David Danko on the “Springer Handbook of Geographic Information, 2nd Edition”
A good one-stop reference for all things concerning geographic information
Since the publication of the first edition of the Springer Handbook of Geographic Information in 2012, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have become ubiquitous with the growing availability of smartphones and location-based services. In this interview one of the handbook’s editors, David Danko, Senior Consultant for GIS standards, interoperability, and geographic metadata with Esri, describes how the role of GIS has changed in the last ten years and for whom the new edition of the handbook is intended.
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In your opinion, what is the biggest impact GIS has on our daily life?
The most visible impact is probably the availability of mobile mapping apps and in-car navigation systems as well as location-aware apps used around the world. Less apparent, but just as important is the use of better geographic information systems by local government, by public health agencies, by emergency response agencies and in overall logistics and business development planning.
What, in your opinion, has been the most significant advancement of recent years in this field and why?
The enormous growth of consumer facing information brought about by better data management and integration, improvements in web services and improved data collection IoT, drones, and other methods.
What are the biggest challenges for the field still ahead?
As GIS integrates an increasing variety of data types and data volumes there will be an increasing demand for accuracy, currency (including real-time data) and level of detail. This will require improved data management policy, data documentation, artificial intelligence, sensor technology, and wider implementation of IoT.
How would you describe the experience of editing the book?
Like herding cats, connecting with authors from around the globe and learning from these experts was definitely a highlight. The collaboration among us editors and together with Springer was satisfying too.
For whom is this book a “must-read”?
The book is designed to be of benefit to the novice as well as someone already working in geographic information looking to learn more. It provides the background basics, GIS specific technologies like geodesy, geometry/topology, cartography, web mapping, etc.; but also covers a wide variety of applications implementing these technologies. Where relevant, the chapters are written in plain language so the reader doesn’t need to know the industry jargon to understand them. The subjects in each of the chapters could be a book on their own, we tried to cover the topics as completely as possible within our page limits and provide good references for those wanting to dig in further. The book is a good one-stop reference for all things concerning geographic information.
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