620 pp / Softcover Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are computer-based tools for the entry, maintenance, and analysis of spatially-referenced data. GIS are critical to the effective management of constructed and natural resources, and they have been applied in science, business, education, and government to improve our lives. This book provides a thorough introduction to the theory and application of GIS. The book is written for use as a textbook in an introductory course at the university level. It seeks to balance theoretical and applied material, so that students may apply knowledge of GIS in the solution of real-world problems. Topics include an introduction to GIS, spatial data models, map projections and coordinate systems, data entry, aerial photographs and satellite images, GPS, digital data, relational and other databases, vector and raster spatial analyses, terrain modeling, interpolation, cartographic modeling, metadata, standards, accuracy assessments, and a description of future trends.
I own this book, reading it for a class. HOw the heck do you add a cover, you can find this book here: http://www.paulbolstad.net/gisbook.html Needs a whole makeover, it is too far out of date in many respects. This industry is in a moment of growth that is logarithmic in scale. so even though the book was updated just a few years ago, there are industry standards and practices that far exceed the level of information here. IMO. The information it has is highly accurate and presented in a readable format.
It is difficult to find good books on this particular subject, most of them are written toward the person who is already deeply involved in the industry. This is probably the best available, from what I've been able to locate, still needs a serious overall update.
Really, when it comes to the book as pedagogical tool, it kind of fails. The material isn't something easily self-taught with book in hand. The concepts taught in the book are okay, but I found myself confused until I watched a lecture on the subject.
As a reference for how to do certain functions and how to handle data, the book is solid. However, it is not easy to find a certain application of GIS just by flipping through or reading the table of context. For this reason, I suggest, if you know the name of the operations, you can instead use the ArcGIS search tool, which contains just as much information as this whole book, but can be searched through by keywords! I don't really recommend the book if you already have the program.