Imagine yourself as a military officer in a conflict zone trying to identify locations of weapons caches supporting road-side bomb attacks on your country's troops. Or imagine yourself as a public health expert trying to identify the location of contaminated water that is causing diarrheal diseases in a local population. Geospatial abduction is a new technique introduced by the authors that allows such problems to be solved. Geospatial Abduction provides the mathematics underlying geospatial abduction and the algorithms to solve them in practice; it has wide applicability and can be used by practitioners and researchers in many different fields. Real-world applications of geospatial abduction to military problems are included. Compelling examples drawn from other domains as diverse as criminology, epidemiology and archaeology are covered as well. This book also includes access to a dedicated website on geospatial abduction hosted by University of Maryland. Geospatial Abduction targets practitioners working in general AI, game theory, linear programming, data mining, machine learning, and more. Those working in the fields of computer science, mathematics, geoinformation, geological and biological science will also find this book valuable.

Frequently it is suggested that the 'golden age' of television was during the period 1950-1960. It is true that television almost ruined Hollywood's fortunes during this period. But if this was the authentic golden age, then it was an age of black and white, somewhat limited creativity, poor reception, lack of competition (except in the United States) and - by and large - public service broadcasting. However, if we take 1950 as a generic 'starting point' for modern television broadcasting, then we talk about a kind of prehistoric stage of the medium - in which it remained for the best part of three decades. The younger days of broadcasting were the 1980s; the time when commercial television started on a large scale and, in this youth, was getting younger in terms of programming. Luxembourg-based SES Astra appeared on the scene at exactly this time. Astra was instrumental in the dramatic developments in television that we have witnessed since then. This is the story we want to tell in this book. Without satellite technology and the success of satellite reception, without the resulting mass-market penetration of television sets and general economic prosperity we would not have the necessary base ingredients to make the great leap forward into digital, into HDTV, 3D-television, and the prospects of Ultra High Definition now in sight.

Statistical Processing Techniques for Noisy Images presents a statistical framework to design algorithms for target detection, tracking, segmentation and classification (identification). Its main goal is to provide the reader with efficient tools for developing algorithms that solve his/her own image processing applications. In particular, such topics as hypothesis test-based detection, fast active contour segmentation and algorithm design for non-conventional imaging systems are comprehensively treated, from theoretical foundations to practical implementations. With a large number of illustrations and practical examples, this book serves as an excellent textbook or reference book for senior or graduate level courses on statistical signal/image processing, as well as a reference for researchers in related fields.

This volume presents a state-of-the-art assessment of the Earth's climate system in Siberia and relationships between climate, ecosystems and people in that region. Changes in climatic variables and land cover in Siberia are among the earliest indicators of the Earth's response to climate warming. The volume is a compilation of results from studies on climate, land-cover and land-use changes and their interactions with biogeochemical and water cycles, atmospheric aerosol, and human and wildlife populations in Siberia. Regional changes in Siberia are predicted to affect climate and people on a global scale. NASA, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and several European institutions have supported these studies. The primary supporter of the projects that produced the results compiled in this volume is the NASA Land-Cover/Land-Use Change Program, hence most studies use remote sensing in their research. The chapters in this volume were written by an international team of scientists from the USA, Europe and Russia under the auspices of the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI). This book will be of interest to those involved in studying recent and ongoing changes in Siberia, be they senior scientists, early career scientists or students.

Remote Sensing image analysis is mostly done using only spectral information on a pixel by pixel basis. Information captured in neighbouring cells, or information about patterns surrounding the pixel of interest often provides useful supplementary information. This book presents a wide range of innovative and advanced image processing methods for including spatial information, captured by neighbouring pixels in remotely sensed images, to improve image interpretation or image classification. Presented methods include different types of variogram analysis, various methods for texture quantification, smart kernel operators, pattern recognition techniques, image segmentation methods, sub-pixel methods, wavelets and advanced spectral mixture analysis techniques. Apart from explaining the working methods in detail a wide range of applications is presented covering land cover and land use mapping, environmental applications such as heavy metal pollution, urban mapping and geological applications to detect hydrocarbon seeps.

The book is meant for professionals, PhD students and graduates who use remote sensing image analysis, image interpretation and image classification in their work related to disciplines such as geography, geology, botany, ecology, forestry, cartography, soil science, engineering and urban and regional planning.

