In the past several years, there have been significant technological advances in the field of crisis response. However, many aspects concerning the efficient collection and integration of geo-information, applied semantics and situation awareness for disaster management remain open. Improving crisis response systems and making them intelligent requires extensive collaboration between emergency responders, disaster managers, system designers and researchers alike. To facilitate this process, the Gi4DM (GeoInformation for Disaster Management) conferences have been held regularly since 2005. The events are coordinated by the Joint Board of Geospatial Information Societies (JB GIS) and ICSU GeoUnions. This book presents the outcomes of the Gi4DM 2018 conference, which was organised by the ISPRS-URSI Joint Working Group ICWG III/IVa: Disaster Assessment, Monitoring and Management and held in Istanbul, Turkey on 18-21 March 2018. It includes 12 scientific papers focusing on the intelligent use of geo-information, semantics and situation awareness.

Computing increasingly happens "somewhere," with that geographic location important to the computational process itself. Many new and evolving spatial technologies, such as geosensor networks and smartphones, embody this trend. Conventional approaches to spatial computing are centralized, and do not account for the inherently decentralized nature of "computing somewhere": the limited, local knowledge of individual system components, and the interaction between those components at different locations. On the other hand, despite being an established topic in distributed systems, decentralized computing is not concerned with geographical constraints to the generation and movement of information. In this context, of (centralized) spatial computing and decentralized (non-spatial) computing, the key question becomes: "What makes decentralized spatial computing special?"
In Part I of the book the author covers the foundational concepts, structures, and design techniques for decentralized computing with spatial and spatiotemporal information. In Part II he applies those concepts and techniques to the development of algorithms for decentralized spatial computing, stepping through a suite of increasingly sophisticated algorithms: from algorithms with minimal spatial information about their neighborhoods; to algorithms with access to more detailed spatial information, such as direction, distance, or coordinate location; to truly spatiotemporal algorithms that monitor environments that are dynamic, even using networks that are mobile or volatile. Finally, in Part III the author shows how decentralized spatial and spatiotemporal algorithms designed using the techniques explored in Part II can be simulated and tested. In particular, he investigates empirically the important properties of a decentralized spatial algorithm: its computational efficiency and its robustness to unavoidable uncertainty. Part III concludes with a survey of the opportunities for connecting decentralized spatial computing to ongoing research and emerging hot topics in related fields, such as biologically inspired computing, geovisualization, and stream computing.
The book is written for students and researchers of computer science and geographic information science. Throughout the book the author's style is characterized by a focus on the broader message, explaining the process of decentralized spatial algorithm design rather than the technical details. Each chapter ends with review questions designed to test the reader's understanding of the material and to point to further work or research. The book includes short appendices on discrete mathematics and SQL. Simulation models written in NetLogo and associated source code for all the algorithms presented in the book can be found on the author's accompanying website.

This book provides an extensive review of three interrelated issues: land fragmentation, land consolidation, and land reallocation, and it presents in detail the theoretical background, design, development and application of a prototype integrated planning and decision support system for land consolidation. The system integrates geographic information systems (GIS) and artificial intelligence techniques including expert systems (ES) and genetic algorithms (GAs) with multi-criteria decision methods (MCDM), both multi-attribute (MADM) and multi-objective (MODM). The system is based on four modules for measuring land fragmentation; automatically generating alternative land redistribution plans; evaluating those plans; and automatically designing the land partitioning plan. The presented research provides a new scientific framework for land-consolidation planning both in terms of theory and practice, by presenting new findings and by developing better tools and methods embedded in an integrated GIS environment. It also makes a valuable contribution to the fields of GIS and spatial planning, as it provides new methods and ideas that could be applied to improve the former for the benefit of the latter in the context of planning support systems.

From the 1960s, ambitious research activities set out to observe regarding IT-support of the complex and time consuming redistribution processes within land consolidation without any practically relevant results, until now. This scientific work is likely to close that gap. This distinguished publication is highly recommended to land consolidation planning experts, researchers and academics alike.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Joachim Thomas, Munster/ Germany
"Planning support systems take new scientific tools based on GIS, optimisation and simulation and use these to inform the process of plan-making and policy. This book is one of the first to show how this can be consistently done and it is a triumph of demonstrating how such systems can be made operational. Essential reading for planners, analysts and GI scientists."

