Introduction To Geospatial Technologies

Written for majors and non-majors alike, Introduction to Geospatial Technologies demonstrates the wide range of geographic technologies available to and used by geographers today. Each chapter contains an introduction to the key concepts and a lab activity, so that in addition to gaining a basic foundation of knowledge, students also obtain hands-on experience with the relevant software.

Written for both majors and non-majors alike, Introduction to Geospatial Technologies demonstrates the wide range of geographic technologies available to and used by geographers today. Each chapter contains an introduction to the key concepts and a lab activity, so that in addition to gaining a basic foundation of knowledge students also obtain hands-on experience with the relevant software. This new edition stays current with its rapidly moving field, with coverage and lab activities revised to reflect is the most up-to-date ideas and innovations in GST.

This book is designed to help students and researchers understand the latest research and development trends in the domain of geospatial information and communication (GeoICT) technologies. Accordingly, it covers the fundamentals of geospatial information systems, spatial positioning technologies, and networking and mobile communications, with a focus on OGC and OGC standards, Internet GIS, and location-based services. Particular emphasis is placed on introducing GeoICT as an integrated technology that effectively bridges various information-technology domains.

The constant growth of the world’s population and the decline of the availability of land and soil resources are global concerns for food security. Other concerns are the decrease in productivity and delivery of essential ecosystems services because of the decline of soil quality and health by a range of degradation processes. Key soil properties like soil bulk density, organic carbon concentration, plant available water capacity, infiltration rate, air porosity at field moisture capacity, and nutrient reserves, are crucial properties for soil functionality which refers to the capacity of soil to perform numerous functions. These functions are difficult to measure directly and are estimated through indices of soil quality and soil health. Soil degradation, its extent and severity, can also be estimated by assessing indices of soil quality and health. "Geospatial Technology for Land Degradation Assessment and Management" uses satellite imagery and remote sensing technologies to measure landscape parameters and terrain attributes. Remote sensing and geospatial technologies are important tools in assessing the extent and the severity of land and soil degradation, their temporal changes, and geospatial distribution in a timely and cost-effective manner. The knowledge presented in the book by Dr. R.S. Dwivedi shows how remote sensing data can be utilized for inventorying, assessing, and monitoring affected ecosystems and how this information can be integrated in the models of different local settings. Through many land degradations studies, land managers, researchers, and policymakers will find practical applications of geospatial technologies and future challenges. The information presented is also relevant to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations towards global food security.

Professionals in local and national government and in the private sector frequently need to draw on Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS), often in an integrated manner. This manual shows a hands-on operator how to work across the range of geospatial science and technology, whether as a user or as a contractor of services employing these technologies, and without either specialist education or substantial experience. The manual covers the fundamentals of each of these topical areas, providing the requisite mathematics, computer science and physics necessary to understand how the technologies work, assuming some elementary background in calculus and physics. It also shows how the technologies can be used together and focuses on their commonalities. A number of applications such as mapping and environmental modeling are presented, and a website accompanies the book.

"Geospatial Information" is spatial data concerning a place or, in space, collected in real time. Geospatial techniques together with remote sensing, geographic information science, Global Positioning System (GPS), cartography, geovisualization, and spatial statistics are being used to capture, store, manipulate and analyze to understand complex situations to solve mysteries of the universe. These techniques have been applied in various fields such as meteorology, forestry, environmental management, agriculture, health, homeland security etc. around the globe. This volume presents case studies and examples from various parts of the world and provides a broad overview of various approaches; data sets; data acquiring, monitoring and dissemination methods; satellites and sensors; tools and techniques used; integrating tools, techniques and application to various fields for the sustainable management of environmental resources in the context of global environmental change and natural hazards. The objective of this book is to provide state-of-the-art information to academics, researchers and industry practitioners who are involved or interested in the study, use, design and development of advanced and emerging geospatial technologies around the world with ultimate aim to empower individuals and organizations in building competencies for exploiting the opportunities of the knowledge society. All the chapters are peer-reviewes and evaluated and are an inter- and multi-disciplinary source of information, making an effort to link various geospatial techniques to make the earth an habitable place. The contributors have tried to focus their respective views on the current problems that need urgent attention. Consequently, we see this book as a comprehensive information base, which includes work of expertise in their specific fields of research.

This book provides an introduction to HCI and usability aspects ofGeographical Information Systems and Science. Its aim is tointroduce the principles of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI); todiscuss the special usability aspects of GIS which designers anddevelopers need to take into account when developing such systems;and to offer a set of tried and tested frameworks, matrices andtechniques that can be used within GIS projects. Geographical Information Systems and other applications ofcomputerised mapping have gained popularity in recent years. Today,computer-based maps are common on the World Wide Web, mobilephones, satellite navigation systems and in various desktopcomputing packages. The more sophisticated packages that allow themanipulation and analysis of geographical information are used inlocation decisions of new businesses, for public service deliveryfor planning decisions by local and central government. Many moreapplications exist and some estimate the number of people acrossthe world that are using GIS in their daily work at severalmillions. However, many applications of GIS are hard to learn andto master. This is understandable, as until quite recently, themain focus of software vendors in the area of GIS was on thedelivery of basic functionality and development of methods topresent and manipulate geographical information using the availablecomputing resources. As a result, little attention was paid tousability aspects of GIS. This is evident in many public andprivate systems where the terminology, conceptual design andstructure are all centred around the engineering of GIS and not onthe needs and concepts that are familiar to the user. This book covers a range of topics from the cognitive models ofgeographical representation, to interface design. It will providethe reader with frameworks and techniques that can be used anddescription of case studies in which these techniques have beenused for computer mapping application.