Book Review

by Michael Kennedy. Foreword by Jack Dangermond; Afterword by Michael F. Goodchild John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey. 2006. ISBN 0-471-79229-2. 588p. Softcover with CD. $55.00

introducing geographic information systems with arcgis

nstructors using ArcGIS for their introductory GIS classes now have several competing books to choose from: Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop: The Basics of ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo Updated for ArcGIS 9, 2nd ed., by Tim Ormsby, Eileen Napoleon, and Robert Burke (2004); Learning and Using Geographic Information Systems: ArcGIS Edition, by Wilpen Gorr and Kristen Kurland (2006); Mastering ArcGIS, 3rd ed., by Maribeth Price (2007); and this book being reviewed. Kennedys book is unique in that he presents ArcGIS with his particular teaching style. Indeed, his use of conversational language in his writing makes one believe one is reading transcripts of his class lectures and handouts. The author sets three goals for the publication of this tome: 1. To acquaint the reader with the central concepts of GIS and with those topics that are required to understand spatial information analysis. 2. To provide the person who works with the exercises either (a) a considerable ability to operate important tools in the ArcGIS software or (b) a demonstration of other capabilities of the software. 3. To lay a basis for the reader to go on to the advanced study of GIS or to the study of the newly emerging field of GIScience, which might be described as the scientific examination of the technology of GIS and the fundamental questions raised by GIS (p. xxvii). This review will examine whether or not Kennedy met these goals. The text is meant for a single semester course or it can be used for self study; and it is coherently laid out, being divided in two parts (Basic Concepts of GIS, and Spatial Analysis and Synthesis with GIS) and nine chapters. At the start of each chapter is a mini-overview (1-3 sentences) in a sidebar that describes what to expect in the pages ahead. Since Kennedy places an emphasis on learning by doing, about 70 exercises comprise the bulk of the chapters. Along this line,

reviewed by Daniel G. Cole, GIS coordinator, Smithsonian Institution

the author provides a listing of fast facts and transportation. For each of these, he at the end of each chapter for the student lists what layers are needed and what to compile a glossary and how to points outcomes may be facilitated through the reference with fill-in-the-blanks. The spatial analyses of these layers in a GIS. reader will have a handy reference guide In chapter three, Products of a GIS: when deploying ArcGIS. Kennedy gives Maps and Other Information, the author plenty of practical advice with scattered argues over the compatibility (or lack warnings and colloquial remarks, which thereof) between cartography and GIS, are frequently placed in the footnotes (not followed by a discussion of the products to be missed). and requirements for a GIS to be useful Chapter one, Some Concepts that in decision making, with notes on the Underpin GIS, provides a good introducimportance of metadata for GIS documention to a variety of concepts, as well as tation and quality assurance. The fourth the basic functions and interactions of chapter, Structures for Storing Geographic ArcGIS, including ArcCatalog, ArcToolbox, Data, questions why spatial data analysis and the Help system. The only typocan be so hard, given the mix of continugraphic error that this reviewer noticed ous and discrete data with numerical and in the book occurs on p. 27, where in the textual classes. Kennedy notes the dilemma text, Kennedy refers to parking meters as of using data that are from the complex, the points in Figure 1-13, while the figure virtually infinite, multidimensional natural itself deals instead with fire hydrants. A and human-made environment where project for students that starts here, and we need to find a way of structuring the continues in other chapters exercises, geographic data in the computers memory involves the planning of a boat construcso that we can derive answers to queries tion facility and site, along with the asso(p. 211). He then delves into the six ciated variables for such an endeavor. structures of spatial data: geometry, topolThe second chapter, Characteristics ogy, idealization or abstraction, aggregation, and Examples of Spatial Data, introinterpolation and extrapolation, and categoduces the functionality of ArcMap. In rization. From this juncture, he thoroughly his overview of the evolution of GIS, the discusses the multiplicity of storadigms author discusses the forces of change (storage paradigms) involving geodatabases, from printed maps to GIS. From that coverages, shapefiles, CAD drawings, VPF point, he outlines the inherent difficuldata sets, raster data sets, and TINs. ties of dealing with spatial databases, Chapter five, Geographic and Attribute including; small areas with detailed data Data: Selection, Input and Editing, versus large areas with generalized data; addresses the eight steps in constructing continuous data versus discrete data a spatial database: (1) determining what versus data abstractions; existing but data and (2) what attributes of the data inappropriate data (such as those that are are needed, (3) developing a pilot study, out-of-date or developed under differ(4) the data collection effort, including ent criteria or standards). Kennedy next an extended discussion on GPS, (5) presents eleven spatial data examples formatting and reformatting the data, (6) and discusses the advantages of their checking for accuracy, (7) repeating steps use in GIS, covering the topics of natural 4, 5, and 6 for each data set, and (8) environment, energy, human resources, monitoring and updating the data. While critical environmental concerns, water, the author sites using the Internet for natural resources, agriculture, crime data collection, unfortunately, no mention prevention, civil defense, communications, is made of the geo-spatial one-stop or