Prof. Michael Batty, University College London"

This book is a valuable resource for the increasing body of researchers and practitioners in the field of geospatial technologies. Written by leading researchers and experts it is designed in such a way that technical achievements and challenges of geospatial computing applications are followed by various applications developed for society. As such, they serve as a bridge between technologists and solution developers, which is critical in the context of developing countries. There have been significant advances in geospatial technologies in India in the last decade, including advances in spatial data infrastructures, geocomputation and spatial databases, and innovative applications in natural resource development. Ranging from LIDAR standards, to data integration using ontologies, and mobile computing, such progress enhances the utility of the technology for both urban and rural development. This book discusses these achievements and considers the way forward.

This volume contains the proceedings from the COSPAR Colloquium on "Space Remote Sensing of Subtropical Oceans" which took place between 12 and 16 September, 1996, at the Institute of Oceanography of the National Taiwan University.

Included are contributions addressing the issue, from scientific points of views, of why the first scientific satellite of Taiwan, ROCSAT-1, should be equipped with the Ocean Colour Imager (OCI) for oceanographic investigations.

These Proceedings present selected research papers from CSNC2016, held during 18th-20th May in Changsha, China. The theme of CSNC2016 is Smart Sensing, Smart Perception. These papers discuss the technologies and applications of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and the latest progress made in the China BeiDou System (BDS) especially. They are divided into 12 topics to match the corresponding sessions in CSNC2016, which broadly covered key topics in GNSS. Readers can learn about the BDS and keep abreast of the latest advances in GNSS techniques and applications.

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 book explores the impact of augmenting novel architectural designs with hardware-based application accelerators. The text covers comprehensive aspects of the applications in Geographic Information Science, remote sensing and deploying Modern Accelerator Technologies (MAT) for geospatial simulations and spatiotemporal analytics. MAT in GIS applications, MAT in remotely sensed data processing and analysis, heterogeneous processors, many-core and highly multi-threaded processors and general purpose processors are also presented. This book includes case studies and closes with a chapter on future trends. Modern Accelerator Technologies for GIS is a reference book for practitioners and researchers working in geographical information systems and related fields. Advanced-level students in geography, computational science, computer science and engineering will also find this book useful.

This is the eleventh volume in the series Light Scattering Reviews, devoted to current knowledge of light scattering problems and both experimental and theoretical research techniques related to their solution. The focus of this volume is to describe modern advances in radiative transfer and light scattering optics. This book brings together the most recent studies on light radiative transfer in the terrestrial atmosphere, while also reviewing environmental polarimetry. The book is divided into nine chapters: * the first four chapters review recent advances in modern radiative transfer theory and provide detailed descriptions of radiative transfer codes (e.g., DISORT and CRTM). Approximate solutions of integro-differential radiative transfer equations for turbid media with different shapes (spheres, cylinders, planeparallel layers) are detailed; * chapters 5 to 8 focus on studies of light scattering by single particles and radially inhomogeneous media; * the final chapter discusses the environmental polarimetry of man-made objects.

GPS Tracking with Java EE Components: Challenges of Connected Cars highlights how the self-driving car is actually changing the automotive industry, from programing embedded software to hosting services and data crunching, in real time, with really big data. The book analyzes how the challenges of the Self Driving Car (SDC) exceed the limits of a classical GPS Tracking System (GTS.) It provides a guidebook on setting up a tracking system by customizing its components. It also provides an overview of the prototyping and modeling process, and how the reader can modify this process for his or her own software. Every component is introduced in detail and includes a number of design decisions for development. The book introduces Java EE (JEE) Modules, and shows how they can be combined to a customizable GTS, and used as seed components to enrich existing systems with live tracking. The book also explores how to merge tracking and mapping to guide SDCs, and focuses on client server programming to provide useful information. It also discusses the challenges involved with the live coordination of moving cars. This book is designed to aid GTS developers and engineers in the automotive industry. It can also help Java Developers, not only interested in GPS Tracking, but in modern software design from many individual modules. Source code and sample applications will be available on the book's website.

