Environmental Information Systems

Book excerpt: Environmental information systems (EIS) are concerned with the management of data about the soil, the water, the air, and the species in the world around us. This first textbook on the topic gives a conceptual framework for EIS by structuring the data flow into 4 phases: data capture, storage, analysis, and metadata management. This flow corresponds to a complex aggregation process gradually transforming the incoming raw data into concise documents suitable for high-level decision support. All relevant concepts are covered, including statistical classification, data fusion, uncertainty management, knowledge based systems, GIS, spatial databases, multidimensional access methods, object-oriented databases, simulation models, and Internet-based information management. Several case studies present EIS in practice.