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2007 ACSM BULLETIN 53

new books
iewer rev s
Review any of the books on this page within two months, and you can keep the copy. Contact: ilse.genovese@ acsm.net

Book Review

eded ne

GIS for Environmental Management, by Robert Scally, ESRI Press, Redlands, California. 187p.

Engineering Geology, 2nd ed., by F.G. Bell, Elsevier, Amsterdam. 581p.

Mapping Global Cities: GIS Methods in Urban Analysis, by Ayse Pamuk, ESRI Press, Redlands, California. 182p.

other portals. Nonetheless, he correctly laments that while there is no dearth of data, three problems still exist: data are everywhere but not centralized, data are in many formats, and one should be concerned over the accuracy and age of the data (a plug for metadata here would have helped). Kennedy presents a primary lesson (the only one in the book) for the exercises in this chapter: there are a multitude of ways to reference points on the surface of the Earth, and that if you combine data sets,they must agree in all parameters(p. 302) More primary lessons stated with the other exercises would have been helpful. And one minor complaint in the exercises here concerns a subtitle: Making the Feature Class That Will Be Digitized Into. Call the dangling participle police! The contents of the sixth chapter, Analysis if GIS Data by Simple Examination, should have been combined with chapter four, indeed, much of these two chapters are complimentary. Chapter seven, Creating Spatial Data Sets Based on Proximity, Overlay and Attributes, deals with the issues of feature generation from buffering, overlaying, spatial joins, and extraction. The exercises for this chapter treat these issues as well as providing an introduction to Model Builder. The eighth chapter, Spatial Analysis Based on Raster Data Processing, provides plenty of good information on the basics of raster data sets. The author gives several appropriate warnings regarding raster processing and the use of the Spatial Analyst extension. One warning posits how one raster cell size does not fit all layers, i.e., consider moose habitat versus soil data. Another warning points out the loss of information as one converts back and forth between raster and vector data sets. Yet another warning notes that while the use of the Spatial Analyst is okay for hydrology, Kennedy teases the reader by stating: If you want to do serious hydrologic investigations, you should use a package designed for the purpose, such as those provided as separate packages by ESRI (p. 470). And then he fails to mention the name of such a package (perhaps the ArcHydro Toolset from David Maidment?). Otherwise, the author provides a very helpful eleven-page discussion on the processing and analysis

of hydrology. One other warning that he gives concerns how the Expand tool does not perform as well in the raster environment as the Buffer tool does in the vector realm. The ninth and last chapter, Other Dimensions, Other Tools, Other Solutions, lumps together the use of 3D and 2D data in ArcScene and ArcGlobe, temporal GIS, address geocoding, network analysis, and linear referencing. While separating these topics into their own chapters may have expanded the book beyond the publishers limits, surely some reorganization is called for to allow broader discussions since logic dictates that they do not belong together in the same chapter. As for the accompanying CD, the author provides a one-page instructors guide, 62 copies of color figures reproduced as black and white in the text, all of the exercise data sets, and copies of all the fast facts sheets that are listed at the end of each chapter. Unfortunately, most of the color figures are low resolution screen shots, and thus not much better that the books black-and-white figures. Instructors should access the publishers companion website: http://he-cda.wiley. com/WileyCDA/HigherEdTitle.rdr?prod uctCd=0471792292. Once registered, an instructor can download the authors readme file, an instructors manual, chapter assignment forms, and critically, a vital CD fix about an error in the exercise database that is easily reparable but considered catastrophic if not fixed. In summary, most of my complaints regarding the text have been minor quibbles, and I believe that Kennedy largely succeeds in achieving the first two of his goals in that the reader will definitely be acquainted with the central concepts of GIS, as well as learning many of the basic tools of ArcGIS. As far as laying the basis for advanced study of GIS, books of this type fail to provide one critical foundation: references or other sources for more detailed information. Finally, I can recommend the book for an introductory class on GIS, but unless the CD error reported above is inserted as errata, I cannot recommend it to anyone using it for self-study.

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