Geographic Information Systems In Business

This book contains state-of-the-art research studies on the concepts, theory, processes, and real world applications of geographical information systems (GIS) in business. Its chapters are authored by many of the leading experts in applying GIS and geospatial science to business. The book utilizes a wide variety of approaches and methodologies including conceptual theory development, research frameworks, quantitative and qualitative methods, case studies, systems design, DSS theory, and geospatial analysis combined with point-of-sale. Since relatively little research has been published on GIS in business, this book is pioneering and should be the principal compendium of the latest research in this area. The book impacts not only the underlying definitions, concepts, and theories of GIS in business and industry, but its practice as well.

Features a five part structure covering: Foundations; Principles; Techniques; Analysis; and Management and Policy. This book includes chapters on Distributed GIS, Map Production, Geovisualization, Modeling, and Managing GIS. It offers coverage of such topics as: GIS and the New World Order; security, health and well being; and the greening of GIS.

Developments in technologies have evolved in a much wider use of technology throughout science, government, and business; resulting in the expansion of geographic information systems. GIS is the academic study and practice of presenting geographical data through a system designed to capture, store, analyze, and manage geographic information. 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.

Geographic information systems (GIS)--a central repository of geographic data collected from various sources, including satellites and GPS--is emerging as one of the most intriguing and promising high-tech fields. This easy-to-understand resource provides technical and nontechnical professionals, regardless of their background, with an accessible and practical guide to important GIS know-how.

Geographic Information Systems: A Guide to cessing, spreadsheets, and data base the Technology was born of need-the need management. Recently, geographic infor for a comprehensive work on the emerg mation management technology came to ing field of geographic information man the desktop, signaling a new era of in agement technology. creasing use and popularity. Enthusiastic We encountered the need often in our users have long been the main source of work at PlanGraphics, Inc. , a leading com grassroots support and growth. We perceive at least three broad audi puter consulting firm that specializes in ences for this book: 1) executives, man the design and implementation of geo agers, professionals, and other lay people; graphic information systems (GIS) and as 2) practitioners and technicians; and 3) stu sists organizations in using the technology to solve problems and perform work more dents and academicians. We recognize efficiently. We needed it, our clients that Geographic Information Systems cannot needed it, and it didn't exist. completely satisfy the disparate needs of Geographic information management any of these groups, but we have tried to give each of these audiences a foundation technology-using computers to map, draw, store, and manipulate spatial data upon which to build. Our purpose is two fold. We hope to aid those considering, evolved independently in many places with many variations.

Exploit the advantages of Geographic Information Systems in your business Once the domain of cartographers and other specialists, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are increasingly being employed by the business community. Location-based services, supply chain management, management of field-distributed equipment, geographical marketing and promotion, and the spatial web are some of the current business applications which make use of GIS principles. Written specifically for the businessperson, Geo-Business: GIS in the Digital Organization is the first book to provide comprehensive coverage of GIS applications in the business and organizational environment. Going beyond a strictly geographical focus, this book sets GIS in the context of business information systems and other business sub-disciplines such as logistics, marketing, finance, and strategic management. It presents from an organizational perspective the advantages of spatially enabling existing enterprise systems and illustrates how GIS is applied in the real world through rigorous case study analyses of twenty companies, including Baystate Health, Chico’s, Kaiser Permanente, Lamar Advertising Company, Rand McNally, Southern Company, Sears Roebuck, and Sperry Van Ness. In this book, you’ll find out: What GIS is and how it can be integrated into your organization’s existing information infrastructure. How GIS is currently making businesses better, and how you can apply the same techniques to your industry or organization. The expanding roles of GIS and spatial technologies in the web and mobile environments. The ethical, legal, and security issues of special technologies How to conduct a cost/benefit and ROI analyses for GIS. Grounded in the real world of business and IT, Geo-Business will show you how spatially enabling your IT systems can give you a unique advantage to beat your competitors in the market, win and retain customers, grow your business, make better decisions, develop new products and services, and optimize your workflow.

Geographic information systems have developed rapidly in the past decade, and are now a major class of software, with applications that include infrastructure maintenance, resource management, agriculture, Earth science, and planning. But a lack of standards has led to a general inability for one GIS to interoperate with another. It is difficult for one GIS to share data with another, or for people trained on one system to adapt easily to the commands and user interface of another. Failure to interoperate is a problem at many levels, ranging from the purely technical to the semantic and the institutional. Interoperating Geographic Information Systems is about efforts to improve the ability of GISs to interoperate, and has been assembled through a collaboration between academic researchers and the software vendor community under the auspices of the US National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis and the Open GIS Consortium Inc. It includes chapters on the basic principles and the various conceptual frameworks that the research community has developed to think about the problem. Other chapters review a wide range of applications and the experiences of the authors in trying to achieve interoperability at a practical level. Interoperability opens enormous potential for new ways of using GIS and new mechanisms for exchanging data, and these are covered in chapters on information marketplaces, with special reference to geographic information. Institutional arrangements are also likely to be profoundly affected by the trend towards interoperable systems, and nowhere is the impact of interoperability more likely to cause fundamental change than in education, as educators address the needs of a new generation of GIS users with access to a new generation of tools. The book concludes with a series of chapters on education and institutional change. Interoperating Geographic Information Systems is suitable as a secondary text for graduate level courses in computer science, geography, spatial databases, and interoperability and as a reference for researchers and practitioners in industry, commerce and government.

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