De By R.A. (ed.) Principles of Geographical Information Systems

The International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, 2000. — 490 p.This book was designed for a three-week lecturing module on the principles of geographic information systems, to be taught to students in all education programmes at ITC as the second module in their course.
A geographic information system is a computer-based system that allows to study natural and man-made phenomena with an explicit bearing in space. To this end, the GIS allows to enter data, manipulate the data, and produce interpretable output that may teach us lessons about the phenomena.
There are many uses for GIS technology, and ITC, with all its different domains of scientific applications, is the living proof of this statement. Fields we have in mind are, for instance, soil science, management of agricultural, forest and water resources, urban planning, geology, mineral exploration, cadastre and environmental monitoring. It is likely that the student reader of this textbook is already a domain expert in one of these fields; the intention of the book is to lay the foundation to also become an expert user of GIS technology.
With so many different fields of application, it is impossible to single out the specific techniques of GIS usage for all of them in a single book. Rather, the book focuses on a number of common and important topics that any GIS user should be aware of to be called an expert user. We further believe that GIS is going to be used differently in the future, and that our students should now be provided with a broad foundation, so as to be effective in their use of GIS technology then as well.
The book is also meant to define a common understanding and terminology for follow-up modules, which the student may elect later in the programme. The textbook does not stands by itself, but was developed in synchrony with the textbook on Principles of Remote Sensing (/file/1819513/).A gentle introduction to GIS
Geographic information and Spatial data types
Data processing systems
Data entry and preparation
Spatial data analysis
Data visualization
Data quality and metadata