Book Description
The first edition of Geographic Information Systems and Science has taken the GIS textbook market by storm, selling over 22,000 copies since publication. It is the most current, authoritative and comprehensive treatment of the field, that goes from fundamental principles to the big picture.

GISS 2e builds on the success of the first edition:

• Completely revised with a new five part structure: Foundations; Principles; Techniques; Analysis; Management and Policy
• All new personality boxes of current GIS practitioners
• New chapters on Distributed GIS, Map Production, Geovisualization, Modeling, and Managing GIS
• Specific coverage of current hot topics:
  • GIS and the New World Order
  • Security, health and well-Being
  • Digital differentiation in GIS consumption
  • The core organizing role of GIS in geography
  • The greening of GIS
  • Grand challenges of GIS science
  • Science and explanation

A new suite of instructor resources including a companion website with an on-line lab resource and personal student sullabus and a cehensive Instructor’s Manual that maps the textbook to various disciplines and levels of courses. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Helpful and good price
This book was helpful for those new to GIS.I am taking a grad course and found this text useful in giving background information.

Easy to understand, self explanatory
This text is an excellent book for people just entering into the GIS world. It is self explanatory and covers different areas in science and technical fields

Geographic Information System and Science - Longley
A good book for persons wishing to study the basic principles of GIS. Easy to understand although some of the examples may be a little abstract for persons with limited theoretical geographic or practical reference background. Experienced GIS persons may find it strong on explanations but a little short on practical applications.

GIS complete under one cover; computer-literates will likely find it tedious
I bought this book to provide the intellectual background to "Getting to know ArcGIS", for a class I'm taking. It's fine for that, I guess, with one caveat: I found it very slow reading, for a number of reasons.

At the outset, a lot of time is spent justifying why the 'S' in "GIS" stands for 'Science', not just 'Systems'. They talk a lot about how GIS helps in generating fundamental theories of science, but doesn't really offer examples. It just came off like a bunch of academics who just don't get enough respect. But there's nothing wrong with technology, and I don't know why the authors would want to justify what is clearly technology as science. (Technology is the application of science, in my book).

Another problem, for me at least, is that it is written at such a basic level. It takes a whole page or more, talking about how data can be ordinal, nominal, categorical, etc. I just felt like the book could have been a third of the size it is, without losing much. I recognise that not all readers will find this the problem I did.

I can see why it's highly regarded: apparently, it is really the first book to gather everything you need to know about GIS under one cover, and that's no mean feat. If you have an engineering/physical science background (bachelor's level), and have ever written your own computer program, you'll likely find it tediously slow and overly explicit. (If you already know the difference between 'raster' and 'vector' graphics you'll likely feel this book is too slow.)

It's still worth reading for the history it gives about the field, and the profiles of current GIS users.

Melds GIS theory with practice
Longley's book is a well-written comprensive introduction to GIS applications, principles, techniques, analysis, and management and policy.I have the 2nd edition.Longley and coauthors clearly describe the main principles of GIS, such as representation, spatial autocorrelation, georeferencing, and uncertainty along with basic modeling, visualization, and queries.I am a nonscientist who used this book in tandem with Price's Mastering ArcGIS.Longley's use of illustrations, tables, and biographical sketches of GIS users are apt and useful.Technical boxes demonstrate mathematical formulas that the GIS is utilizing. The "further reading" section at the end of each chapter is subject-targeted and up to date.I highly recommend this book for anyone who is serious about learning GIS. ... Read more

Book Description
This book is designed to provide students in a first or second GIS course with a solid foundation in both GIS concepts and the use of GIS. Introduction to GIS strikes a careful balance between GIS concepts and hands-on applications. The main portion of the chapter presents GIS terms and concepts and helps students learn how each one fits into a complete GIS system. At the end of each chapter, an application section with 3-5 tasks presents students with actual GIS exercises and the necessary data to solve the problem. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent Textbook if you are teaching yourself GIS
I purchased this book to teach myself GIS, because the Graduate course I was taking did not explain GIS at all.The Book we used, Introduction to GIS by Keith C. Clarke was an old edition, and was written for elementary schoolers, not for a graduate level.The information was not good and my professor was terrible.This book saved me time and stress levels. ... Read more

Book Description
A unique approach to learning and teaching GIS, integrating fundamental concepts with a practical applications workbook

Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS® serves as both an easy-to-understand introduction to GIS and a hands-on manual for the ArcGIS® 9.1 software. This unique and exciting book is written by a leading author in the field with thirty years of experience developing successful books on computer software and GPS hardware. Each chapter presents two mutually supporting sections:

• Overview—a discussion of theory and ideas relating to GIS, laying the groundwork for spatial analysis
• Step-by-Step—instructions on how to use ArcGIS® software. There are sixty exercises and nine review exercises throughout the book, covering most of the topics students need to gain GIS jobs or continue work in GIS or GIScience

Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS® is easy to read, informative, and entertaining, as it serves to present both the theory behind and the practical applications of GIS. ... Read more

Book Description

Fully updated to reflect advances in GIS concepts and techniques, this guide approaches the subject from the broader context of information technology. Gives complete, up-to-date coverage to the concepts and techniques pertaining to every stage of the systems development life cycle of GIS, as well as its applications to various areas of spatial problem solving and decision making.

Customer Reviews (1)

Broad yet thorough treatment of GIS techniques and issues
The focus of this book is on the concepts and techniques needed by GIS professionals. Thus, this book stands out for its intentional focus on professional education. The reader should be proficient in geometry, algebra and trigonometry and also have some background in computer science and geography. While this book deals with the range of topics normally included in introductory GIS courses, coverage of many subjects is deep enough for the advanced reader. The authors definitely had a problem trying to place the many interconnected topics of GIS into a linear sequence of chapters. Thus, there are many times where a topic is briefly introduced in one chapter only to have it reappear in greater depth in some subsequent chapter.

Sometimes, the connection between the original introduction and the later details is not clear. For example, in Chapter 2, surveying gets a much more thorough treatment than photogrammetry. However, in chapter 8, six chapters later, photogrammetry reappears as a topic and is covered in tremendous detail. The references at the end of each chapter are very good and are usually in sources that should be accessible to most readers. Once past the simple scale and map theme topics, students face their first mathematical challenge in meaty sections on planar coordinate transformations, projections, geodetic datums, UTM, state plane systems and even a brief introduction to land surveying and GPS . Thisdemonstrates that the authors decided not to shy away from the difficult details of GIS. This would make a good textbook in an upper undergraduate class as well as a good professional reference. Since the table of contents is not shown, I do that next:

1. INTRODUCTION - This chapter explains the context for studying GIS in both the academic and professional settings.

2. MAPS AND GEOSPATIAL DATA - This chapter explains the relationship between maps and GIS.

3. DIGITAL REPRESENTATION AND ORGANIZATION OF GEOSPATIAL DATA - Explains the concepts and techniques of representing geographic data in digital form using different data models. Includes a quick reference to important geographical foundations such as Berry's geographic matrix, then introduces the concepts of objects and fields and rasters and vectors. This chapter also includes a useful section on representing temporal relationships and a good level of detail on object-oriented data models and database systems.

4. GEOSPATIAL DATA QUALITY AND STANDARDS - Defines the basic concepts and terminology commonly used for the description and evaluation of data quality with special reference to GIS. Includes an introduction to spatial autocorrelation and error propagation covered in much greater detail later in the book. Interoperability and OGC get one page here and one more page later in Chapter 12. Finally the chapter includes an extensive section on data standards both in the US and elsewhere.

5. RASTER GEOPROCESSING - Includes rasterfile formats and various topics related to acquiring raster data such as rectification, registration and mosaicing. Brief reference is made to various ways in which raster operations might be categorized. Then the local, neighborhood, extended neighborhood and regional classification system is used to explore the range of operations. Logical overlay operations are thoroughly covered. The determination of slope is also covered here under extended neighborhood operations. Map algebra and cartographic modeling are discussed later in the chapter along with some worked examples.

6. VECTOR GEOPROCESSING - Covers a variety of vector topics including digitizing, scanning, editing, topology building, attribute data conversion, address geocoding, a selection of basic vector operations such as buffering and topological overlay, and a good introduction to network analysis, picked up in much greater detail in Chapter 10.

7. GEOVISUALIZATION AND GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION PRODUCTS - An eclectic mix that covers GIS as information communication channel, human-computer interaction and user interfaces, scientific visualization, 3D, animation, web cams, hypermaps, digital spatial libraries, and how CRTs work.