Advancements in digital sensor technology, digital image analysis techniques, as well as computer software and hardware have brought together the fields of computer vision and photogrammetry, which are now converging towards sharing, to a great extent, objectives and algorithms. The potential for mutual benefits by the close collaboration and interaction of these two disciplines is great, as photogrammetric know-how can be aided by the most recent image analysis developments in computer vision, while modern quantitative photogrammetric approaches can support computer vision activities. Devising methodologies for automating the extraction of man-made objects (e.g. buildings, roads) from digital aerial or satellite imagery is an application where this cooperation and mutual support is already reaping benefits. The valuable spatial information collected using these interdisciplinary techniques is of improved qualitative and quantitative accuracy. This book offers a comprehensive selection of high-quality and in-depth contributions from world-wide leading research institutions, treating theoretical as well as implementational issues, and representing the state-of-the-art on this subject among the photogrammetric and computer vision communities.

The ability to extract generic 3D objects from images is a crucial step towards automation of a variety of problems in cartographic database compilation, industrial inspection and assembly, and autonomous navigation. Many of these problem domains do not have strong constraints on object shape or scene content, presenting serious obstacles for the development of robust object detection and delineation techniques. Geometric Constraints for Object Detection and Delineation addresses these problems with a suite of novel methods and techniques for detecting and delineating generic objects in images of complex scenes, and applies them to the specific task of building detection and delineation from monocular aerial imagery. PIVOT, the fully automated system implementing these techniques, is quantitatively evaluated on 83 images covering 18 test scenes, and compared to three existing systems for building extraction. The results highlight the performance improvements possible with rigorous photogrammetric camera modeling, primitive-based object representations, and geometric constraints derived from their combination. PIVOT's performance illustrates the implications of a clearly articulated set of philosophical principles, taking a significant step towards automatic detection and delineation of 3D objects in real-world environments. Geometric Constraints for Object Detection and Delineation is suitable as a textbook or as a secondary text for a graduate-level course, and as a reference for researchers and practitioners in industry.

The availability of new high resolution satellite data brings with it the need for new image analysis methods. Traditional pixel-oriented algorithms do not give credit to the spatial coherence of high resolution imagery. In particular, for detection and classification of man-made structures, object-based procedures are much more appropriate. The use of object features such as scale, compactness, orientation and texture, in addition to spectral characteristics, extends the possibilities of remote sensing satellite image analysis considerably.This book describes recent progress in object-based image interpretation, and also presents many new results in its application to verification of nuclear non-proliferation.

A universal approach to the ontology of geographic space has already been, and is going to be, a comprehensive task for establishing more effective spatial models. The concept of a universal spatial ontology should be independent of location, culture, and time. It should be fundamental and universal in the same way that the number p defines the ratio between the diameter and the circumference of a circle. The term universal therefore means all-embracing and for general propose. Universal Ontology of Geographic Space: Semantic Enrichment for Spatial Data aims to escalate the current scope of research to support the development of semantically interoperable systems of geographic space. This reference will aid university lecturers and professors, students, researchers, developers of spatial applications.

This book provides an information fusion model with information fusion theory, geographic information system technology and modern mathematical methods to evaluate the risks of groundwater inrushes from aquifers underlying coal seams. In this new model, the water inrush vulnerable index was calculated with variable weights theory. It overcomes the defect of the traditional vulnerability index method that assumes constant weights for the factors controlling the water inrush. Mine water inrush events often occur during coal mine construction and production; they account for a large proportion of the nation's coal mine disasters and accidents in China. Between 2005 and 2014, 513 water inrush incidents have occurred with a total loss of 2,753 lives. As mining depths and mining intensity continue to increase, the hydrogeological conditions encountered are becoming more complex. The innovative model presented here was applied to two coal mines in China with proved better results than the traditional vulnerability index method.

Wildland fires are becoming one of the most critical environmental factors affecting a wide range of ecosystems worldwide. In Mediterranean ecosystems (including also South-Africa, California, parts of Chile and Australia), wildland fires are recurrent phenomena every summer, following the seasonal drought. As a result of changes in traditional land use practices, and the impact of recent climate warming, fires have more negative impacts in the last years, threatening lives, socio-economic and ecological values. The book describes the ecological context of fires in the Mediterranean ecosystems, and provides methods to observe fire danger conditions and fire impacts using Earth Observation and Geographic Information System technologies.

