Geographic Information Research

The contributors to this edited collection demonstrate that geographic information research is truly global in character, cutting across a wide range of disciplines and addressing conceptual, methodological, technical, ethical and political issues alike. Of the six themes, two are broadly concerned with data integration (geographic data infrastructures, GIS diffusion and implementation); two are more technical and conceptual in nature (generalisation, concepts and paradigms), and two reflect to a larger extent the application-driven nature of GIS technology (spatial analysis and multimedia). Each section is introduced by chapters highlighting the key research issues. Further chapters explore these issues in greater depth, and benefit from the international collaboration. Through the comparison of results included in this book, the prospects for advancing the field and addressing the challenges of GIS research are greatly improved.

DR. MASSIMO CRAGLIA lectures in Information Management and GIS at the Department of Town and Regional Planning, University of Sheffield, and is the coordinator of the European Science Foundation's GISDATA scientific programme. DR. HELEN COUCLELIS is associate director of the NCGIA, and professor of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research interests are in the areas of urban theory, modelling and planning, spatial cognition and GIS.

Foreword -- Preface -- Contributors -- European Science Foundation and National Science Foundation -- 1 Introduction /Massimo Craglia -- PART ONE Geographic Data Infrastructure -- 2 The US National Spatial Data Infrastructure /Nancy Tosta and Michael Domaratz -- 3 The European Geographic Information Infrastructure Debate /Ian Masser and Francois Salge -- 4 Spatial Data as a Test Bed for National Information Policy /Xavier R. Lopez -- 5 Infrastructures for Sharing Geographic Information: Lessons from the Great Lakes and the Columbia River /John Evans -- 6 European Micro-Data Availability: The Special Case of Britain /Daniel Darling -- PART Two GIS Diffusion and Implementation -- 7 The Diffusion of GIS in Local Government in Europe /Ian Masser and Massimo Craglia -- 8 GIS Diffusion in Greece: The Development of a Greek GIS Community /Dimitris Assimakopoulos -- 9 In Search of the Dependent Variable: Toward Synthesis in GIS Implementation Research /Jeffrey K. Pinto and Harlan J. Onsrud -- 10 Leading and Managing the GIS Implementation Process: Beyond the Myth of the GIS Champion /Bijan Azad -- 11 GIS Technology and Organisational Context: Interaction and Adaptation /Zorica Nedovic-Budic -- PART THREE Generalisation -- 12 Generalisation: Where Are We? Where Should We Go? /Jean-Philippe Lagrange -- 13 Formalising Cartographic Knowledge /Robert McMaster and Barbara Buttenfield -- 14 Cartographic Objects in a Multiscale Data Structure /Sabine Timpf -- 15 Efficient Handling of Large Spatial Data Sets by Generalised Delaunay Networks /Terje Midtb0 -- 16 Shape-based Reconstruction of Natural Surfaces: An Application to the Antarctic Sea Floor /Michela Spagnuolo -- 17 Modelling Geometry for Linear Feature Generalisation /Corinne Plazanet -- 18 Representations of Data Quality /Kate Beard -- PART FOUR Concepts and Paradigms -- 19 Concepts and Paradigms of Spatial Data /Peter Fisher -- 20 Cognitive Perspectives on Spatial and Spatio-temporal Reasoning /David Mark -- 21 The Role of Spatial Abilities in the Acquisition and Representation of Geographic Space /William Albert -- 22 Modelling Semantical, Spatial and Temporal Information in a GIS /May Yuan -- 23 CON.G.0.0.: A Conceptual Formalism for Geographic Database Design /Dimas Pantazis -- 24 Agent-based Pattern Identification in Imagery: Exploring Spatial Data with Artificial Life /Mark V. Finco -- 25 Digital Representation of Continuous Random Fields /Andrej Vckovski -- PART FIVE Spatial Analysis -- 26 GIS and Spatial Statistical Analysis /David Unwin -- 27 Linking GIS and Multilevel Modelling in the Spatial Analysis of House Prices /Nina Bullen -- 28 Modelling Urban Air Pollution using GIS /Sue Collins -- 29 GIS in Quantitative Geomorphology - Assessment of Denudation Rates in the Central Kenya Rift /Sigrid Roessner -- 30 A Study of Voter Turnout in New York City Elections using Spatial Statistics /David Olson -- 31 GIS Applications in the Arctic Environment /Alexander Baklanov, Tatjana Makarova and Larissa Nazarenko -- 32 Ecologists, Farmers, Tourists - GIS Support Planning of Red Stone Park, China /Kongjian Yu -- 33 A Generic Spatial Decision-support System for Planning Retail Facilities /Theo Arentze, Aloys Borgers and Harry Timmermans -- 34 A Spatial Decision-support System for Collaborative Solid Waste Planning /Marianne MacDonald -- PART SIX New Data Types: GIS and Multimedia -- 35 Progress towards Spatial Multimedia /Jonathan Raper -- 36 Towards Hypermedia-aided GIS in local Planning /Lars Bodum -- 37 The Use of Multimedia Spatial Data Handling in Environmental Impact Assessment /Alexandra Fonseca and Antonio Camara -- 38 An Open System for 3D Visualisation and Animation of Geographic Information /Christopher Giertsen, Oddmar Sandvik and Rune Torkildsen -- 39 Postscript: New Directions for GIS Research /Michael Goodchild -- Index.