Definition of a Geographic Information System

A geographic information system, geographical information system, or geospatial information system is any system that captures, stores, analyses, manages, and presents data that are linked to location. In the simplest terms, GIS is the merging of cartography, statistical analysis, and database technology.

Applications of GIS

GIS may be used in archaeology, geography, cartography, remote sensing, land surveying, public utility management, natural resource management, precision agriculture, photogrammetry, urban planning, emergency management, landscape architecture, navigation, aerial video, and localized search engines.

Remote Sensing Images and Processing

Remote sensing images are normally in the form of digital images. In order to extract useful information from the images, image processing techniques may be employed to enhance the image to help visual interpretation, and to correct or restore the image if the image has been subjected to geometric distortion, blurring or degradation by other factors.

Electromagnetic Remote Sensing

Agricultural resources data are collected by aircraft and satellite-mounted instruments, which receive reflected energy from targets in some frequency of the electromagnetic spectrum. The process involved in electromagnetic remote sensing system, namely, data acquisition and data analysis, are outlined below and a schematic diagram of electromagnetic remote sensing process.

Intended Audience

This book should be useful to remote sensing scientists and engineers, geographers, geologists, ecologists and environmental scientists, agricultural and soil scientists, and urban and regional planners. Regional, state, and university remote sensing centres may like to have this book as well.