This doctoral thesis applies measurements of ground deformation from satellite radar using their potential to play a key role in understanding volcanic and magmatic processes throughout the eruption cycle. However, making these measurements is often problematic, and the processes driving ground deformation are commonly poorly understood. These problems are approached in this thesis in the context of the Cascades Volcanic Arc. From a technical perspective, the thesis develops a new way of using regional-scale weather models to assess a priori the influence of atmospheric uncertainties on satellite measurements of volcano deformation, providing key parameters for volcano monitoring. Next, it presents detailed geodetic studies of two volcanoes in northern California: Medicine Lake Volcano and Lassen Volcanic Centre. Finally, the thesis combines geodetic constraints with petrological inputs to develop a thermal model of cooling magma intrusions. The novelty and range of topics covered in this thesis mean that it is a seminal work in volcanic and magmatic studies.

This book constitutes the first single-volume, English-language treatise on electromagnetic wave propagation across the frequency spectrum.

Since first emerging as an issue of concern in the late 1960s, fear of crime has become one of the most researched topics in contemporary criminology and receives considerable attention in a range of other disciplines including social ecology, social psychology and geography. Researchers looking the subject have consistently uncovered alarming characteristics, primarily relating to the behavioural responses that people adopt in relation to their fear of crime. This book reports on research conducted over the past eight years, in which efforts have been made to pioneer the combination of techniques from behavioural geography with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in order to map the fear of crime.

The first part of the book outlines the history of research into fear of crime, with an emphasis on the many approaches that have been used to investigate the problem and the need for a spatially-explicit approach. The second part provides a technical break down of the GIS-based techniques used to map fear of crime and summarises key findings from two separate study sites. The authors describe collective avoidance behaviour in relation to disorder decline models such as the Broken Windows Thesis, the potential to integrate fear mapping with police-community partnerships and emerging avenues for further research. Issues discussed include fear of crime in relation to housing prices and disorder, the use of fear mapping as a means with which to monitor the impact of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) and fear mapping in transit environments.

"China Satellite Navigation Conference (CSNC) 2014 Proceedings "presents selected research papers from CSNC2014, held on 21-23 May in Nanjing, China. The theme of CSNC2014 is 'BDS Application: Innovation, Integration and Sharing'. These papers discuss the technologies and applications of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and the latest progress made in the China BeiDou System (BDS) especially. They are divided into 9 topics to match the corresponding sessions in CSNC2014, which broadly covered key topics in GNSS. Readers can learn about the BDS and keep abreast of the latest advances in GNSS techniques and applications.

SUN Jiadong is the Chief Designer of the Compass/ BDS, and the Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); JIAO Wenhai is a researcher at China Satellite Navigation Office; WU Haitao is a professor at Navigation Headquarters, CAS; LU Mingquan is a professor at Department of Electronic Engineering of Tsinghua University.

Metadata play a fundamental role in both DLs and SDIs. Commonly defined as "structured data about data" or "data which describe attributes of a resource" or, more simply, "information about data," it is an essential requirement for locating and evaluating available data. Therefore, this book focuses on the study of different metadata aspects, which contribute to a more efficient use of DLs and SDIs. The three main issues addressed are: the management of nested collections of resources, the interoperability between metadata schemas, and the integration of information retrieval techniques to the discovery services of geographic data catalogs (contributing in this way to avoid metadata content heterogeneity).

"The PhD thesis written by Mr. Ackermann is an outstanding and in-depth scientific study that closes a research gap and paves the way to new developments. Despite the extremely complex issues, his work is very understandable and excellently elaborated." Prof. Dr. Christiane Schmullius "The PhD thesis written by Mr. Ackermann is an excellent and very comprehensive work performed at the highest scientific level. It examines in detail the potential of SAR data with regards to the derivation of forest stem volume in the temperate latitudes. The work belongs to a technically complex field. Nevertheless, Mr. Ackermann has succeeded in presenting the content in a clear and understandable way." Dr. Christian Thiel "The proposed document is overall of very good quality. Mr. Ackermann has done an exhaustive analysis of the in-situ data available on the Thuringian forest and was able to derive Growing Stocking Volume using L- and X-band spaceborne SAR data. The document is very well structured with a good split of information between the core of the text presented in the 6 chapters and the 4 annexes, which contain detailed results. Mr. Ackermann's English grammar is excellent and his syntax is crystal clear, making his document pleasant to read. The way arguments are presented is logical and Mr. Ackermann gives a lot of attention to ensuring that sound explanations properly support these arguments." Dr. Maurice Borgeaud