Geographic Information Systems: A Management Perspective

This is the only text I have used in teaching intro GIS courses for the last four years. It's getting a little long in the tooth--it was written over ten years ago and the hardware illustrations in particular are quite out of date--but the presentation of the fundamentals is still uniformly solid. Newer developments, like LIDAR, GPS, and 3D visualization, are not in this book at all, but are readily learned on the Web, which tends to focus on new stuff and go light on presentations of fundamentals: Web-based GIS materials and this book complement each other well. The focus is on using a GIS for decision making and support, which leads to a good balance between management and technical issues. And unlike many other (popular) GIS texts, this one is not riddled with typographical and technical errors.

Any prof teaching "Introductory GIS" can't go wrong using this as THE standard text in their course. Excellent in all facets. Solid in remote sensing and subsequent raster GIS applications. Good grounding in vector GIS. And a very easy read. Will give you many "jumping off" points for either academic or real-world directions. Good case-studies sprinkled liberally throughout - Aranoff definitely ranks with Thrall as one of today's GIS gurus!

Aronoff text is a must for anyone interested in the subject of GIS. It is a well written text that provides the reader with a solid foundation of GIS concepts, Remote Sensing, data input and output, data management, and GIS analysis functions. It is a concise and practical introduction to the use and function of GIS technology. The text presents concepts using examples from a wide range of disciplines including land planning, agriculture, and mineral exploration. The author also examines the process of GIS implementation including organizational needs, costs-benefits, justification, and legal and political issues.