The 1990s have seen some remarkable changes in geographical information (GI) provision and computer technology that have impacted on many of the activities that constitute planning in all its different forms. However, relatively few texts in the field of geographical information systems (GIS) and planning have been published since Henk Scholten and John Stillwell edited Geographical Information Systems for Urban and Regional Planning in 1990. This volume seeks to redress the balance by showing how GI of various types is being used in urban, physical, environmental, socio-economic and business planning contexts at local, regional and national scales with the assistance of GIS and modelling methods, and how the uses of GI and GI technologies have evolved over the last decade. During this period, a number of meetings took place in Europe in different locations organised initially by European Geographical Information Systems (EGIS, 1990- 94) and more recently by the Joint European Conference and Exhibition (JEC) on Geographical Information (1995-97). These meetings brought together members of the GI community from across the world to discuss GI research and GIS applications. One of the Special Interest Groups associated with the JEC gatherings was that on 'Geographical Information and Planning' and several of the contributions in this book have their origins in papers presented to the group's meetings.

In August 1989, a Summer Institute was held at the Academie van Bouwkunst, the seventeenth century home of Amsterdam's School of Architecture, Town Planning and Landscape. The meeting brought together experts in Geographical Information Systems from throughout the world to address an international audience of planners. The contents of this book reflect many of the themes that were presented and discussed at the conference. The Summer Institute, let alone this volume, would not have been possible without the support of the International Association for the Development and Management of Existing and New Towns (INTNAIVN), the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISoCaRP), The National Physical Planning Agency of the Netherlands (RPD) and the Berlage Studio. We wish to acknowledge the assistance provided by these organisations and by the various sponsors: The Ministry of Housing, Physical Planning and Environment, the Municipality of Amsterdam, Logisterion b.v., ESRI, UNISYS, MABON b.v., SPSS, PRIME Computer Inc., PANDATA. The provision of hardware facilities by the various computer companies allowed immensely valuable 'hands on' experience to be gained by all the participants.

The book deals with the integration of temporal information in Geographic Information Systems. The main purpose of an historical or time-integrative GIS is to reproduce spatio- temporal processes or sequents of events in the real world in the form of a model. The model thus making them accessible for spatial query, analysis and visualization. This volume reflects both theoretical thoughts on the interrelations of space and time, as well as practical examples taken from various fields of application (e.g. business data warehousing, demographics, history and spatial analysis).

"Retail Intelligence & Network Planning" baut auf dem Erfolg des Vorgängerbandes "Intelligent GIS" auf, in dem Grundlagen und Anwendungen von GIS und Raummodellen für die strategische Planung ausführlich dargelegt wurden. "Retail Intelligence & Network Planning" konzentriert sich in erster Linie auf den breiten Einzelhandelssektor; die hier behandelten Beispiele stammen aus einer Vielzahl von Branchen. Die Autoren erläutern, wie wichtig Fallstudien für die moderne Standortforschung sind und behandeln eine breite Palette von Fragen zu Standort, Distribution und Management der Vertriebskanalproblematik, die für Einzelhandels- und Dienstleistungsunternehmen von großem Interesse sind.

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) provide an enhanced environment for spatial data processing. The ability of geographic information systems to handle and analyse spatially referenced data may be seen as a major characteristic which distinguishes GIS from information systems developed to serve the needs of business data processing as well as from CAD systems or other systems whose primary objective is map production. This book, which contains contributions from a wide-ranging group of international scholars, demonstrates the progress which has been achieved so far at the interface of GIS technology and spatial analysis and planning. The various contributions bring together theoretical and conceptual, technical and applied issues. Topics covered include the design and use of GIS and spatial models, AI tools for spatial modelling in GIS, spatial statistical analysis and GIS, GIS and dynamic modelling, GIS in urban planning and policy making, information systems for policy evaluation, and spatial decision support systems.

Targeting those charged with launching or implementing a geographic information system for their organization, this book details a practical method for planning a GIS proven successful in public and private sector organizations.

"This book tackles topics related to development of Geographic Information in terms of the technologies available for retrieving, managing, and analyzing geographical data"--Provided by publisher.

Fuzzy logic and continuous classification methods are presented as methods for linking the two spatial paradigms.

This practical book shows the procedure to integrate, in a practical way, empirical propagation methods with geographical information systems (GIS) to obtain the radio coverage in open environments. It includes the theoretical explanation of empirical methods and GIS but as a basis to develop a real tool that combines both aspects to provide the user a suitable method for the wireless network planning in urban areas. The book introduces the empirical propagation methods and their application to wireless network planning. The motivation for combining them with the information obtained from geographical information systems is illustrated as well as their application to real situations. The most important empirical methods used to calculate the propagation in open environments are reviewed. Focus is given to the geometrical information needed to prove the necessity of obtaining some geographical information if these methods must be applied to realistic network planning. A review of the most important GIS is also described. The advantages and disadvantages of every system is analyzed from the point of view of its integration with an empirical propagation method. An application that combines a geographical information system with an empirical propagation method is fully described. The practical features of this integration are completely studied to allow an engineer to use and develop his own tool. Examples are given in each chapter to fully describe and illustrate the process.

With planning support software, citizen planners can move buildings from block to block, tear them down, build complete subdivisions, run new highways in and around town, analyze any number of scenarios, and see with their own eyes the consequences of each action. This reference offers new possibilities and discusses the most important aspects of computer-aided land-use planning.