Computer science provides a powerful tool which was virtually unknown three generations ago and new applications have emerged which were technically not feasible without the support of a computer. These developments lead to new high-level domains. One of them is Geographic Information.
Classical fields of knowledge are geodesy (surveying), cartography, and geography. Electronics and computers have revolutionized geodetic methods. Cartography has faced the dominance of the computer that results in simplified cartographic products. All three fields now make use of the internet and databases where geodesy may be interpreted as the input-component, cartography as the output component, and geography as one of many application of geographic information.
Fast and mobile internet access as well as a comprehensive standardization of data exchange have opened the door to many new applications. Typical examples are spatial data infrastructures. They enable an overlay of data that reside on different computers but are geometrically referred to the same area. They revolutionize the relations between citizens and administration and economy. Another field is location based services which link mobile devices with spatial and temporal data. The most advanced concept is called ubiquitous GIS which handles a great number of position-coded mobile objects. The automatic administration of these objects has already gained importance within logistics enterprises.
The contents of the Springer Handbook of Geographic Information reflects these thoughts. It is organized in the parts, Basics, Geographic Information, and Applications. Some parts of the basics part belong to computer science. However, the reader gets a comprehensive view of geographic information because the topics selected from computer sciences have a close relation to geographic information.
About the Author: Wolfgang Kresse
Wolfgang Kresse is a Professor for Geographic Information Systems and Photogrammetry at the University of Applied Sciences in Neubrandenburg, Germany. As a visiting professor he was affiliated to the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing in Ottawa (2002/2003) and to the University of Maine, USA (2008/2009). Formerly, he worked as a software developer and customer trainer for Carl Zeiss Company with focus on graphics, photogrammetry, and data exchange. Wolfgang Kresse is the leading author of the book ISO Standards for Geographic Information published by Springer.
He is the project leader of the ISO 19159, Calibration and validation of remote sensing imagery sensors and data, in the ISO/TC 211, Geographic information / Geomatics. He has been involved in the development of ISO 19130, Imagery sensor models for geopositioning, and in standardization activities of the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) as well as in the German Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
Wolfgang Kresse holds a Diploma Degree in Geodesy and a Doctor-Degree in Digital Cartography, both of the University of Bonn, Germany.
David Danko
David Danko is a Senior Consultant for GIS standards. In this capacity he ensures that ESRI software and services are interoperable and comply with the appropriate national, international, and industry standards. He represents ESRI on the OGC Planning Committ
ee, ISO TC 211 and INCITS-L1. As a senior consultant for GIS Standards, Mr. Danko has provided workshops on standards, metadata, and spatial data infrastructures in the United States, Japan, South Africa, Italy, Chile, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Central America, and China and has participated in an advisory role in several regional and national spatial data infrastructures. As a physical scientist-senior standards manager with DMA, he was responsible for developing and managing agency policies and programs to ensure standardization and interoperability between DMA imagery and geospatial systems, U.S. DoD agencies, U.S. civilian agencies, and the military and civilian geospatial information communities of other nations. He previously served as Project Manager for an international research and development initiative that resulted in the development of the vector product format (VPF) military standard and the digital chart of the World (DCW); the DCW was the first in a new series of digital vector products on CD-ROM. Earlier in his career he worked in the areas of remote sensing, analytical triangulation, imagery data extraction and cartographic production.
In his ISO Standardization activities he has been Project Leader in the Technical Committee (TC) 211-ISO 19115 Metadata Revision (2009-present), Chair of the Metadata Working Group in the Open GIS Consortium (2001-present), and a Technical and Planning Committee Representative in the Open GIS Consortium (2001
-present).
