2nd Edition

GIS A Computing Perspective, Second Edition

By Matt Duckham, Michael F. Worboys Copyright 2004
    446 Pages 261 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    GIS: A Computing Perspective, Second Edition, provides a full, up-to-date overview of GIS, both Geographic Information Systems and the study of Geographic Information Science. Analyzing the subject from a computing perspective, the second edition explores conceptual and formal models needed to understand spatial information, and examines the representations and data structures needed to support adequate system performance. This volume also covers the special-purpose interfaces and architectures required to interact with and share spatial information, and explains the importance of uncertainty and time. The material on GIS architectures and interfaces as well as spatiotemporal information systems is almost entirely new.

    The second edition contains substantial new information, and has been completely reformatted to improve accessibility. Changes include:

    • A new chapter on spatial uncertainty
    • Complete revisions of the bibliography, index, and supporting diagrams
    • Supplemental material is offset at the top of the page, as are references and links for further study
    • Definitions of new terms are in the margins of pages where they appear, with corresponding entries in the index

    INTRODUCTION
    What is a GIS?
    GIS Functionality
    Data and Databases
    Hardware Support

    FUNDAMENTAL DATABASE CONCEPTS
    Introduction to Databases
    Relational Databases
    Database Development
    Object-Orientation

    FUNDAMENTAL SPATIAL CONCEPTS
    Euclidean Space
    Set-Based Geometry of Space
    Topology of Space
    Network Spaces
    Metric Spaces
    Endnote on Fractal Geometry

    MODELS OF GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION
    Modeling and Ontology
    The Modeling Process
    Field-Based Models
    Object-Based Models

    REPRESENTATION AND ALGORITHMS
    Computing with Geospatial Data
    The Discrete Euclidean Plane
    The Spatial Object Domain
    Representations of Field-Based Models
    Fundamental Geometric Algorithms
    Vectorization and Rasterization
    Network Representation and Algorithms

    STRUCTURES AND ACCESS METHODS
    General Database Structures and Access Methods
    From One to Two Dimensions
    Raster Structures
    Point Object Structures
    Linear Objects
    Collections of Objects
    Spherical Data Structures

    ARCHITECTURES
    Hybrid, Integrated, and Composable Architectures
    Syntactic and Semantic Heterogeneity
    Distributed Systems
    Distributed Databases
    Location-Aware Computing

    INTERFACES
    Human-Computer Interaction
    Cartographic Interfaces
    Geovisualization
    Developing GIS Interfaces

    SPATIAL REASONING AND UNCERTAINTY
    Formal Aspects of Spatial Reasoning
    Information and Uncertainty
    Qualitative Approaches to Uncertainty
    Quantitative Approaches to Uncertainty
    Applications of Uncertainty in GIS

    TIME
    Introduction: A Brief History of Time
    Temporal Information Systems
    Spatiotemporal Information Systems
    Indexes and Queries

    Appendices

    Biography

    Matt Duckham, Michael F. Worboys