Geographic information systems (GISs) have played a vital role in Earth sciences by providing a powerful means of observing the world and various tools for solving complex problems. The scientific community has used GISs to reveal fascinating details about the Earth and other planets. This book on recent advances in GIS for Earth sciences includes 12 publications from esteemed research groups worldwide. The research and review papers in this book belong to the following broad categories: Earth science informatics (geoinformatics), mining, hydrology, natural hazards, and society.

Geographic Information Systems: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is a collection of knowledge on the latest advancements and research of geographic information systems. This book aims to be useful for academics and practitioners involved in geographical data.

As the use of geographical information systems develops apace, a significant strand of research activity is being directed to the fundamental nature of geographic information. This volume contains a collection of essays and discussions on this theme. What is geographic information? What fundamental principles are associated with it? How can

The Third Edition of this bestselling textbook has been fully revised and updated to include the latest developments in the field and still retains its accessible format to appeal to a broad range of students. Now divided into five clear sections the book investigates the unique, complex and difficult problems that are posed by geographic information and together they build into a holistic understanding of the key principles of GIS. This is the most current, authoritative and comprehensive treatment of the field, that goes from fundamental principles to the big picture of: GIS and the New World Order security, health and well-being digital differentiation in GIS consumption the core organizing role of GIS in Geography the greening of GIS grand challenges of GIScience science and explanation Key features: Four-colour throughout Associated website with free online resources Teacher’s manual available for lecturers A complete learning resource, with accompanying instructor links, free online lab resources and personal syllabi Includes learning objectives and review boxes throughout each chapter New in this edition: Completely revised with a new five part structure: Foundations; Principles; Techniques; Analysis; Management and Policy All new personality boxes of current GIS practitioners New chapters on Distributed GIS, Map Production, Geovisualization, Modeling, and Managing GIS

This volume uniquely links educational theories and the practice of GIScience in higher education contexts to guide classroom practice, present effective practical implementations from peers, and provide resources and strategies for effective teaching methods. The book offers a comprehensive exploration of GIScience education, including current trends and future educational needs in GIScience, and will act as a resource to prepare learners for a world that demands more intensive investment in present-day education and technological literacy. Additionally, the indirect benefit of merging the fragmented literature on GIScience literacy will provide a basis to examine common techniques and enable a new wave of research more rooted in learning theories. In ten chapters, the book is designed to attract an audience from geographic information systems science, geomatics, spatial information science, cartography, information technology, and educational technology as focus disciplines.

Spatial Modeling in GIS and R for Earth and Environmental Sciences offers an integrated approach to spatial modelling using both GIS and R. Given the importance of Geographical Information Systems and geostatistics across a variety of applications in Earth and Environmental Science, a clear link between GIS and open source software is essential for the study of spatial objects or phenomena that occur in the real world and facilitate problem-solving. Organized into clear sections on applications and using case studies, the book helps researchers to more quickly understand GIS data and formulate more complex conclusions. The book is the first reference to provide methods and applications for combining the use of R and GIS in modeling spatial processes. It is an essential tool for students and researchers in earth and environmental science, especially those looking to better utilize GIS and spatial modeling. - Offers a clear, interdisciplinary guide to serve researchers in a variety of fields, including hazards, land surveying, remote sensing, cartography, geophysics, geology, natural resources, environment and geography - Provides an overview, methods and case studies for each application - Expresses concepts and methods at an appropriate level for both students and new users to learn by example

Your government warns that 10% of your neighbors have a deadly contagious virus. The producer of a diagnostic test advertises that 90% of its tests are correct for any population. The test indicates that you have the virus. This book’s author claims your test has a 50% chance of being false, given your test’s result. Who do you believe? This book gives you insights necessary to interpret metrics that make a difference in life’s decisions. This book gives methods and software that are essential to analyze change and error. Change describes a phenomenon across time points. Error compares diagnoses with the truth. Other texts give insufficient attention to these topics. This book’s novel ideas dispel popular misconceptions and replace previous methods. The author uses carefully designed graphics and high school mathematics to communicate easily with college students and advanced scientists. Applications include but are not limited to Remote Sensing, Land Change Science, and Geographic Information Science. “A wide range of tools to aid understanding of land cover and its change has been used but scientific progress has sometimes been limited through misuse and misunderstanding. Professor Pontius seeks to rectify this situation by providing a book to accompany the researcher’s toolbox. Metrics That Make a Difference addresses basic issues of relevance to a broad community in a mathematically friendly way and should greatly enhance the ability to elicit correct information. I wish this book existed while I was a grad student.” – Giles Foody, Professor of Geographical Information Science, The University of Nottingham “Metrics That Make a Difference provides a comprehensive synthesis of over two decades of work during which Dr. Pontius researched, developed, and applied these metrics. The book meticulously and successfully guides the reader through the conceptual basis, computations, and proper interpretation of the many metrics derived for different types of variables. The book is not just a mathematical treatise but includes practical guidance to good data analysis and good science. Data scientists from many fields of endeavor will benefit substantially from Dr. Pontius’ articulate review of traditionally used metrics and his presentation of the innovative and novel metrics he has developed. While reading this book, I had multiple ‘aha’ moments about metrics that I shouldn't be using and metrics that I should be using instead.” – Stephen Stehman, Distinguished Teaching Professor, State University of New York

Integrating Scale in Remote Sensing and GIS serves as the most comprehensive documentation of the scientific and methodological advances that have taken place in integrating scale and remote sensing data. This work addresses the invariants of scale, the ability to change scale, measures of the impact of scale, scale as a parameter in process models, and the implementation of multiscale approaches as methods and techniques for integrating multiple kinds of remote sensing data collected at varying spatial, temporal, and radiometric scales. Researchers, instructors, and students alike will benefit from a guide that has been pragmatically divided into four thematic groups: scale issues and multiple scaling; physical scale as applied to natural resources; urban scale; and human health/social scale. Teeming with insights that elucidate the significance of scale as a foundation for geographic analysis, this book is a vital resource to those seriously involved in the field of GIScience.

Geographic Information Systems for Geoscientists: Modelling with GIS provides an introduction to the ideas and practice of GIS to students and professionals from a variety of geoscience backgrounds. The emphasis in the book is to show how spatial data from various sources (principally paper maps, digital images and tabular data from point samples) can be captured in a GIS database, manipulated, and transformed to extract particular features in the data, and combined together to produce new derived maps, that are useful for decision-making and for understanding spatial interrelationship. The book begins by defining the meaning, purpose, and functions of GIS. It then illustrates a typical GIS application. Subsequent chapters discuss methods for organizing spatial data in a GIS; data input and data visualization; transformation of spatial data from one data structure to another; and the combination, analysis, and modeling of maps in both raster and vector formats. This book is intended as both a textbook for a course on GIS, and also for those professional geoscientists who wish to understand something about the subject. Readers with a mathematical bent will get more out of the later chapters, but relatively non-numerate individuals will understand the general purpose and approach, and will be able to apply methods of map modeling to clearly-defined problems.