Principles of Geographical Information Systems
Professor Peter A. Burrough(Author)
Clarendon Press
2nd Edition
Published on 1. March 1998
Book
Hardback
346 pages
978-0-19-823366-4 (ISBN)
Description
This text is a completely revised version of "Principles of Geographical Information Systems for Land Resources Assessment" which was first published in 1986. GIS are not just used for electronic map-making but today are major tools for the management of our physical and social environment. GIS are used to assist political decisions and play a part in market research, in the management of utility services, in automated navigation systems and in many other fields. This book presents a theoretical basis for GIS, which is often lacking in other texts. Spatial data are usually based on two, dichotomous paradigms, exactly defined entities in space, such as land parcels, or the continuous variation of single attributes, such as temperature or rainfall. Methods for modelling both kinds of phenomena and storing them in spatial databases are described in detail, including the use of geostatistics for interpolating from points to continuous fields.
Examples of how spatial data and an analysis of their spatial interactions are used to solve a wide range of practical problems ranging from site-location analysis through land degradation, the optimizing of timber extraction from forests and the redistribution of Chernobyl radioactivity by floods are explained clearly and in detail. Much attention is paid to the problems of data quality and how statistical errors in spatial data can affect the results of spatial modelling based on the two paradigms of space. Fuzzy logic and continuous classification methods are presented as methods for linking the two spatial paradigms. The book concludes with an investigation of current developments in providing spatial data for the whole world over the Internet. As such this volume attempts to provide a comprehensive and concise introduction to the theory and practice of Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
Targeted at undergraduates, graduates, and professionals in disciplines such as physical and human geography, hydrology, geology, environmental science, cartography, epidemiology, radioecology, agriculture, spatial planning, land tenure, and land evaluation the book explains why spatial data and the information systems based on them are important in the modern world.
Examples of how spatial data and an analysis of their spatial interactions are used to solve a wide range of practical problems ranging from site-location analysis through land degradation, the optimizing of timber extraction from forests and the redistribution of Chernobyl radioactivity by floods are explained clearly and in detail. Much attention is paid to the problems of data quality and how statistical errors in spatial data can affect the results of spatial modelling based on the two paradigms of space. Fuzzy logic and continuous classification methods are presented as methods for linking the two spatial paradigms. The book concludes with an investigation of current developments in providing spatial data for the whole world over the Internet. As such this volume attempts to provide a comprehensive and concise introduction to the theory and practice of Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
Targeted at undergraduates, graduates, and professionals in disciplines such as physical and human geography, hydrology, geology, environmental science, cartography, epidemiology, radioecology, agriculture, spatial planning, land tenure, and land evaluation the book explains why spatial data and the information systems based on them are important in the modern world.
More details
Edition
2nd Revised edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Oxford University Press
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
Revised edition
Illustrations
illustrations, bibliography, glossary, index
ISBN-13
978-0-19-823366-4 (9780198233664)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Previous edition
Professor Peter A. Burrough
Principles of Geographical Information Systems for Land Resources Assessment
Book
07/1986
Oxford University Press
€61.90
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Persons
Content
1: Geographical and Information Systems. 2: Conceptual Models of Spatial Phenomena. 3: Spatial Data in the Computer. 4: Building and Accessing an Entity Database. 5: Building Continuous Fields. 6: Data Analysis Using Entities. 7: Data Analysis Using Continuous Fields. 8: Errors and Quality Issues in Spatial Data. 9: Statistical Approaches to Errors, Natural Variation, and Quality Control. 10: Inexact Objects and Fields. 11: Organizational Issues. Glossary. Bibliography. Index