This two volume set (CCIS 398 and 399) constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on Geo-Informatics in Resource Management and Sustainable Ecosystem, GRMSE 2013, held in Wuhan, China, in November 2013. The 136 papers presented, in addition to 4 keynote speeches and 5 invited sessions, were carefully reviewed and selected from 522 submissions. The papers are divided into 5 sessions: smart city in resource management and sustainable ecosystem, spatial data acquisition through RS and GIS in resource management and sustainable ecosystem, ecological and environmental data processing and management, advanced geospatial model and analysis for understanding ecological and environmental process, applications of geo-informatics in resource management and sustainable ecosystem.

This two volume set (CCIS 398 and 399) constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Symposium on Geo-Informatics in Resource Management and Sustainable Ecosystem, GRMSE 2013, held in Wuhan, China, in November 2013. The 136 papers presented, in addition to 4 keynote speeches and 5 invited sessions, were carefully reviewed and selected from 522 submissions. The papers are divided into 5 sessions: smart city in resource management and sustainable ecosystem, spatial data acquisition through RS and GIS in resource management and sustainable ecosystem, ecological and environmental data processing and management, advanced geospatial model and analysis for understanding ecological and environmental process, applications of geo-informatics in resource management and sustainable ecosystem.

Reflectance and emittance spectroscopy are increasingly important tools in remote sensing and have been employed in most recent planetary spacecraft missions. They are primarily used to measure properties of disordered materials, especially in the interpretation of remote observations of the surfaces of the Earth and other terrestrial planets. This book gives a quantitative treatment of the physics of the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with particulate media, such as powders and soils. Subjects covered include electromagnetic wave propagation, single particle scattering, diffuse reflectance, thermal emittance and polarisation. This new edition has been updated to include a quantitative treatment of the effects of porosity, a detailed discussion of the coherent backscatter opposition effect, a quantitative treatment of simultaneous transport of energy within the medium by conduction and radiation, and lists of relevant databases and software. This is an essential reference for research scientists, engineers and advanced students of planetary remote sensing.

This book describes the algorithms, validation and preliminary analysis of the Global LAnd Surface Satellite (GLASS) products, a long-term, high-quality dataset that is now freely available worldwide to government organizations and agencies, scientific research institutions, students and members of the general public.

The GLASS products include leaf area index, broadband albedo, broadband emissivity, downward shortwave radiation and photosynthetically active radiation. The first three GLASS products cover 1981 to 2012 with 1km and 5km spatial resolutions and 8-day temporal resolution, and the last two GLASS products span 2008 to 2010 with 3-hour temporal resolution and 5km spatial resolution. These GLASS products are unique. The first three are spatially continuous and cover the longest period of time among all current similar satellite products. The other two products are the highest spatial-resolution global radiation products from satellite observations that are currently available.

These products can be downloaded from Beijing Normal University at http: //glass-product.bnu.edu.cn/and the University of Maryland Global Land Cover Facility at http: //www.glcf.umd.edu/

The GLASS productsare the outcome of a key research project entitled Generation & Applications of Global Products of Essential Land Variables, supported by funding from the High-Tech Research and Development Program of China and involving dozens of institutions and nearly one hundred scientists and researchers.Following an introduction, the book contains five chapters corresponding to these five GLASS products: background, algorithm, quality control and validation, preliminary analysis and applications. It discusses the long-term environmental changes detected from the GLASS products and other data sources at both global and local scales and also provides detailed analysis of regional hotspots where environmental changes are mainly associated with climate change, drought, land-atmosphere interactions, and human activities.

The book is based primarily on a set of published journal papers about these five GLASS products and includes updated information. Since these products have now begun to be widely used, this bookis an essential reference document. It is also a very helpful resource to anyone interested in satellite remote sensing and its applications."

The book introduces the topic of geochemical modeling of fluids in subsurface and hydrothermal systems. The intention is to serve as a textbook for graduate students in aqueous, environmental and groundwater geochemistry, despite the fact that its focus is on the special topic of geochemistry in hydrothermal systems, it also provides new insights for experienced researchers with respect to the topic of reactive transport. The overall purpose is to give the reader an understanding of the processes that control the chemical composition of waters in hydrothermal systems and to highlight the interfaces between chemistry, geothermics and hydrogeology.