8. REMOTE SENSING AND GIS INTEGRATION - Deep coverage on such topics as orthophotography production, thermal infrared energy equations, radar imaging theory, photogrammetric considerations of satellite imaging systems, and image classifiers.

9. DIGITAL TERRAIN MODELING - Deep coverage of a range of topics including sampling terrain data, geometric characteristics of DEMs, construction of TINs (including their topological datastructure), more on GPS, stereoplotter operation, sources and quality of existing DEMdata, extraction of topographic features, viewshed analysis, terrain visualization (including tables summarizing various software packages for terrain modeling). It also includes brief coverage of interpolation, surface fitting and trend surface analysis.

10. SPATIAL ANALYSIS, MODELING, AND MINING - Examines spatial analysis at a higher level than the simple map data manipulation of chapters 5 and 6. Good coverage of advanced topics include spatial autocorrelation indices, quadrat counts, nearest-neighbor analysis, gravity models and network analysis. A few detailed examples of integrating GIS with mathematical models concludes the chapter.

11. GIS IMPLEMENTATION AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT - Thorough coverage of important topics such as the value of a software engineering approach, stages of GIS project planning, system analysis, database design methodology (including several pages on E-R modeling, logical schema and normalization), application software design, system implementation and maintenance.

12. GIS ISSUES AND PROSPECTS - Overview of the key issues facing GIS users today. It also examines the emerging concepts and techniques that are rapidly changing the nature of using geographic information. ... Read more

Book Description
Due to the growing demand for Geographic Information Systems within the MIS, Public Policy, and Business School curriculums, An Introduction to Geographic Information Systems and Step-by-Step Tutorial for ArcExplorer, offers a comprehensive guide that will empower users to master this compelling technology.Using carefully organized lessons and step-by-step instructions, this text will introduce users to principles and resources on GIS as well as specific instructions on ArcExplorer, a leading GIS software package. ... Read more

Product Description
Law enforcement is transitioning towards seeing information in a visual means rather than by using tabular data.This technique is called geographic information systems (GIS) and it is helping to meet the needs of citizens and governmental administrators.This book is designed to help practitioners and students experience the capabilities of Environmental Systems Research Institutes' (ESRI) ArcView 3.X software, a relatively inexpensive desktop software package.Many law enforcement agencies rely on this software to analyze large amounts of reports and other community data.This software helps agencies to see relationships unfold between data sources. ... Read more

Book Description
This landmark text captures and redefines the richness and diversity of GIS, in an accessible form. It presents a clearly-defined path to a world of learning about GIS, using the Internet and closely-couples reference sources. It is richly produced and illustrated unlike any other in the field, with over 300 full colour illustrations.

Unique in several ways, it presents comprehensive treatments of:

• Geographic Information Science - the scientific context to GIS, technical content and geographic implications
• The real value of GIS - illustrated using real world applications. Treatments emphasize operational, tactical and strategic issues
• The impact of Internet GIS on interdisciplinary science and society
• The pivotal role of GIS as a business driver in the information age - including the role of GIS as a business asset and the operational dynamics of its use in practice 
  
  Learning resources include:

• Links to ESRI's Virtual Campus which includes modules specially written to accompany the book (http://campus.esri.com)
• Instructor's Manual to assist in the planning and use of this text in a variety of academic environments (http://www.wiley.co.uk/gis)
• Free on-line access to relevant chapters of the first edition of the two-volume 'Big Book 1' (http://www.wiley.co.uk/gis)
• Questions for further study at the end of each chapter (http://www.wiley.co.uk/gis)
• Powerpoint slides to assist teaching

Customer Reviews (3)

Good information, but strange use of the English language
This book is a textbook for a course I am taking. The information is good, but the writers use strange sentence construction from time to time, making the material hard to understand, and rather dry.

Highly recommended by GIS instructor
I use this book to teach my university-level students. As someone who prefers a practical approach to GIS, but still wishes to back it up with theory, I have great appreciation for this book. It provides an excellent overview of topics relevant to GIS without overwhelming computer-wary students. Don't be fooled by the colorful, pretty pictures in this book,though-this is a serious primer on almost every theoretical topic related to GIS. My students tell me they especially like how much of the theory is backed up with practical examples. I especially recommend this book to GIS professionals who wish they had a background in Geography. It tells you everything you need to know and little that you don't.

