Spatial techniques

Abstract

The environment, including the Earth and the immense space, is recognized to be the main source of useful information for human beings. During several decades, the acquisition of data from this environment was constrained by tools and techniques with limited capabilities. However, thanks to continuous technological advances,spatial data are available in huge quantities for different applications. The technological advances have been achieved in terms of hardware and software as well. They are allowing for better accuracy and availability, which in turn improves the quality and quantity of useful knowledge that can be extracted from the environment. They have been applied to geography, resulting in geospatial techniques. Applied to both science and technology, geospatial techniques resulted in areas of expertise, such as land surveying, cartography, navigation, remote sensing, Geographic Infor-mation Systems (GISs), and Global Positioning Systems (GPSs). They had evolved quickly with advances in computing, satellite technology and a growing demand to understand our global environment. In this chapter, we will discuss three important techniques that are widely used in spatial data acquisition and analysis: GPS and remote sensing techniques that are used to collect spatial data and a GIS that is used to store, manipulate, analyze, and visualize spatial data. Later in this book, we will discuss the techniques that are currently available for spatial knowledge discovery. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.