From the reviews:

.."is a nice, compact introduction to the principles of modeling coupled fluid flow and fluid-mineral reactions in active geothermal systems, as used for heating and electricity generation." ( Christoph A. Heinrich, ECONOMIC GEOLOGY, June 2004)

The main activities of the economically active population around The Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl volcanoes region lie in the primary sector (65- 90%). Of the people working in this sector, those dependent on agricultural or pastoral activities generally have an income significantly lower than the minimum wage in Mexico. Of the activities in the area, these agricultural, pastoral, and forestry activities probably have the most direct effect on the ecology of the volcanoes and its immediate surroundings. Traditional farmers, producing crops such as beans, pumpkins and cucumbers, generally work on small fields using traditional methods and animal traction. Modern farming, geared towards intensive production develops on larger sites making use of modern machinery, fertilizers, and pesticides. As the area under agriculture continues to increase every year, the attendant opening of large forested areas, soil modification, and ensuing erosion make it almost impossible for forest recovery. Extensive forestry in the region mainly concerns cutting and collecting wood, cutting Pinus-branches for torches or for utensils for open-fire cooking, collection of mushrooms, and hunting. Although these (often clandestine) activities seem to be small-scale, their adverse effects on the forest have been substantial. Weekend visitors from Mexico City heavily dominate recreation, with tourism concentrated near the roads leading to and inside the park. Lacking organization and facilities, most recreational activities have had significant environmental impact on the area In many countries, the decline of nature has occurred because of changes in land use.

Intense uplift of the Tibetan Plateau in Late Cenozoic Era is one of the most important events in geological history of the Earth. The plateau offers an ideal region for studying of lithospheric formation and evolution, probing into the mechanism of crustal movement, and understanding of changes in environments and geo-ecosystems in Asia. Intense uplift ofthe plateau resulted in drastic changes of natural environment and apparent regional differentiation on the plateau proper and neighboring regions. The plateau therefore becomes a sensitive area of climate change in Asian monsoon region, which is closely related to the global change. As a special physical unit, its ecosystems occupy a prominent position in the world. Due to its extremely high elevation and great extent, natural types and characteristics of physical landscapes on the plateau are quite different from those in lowlands at comparable latitudes, and environments are also different from those in high latitudinal zones. Consequently, the Tibetan Plateau has been classified as one of three giant physical regions in China and considered as a unique unit on Earth. Scientific surveys and expeditions to the Tibetan Plateau on large scale began from 1950's. Amongst them, a number of comprehensive scientific expeditions to the Xizang (Tibet) Autonomous Region, Hengduan Mts. areas, Karakorum and Kunlun Mts. regions, as well as the Hoh Xii Mts. areas, have been successively carried out by the Integrated Scientific Expedition to Tibetan Plateau, sponsored by Chinese Academy of Sciences since 1973.

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) - either as "standard" GIS or custom made Historical GIS (HGIS) - have become quite popular in some historical sub-disciplines, such as Economic and Social History or Historical Geography. "Mainstream" history, however, seems to be rather unaffected by this trend. More generally speaking: Why is it that computer applications in general have failed to make much headway in history departments, despite the first steps being undertaken a good forty years ago? With the "spatial turn" in full swing in the humanities, and many historians dealing with spatial and geographical questions, one would think GIS would be welcomed with open arms. Yet there seems to be no general anticipation by historians of employing GIS as a research tool. As mentioned, HGIS are popular chiefly among Historical Geographers and Social and Economic Historians. The latter disciplines seem to be predestined to use such software through the widespread quantitative methodology these disciplines have employed traditionally. Other historical sub-disciplines, such as Ancient History, are also very open to this emerging technology since the scarcity of written sources in this field can be mitigated by inferences made from an HGIS that has archaeological data stored in it, for example. In most of Modern History, however, the use of GIS is rarely seen. The intellectual benefit that a GIS may bring about seems not be apparent to scholars from this sub-discipline (and others). This book wants to investigate and discuss this controversy. Why does the wider historian community not embrace GIS more readily? While one cannot deny that the methodologies linked with a GIS follow geographical paradigms rather than historical ones, the potential of GIS as a 'killer application' for digital historical scholarship should be obvious. This book brings together authors from Geography and History to discuss the value of GIS for historical research. The focus, however, will not be on the "how", but on the "why" of GIS in history.

