Principles of Geographical Information Systems - 3rd Edition

What I particularly like about this book is that it shows you what GIS can do, based on real-world examples. These are well illustrated with maps, diagrams and graphs. One example looks at woodlands in Wales and possible interaction with railway lines lying within 2.5km or 5km.
As the book title indicates, the book is about ‘principles’ (i.e. theory) – it’s not a ‘how to do’ book – but it does explain the concepts and terminology used in GIS, and it has a comprehensive glossary. It is a technical book: it’s pitched at professionals and upper-level degree students. It is very well established: this is the 3rd edition (2015); the first edition was in 1986! I found it well-organised, which allowed me to dive in to specific topics (without having to read the whole book).

The sections on geostatistical approaches, modelling and simulation look particularly relevant to wildlife survey and demography, and the book also covers continuous fields and digital elevation models (3D). An example shows how the relationship between precipitation and elevation can be analysed, and how the point measurements can be interpolated to give a continuous display. In the section on space-time modelling, problems like hillslope run-off and soil erosion are considered, and different modelling approaches are discussed including accounting for errors. Digital elevation models are used to determine the areas that can be viewed from a given point (viewshed) and calculate incident solar radiation.

Book reviewed by Steve Pritchard