"The science of informatics in the broadest sense has been several thousands of years in the making. With the recent emergence of large storage devices and high-speed processing of data, it has become possible to organize vast amounts of data as digital products with ontologic tags and concepts for smart queries. Coupling this computational capability with earth science data defines the emerging field of geoinformatics. Since the science of geology was established several centuries ago, observations led to conclusions that were integrative in concept and clearly had profound implications for the birth of geology. As disciplinary information about Earth becomes more voluminous, the use of geoinformatics will lead to integrative, science-based discoveries of new knowledge about planetary systems. Twenty one research papers, co-authored by 96 researchers from both earth and computer sciences, provide the first-ever organized presentation of the science of informatics as it relates to geology. Readers will readily recognize the vast intellectual content represented by these papers as they seek to address the core research goals of geoinformatics."--Publisher's website.
Advanced information technology infrastructure is increasingly being employed in the Earth sciences to provide researchers with efficient access to massive central databases and to integrate diversely formatted information from a variety of sources. These geoinformatics initiatives enable manipulation, modeling and visualization of data in a consistent way, and are helping to develop integrated Earth models at various scales, and from the near surface to the deep interior. This book uses a series of case studies to demonstrate computer and database use across the geosciences. Chapters are thematically grouped into sections that cover data collection and management; modeling and community computational codes; visualization and data representation; knowledge management and data integration; and web services and scientific workflows. Geoinformatics is a fascinating and accessible introduction to this emerging field for readers across the solid Earth sciences and an invaluable reference for researchers interested in initiating new cyberinfrastructure projects of their own.
Geoinformatics is a cutting-edge tool that develops and uses information science technology that can have far-reaching implications that include boosting agricultural output, increasing food supply, and reducing hunger-related problems in poor and developing countries. This new book, Geoinformatics: An Emerging Approach for Sustainable Crop Production and Food Security, highlights the many applications of geoinformatics in agriculture, mainly its potential to improve agricultural systems and environmental issues through innovative, eco-friendly approaches. The book is divided into seven sections. Part I contains foundational material on the field of geoinformatics. Part II discusses the role of geoinformatics in agriculture and food security. Part III serves broad knowledge about geoinformatics-based crop screening and protection. Part IV explains how geoinformatics integrates big data and AI for sustainable agriculture and horticulture. Part V deals with geoinformatics and fertilizers and base management of soil fertility. In Part VI, cutting-edge GIS methods are discussed for abiotic stresses management and climate change. The final section discusses the application of geoinformatics for policymaking and the impact of geoinformatics and climate change on agriculture systems. Providing state-of-the-art knowledge on both theoretical and applied aspects of nanotechnology in soil science, plant breeding, biotechnology, tools design, formulation, application, and management, as well as the effects of these tools on soil properties and plant characteristics, and some abiotic interactions, this new volume will prove invaluable for graduate students, researchers, and professionals in agricultural and related disciplines as well as policymakers.
In this manuscript some theoretical background and interrelations of Geoinformatics shall be assembled. Also the most important formulae of Mathematics, Surveying, Geodesy and Cartography will be presented in short. Besides these provinces of course Informatics builds a very important part of Geographic Information Systems. In a closing chapter all basic knowledge will be combined to a short overview over Geoinformatics, where especially modelling, extensions, specializations and analysis of Geoinformatics are shown. The open source GIS application MensorGIS, written by the author, implements the described topics in source code and functionality. A final chapter refers to this program, showing where the basic principles can be found. In addition Adjustment Computation, a matter relevant in all parts of Surveying and Geodesy, is presented including samples. A Geoinformatics - from Theory to the Application 1 Introduction 2 Overview over the Basic Knowledge of Geoinformatics 3 Basics of Mathematics 4 Basic Calculations of Surveying 5 Basic Calculations of Geodesy 6 Basics of Cartography and Photogrammetry 7 Basics of Informatics 8 Geoinformatics 9 Practical Application in MensorGIS B Statistics and Adjustment Computations 1 Introduction 2 Basics of Statistics 3 Basics of Matrix Calculation 4 Adjustment Computation 5 Application of Adjustment Computation With extensive appendices and index. The Book should be read by students approaching advanced lectures with the focus on Geoinformatics. Also recommended for career changers, who want to learn more about the geodetic background of Geographic Information Systems.
This volume collects and presents the fundamentals, tools, and processes of utilizing geospatial information technologies to process remotely sensed data for use in agricultural monitoring and management. The issues related to handling digital agro-geoinformation, such as collecting (including field visits and remote sensing), processing, storing, archiving, preservation, retrieving, transmitting, accessing, visualization, analyzing, synthesizing, presenting, and disseminating agro-geoinformation have never before been systematically documented in one volume. The book is edited by International Conference on Agro-Geoinformatics organizers Dr. Liping Di (George Mason University), who coined the term “Agro-Geoinformatics” in 2012, and Dr. Berk Üstündağ (Istanbul Technical University) and are uniquely positioned to curate and edit this foundational text. The book is composed of eighteen chapters that can each stand alone but also build on each other to give the reader a comprehensive understanding of agro-geoinformatics and what the tools and processes that compose the field can accomplish. Topics covered include land parcel identification, image processing in agricultural observation systems, databasing and managing agricultural data, crop status monitoring, moisture and evapotranspiration assessment, flood damage monitoring, agricultural decision support systems and more.
