Environmental modeling with GIS // Review

• Published in: Cartographica Vol. 32; no. 1; p. 72
• Main Authors: Goodchild, Michael F, Parks, Bradley O, Steyaert, Louis T
• Format: Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: University of Toronto Press 01.04.1995
• Subjects: Environmental protection; Geographic information systems; R&D; Research & development
• ISSN: 0317-7173; 1911-9925

In his introduction to the "Environmental Simulation Modeling" section, [Louis T. Steyaert] notes that the papers fall into two broad categories. The first deals with 'state of the art' modelling approaches within atmospheric, hydrologic, and ecological sciences. The second is focused on the subset of land surface/subsurface process modelling that is in the domain of terrain analysis/3D subsurface modelling analysis. Steyaert notes that the issue is how to bring these two categories together. Although this section of the book has several good individual papers, in rather too many cases GIS is tagged onto scientific modelling applications, rather than serving as the kernel from which such modelling is applied and developed. This begs the questions that are central to the introductory perspectives discussed above, namely: Is GIS merely a means of organizing and displaying spatial data? Or should GIS be fully integrated with the modelling and spatial analysis traditions of scientific data? The former is evident in many of the papers presented in this section of the book, and, regrettably, there is less environmental modelling with GIS reported than environmental modelling with possible implications for GIS. There are, however, important exceptions to this, for example, the papers by Maidment, Harris et al., Gao et al., and Moore et al., among others. Perhaps one of the main criticisms that could be directed at these 'core' papers is that many of them are very brief, and provide little of substance beyond overview commentary. The six introductory perspective papers provide the reader with very general 'position' statements on the issues underpinning the book. While there is nothing new individually in any of these papers, the contributions by [Michael F. Goodchild] and Fedra offer several threads of linkage between GIS and environmental modelling/problem - solving. These suggest the need for further evolution of GIS software from its data - preprocessing and mapping strengths into the realm of integrated spatial analysis and modelling that is usually undertaken in statistical software packages. It is not suggested that GIS provide users with full statistical modelling and simulation tools. However, it is suggested that the linkages between GIS and other modelling software be enhanced in the future in order to facilitate environmental analysis of the large repositories of information that are stored in GIS databases.