UNB Prof. Emmanuel Stefanakis Authors Book on GIS
A new textbook on geographic information systems by GGE’s Professor Emmanuel Stefanakis has just been published by CreateSpace. Entitled Geographic Databases and Information Systems, its aim is to present geographic information systems from a technological perspective. Emphasis is given to the core of these systems, which is the geographic database along with the corresponding database management system. These two components largely control the performance and efficiency of a GIS. The fundamental methods and algorithms to analyze geographic data are also clearly described.
Most of the content of the economically priced 386-page-paperback book is the product of a series of continuous improvements to lecture notes distributed to university students in the context of undergraduate or graduate courses over the past decade. The book also includes outcomes of the theoretical research recently carried out by the author. Therefore, this resource aims to provide an aid and reference to both students (at the undergraduate and graduate level) and professionals alike.
The book is organized into fifteen chapters, which are grouped into three parts: Part I discusses the nature of geographic data, the coordinate systems associated with the earth’s surface, the projection of the earth’s surface onto paper and digital maps, and concludes with an introduction to geographic information systems.
In Part II, the discussion focuses on the technology of database systems. After presenting the basic concepts of these systems, the process of their design is elaborated. Then, some advanced database system design topics are visited along with the mechanisms of structuring data to support efficient management.
In Part III, the discussion relates to geographic databases. The representation and data models for geographic data are presented followed by a classification of geographic data analysis operations. The principles of computational geometry, spatial data structures, and optimization strategies for the execution of geographic procedures are discussed, before the state-of-the-art in geographic database systems technology is presented.
The book, dedicated to the late Prof. Y.C. Lee, may be obtained from a number of outlets including Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, and CreateSpace. CreateSpace is a publishing division of Amazon.com.