There is no doubt that today, perhaps more than ever before, humanity faces a myriad of complex and demanding challenges. These include natural resource depletion and environmental degradation, food and water insecurity, energy shortages, diminishing biodiversity, increasing losses from natural disasters, and climate change with its associated potentially devastating consequences, such as rising sea levels. These human-induced and natural impacts on the environment need to be well understood in order to develop informed policies, decisions, and remedial measures to mitigate current and future negative impacts. To achieve this, continuous monitoring and management of the environment to acquire data that can be soundly and rigorously analyzed to provide information about its current state and changing patterns, and thereby allow predictions of possible future impacts, are essential. Developing pragmatic and sustainable solutions to address these and many other similar challenges requires the use of geodata and the application of geoinformatics. This book presents the concepts and applications of geoinformatics, a multidisciplinary field that has at its core different technologies that support the acquisition, analysis and visualization of geodata for environmental monitoring and management. We depart from the 4D to the 5D data paradigm, which defines geodata accurately, consistently, rapidly and completely, in order to be useful without any restrictions in space, time or scale to represent a truly global dimension of the digital Earth. The book also features the state-of-the-art discussion of Web-GIS. The concepts and applications of geoinformatics presented in this book will be of benefit to decision-makers across a wide range of fields, including those at environmental agencies, in the emergency services, public health and epidemiology, crime mapping, environmental management agencies, tourist industry, market analysis and e-commerce, or mineral exploration, among many others. The title and subtitle of this textbook convey a distinct message. Monitoring -the passive part in the subtitle - refers to observation and data acquisition, whereas management - the active component - stands for operation and performance. The topic is our environment, which is intimately related to geoinformatics. The overall message is: all the mentioned elements do interact and must not be separated. Hans-Peter B ahr, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr.h.c., Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany.
This second edition includes updated chapters from the first edition as well as five additional new chapters (Light detection and ranging (LiDAR), CORONA historical de-classified products, Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAVs), GNSS-reflectometry and GNSS applications to climate variability), shifting the main focus from monitoring and management to extreme hydro-climatic and food security challenges and exploiting big data. Since the publication of first edition, much has changed in terms of technology, and the demand for geospatial data has increased with the advent of the big data era. For instance, the use of laser scanning has advanced so much that it is unavoidable in most environmental monitoring tasks, whereas unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs)/drones are emerging as efficient tools that address food security issues as well as many other contemporary challenges. Furthermore, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) are now responding to challenges posed by climate change by unravelling the impacts of teleconnection (e.g., ENSO) as well as advancing the use of reflected signals (GNSS-reflectometry) to monitor, e.g., soil moisture variations. Indeed all these rely on the explosive use of “big data” in many fields of human endeavour. Moreover, with the ever-increasing global population, intense pressure is being exerted on the Earth’s resources, leading to significant changes in its land cover (e.g., deforestation), diminishing biodiversity and natural habitats, dwindling fresh water supplies, and changing weather and climatic patterns (e.g., global warming, changing sea level). Environmental monitoring techniques that provide information on these are under scrutiny from an increasingly environmentally conscious society that demands the efficient delivery of such information at a minimal cost. Environmental changes vary both spatially and temporally, thereby putting pressure on traditional methods of data acquisition, some of which are highly labour intensive, such as animal tracking for conservation purposes. With these challenges, conventional monitoring techniques, particularly those that record spatial changes call for more sophisticated approaches that deliver the necessary information at an affordable cost. One direction being pursued in the development of such techniques involves environmental geoinformatics, which can act as a stand-alone method or complement traditional methods.
Geoinformatics is a component of Encyclopedia of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. Geoinformatics is a science which develops and uses information science infrastructure to address the problems of geosciences and related branches of engineering. The content of the theme on Geoinformatics is organized with state-of-the-art presentations covering the following aspects of the subject: Sample Data and Survey; Remote Sensing and Environmental Monitoring; Statistical Analysis in the Geosciences; International Cooperation for Data Acquisition and Use, which are then expanded into multiple subtopics, each as a chapter.. These two volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College Students Educators, Professional Practitioners, Research Personnel and Policy Analysts, Managers, and Decision Makers and NGOs.
In recent years, the world of civil engineering has been changing considerably. Within the many obstacles, barriers, and opportunities, significant challenges should be considered for the future of civil engineering. With the contribution of geoinformatics, several scientific areas associated with civil engineering experienced rapid technological evolution. Considering these challenges, the future of civil engineering can be portrayed. Geoinformatics in Support of Urban Politics and the Development of Civil Engineering portrays the evolution of the world of civil engineering, what happened in recent decades, what will develop in the future, and what the path will be. This work characterizes the different academic areas of civil engineering, demonstrating its evolution. Covering topics such as landslide susceptibility mapping, spatial data, and local development, this premier reference source is an essential resource for policymakers, environmentalists, scientists, technicians, decision makers, engineers, students and educators of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.
