Temporal Gis

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.

There has been an increasing demand in GIS for systems that support historical data: time-series data as well as mobility information. From a modelling perspective, there are advantages in integrating object-oriented analysis and design to databases as well as to visualisation capabilities of GIS. Object-Oriented Design for Temporal GIS explores the major components of the object-oriented analysis and design methods, how they can be used for modelling spatio-temporal data, and how these components are developed and maintained within a GIS. It also offers practical guidance to object-oriented methods by demonstrating the feasibility of applying such methods to issues involved in handling spatio-temporal data. The author demonstrates how this knowledge might be used in a wide range of applications such as political boundary record maintenance (historical data), disease incidence rate analysis in epidemics (diffusion rate), and environmental studies of climate change (time-series data). This understanding contributes to the development of theory in GIS and improves the design of GIS to support the modelling of semantics, space and time elements of geographical information.

CD-ROM contains: BMElib, a set of programs for spatiotemporal geostatistics in Temporal GIS written in MatLab (version 5.3 and later).

The Encyclopedia of GIS provides a comprehensive and authoritative guide, contributed by experts and peer-reviewed for accuracy, and alphabetically arranged for convenient access. The entries explain key software and processes used by geographers and computational scientists. Major overviews are provided for nearly 200 topics: Geoinformatics, Spatial Cognition, and Location-Based Services and more. Shorter entries define specific terms and concepts. The reference will be published as a print volume with abundant black and white art, and simultaneously as an XML online reference with hyperlinked citations, cross-references, four-color art, links to web-based maps, and other interactive features.

Historical GIS is an emerging field that uses Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to research the geographies of the past. Ian Gregory and Paul Ell's study, first published in 2007, comprehensively defines this field, exploring all aspects of using GIS in historical research. A GIS is a form of database in which every item of data is linked to a spatial location. This technology offers unparalleled opportunities to add insight and rejuvenate historical research through the ability to identify and use the geographical characteristics of data. Historical GIS introduces the basic concepts and tools underpinning GIS technology, describing and critically assessing the visualisation, analytical and e-science methodologies that it enables and examining key scholarship where GIS has been used to enhance research debates. The result is a clear agenda charting how GIS will develop as one of the most important approaches to scholarship in historical geography.

This book aims to offer research at the cutting edge. The individual chapters are fully revised and updated versions of contributions to the first focused scientific symposium on research in geographic information systems GISRUK. The book provides the reader with a comprehensive outline of the full range and diversity of innovative research programmes in the science of GIS. Chapters address key issues such as computational support; spatial analysis and error; and application and implementation.

The book deals with the integration of temporal information in Geographic Information Systems. The main purpose of an historical or time-integrative GIS is to reproduce spatio- temporal processes or sequents of events in the real world in the form of a model. The model thus making them accessible for spatial query, analysis and visualization. This volume reflects both theoretical thoughts on the interrelations of space and time, as well as practical examples taken from various fields of application (e.g. business data warehousing, demographics, history and spatial analysis).

Geographic Information Systems are computer-based systems for geographic analysis. They have been developed over the past twenty five years and are now widely used. A recent research direction has been the development of geocomputation , representing computer-based geographical analysis beyond the traditional bounds of GIS. In geocomputation, the computer is the research environment itself, not merely a tool. A key to geocomputation it that highly powered computing can be used with sufficient data to avaid traditional parametric approaches altogether. The term geocomputation includes the use of computer-based techniques such as artificial neural networks, genetic programming and fuzzy logic, but in a geographical context. This new book in the prestigious Innovations in GIS series, presents the latest research in geocomputational techniques as presented in the GIS UK Annual Conference.