Regional development is intrinsically related to the way in which the land is used. Given the rising awareness of the multifunctionality of the world's land resources, policy makers now face the complex task of accommodating multiple objectives of an increasing number of stakeholders in regional development. This implies a need for tools that can be employed to provide insights into the opportunities and limitations of land use. Those tools should be capable of quantifying trade-offs between socio-economic, sustainability, and environment-related policy objectives.
This book offers a detailed account of a range of interdisciplinary methodologies for land use analysis, developed over a twelve-year period (1986-1998) in Costa Rica, through collaborative research between three institutions: one from the North (Wageningen Agricultural University of The Netherlands), and two from the South (the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center CATIE] and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock MAG]). The methodologies span a number of spatial scales, ranging from the field level all the way to the national level. Concepts of systems analysis and information technology play a pivotal role in each of the methodologies. Together, they form a unique toolbox that deserves ample use in the process of agricultural policy design.
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The experience developed by Ian McHarg represents the first attempt to base environmental planning on more objective methods. In particular, he supposed that the real world can be considered as a layer cake and each layer represents a sectoral analysis. This metaphor represents the fundamental of overlay mapping. At the beginning, these principles have been applied only by hand, just considering the degree of darkness, produced by layer transparency, as a negative impact. In the following years, this craftmade approach, has been adopted for data organization in Geographical Information Systems producing analyses with a high level of quality and rigour. Nowadays, great part of studies in environmental planning field have been developed using GIS. The next step relative to the simple use of geographic information in supporting environmental planning is the adoption of spatial simulation models, which can predict the evolution of phenomena. As the use of spatial information has definitely improved the quality of data sets on which basing decision-making process, the use of Geostatistics, spatial simulation and, more generally, geocomputation methods allows the possibility of basing the decision-making process on predicted future scenarios. It is very strange that a discipline such as planning which programs the territory for the future years in great part of cases is not based on simulation models. Sectoral analyses, often based on surveys, are not enough to highlight dynamics of an area. Better knowing urban and environmental changes occurred in the past, it is possible to provide better simulations to predict possible tendencies. The aim of this book is to provide an overview of the main methods and techniques adopted in the field of environmental geocomputation in order to produce a more sustainable development.

The book is a new comprehensive textbook about creating and publishing geoinformation metadata. It is a compendium of knowledge about geoinformation metadata in INSPIRE Directive and Spatial Information Infrastructures. It contains the knowledge necessary to understand prior to the creation of geoinformation metadata. Metadata - "data about data" - describe the layers of spatial data (data series, services) responding to the questions: what?, why?, when?, who?, how? and where? Geoinformation metadata allows for exact search of the spatial data according to given criteria, regardless of where this data is located. On 15 May 2007 the EU Directive 2007/2/EC came into force establishing Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe - INSPIRE. The proper functioning of the infrastructure for spatial information would not be possible without the metadata.

This brief provides an overview of state-of-the-art sensing technologies relevant to the problem of precision irrigation, an emerging field within the domain of precision agriculture. Applications of wireless sensor networks, satellite data and geographic information systems in the domain are covered. This brief presents the basic concepts of the technologies and emphasizes the practical aspects that enable the implementation of intelligent irrigation systems. The authors target a broad audience interested in this theme and organize the content in five chapters, each concerned with a specific technology needed to address the problem of optimal crop irrigation. Professionals and researchers will find the text a thorough survey with practical applications.

This volume is devoted to the Persistent Scatterer Technique, the latest development in radar interferometric data processing. It is the only book on Permanent Scatterer (PS) technique of radar interferometry, and it details a newly developed stochastic model and estimator algorithm to cope with possible problems for the application of the PS technique. The STUN (spatio-temporal unwrapping network) algorithm, developed to cope with these issues in a robust way, is presented and applied to two test sites.

During the last decade developments in 3D Geoinformation have made substantial progress. We are about to have a more complete spatial model and understanding of our planet in different scales. Hence, various communities and cities offer 3D landscape and city models as valuable source and instrument for sustainable management of rural and urban resources. Also municipal utilities, real estate companies etc. benefit from recent developments related to 3D applications. To meet the challenges due to the newest changes academics and practitioners met at the 5th International Workshop on 3D Geoinformation in order to present recent developments and to discuss future trends. This book comprises a selection of evaluated, high quality papers that were presented at this workshop in November 2010. The topics focus explicitly on the last achievements (methods, algorithms, models, systems) with respect to 3D geo-information requirements. The book is aimed at decision makers and experts as well at students interested in the 3D component of geographical information science including GI engineers, computer scientists, photogrammetrists, land surveyors, urban planners, and mapping specialists.

