The book Geospatial Analysis: A Comprehensive Guide to Principles, Techniques and Software Tools by Michael J de Smith, Michael F Goodchild, Paul A Longley brings with it, both the content and the reputation of the authors. Another advantage is that an amazing amount of information is available on the web about the book. This guide addresses the full spectrum of analytical techniques that are provided within modern Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and related geospatial software products. It is broad in its treatment of concepts and methods and representative in terms of the software that people actually use. The guide has been designed for everyone involved in geospatial analysis, from undergraduate and postgraduate to professional analyst, software engineer and GIS practitioner. It builds upon the spatial analysis topics included in the US National Research Council "Beyond Mapping" agenda, the UK "Spatial Literacy in Teaching" programme, the NCGIA core curriculum and the UCGIS body of knowledge. As such, it provides a valuable reference guide and accompaniment to courses built around these programmes. Topics covered include: conceptual frameworks for spatial analysis, principal concepts of geospatial analysis, their origins and methodological context ; core components of geospatial analysis, including distance and directional analysis, geometrical processing, map algebra, and grid models; exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and spatial statistics, including spatial autocorrelation and spatial regression; surface analysis, including surface form analysis, gridding and interpolation methods; network and locational analysis, including shortest path calculation, travelling salesman problems, facility location and arc routing and geocomputational methods, including agent-based modelling, artificial neural networks and evolutionary computing.
While these are the broad sections, the book gets into some great details like trend analysis of continuous data (under ESDA) and verification and calibration of agent-based models (under geosimulation) too. Moreover, there is a gallery of applications in the web site - like London GIS Casebook — a series of sector specific case studies drawing on recent work in and around London; and the London Profiler, an interactive neighbourhood profiling tool. These sites include details of a range of applications from the fields of: health and welfare; emergency and security management; environmental engineering and planning; education; enterprise development; and retailing, amongst others.
The second book Geographic Information Systems - Demystified by Stephen R Galati is an easy-to-understand resource that examines and explains all of the critical GIS concepts in a clear manner that is easily understood, regardless of one’s technical background. The book explains how to use GIS to its fullest capacity on a variety of engineering and technical projects. Moreover, you learn how to implement GIS in your business to manage information, integrate geographical data, analyse marketing trends, use demographics to positively impact your bottom line and increase your project management capabilities. The book also addresses several common misconceptions about GIS, such as it only relates to GPS or that it is simply a map maker. Additionally, this unique resource presents an original, comprehensive and innovative treatment of spatial coordinate systems. While other GIS-learning sources are software-product biased, this unique volume offers an unbiased approach to the fundamentals of learning GIS, helping you become functional and knowledgeable in this burgeoning area. There are three parts in the book where, Part 1 simplifies GIS from geographic data and geographic information. It clarifies the fundamental flow of information. Presents facts about geography, geographic data, georeferencing and geoprocessing. It also exemplifies common GIS products and by-products and data management systems. It also deals with geostatistical analysis, project visibility and popularity, geospatial metadata, metadata schemata, element sets and syntax.
Part 2 deals with geodesy, earth models and coordinate systems understanding the core GIS environment. This section covers all about the basics of geodesy and scale, the ellipsoid, the horizontal datum, the vertical datum, the geoid, standard vertical datum, vertical datum, the map projection and the coordinate system implementation in GIS. Part 3 covers GIS applications and environments, geographic data for analysis and presentation. It deals with various aspects of thematic mapping, GIScience, engineering and related applications including GIS business planning, marketing and financial applications. It also delves into ways of using GIS for environment applications like managing natural resources, environmental investigation and remediation applications. The book also dealt nicely though briefly a public need for information and related policy imperatives in a sub-section on GIS and the public. The last part is a guide for the beginners on how to implement GIS with apt hardware, software and human ware compatibility. It guides on GRASS and other free GIS environments and geospatial data clearinghouses too.
Both the books demystify geographic information systems and make an easy reading while clarifying facts in a simplified way.
