This book presents a state-of-the-art overview of ongoing GIScience research that has been presented at the 10th Conference of the Association of Geographic Information Laboratories for Europe (AGILE), held in Aalborg, Denmark. Included are 27 fully peer-reviewed papers not only covering basic GIScience research themes, but also ongoing research on technological advancements, as well as applied research on environmental modeling and management.

Until the 1980s, a tacit agreement among many physical oceanographers was that nothing deserving attention could be found in the upper few meters of the ocean. The lack of adequete knowledge about the near-surface layer of the ocean was mainly due to the fact that the widely used oceanographic instruments (such as bathythermographs, CTDs, current meters, etc.) were practically useless in the upper few meters of the ocean. Interest in the ne- surface layer of the ocean rapidly increased along with the development of remote sensing techniques. The interpretation of ocean surface signals sensed from satellites demanded thorough knowledge of upper ocean processes and their connection to the ocean interior. Despite its accessibility to the investigator, the near-surface layer of the ocean is not a simple subject of experimental study. Random, sometimes huge, vertical motions of the ocean surface due to surface waves are a serious complication for collecting quality data close to the ocean surface. The supposedly minor problem of avoiding disturbances from ships' wakes has frustrated several generations of oceanographers attempting to take reliable data from the upper few meters of the ocean. Important practical applications nevertheless demanded action, and as a result several pioneering works in the 1970s and 1980s laid the foundation for the new subject of oceanography - the near-surface layer of the ocean.

Geographic information is a key element for our modern society. Put s- ply, it is information whose spatial (and often temporal) location is fun- mental to its value, and this distinguishes it from many other types of data, and analysis. For sustainable development, climate change or more simply resource sharing and economic development, this information helps to - cilitate human activities and to foresee the impact of these activities in space as well as, inversely, the impact of space on our lives. The Inter- tional Symposium on Spatial Data Handing (SDH) is a primary research forum where questions related to spatial and temporal modelling and analysis, data integration, visual representation or semantics are raised. The first symposium commenced in 1984 in Zurich and has since been organised every two years under the umbrella of the International Geographical Union Commission on Geographical Information Science (http: //www. igugis. org). Over the last 28 years, the Symposium has been held in: st 1 - Zurich, 1984 nd 2 - Seattle, 1986 rd 3 - Sydney, 1988 th 4 - Zurich, 1990 th 5 - Charleston, 1992 th 6 - Edinburgh, 1994 th 7 - Delft, 1996 th 8 - Vancouver, 1998 th 9 - Beijing, 2000 th 10 - Ottawa, 2002 th 11 - Leicester, 2004 th 12 - Vienna, 2006 th This book is the proceedings of the 13 International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling."

The book serves as a collection of multi-disciplinary contributions related to Geographic Hypermedia and highlights the technological aspects of GIS. Specifically, it focuses on its database and database management system. The methodologies for modeling and handling geographic data are described.

It presents the novel models, methods and tools applied in Spatial Decision Support paradigm.

This book covers various aspects of spatial data modelling specifically regarding three-dimensional (3D) modelling and structuring. The realization of "true" 3D geoinformation spatial systems requires a high input, and the developmental process is taking place in various research centers and universities around the globe. The development of such systems and solutions, including the modelling theories are presented in this book.

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 fills a gap in knowledge of breaking waves and their influence on the generation of marine fluxes from ocean surfaces. Based on published data as well as on the author's experience, the text explores in detail the relationship chain of breaking waves, whitecaps coverage, rate of wave energy dissipation, amount of aerosol fluxes rising from a given sea basin, and possible seasonal variations.

This volume of proceedings is a collection of refereed papers resulting from the VI Hotine-Marussi Symposium on Theoretical and Computational Geodesy. The papers cover almost every topic of geodesy, including satellite gravity modeling, geodynamics, GPS data processing, statistical estimation and prediction theory, and geodetic inverse problem theory. In addition, particular attention is paid to topics of fundamental importance in the next one or two decades in Earth Science.

This book describes recent progress in object-based image interpretation. It presents new results in its application to verification of nuclear non-proliferation. A comprehensive workflow and newly developed algorithms for object-based high resolution image (pre-) processing, feature extraction, change detection, classification and interpretation are developed, applied and evaluated. The analysis chain is demonstrated with satellite imagery acquired over Iranian nuclear facilities.

Planning Support Systems: Retrospect and Prospect It has been nearly twenty years since the term 'planning support systems' (PSS) first appeared in an article by Britton Harris (Harris 1989) and more than ten years since the concept was more broadly introduced in the academic literature (Harris and Batty 1993; Batty 1995; Klosterman 1997). As a result, the publication of a new book on PSS provides an excellent opportunity to assess past progress in the field and speculate on future developments. PSS have clearly become very popular in the academic world. This is the fourth edited book devoted to the topic following Brail and Klosterman (2001), Geertman and Stillwell (2003), and a third by Brail (2008). Papers devoted to PSS have been published in the leading planning journals and the topic has become a regular theme at academic conferences around the world; it has even spawned intellectual o- spring such as spatial planning and decision support systems (SPDSS) and public participation planning support systems (PP-PSS). However, as Geertman and Stillwell point out in their introductory chapter, the experience with PSS in the world of professional practice has been disappointing. A substantial number of PSS have been developed but most of them are academic p- totypes or 'one off' professional applications that have not been adopted elsewhere.