This thesis presents a groundbraking methodology for the radar international community. The detection approach introduced, namely perturbation analysis, is completey novel showing a remarkable capability of thinking outside the box. Perturbation analysis is able to push forward the performance limits of current algorithms, allowing the detection of targets smaller than the resolution cell and highly embedded in clutter. The methodology itself is extraordinary flexibe and has already been used in two other large projects, funded by the ESA (European Space Agency): M-POL for maritime surveillance, and DRAGON-2 for land classification with particular attention to forests. This book is a perfectly organised piece of work where every detail and perspective is taken into account in order to provide a comprehensive vision of the problems and solutions.

For the sixth consecutive year, the AGILE conference promoted the publication a book collecting high-level scientific contributions from unpublished fundamental scientific research.
The papers published in the AGILE 2012 LNG&C volume contribute substantially to Geographical Information Science developments and to the success of the 15th AGILE conference (Avignon, France, 24-27April, 2012) under the title 'Bridging the Geographic Information Sciences'. This year's conference emphasizes that geoinformation science, geomatics and spatial analysis are fields in which different disciplines, epistemologies and scientific cultures meet.
Indeed, the scientific articles published in this volume cover a wide diversity of GIScience related themes, including: Spatio-temporal Data Modelling and Visualisation; Spatial Data Infrastructures; Geo Web Services and Geo Semantic Web; Modelling and Management of Uncertainty; Spatio-temporal Data Quality and Metadata; Mobility of Persons, Objects and Systems, Transports and Flows; Spatial Analysis, Geostatistics, and Geo Information Retrieval; Modelling and Spatial Analysis of Urban Dynamics, Urban GIS; GIS and Spatial Analysis for Global Change Modelling, Impact on Space; and Geographic Information Science: links with other disciplines and people.

This book was compiled from contributions given at the 7th IAA Symposium on Small Satellites for Earth Observation, May 4-8, 2009, Berlin (IAA - International Academy of Astronautics). From the 15 sessions for oral presentations and two poster sessions, 52 contributions were selected which are representative for the new developments and trends in the area of small satellites for Earth observation. They re ect the potentials of a diversity of missions and related technologies. This may be based on national projects or international co-operations, single satellites of constellations, pico-, nano-, micro- or mini-satellites, developed by companies, research institutions or agencies. The main focus is on new missions to monitor our Earth's resources (Part I), and the environment in which our Earth is emb- ded (Part II). Part III deals with distributed space systems, a unique feature of small satellites and in most cases impractical to do with large satellites. Here we concentrate on constellations of satellites with focus on future missions relying on co-operating satellites. For all the new developments and projects we need well e- cated specialists coming from the universities. Many universities included already the development and implementation of small satellites in their curriculum. The u- versity satellites chapter (Part IV) shows the high quality which is already reached by some of the universities worldwide.

This title analyzes distributed Earth observation missions from different perspectives. In particular, the issues arising when the payloads are distributed on different satellites are considered from both the theoretical and practical points of view. Moreover, the problems of designing, measuring, and controlling relative trajectories are thoroughly presented in relation to theory and applicable technologies. Then, the technological challenges to design satellites able to support such missions are tackled. An ample and detailed description of missions and studies complements the book subject.

This book contains papers presented at the first Open Source Geospatial Research Symposium held in Nantes City, France, 8-10 July, 2009. It brings together insights and ideas in the fields of Geospatial Information and Geoinformatics. It demonstrates the scientific community dynamism related to open source and free software as well as in defining new concepts, standards or tools.

This book presents advances in matrix and tensor data processing in the domain of signal, image and information processing. The theoretical mathematical approaches are discusses in the context of potential applications in sensor and cognitive systems engineering. The topics and application include Information Geometry, Differential Geometry of structured Matrix, Positive Definite Matrix, Covariance Matrix, Sensors (Electromagnetic Fields, Acoustic sensors) and Applications in Cognitive systems, in particular Data Mining.