Integrating data in geographical information systems

Abstract

In this part of the book, we have examined not only the requirements for developing an environmental monitoring project, but also a number of key case studies in the UK, Sweden, Finland and Germany. Several different layers of data were collected during the course of these monitoring projects, including one or more of field survey maps, remote images, surveillance quadrat data, species distribution data, Global Positioning System (GPS) point data, monitoring pass/fail data, monitoring plot co-ordinates, monitoring point co-ordinates and fixed-point photographs. The increasing availability of medium and high accuracy GPS and GIS has made it possible to develop projects that integrate these site-based data and make them available at the push of a button. Therefore we intend to draw these chapters to a fitting conclusion by discussing the integration of field data using modern Geographic Information Systems (GIS).