What makes a community resilient? How do we ensure its sustainable future? Resilience-the unique ability to positively adapt to changing physical and social environments-is essential for populations of all sizes and locales in today's world of unexpected changes and increasing instances of environmental change. Communities around the globe possess unique combinations of culture, skills, and abilities in context of unique built and natural environments. Identifying and mapping community strengths and resources facilitates effective planning for where and how to focus and manage their unique cultures and characteristics. Resilient Communities across Geographies is a collection of case studies examining the application of geographic information systems (GIS) to environmental and socioeconomic challenges for analysis, planning, and, ultimately, more resilient communities. Each chapter discusses a spatially driven approach to challenges in geography, social sciences, landscape architecture, urban planning, environmental studies, sociology, economics, migration, community development, meteorology, oceanography, and other fields. Examples explore both the natural and cultural contexts of climate adaptation in built environments and cultural impacts in a diversity of communities. These include the Martu people of Australia, First Nation youth in Canada, and cultural diversity of indigenous Los Angeles to California farmworkers facing exposure to agricultural chemicals in their communities. Each example applies powerful GIS tools and analysis to document, support, and assess resilience across these unique geographies while recognizing the value and strength which lies in the diversity of the people who live there. The stories shared within Resilient Communities across Geographies help readers develop an expanded sense of the power of spatial thinking, local knowledge, and engagement to address the difficult problems we collectively face in various locales. Edited by the authors of GIS Research Methods with a foreword by Esri Chief Medical Officer Este Geraghty.

"The Steinbergs have produced a very relevant book for the times. . . . While many books have emerged on the details of GIS, few resources exist to help teach the merger of GIS with more standard research methods. The Steinbergs accomplish this goal in a way that is readily accessible even to undergraduates." -Theodore Wagenaar, Miami University "The Steinbergs take the reader through all of the essential foundations of GIS... using examples drawn from the social sciences throughout. This book will be essential reading for any social scientist looking for a straightforward introduction to GIS." -Mike Goodchild, University of California, Santa Barbara Geographic Information Systems for the Social Sciences: Investigating Space and Place is the first book to take a cutting-edge approach to integrating spatial concepts into the social sciences. In this text, authors Steven J. Steinberg and Sheila L. Steinberg simplify GIS (Geographic Information Systems) for practitioners and students in the social sciences through the use of examples and actual program exercises so that they can become comfortable incorporating this research tool into their repertoire and scope of interest. The authors provide learning objectives for each chapter, chapter summaries, links to relevant Web sites, as well as suggestions for student research projects. Key Features: Presents step-by-step guidance for integrating GIS with both quantitative and qualitative research Provides an introduction to the use of GIS technology written at an accessible level for individuals without GIS experience while providing depth and guidance appropriate to experienced GIS users Offers an associated interactive Web site-http://www.socialsciencegis.org-to provide a forum for sharing experience and ideas, input to the authors, and a variety of other examples, data, and information related to the topics covered in the text Geographic Information Systems for the Social Sciences offers a nuts-and-bolts introduction to GIS for undergraduate and graduate students taking methods courses across the social sciences. It is an excellent textbook for courses dedicated to GIS research and its applications in the fields of Sociology, Criminology, Public Health, Geography, Anthropology, Political Science, and Environmental Studies. It is also a valuable resource for any social scientist or practitioner interested in applying GIS technology to his or her work. An Instructor's Resource CD, containing PowerPoint slides, test questions, and suggested Web site links, among other items, is also available to all professors adopting this text.