and to develop future location algorithms and systems.

Comprehensive coverage is given to system design trade-offs, complexity issues, and the design of efficient positioning algorithms to enable the creation of high-performance location positioning systems. Traditional methods are also reexamined in the context of the challenges posed by reconfigurable and multihop networks. Applications discussed include wireless networks (WiFi, ZigBee, UMTS, and DVB networks), cognitive radio, sensor networks and multihop networks.

Features

Contains a complete guide to models, techniques, and applications of position location

Includes applications to wireless networks, demonstrating the relevance of location positioning to these "hot" areas in research and development

Covers system design trade-offs and the design of efficient positioning algorithms, enabling the creation of future location positioning systems

Provides a theoretical underpinning for understanding current position location algorithms, giving researchers a foundation to develop future algorithms

David Munoz is Director and Cesar Vargas is a member of the Center for Electronics and Telecommunications, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico. Frantz Bouchereau is a senior communications software developer at The MathWorks Inc. in Natick, MA. Rogerio Enriquez-Caldera is at Instituto Nacional de Atrofisica, Optica y Electronica (INAOE), Puebla, Mexico.
Contains a complete guide to models, techniques and applications of position location
Includes applications to wireless networks (WiFi, ZigBee, DVB networks), cognitive radio, sensor networks and reconfigurable and multi-hop networks, demonstrating the relevance of location positioning to these hot areas in research and development
Covers system design trade-offs, and the design of efficient positioning algorithms enables the creation of future location positioning systems
Provides a theoretical underpinning for understanding current position location algorithms, giving researchers a foundation to develop future algorithms"

Land use and land cover (LULC) as well as its changes (LUCC) are an interplay between bio-geophysical characteristics of the landscape and climate as well as the complex human interaction including its different patterns of utilization superimposed on the natural vegetation. LULC is a core information layer for a variety of scientific and administrative tasks(e.g. hydrological modelling, climate models, land use planning).In particular in the context of climate change with its impacts on socio-economic, socio-ecologic systems as well as ecosystem services precise information on LULC and LUCC are mandatory baseline datasets required over large areas. Remote sensing can provide such information on different levels of detail and in a homogeneous and reliable way. Hence, LULC mapping can be regarded as a prototype for integrated approaches based on spaceborne and airborne remote sensing techniques combined with field observations. The book provides for the first time a comprehensive view of various LULC activities focusing on European initiatives, such as the LUCAS surveys, the CORINE land covers, the ESA/EU GMES program and its resulting Fast-Track- and Downstream Services, the EU JRC Global Land Cover, the ESA GlobCover project as well as the ESA initiative on Essential Climate Variables. All have and are producing highly appreciated land cover products. The book will cover the operational approaches, but also review current state-of-the-art scientific methodologies and recommendations for this field. It opens the view with best-practice examples that lead to a view that exceeds pure mapping, but to investigate into drivers and causes as well as future projections.

Realistically representing our three-dimensional world has been the subject of many (philosophical) discussions since ancient times. While the recognition of the globular shape of the Earth goes back to Pythagoras' statements of the sixth century B. C. , the two-dimensional, circular depiction of the Earth's surface has remained prevailing and also dominated the art of painting until the late Middle Ages. Given the immature technological means, objects on the Earth's surface were often represented in academic and technical disciplines by two-dimensional cross-sections oriented along combinations of three mutually perpendicular directions. As soon as computer science evolved, scientists have steadily been improving the three-dimensional representation of the Earth and developed techniques to analyze the many natural processes and phenomena taking part on its surface. Both computer aided design (CAD) and geographical information systems (GIS) have been developed in parallel during the last three decades. While the former concentrates more on the detailed design of geometric models of object shapes, the latter emphasizes the topological relationships between geographical objects and analysis of spatial patterns. Nonetheless, this distinction has become increasingly blurred and both approaches have been integrated into commercial software packages. In recent years, an active line of inquiry has emerged along the junctures of CAD and GIS, viz. 3D geoinformation science. Studies along this line have recently made significant inroads in terms of 3D modeling and data acquisition.

