ArcUser
Winter 2012 Edition
GIS Bookshelf
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Advanced Geoinformation Science
Edited by Chaowei Yang, David Wong, Qianjun Miao, and Ruixin Yang
The impetus behind Advanced Geoinformation Science was the need to address technical aspects of geoinformation related to the demand for better response to events—such as economic crises, epidemics, and natural disasters—that occur on regional and global scales. These events require both a deeper understanding of phenomena and better collaboration. The book was an outgrowth of an international training program first conducted in 2006 at the Center for Intelligent Spatial Computing at George Mason University. This program helped the editors select specific topics for the chapters in the book and engage contributors to write them.
Advanced Geoinformation Science provides a systematic overview of the current state of geoinformation science that covers platforms, data systems, analysis, information extraction, geoinformation infrastructure, and applications. It concludes with a vision of how geoinformation could fundamentally alter our view of the world and what changes in the educational system will be needed to prepare the work force to achieve this vision. The editors see two target audiences for this book: senior undergraduate and graduate students in information technology, geography, and geoinformation science and managers who use geoinformation to deal with regional and global issues. CRC Press, 2010, 525 pp., ISBN: 978-1439810606
The Planners Guide to CommunityViz: The Essential Tool for a New Generation of Planning
By Doug Walker and Tom Daniels
This book comprehensively teaches how to use CommunityViz for more effective planning, not just how to operate CommunityViz software. CommunityViz, an extension to ArcGIS for Desktop created by Esri partner Placeways LLC, was designed expressly to promote public participation in the planning process to foster better decisions and transparency in that process and build community trust. It enables planners to compile, analyze, and understand large amounts of data that can be used to develop plans. With CommunityViz, planners can measure the impacts of those plans on the economic, environmental, and social systems of a community. The effective use of 3D in planning is addressed throughout the book. Each chapter in the book covers a planning process, product, or project and provides information and advice on how to best use the software to enhance both community planning and citizen engagement. American Planning Association (Planners Press), 2011, 304 pp., ISBN: 978-1932364934
No Dig, No Fly, No Go: How Maps Restrict and Control
By Mark Monmonier
In another lively book on cartography, Mark Monmonier points out how maps impact our lives. In How to Lie with Maps, he illustrated how maps influence public opinion. This new book, No Dig, No Fly, No Go: How Maps Restrict and Control, is all about the lines on what he terms "prohibitive maps." These boundary lines tell us where we live (national boundaries), where we can't live (redlining), and where we can't dig or travel. He outlines the role maps play in determining, protecting, and modifying real property rights. He asserts that artificial national boundaries that were not based on ethnicity, language, race, or religion have been the underlying cause of unrest in Africa, the Balkans, and the Middle East. While the delineation of these states was the work of a few moments with a straightedge and a map, demarcation and enforcement of these boundaries has often been problematic at best and the work of many years. Although zoning maps were devised to protect residents from unharmonious uses and the environment from degradation, they have often had unintended consequences. The target audience for this book is twofold: general readers who aspire to be informed citizens and "geospatial professionals who seek a broader view of their work." University of Chicago Press, 2010, 242 pp., ISBN: 978-0226534688