The 6th IAA Symposium on Small Satellites for Earth Observation, initiated by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), was again hosted by DLR, the German Aerospace Center. The participation of scientists, engineers, and managers from 24 countries reflected the high interest in the use of small satellites for dedicated missions applied to Earth observation. The contributions showed that dedicated Earth observation missions cover a wide range of very different tasks.

Radar technology is increasingly being used to monitor the environment. This monograph provides a review of polarimetric radar techniques for remote sensing. The first four chapters cover the basics of mathematical, statistical modelling as well as physical modelling based on radiowave scattering theory. The subsequent eight chapters summarize applications of polarimetric radar monitoring for various types of earth environments, including vegetation and oceans. The last two chapters provide a summary of Western as well as former Soviet Union knowledge and the outlook. This monograph is of value to students, scientists and engineers involved in remote sensing development and applications in particular for environmental monitoring.

Thoroughly updated with material related to the GRASS6, the third edition includes new sections on attribute database management and SQL support, vector networks analysis, lidar data processing and new graphical user interfaces. All chapters were updated with numerous practical examples using the first release of a comprehensive, state-of-the-art geospatial data set.

World-renowned experts in spatial statistics and spatial econometrics present the latest advances in specification and estimation of spatial econometric models. This includes information on the development of tools and software, and various applications. The text introduces new tests and estimators for spatial regression models, including discrete choice and simultaneous equation models. The performance of techniques is demonstrated through simulation results and a wide array of applications related to economic growth, international trade, knowledge externalities, population-employment dynamics, urban crime, land use, and environmental issues. An exciting new text for academics with a theoretical interest in spatial statistics and econometrics, and for practitioners looking for modern and up-to-date techniques.

This book presents a selection of innovative ideas currently shaping the development and testing of geographical systems models by means of statistical and computational approaches. It spans all geographic scales, deals with both individuals and aggregates, and represents natural, human, and integrated spatial systems. This book is relevant to researchers, (post and under)graduates, and professionals in the areas of quantitative geography, spatial analysis, spatial modelling, and geographical information sciences.

Terrain has a profound effect upon the strategy and tactics of any military engagement and has consequently played an important role in determining history. In addition, the landscapes of battle, and the geology which underlies them, has helped shape the cultural iconography of battle certainly within the 20th century. In the last few years this has become a fertile topic of scientific and historical exploration and has given rise to a number of conferences and books. The current volume stems from the international Terrain in Military History conference held in association with the Imperial War Museum, London and the Royal Engineers Museum, Chatham, at the University of Greenwich in January 2000. This conference brought together historians, geologists, military enthusiasts and terrain analysts from military, academic and amateur backgrounds with the aim of exploring the application of modem tools of landscape visualisation to understanding historical battlefields. This theme was the subject of a Leverhulme Trust grant (F/345/E) awarded to the University of Greenwich and administered by us in 1998, which aimed to use the tools of modem landscape visualisation in understanding the influence of terrain in the First World War. This volume forms part of the output from this grant and is part of our wider exploration of the role of terrain in military history. Many individuals contributed to the organisation of the original conference and to the production of this volume.

Scientific visualization may be defined as the transformation of numerical scientific data into informative graphical displays. The text introduces a nonverbal model to subdisciplines that until now has mostly employed mathematical or verbal-conceptual models. The focus is on how scientific visualization can help revolutionize the manner in which the tendencies for (dis)similar numerical values to cluster together in location on a map are explored and analyzed. In doing so, the concept known as spatial autocorrelation - which characterizes these tendencies - is further demystified.

The Association of Geographic Information Laboratories for Europe (AGILE) was established in early 1998 to promote academic teaching and research on GIS at the European level. Since then, the annual AGILE c- ference has gradually become the leading GIScience conference in Europe and provides a multidisciplinary forum for scientific knowledge prod- tion and dissemination. GIScience addresses the understanding and automatic processing of geospatial information in its full breadth. While geo-objects can be represented either as vector data or in raster formats these representations have also guided the research in different disciplines, with GIS researchers concentrating on vector data while research in photogrammetry and c- puter vision focused on (geospatial) raster data. Although there have - ways been small but fine sessions addressing photogrammetry and image analysis at past AGILE conferences, these topics typically played only a minor role. Thus to broaden the domain of topics the AGILE 2009 con- rence it is jointly organized with a Workshop of the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), dedicated to High Re- lution Satellite Imagery, organized by Prof. Christian Heipke of the Le- niz Universitat Hannover. This collocation provides opportunities to explore commonalities - tween research communities and to ease exchange between participants to develop or deepen mutual understanding. We hope that this approach enables researchers from the different communities to identify common - terests and research methods and thus provides a basis for possible future cooperations."