Wind erosion occurs in many arid, semiarid and agricultural areas of the world. It is an environmental process in?uenced by geological and climatic variations as well as human activities. In general, wind erosion leads to land degradation in agricultural areas and has a negative impact on air quality. Dustemissiongeneratedbywinderosionisthelargestsourceofaerosolswhich directly or indirectly in?uence the atmospheric radiation balance and hence global climatic variations. Strong wind-erosion events, such as severe dust storms, may threaten human lives and cause substantial economic damage. The physics of wind erosion is complex, as it involves atmospheric, soil and land-surface processes. The research on wind erosion is multidisciplinary, covering meteorology, ?uid dynamics, soil physics, colloidal science, surface soil hydrology, ecology, etc. Several excellent books have already been written about the topic, for instance, by Bagnold (1941, The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes), Greeley and Iversen (1985, Wind as a Geological P- cess on Earth, Mars, Venus and Titan), Pye (1987, Aeolian Dust and Dust Deposits), Pye and Tsoar (1990, Aeolian Sand and Sand Dunes). However, considerable progress has been made in wind-erosion research in recent years and there is a need to systematically document this progress in a new book.

This book examines air pollution of a big city using multi-year and multi-season data from ground-based air monitoring stations and satellite sounding data, which provides more clear and detailed information on the main sources of air pollution, the long-term trend of pollution, the influence of meteorological parameters on pollution levels, and trajectories of polluted air masses. For example, the book shows that particulate matter from local sources is transported from deserts to create air quality challenges. It also analyzes the effects of desert and semi-desert landscapes on high concentrations of pollutants.

Focusing on the special challenges posed by accurately pinpointing a location indoors, this volume reflects the distance we have come in the handful of decades since the germination of GPS technology. Not only can we locate a signal to within a meter's accuracy, but we now have this technology in the most basic mobile phone.

Tracing recent practical developments in positioning technology and in the market it supplies, the author examines the contributions of the varied research-in silicon, signal and image processing, radio communications and software-to a fast-evolving field. The book looks forward to a time when, in addition to directing your road journey, positioning systems can peer indoors and guide you to an available photocopier in your office building. Featuring standalone chapters each dealing with a specific aspect of the subject, including treatments of systems such as Zebra, Awarepoint, Aeroscout, IEEE 802.11, etc. This study has all the detail needed to get up to speed on a key modern technology.

"

This book presents a survey, dynamic monitoring and comprehensive analysis of Sri Lanka's land, vegetation, surface water, ocean and other environmental resources, as well as its economic, transportation, urban, agricultural and tourism development. It offers readers accurate, systematic and comprehensive information on Sri Lanka's ecological setting and socio-economic development. It also sheds light on policies for the protection of the environment and biodiversity.

This edited volume charts the history of celestial navigation over the course of five centuries. Written by a group of historians and scientists, it analyzes how competing navigation systems, technologies, and institutions emerged and developed, with a focus on the major players in the US and the UK. The history covers the founding of the Royal Observatory; the first printing of a Nautical Almanac; the founding of the US and UK Nautical Almanac Offices; the creation of international standards for reference systems and astronomical constants; and the impact of 20th century technology on the field, among other topics. Additionally, the volume analyzes the present role and status of celestial navigation, particularly with respect to modern radio and satellite navigation systems. With its diverse authorship and nontechnical language, this book will appeal to any reader interested in the history of science, technology, astronomy, and navigation over the ages.

This book provides a general overview of research activities related to locati- based services. These activities have emerged over the last years, especially around issues of positioning, sensor fusion, spatial modelling, cartographic communi- tion as well as in the ? elds of ubiquitious cartography, geo-pervasive services, user-centered modelling and geo-wiki activities. The innovative and contemporary character of these topics has led to a great variety of interdisciplinary contributions, from academia to business, from computer science to geodesy. Topics cover an enormous range with heterogenous relationships to the main book issues. Whilst contemporary cartography aims at looking at new and ef? cient ways for com- nicating spatial information, the development and availability of technologies like mobile networking, mobile devices or short-range sensors lead to interesting new possibilities for achieving this aim. By trying to make use of available technologies, cartography and a variety of related disciplines look speci? cally at user-centered and context-aware system development, as well as new forms of supporting way? nding and navigation systems. The contributions are a selection of full reviewed papers submitted to the th 5 Conference on Location Based Services and TeleCartography in Salzburg November 2008, jointly organized by Salzburg Research and Vienna University of Technology, Research Group Cartography. The production of this book would not have been possible without the prof- sional and formidable work of Manuela Schmidt and Felix Ortag. The editors are grateful for their help as well as for the help of Sven Leitinger.

