Gold Spatial Context

An Introduction to Fundamental Computer Algorithms for Spatial Analysis
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4987-7910-4
Verlag: CRC Press
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 232 Seiten

Reihe: ISPRS Book Series

Many disciplines are concerned with manipulating geometric (or spatial) objects in the computer – such as geology, cartography, computer aided design (CAD), etc. – and each of these have developed their own data structures and techniques, often independently. Nevertheless, in many cases the object types and the spatial queries are similar, and this book attempts to find a common theme.

The book starts with some of the basics of manipulating coordinate representations so that the resulting object descriptions may be usefully combined and queried. The first chapter should be of value to research students in fields with limited prerequisites in mathematics and computing.

The book then considers the concepts necessary to express the spatial relationships between both 2D and 3D entities, whether points, lines, polygons or polyhedra, so that they may be queried, grouped or combined. A unifying theme is a discussion of the various types of boundaries between regions of space, based on the Voronoi diagram and its dual, the Delaunay triangulation, and various available static, dynamic and kinetic algorithms. Applications, including surface interpolation, crusts and skeletons, contour and watershed handling, scanned map processing and solid line-work for urban mapping, are then described: this leads to the Unified Spatial Model for 2D mapping and GIS.

The last section examines 3D space – both simple shell models for building exteriors as well as true 3D, where volumetric elements may be defined, such as rooms and corridors. Shell
models require some introduction to basic CAD structures, and solid 3D requires advanced edge-based data structures. Both of these application areas lead to straightforward modelling techniques and emphasize the moral of this book: the spatial dual is the context. Example application areas described include geology, geography, forestry, surveying, cosmology, CAD – and many others.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gold, Christopher

Fachgebiete

• Geowissenschaften Geologie GIS, Geoinformatik
• Mathematik | Informatik Mathematik Geometrie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preliminaries. Models of Space. Points. Boundaries. 2D GIS. 3D GIS. Conclusions.

Über Autor(innen)

Professor Christopher Gold has worked on the development of GIS methods since the 1970s, and is particularly concerned about the integration of geographical analysis and algorithms, and cooperation with the Computer Science community. As well as his current emphasis on spatial data structures and algorithms, he has had extensive experience in applications such as forestry, geology, landscape modelling and marine navigation. Professor Gold has been active for over 30 years in the development of spatial data structures, spatial models of perception and adjacency, Geo-informatics applications, and algorithms.

He has approximately 200 publications and presentations in many fields – GIS (Geographic Information Science), Computer Science, Geology, Forestry and others. He is known in the Geo-informatics community for his work on spatial data structures, Voronoi diagrams, dynamic mapping and 3D modelling, and within the Computational Geometry community for his work on GIS applications. He has been active in Mathematics conferences, in Geology and Engineering workshops, and in Forestry. He has made presentations or organized workshops in Canada, USA, Europe and China. Gold has received a variety of honours from Canadian and Asian associations, and has collaborated with a wide variety of researchers in Europe, North America and Asia. He has supervised approximately 20 research students and research assistants.