INTRODUCTIONTO GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

by Kang-tsung Chang, 9th Edition

Preface of the Book

A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer system for storing, managing, analyzing, and displaying geospatial data. Since the 1970s GIS has been important for professionals in natural resource management, land use planning, natural hazards, transportation, health care, public services, market area analysis, and urban planning. It has also become a necessary tool for government agencies of all levels for routine operations. The more recent integration of GIS with the Internet, a global positioning system (GPS), wireless technology, and Web service has found applications in location-based services, Web mapping, in-vehicle navigation systems, collaborative Web mapping, and volunteered geographic information.

It is therefore no surprise that geospatial technology was chosen by the U.S. Department of Labor as a high-growth industry. Geospatial technology centers on GIS and uses GIS to integrate data from remote sensing, GPS, cartography, and surveying to produce useful geographic information. Many of us, in fact, use geospatial technology on a daily basis. 

To locate a restaurant, we go online, type the name of the restaurant, and find it on a location map. To make a map for a project, we go to Google Maps, locate a reference map, and superimpose our own contents and symbols to complete the map. To find the shortest route for driving, we use an in-vehicle navigation system to get the directions. And, to record places we have visited, we use geotagged photographs. All of these activities involve the use of geospatial technology, even though we may not be aware of it. It is, however, easier to be GIS users than GIS professionals. 

To become GIS professionals, we must be familiar with the technology as well as the basic concepts that drive the technology. Otherwise, it can easily lead to the misuse or misinterpretation of geospatial information. This book is designed to provide students with a solid foundation in GIS concepts and practice.

UPDATES TO THE NINTH EDITION 

The ninth edition covers GIS concepts, operations, and analyses in 18 chapters. Chapters 1 to 4 explain GIS concepts and vector and raster data models. Chapters 5 to 8 cover geospatial data acquisition, editing, and management. Chapters 9 and 10 include data display and exploration. Chapters 11 and 12 provide an overview of core data analysis.
Chapters 13 to 15 focus on surface mapping and analysis. Chapters 16 and 17 examine linear features and movement. And Chapter 18 presents GIS models and modeling. Designed to meet the needs of students from different disciplines, this book can be used in a first or second GIS course. 

Instructors may follow the chapters in sequence. They may also reorganize the chapters to suit their course needs. As an example, exercises
on geometric transformation (Chapter 6) and topological editing (Chapter 7) require standard or advanced license levels of ArcGIS, and they can perhaps be covered in a second GIS course. On the other hand, geocoding (Chapter 16) is a topic familiar to many students and can be introduced early as an application of GIS.

The revision of the ninth edition has focused on three areas: new developments in GIS, changes in the acquisition of geospatial data, and careful interpretation of important GIS concepts. New developments in GIS include open source and free GIS,
integration of GIS with Web2.0 and mobile technology, new horizontal datums, animated maps, quality of geocoding, and regression analysis with spatial data. Acquisition of free geospatial data, such as very high-resolution satellite images, LiDAR data, LiDAR-based DEMs, and global-scale data, is now possible from websites maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and other organizations. Basic concepts, such as datum shift, topology, spatial database, spatial join, and map algebra, are closely linked to GIS operations and analyses and must be firmly grasped by beginning GIS users. The revision of the ninth edition covers every chapter.

 This ninth edition continues to emphasize the practice of GIS. Each chapter has problem-solving tasks in the applications section, complete with data sets and instructions. With the addition of four new tasks in Chapters 2, 11, 12, and 13, the number of tasks in the new edition totals 87, with two to seven tasks in each chapter. The instructions for performing the tasks correlate to ArcGIS 10.5. All tasks in this edition use ArcGIS and its extensions of Spatial Analyst, 3D Analyst, Geostatistical Analyst, Network Analyst, and ArcScan. In addition, a challenging task is found at the end of each applications section.
The ninth edition retains task-related questions and reviews questions, which have proved to be useful to readers of the earlier editions. Finally, references and websites have been updated in this edition.

Brief Content

1 Introduction  1 

2 Coordinate Systems  22 

3 Vector Data Model  46 

4 Raster Data Model  71 

5 GIS Data Acquisition  93 

6 Geometric Transformation  117 

7 Spatial Data Accuracy and Quality  133 

8 Attribute Data Management  151 

9 Data Display and Cartography  172 

10 Data Exploration  204 

11 Vector Data Analysis  229 

12 Raster Data Analysis  258 

13 Terrain Mapping and Analysis  279 

14 Viewshed and Watershed Analysis  303 

15 Spatial Interpolation  327 

16 Geocoding and Dynamic Segmentation  356 

17 Least-Cost Path Analysis and Network Analysis  378 

18 GIS Models and Modeling  402

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INTRODUCTION TO GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS 

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