Temporal GIS : Advanced Functions for Field-Based Applications

Trustonlymovement. Life happens at the level of events not of words. Trust movement. A. Adler As its title suggests, the main goal of this book is the development of advanced fu- tions for field-based Temporal Geographical Information Systems (TGIS).These fields may describe a variety of natural, epidemiological, economical, and social phen- ena distributed across space and time.Within such a framework, the book makes an attempt to establish links between, (a) the currently conceived TGIS techniques, and (b) the Bayesian maximum entropy (BME) techniques of Modern Spatiotemporal G- statistics.This link could be vital for offering significant improvements in the advanced functions of TGIS analysis and modelling, as well as generating useful information in a variety of real-world decision making and planning situations. To achieve the above goals, the eight Chapters of the book are organized around four main themes: Concepts, mathematical tools, computer programs, and applications. In fact, the focus is mainly on the step-by-step implementation of the compu- tional BME approach and the extensive use of illustrative examples and real-world applications.Indeed, because of the applied character of the present book, no detailed theoretical explanations or mathematical derivations are included.Instead, the reader is referred to the earlier book by Christakos (Modern Spatiotemporal Geostatistics, Oxford Univ.Press, New York, N.Y., 2000) for a comprehensive presentation of these BME aspects.With this in mind, the chapter-by-chapter organization of the book is described next.

The book focuses on the development of advanced functions for field-based temporal geographical information systems (TGIS). These fields describe natural, epidemiological, economical, and social phenomena distributed across space and time. The book is organized around four main themes: "Concepts, mathematical tools, computer programs, and applications".
Chapters I and II review the conceptual framework of the modern TGIS and introduce the fundamental ideas of spatiotemporal modelling. Chapter III discusses issues of knowledge synthesis and integration. Chapter IV presents state-of-the-art mathematical tools of spatiotemporal mapping. Links between existing TGIS techniques and the modern Bayesian maximum entropy (BME) method offer significant improvements in the advanced TGIS functions. Comparisons are made between the proposed functions and various other techniques (e.g., Kriging, and Kalman-Bucy filters). Chapter V analyzes the interpretive features of the advanced TGIS functions, establishing correspondence between the natural system and the formal mathematics which describe it. In Chapters IV and V one can also find interesting extensions of TGIS functions (e.g., non-Bayesian connectives and Fisher information measures). Chapters VI and VII familiarize the reader with the TGIS toolbox and the associated library of comprehensive computer programs. Chapter VIII discusses important applications of TGIS in the context of scientific hypothesis testing, explanation, and decision making.