One caveat-if you are not an ESRI user (ArcInfo, ArcView, ArcGIS) this may not be the book for you. Although other software packages are covered in the examples, the focus is heavily on ESRI.

The bar has been raisedý
For years I've searched for a GIS textbook comparable in scope and design to the standard Biology, Geography or Physics text.The existing GIS texts were either overly dense or painfully reductionist, lacked the interdisciplinary range necessary to fully represent the art of GISc, were minimally illustrated and designed, and generally failed to inspire students and practitioners alike.The new textbook by Longley, et al, challenges the conventions of the GISc textbook and in the process raises the bar on what we should expect from these texts.

A few of the features of this marvelous text: Illustrated in glorious full color, includes the range of fields and disciplines making use of GISc (Civil Engineering, Geography, Urban Planning, Environmental Science, Business, etc.), presents GIS within its broader scientific context (the "GIScience" in the title), leads the reader through the discipline by first presenting the principles of the field, then the techniques, and finally gives real world examples in its practices section, written at a fundamental level yet doesn't shy away from advanced language and applications when appropriate.

A wonderful addition to GISc literature, I heartily recommend this text for any intermediate GISc course looking to explore the richness of this exciting field. ... Read more

Book Description
Learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter helps to define concepts and outline the goals that the reader should be accomplishing.
* Review questions at the end of each chapter isolate key material for effective self study. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Lame, at best
I totally agree with the two negative review above.This book is unnecessarily obtuse.You should look elsewhere if you are a total beginner.The information does not need to be presented in such a dry, academic manner.

A review from an undergraduate user
I was privileged to take a class from Dr. Demers, himself, using this textbook.I found it to be a great textbook, and I particularly enjoyed his sense of humor in the book, a welcome addition to what I found to be a somewhat difficult and challenging topic.He has a good understanding of the topic, and a sensitivity to the needs of students that is unparalleled. I recommend it to anyone willing to put the effort into learning a new way of looking at geography and the world.

Most topics are covered, but this book is barely readable
This book needs help, it is verbose. The book could be cut by a third, and would not lose any meaning. Most of the important topics are covered, but the discussions are often difficult to wade through, it takes forever to get to the main point.

There are better introductory texts out there. The ones by C.P. Lo and A.K Yeung, or by P. Bolstad are both more concise, to the point, easier to read, and just as complete in their coverage of topics.

Useful, but needs editorial work
I am a GIS novice, and am about 1/3 of the way through the book.There is definitely a lot of useful and current information in this book, so I find it worth reading.However, I feel editorial work on it is needed in several ways.There are numerous examples of sloppy use of English (both in choice of words and in paragraph structure), discussions that are overly abstract, and explanations that are lengthy yet unclear.This was not universal, but occurred annoyingly often.On subjects I knew something about already, I was able to see how the book's accounts were accurate, but only after puzzling over the author's choice of phraseology.I will definitely have to look elsewhere for an understanding of map projections, database structures, raster models, and other topics.

Too much time is spent early in the book belaboring an abstract conceptual framework, where some concrete examples would serve much better.It was also disconcerting that certain terms are used without being defined (or only defined very abstractly), forcing the reader to guess meaning from the context.Yet other relatively simple terms are defined at length.The discussion questions at the end of each chapter are sometimes too open-ended, not focussed on the chapter material.

It is difficult to write for neophytes about a subject one knows intimately -- as I'm sure the author does.Important terms and assumptions are embedded in the one's thinking, so one does not realize that some crucial points are unfamiliar to the student, and one tends to skip certain steps.This book has good coverage of GIS issues, but it would benefit from a more severe editor and from more feedback from the undergraduate audience on which areas need clarification.

