Principles of Geographical Information Systems (Spatial Information Systems) - Softcover

Burrough, Peter A.; McDonnell, Rachael A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198233655 ISBN 13: 9780198233657

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1998

Synopsis

This book is a completely new version of the highly successful 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 strong 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 the new volume provides 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.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Burrough is Professor of Physical Geography, Utrecht University
Rachael McDonnell is College Lecturer at Hertford College, University of Oxford

Review

[This second edition] builds upon the previous work in providing a very welcome basic, concise and more up to date introduction to the principles underlying GISs ... a osund and readable introduction to a complex subject. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, v.
9 no. 3, 2000

Choosing a course text in the early post-GIS years was very easy. Peter Burrough's Principles of geographical Information Systems for Land Resources Assessment was the definitive work. Beautifully written and illustrated...Peter Burrough set himself a hard act to follow...In almost every
respect this is a new book, and not the second edition it purports to be...So, this is a rarity in textbook publishing a second edition that improves on the first. It looks set to be my recommended course text for many years to come./David Unwin/GIS Europe June 1998.

This book presents a strong theoritical basis for GIS, which is often lacking in other texts...the optimising of timber extraction from forests and the redistribution of Chernobyl radioactivity by floods are explained clearly in detail./Mapping Awareness April 1998

`This new publication is up to date and provides comprehensive coverage of virtually all aspects of GIS. It is clearly written and technical where appropriate ... it should be recommended for postgraduate courses and for all teachers of GIS.'
David Walker, The Times Higher Education Supplement

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0198233655
• ISBN 13: 9780198233657
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 352