This book offers a cross disciplinary treatment of the rapidly growing field of integrated approaches in risk assessment in mountainous areas. All major aspects related to hazard and risk assessment, risk management, and governance are illustrated with a wide range of case studies. The first part of the book focuses on new techniques for assessing the natural hazards of different types of mass movements. State-of-the-art techniques for morphological characterization and monitoring of displacements are described. Computational advances are covered to explain the process systems and to quantify the hazards of fast and slow-moving landslides. In the second part of the book methodologies are included for assessing the impact of these natural hazards on the society in terms of risks. In this part, methodologies for defining the vulnerability of the elements at risk are shown and the use of run-out models for risk assessment of the dangerous rapid mass movements are evaluated. The third part of the book focuses on the response of society towards the problems of hazard and risk. It highlights the role of spatial planning, early warning systems and evacuation plans for risk management. It establishes practical thresholds for acceptable and tolerable risks and emphasizes the importance of education and communication to society. Audience The book is of interest to a wide range of experts from related disciplines, practitioners and stakeholders to demonstrate the importance of an integrated approach for all aspects of risks in mountainous areas.

This book is dedicated to studying the ocean with radar tools, in particular, with space radars. Being intended mainly for the scientists preoccupied with the problem (as well as senior course students), it concentrates and generalizes the knowledge scattered over specialized journals. The significant part of the book contains the results obtained by the author.

* Systematically collects and describes the approaches used by different laboratories and institutions
* Deals with the physics of radar imagery and specifically with ocean surface imagery.
* Useful for students and researchers specializing in the area of ocean remote sensing using airborne or space-borne radars, both SAR and RAR

Global Change studies are increasingly being considered a vital source of information to understand the Earth Environment, in particular in the framework of human-induced climate change and land use transformation. Satellite Earth Observing systems provide a unique tool to monitor those changes. While the range of applications and innovative techniques is constantly increasing, this book provides a summary of key case studies where satellite data offer critical information to understand the causes and effects of those environmental changes, minimizing their negative impacts. This book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in the field of remote sensing, geographical information, meteorology and environmental sciences. Also scientists and graduate up to post-graduate level students in environmental science will find valuable information in this book.

This book provides extensive insight on remote sensing of coastal waters from aircraft and space-based platforms. The primary focus of the book is optical remote sensing using passive instruments, to measure and analyze the coastal aquatic environment. The authors have gathered information from a variety of sources, to help non-specialists grasp new techniques and technology, to quickly produce useful data

During the past years, Saudi Arabia has been affected by particularly severe torrential rains and floods. This book presents an in-depth and all-encompassing study on the floods that occurred in the Jeddah area in 2009 and 2011, including water-flow mechanisms, state-of-the-art techniques for flood assessment, flood control and appropriate management approaches. It highlights a number of methods and concepts that can be applied in similar areas in Saudi Arabia in order to reduce and mitigate the impact of torrential rains and floods.

The aim of the book is to present and discuss new methods, issues and challenges involved in geoinformatics' contribution to making transportation more intelligent, efficient and human-friendly. It covers a wide range of topics related to transportation and geoinformatics. The themes are divided into four main sections: Transport modeling, Sensor data and services, Intelligent transport systems, and Transport planning and accessibility.

The rate at which geospatial data is being generated exceeds our computational capabilities to extract patterns for the understanding of a dynamically changing world. Geoinformatics and data mining focuses on the development and implementation of computational algorithms to solve these problems. This unique volume contains a collection of chapters on state-of-the-art data mining techniques applied to geoinformatic problems of high complexity and important societal value. Data Mining for Geoinformatics addresses current concerns and developments relating to spatio-temporal data mining issues in remotely-sensed data, problems in meteorological data such as tornado formation, estimation of radiation from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, simulations of traffic data using OpenStreetMap, real time traffic applications of data stream mining, visual analytics of traffic and weather data and the exploratory visualization of collective, mobile objects such as the flocking behavior of wild chickens. This book is designed for researchers and advanced-level students focused on computer science, earth science and geography as a reference or secondary text book. Practitioners working in the areas of data mining and geoscience will also find this book to be a valuable reference.

