Regional and Urban GIS: A Decision Support Approach

Contents: I. Situating GIS based decision support: 1. Introduction: Need for geographic information systems in decision support. 2. GIS in decision support situations. 3. GIS decision support methods and workflow. 4. GIS: Based decision situation assessment. II. Fundamentals of GIS data and analysis for decision support: 5. Making choices about geospatial database development. 6. Fundamentals of GIS: based data analysis for decision support. 7. Making choices about GIS: Based multicriteria evaluation. III. Planning programming and implementation decision cases: 8. GIS : Data analysis for planning decision support. 9. A case study in water resource planning decision support. 10. GIS: Data analysis for improvement programming decision support. 11. GIS: Data analysis for improvement project implementation decision support. IV. Using GIS for integrated decision support: 12. GIS: Based integrated analysis across functional themes. 13. Linking analyses across decision situation processes. V. Concluding perspective: 14. Perspectives on GIS and sustainability management. References. Index.

This unique text shows students and professionals how geographic information systems (GIS) can guide decision making about complex community and environmental problems. The authors’ step-by-step introduction to GIS-based decision analysis methods and techniques covers important urban and regional issues (land, transportation, and water resource management) and decision processes (planning, improvement programming, and implementation). Real-world case studies demonstrate how GIS-based decision support works in a variety of contexts, with a special focus on community and regional sustainability management. Ideal for course use, the book reinforces key concepts with end-of-chapter review questions; illustrations include 18 color plates." (jacket)