A comprehensive and very understandable text.
This is unquestionably one of the finest GIS textbooks available today. Itcovers not only the basic input, data management, and reporting concepts,but includes sufficient depth of spatial analysis issues that anyone notable to take additional geographic analysis courses will come away withenough practical knowledge to truly unleash the power of geographicinformation systems. ... Read more

Book Description
This volume presents a set of coherent, cross-referenced perspectives on incorporating the spatial representation andanalytical power of GIS with agent-based modelling of evolutionary and non-linear processes and phenomena. Many recent advances in software algorithms for incorporating geographic data in modeling social and ecological behaviors, and successes in applying such algorithms, had not been adequately reported in the literature. This book seeks to serve as the standard guide to this broad area. ... Read more

Product Description
Printed in black and white. Includes CD ... Read more

Book Description
"If we are to solve many of the problems facing us-in the cities, in the wild areas of the earth, in the atmosphere, and the oceans-we shall need the help of skilled users of GIS technology. If readers can master what is in this volume, they will be well started on this enterprise."
-From the Foreword by Jack Dangermond
President of ESRI
Praise for previous editions:
"One of only a small number of texts devoted to the technology of GIS that are truly introductory in nature. . . . Very readable and of moderate length. Those who are real novices to GIS will find this one attractive."
-Computers and Geosciences
"Well-rendered and very clear line drawings . . . well written, with a well-balanced blend of technical/theoretical concepts and more applied facts of GIS."
-Professional Geographer
Geographic Information Systems provides a practical, theory-driven overview of GIS that is supported with clear coverage of basic techniques. This treatment enables readers to understand the broad aspects of GIS without focusing on a specific software or discipline, such as engineering or geography. New features of this Third Edition include: up-to-date information on standardization efforts aimed at facilitating the exchange of ideas and data; technical content that is up to date with current hardware, software, database design, and analytical techniques; and comprehensive cost/benefit guidelines for choosing and evaluating a GIS, including coverage of organizational and technical issues.
Complete with extensive references and links to online resources, Geographic Information Systems, Third Edition, is an exceptional resource for students of GIS, planning, land use, natural resources, civil and environmental engineering, real estate, and wildlife biology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An ideal introduction and valuable reference
This review refers to the 1996 Norwegian edition. Having studied GIS for 2years, first at a Norwegian college, and then doing an MSc in GIS at a UKuniversity, I have found this book a very valuable reference. The examplesand case descriptions are depicting real-life problems, the illustrationsare explanatory and to the point. The book covers GIS and related topics ina way I haven't found in any other books. I can recommend this book toanyone, student or professional. Now I am about to start a PhD at aUniversity in the US, where I have noticed that this book in fact is therequired textbook for GIS. To me this proves the overall quality of thisbook.

Comprehensive GIS Book
A comprehensive GIS book specially for the introductory and intermediate readers and students. The book has dealt with the current organizational and technical issues of GIS. The components of GIS are described withillustrations. Object Oriented model in database could have been added.Since this is an introductory book, some of the chapters for advancedreaders are concise. The content is clear even for the nontechnicalreaders. ... Read more

Book Description
Learning and Using Geographic Information Systems: ArcGIS 9.x Edition has been written by two leading GIS researchers and educators from Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz School. Due to the growing demand for geographic information systems within MIS, business, public policy, and other schools, this text offers a one-stop education package that will empower users to master this compelling technology. Using carefully-coordinated text reading material and step-by-step tutorials, this text introduces users to principles and concepts of GIS as well as specific instructions on ArcGIS 9.x, the leading GIS software package. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not Bad, Was Expecting More
While the book was informative and gives some theory, I found the lessons too simplistic.There are other workbooks out there students will find much more challenging.For a very basic understanding of GIS and using ESRI's product the book gets a passing grade. ... Read more

Book Description
Presents strategies for application development, interface design, and enabling Web-based access.
* Includes numerous case studies and examples from the private and public sectors.
* Provides information on integrating legacy MIS systems and planning for future developments in database design. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

GIS design and implementation
The book is overpriced. The content needs to be edited and all the spelling mistakes corrected. I learned more from free content on internet sites than from this book.

Good content, bad writing
Based on content and organization, it's good, maybe really good.But the poor writing makes it hard to read.It's also kind of expensive.

I was new to GIS design and implementation, so I can't compare this to what else is out there on these topics.I do have some experience with databases and GIS software, so I'm not that green to the concepts.I'm a thorough reader and like for reading to flow, especially when it's explaining something techy.This book has many punctuation errors (e.g. a period where a comma should be), uses the wrong word (e.g. their for there, or where for were), uses the wrong form of the verb "is", uses plural where it's really singular, etc.Sometimes a sentence is just worded in a way that makes it difficult to follow.

I have learned a lot about design and implementation of GIS with this book.I just wish it would have been less taxing to get through. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description