About the Book

"Albrecht's slim volume is an important contribution to users and teachers of geographic information systems. It is a distillation of the core functions available in contemporary workstation GIS systems, functions likely to become common on Web mapping systems like Google Earth and MS Virtual Earth. Well written and up-to-date, this book is an excellent complement to the voluminous documentation provided by software and solutions vendors."

—CHOICE

Key Concepts and Techniques in GIS is a concise overview of the fundamental ideas that inform Geographic Information Science. It provides detailed descriptions of the concepts and techniques that anyone using GIS software must fully understand to analyze spatial data.

Short and clearly focused chapters provide explanations of:

Spatial relationships and spatial data

The creation of digital data, the use and access of existing data, and the combination of data

The use of modeling techniques and the essential functions of map algebra

Spatial statistics and spatial analysis

Geocomputation – including discussion of neural networks, cellular automata, and agent-based modeling

Illustrated throughout with explanatory figures, the text also includes a glossary, cross referenced to discussion in the text. Written very much from a user's perspective, Key Concepts and Techniques in GIS is highly readable "refresher course" for intermediate level students and practitioners of GIS in the social and the natural sciences.  

Contents

Creating Digital Data   

Accessing Existing Data   

Handling Uncertainty   

Spatial Search   

Spatial Relationships   

Combining Spatial Data   

Location-Allocation   

Map Algebra   

Terrain Modeling   

Spatial Statistics   

Geocomputation   

Epilogue :Four-dimensional Modeling

About the Author / Editor

Jochen Albrecht - Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)