This volume contains the papers presented at the International Workshop "Information Fusion and Geographic Information Systems" (IF&GIS'09) held in St. Petersburg, Russia in May 2009. The workshop was organized by the St. Petersburg Institute for Informatics and Automation of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPIIRAS). The workshop continues a series organised biannually, and attracts academics and industrials from a wide range of disciplines including computer science, geography, statistics, mathematics, hydrography, geomorphology, and environmental sciences. The objective of this workshop is to provide a forum for innovative research oriented towards Geographic Information Science and tech- logies and Corporate Information Systems whose close association highlight novel theoretical and practical challenges. The papers selected by the International Program Committee cover a wide range of innovative areas including ontological and semantic approaches for the representation of geographical data, geographical data monitoring, situation management and forecast, to emerging applications oriented to the maritime environment, disaster management and security threats. While traditional topics of GIS conferences are well represented and still being advanced, several new domains appear and stress the need for the development of versatile monitoring systems and decision making systems. While GIS already have a de facto standard for geographical monitoring and analysis, the papers accepted in this volume also illustrate several novel directions of application whose objective is more closely oriented to process modeling and decision making, and where the nature of the objects represented is revisited using ontological and semantic approaches.

In June/July 2008 the Institute for Geoinformation and Cartography at the Vienna University of Technology organized a scientific colloquium in this city, where 15 well-known scientists presented their ideas on research for the upcoming decade. This book contains papers prepared by the participants as well as by other researchers. The eighteen papers in this book reflect the opinion of a core group of Geoinformation scientists about future research topics. Dealing with these topics poses multiple research questions for the coming years

Just as in the era of great achievements by scientists such as Newton and Gauss, the mathematical theory of geodesy is continuing the tradition of producing exciting theoretical results, but today the advances are due to the great technological push in the era of satellites for earth observations and large computers for calculations. Every four years a symposium on methodological matters documents this ongoing development in many related underlying areas such as estimation theory, stochastic modelling, inverse problems, and satellite-positioning global-reference systems. This book presents developments in geodesy and related sciences, including applied mathematics, among which are many new results of high intellectual value to help readers stay on top of the latest happenings in the field.

The Association of Geographic Information Laboratories for Europe (AGILE) was established in early 1998 to promote academic teaching and research on GIS at the European level. AGILE seeks to ensure that the views of the geographic information teaching and research community are fully represented in the discussions that take place on future European - search agendas and it also provides a permanent scientific forum where geographic information researchers can meet and exchange ideas and - periences at the European level. In 2007 AGILE provided - for the first time since its existence - a book constituting a collection of scientific papers that were submitted as fu- papers to the annual AGILE conference and went through a competitive and thorough review process. Published in the Springer Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography this first edition was well received within AGILE and within the European Geoinformation Science com- nity as a whole. Thus, the decision was easily made to establish a Springer th Volume for the 11 AGILE conference held 2008 in Girona, Spain, and led to what you now hold in your hands.

This volume is the result of an invited symposium titled "Integrated Land-Use and Environmental Models: A Survey of Current Applications and Research" that was held in October 2000 at Arizona State University. The idea for the symposium arose from a belief held by many academics that we are at the watershed of a new generation of models that are more dynamic, more pragmatic, more interdiscipli nary, and more amenable to collaborative decision making. Several academics and professionals engaged in urban research had long realized that domain-specific knowledge was inadequate for understanding and managing urban growth. While interdisciplinary approaches have become critical in most social research, one general area of knowledge that stands out as having the most wide-ranging impact on current urban modeling efforts is the field comprised of environmental sciences and ecology. The symposium offered a forum for academics and professionals engaged in urban and ecological modeling to exchange ideas and experiences, specifically in areas that overlapped urban and environmental issues. The contri butions to this volume highlight the progress made in the various efforts to build integrated urban and environmental models. More importantly, each chapter shows how ideas have diffused across disciplinary boundaries to create better policy-relevant models. In addition, this book outlines some promising areas of research that could make important contributions to the field of urban and envi ronmental modeling. Integrated thinking about urban and environmental issues has been fundamental to the concept of sustainability."

Sixteen years ago, Franklin estimated that about 80% of data contain geo-referenced information. To date, the availability of geographic data and information is growing, together with the capacity of users to operate with IT tools and instruments. Spatial data infrastructures are growing and allow a wide number of users to rely on them. This growth has not been fully coupled to an increase of knowledge to support spatial decisions. Spatial analytical techniques, geographical analysis and modelling methods are therefore required to analyse data and to facilitate the decision process at all levels. Old geographical issues can find an answer thanks to new methods and instruments, while new issues are developing, challenging researchers towards new solutions. This volume aims to contribute to the development of new techniques and methods to improve the process of knowledge acquisition. The Geocomputational expression is related to the development and the application of new theories, methods and tools in order to provide better solutions to complex geographical problems. The geocomputational analysis discussed in this volume, could be classified according to three main domains of applications; the first one related to spatial decision support system and to spatial uncertainty, the second connected to artificial intelligence, the third based on all spatial statistics techniques.

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