Marine and Coastal Geographical Information Systems

Marine and coastal applications of GIS are finally gaining wide acceptance in scientific as well as GIS communities, and cover the fields of deep sea geology, chemistry, and biology, and coastal geology, biology, engineering, and resource management. Comprising rigorous contributions from a group of leading scholars in marine and coastal GIS, this book will inspire and stimulate continued research in this important new application domain of GIS.A timely publication for the UN International Year of the Ocean, Marine and Coastal Geographical Information Systems covers progress and research in the marine and coastal realm, in the areas of theory applications and empirical results. It is the first book of its kind to address basic and applied scientific problems in deep sea and coastal science using GIS and remote sensing technologies. It is designed for GIS and remote sensing specialists, but also for those with and interest in oceans, lakes, and shores. Coverage ranges from seafloor spreading centers to Exclusive Economic Zones to microscale coastal habitats; and techniques include spatial- and acoustic-based technologies such as multibeam bathymetry, sidescan sonar, ROVs, submersibles, computer modeling, image display, and 3-D visualization. It illustrates the broad usage of GIS, image processing, and computer modeling in deep sea and coastal environments.