Learning GIS Using Open Source Software : An Applied Guide for Geo-spatial Analysis

This book introduces the usage, functionality, and application of data in geographic information systems (GIS) for geo-spatial analysis. It offers knowledge on GIS tools and techniques and explains how they can be applied in real-world project to architects and planners in the Indian and the Greater South Asian context using open-source software.

The volume explains concepts on planning and architectural tasks, their data, methods and requirements followed, and includes GIS-related exercises on the same tasks. It takes the reader through the concepts of geo-spatial analysis and its referencing system while quoting examples from India. Further, the content of the book will help the planners involved in preparing GIS-based master planning for cities under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme (see Glossary for details).

A practical guidebook providing a step-by-step guide to learn open source GIS, this book will be useful for students, scholars and professionals from the field of architecture and planning, geography and other spatial sciences, instructors of GIS courses on planning and architecture, urban and regional planners, transport planners, urban design, landscape architects, environmental planners, departments of town and country planning, and development authorities. It will also be useful for anyone interested in the geospatial analysis.

Kakoli Saha is Assistant Professor, School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, India, and currently heads the Geoinformatics Centre there. She completed her PhD in Applied Remote Sensing in 2010 from Kent State University,Ohio, USA. Since then she has successfully completed many professional assignments. She was Coordinator for the Doctoral Programme and was Principal Investigator for DST project, under Young Scientist Scheme (2012- 2015). Her research interest span the application of GIS and remote sensing in physical planning and architecture. Author of several scholarly articles, she is a recipient of the prestigious Erasmus Scholarship under the framework of Erasmus Plus Global Mobility Programme, 2016.

Yngve Frøyen is Professor at the Department of Architecture and Planning, Faculty of Architecture and Design, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway. He is a renowned expert in the field of GIS and information technology for land-use and transportation planning purposes. With a civil engineering background, he has worked on a wide field of planning-related disciplines, as researcher, university lecturer and as consulting adviser both in Norway and abroad. He is a member of the group responsible for the master program in physical planning at NTNU, where he has taught since 2010, and he supervises urban and regional planning topics such as integrated land-use and transportation planning, sustainable urban transport and urban network modelling. He is also teaches mapping and geographical information systems (GIS), and how GIS-methods and other computer-based tools can be utilized for planning purposes. His field of research includes the planning of sustainable urban transport solutions. In particular, he is concerned with environment friendly modes of transport–walking, bicycling and transit.