Concepts and Techniques of Geographic Information Systems

I purchased this book for a Fundamentals of GIS course I am taking online, it is very thorough. I can't imagine what a better book would look like. This one has it all. Lots of detail, highly recommended.

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 . This demonstrates 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 acq