GPS and GNSS Technology in Geosciences offers an interdisciplinary approach to applying advances in GPS/GNSS technology for geoscience research and practice. As GPS/GNSS signals can be used to provide useful information about the Earth's surface characteristics and land surface composition, GPS equipment and services for commercial purposes continues to grow, thus resulting in new expectations and demands. This book provides case studies for a deeper understanding of the operation and principles of widely applied approaches and the benefits of the technology in everyday research and activities.

This book presents the forensic geoscience in general and, in particular, in Italy and their application to peculiar crimes. Italy is internationally relevant due to the presence of different kinds of "geo-crimes" (in the first place, environmental mafia), and is emblematic to understanding the best way to fight these crimes. This book will not only offer a new view point to comprehending these "geo-crimes", but also fresh and updated results of the different methods applied to fight against these crimes. This book is unique in that it is not a collection of articles but an individual work with the same theme beginning with a state-of-the-art of these disciplines to their international value passing through several case studies.

This state-of-the-art edition of a radar classic brings the reader up-to-date on new developments in clutter measurement and modelling, and features a wealth of new information. Authored by a recognized expert in the field, the book covers everything from basic concepts of radar reflectivity to space-time clutter amplitude and bistatic clutter. New radar engineers should find this to be a valuable, all-encompassing, well-illustrated survey of radar reflectivity fundamentals. Veteran engineers and systems designers should appreciate the book's new coverage of: effects of frequency agility; spatial averages for terrain; graphs from GIT clutter models; land and sea echo at extremely low grazing angles; compound statistics including the K and the Rayleigh modulated by Wiebull distributions; super sea echo events and sea spikes; bistatic land and sea clutter; and more.

Water, Land, and Forest Susceptibility and Sustainability, Volume 1: Geospatial Approaches & Modeling brings an interdisciplinary perspective to solving complex problems in sustainability, utilizing the latest research and technologies, and includes case studies that emphasize the applications of remote sensing, GIS, and image processing for addressing the current state and future needs to achieve sustainability. As forests, land, and water are among the most precious resources on earth, emphasizing the need to conserve them for future generations and, of course, a safe and sustainable planet. The assessment of the susceptibility of all these three precious resources must therefore be addressed to inform their sustainable management. This 1st volume encourages adaptive activities among experts employed in interdisciplinary fields, from data mining and machine learning to environmental science by linking geospatial computational intelligence technology to forest, land and water issues.

This book comprises selected papers from the International Conference on Civil Engineering Trends and Challenges for Sustainability (CTCS) 2019. The book presents latest research in several areas of civil engineering such as construction and structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, environmental engineering and sustainability, and geographical information systems. With a special emphasis on sustainable development, the book covers case studies and addresses key challenges in sustainability. The scope of the contents makes the book useful for students, researchers, and professionals interested in sustainable practices in civil engineering.

"Proceedings of the 3rd China Satellite Navigation Conference (CSNC2012)" presents selected research papers from CSNC2012, held on 15-19 May in Guanzhou, China. These papers discuss the technologies and applications of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and the latest progress made in the China BeiDou system especially. They are divided into 9 topics to match the corresponding sessions in CSNC2012, which broadly covered key topics in GNSS. Readers can learn about the BeiDou system and keep abreast of the latest advances in GNSS techniques and applications.

SUN Jiadong is the Chief Designer of the Compass/BeiDou system, and the Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences; LIU Jingnan is a professor at Wuhan University, and the Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering; YANG Yuanxi is a professor at China National Administration of GNSS and Applications, and the Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences; FAN Shiwei is a researcher on satellite navigation.

This book covers up-to-date methods and algorithms for the automated analysis of engineering drawings and digital cartographic maps. The Non-Deterministic Agent System (NDAS) offers a parallel computational approach to such image analysis. The book describes techniques suitable for persistent and explicit knowledge representation for engineering drawings and digital maps. It also highlights more specific techniques, e.g., applying robot navigation and mapping methods to this problem. Also included are more detailed accounts of the use of unsupervised segmentation algorithms to map images. Finally, all these threads are woven together in two related systems: NDAS and AMAM (Automatic Map Analysis Module).