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  • Book
  • © 2011

Geocomputation, Sustainability and Environmental Planning

  • Recent results in Environmental geocomputation for sustainable development
  • Written by leading experts in this field
  • State-of-the-Art book

Part of the book series: Studies in Computational Intelligence (SCI, volume 348)

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

  2. Geocomputation, Sustainability and Environmental Planning

    1. Sustainable Development: Concepts and Methods for Its Application in Urban and Environmental Planning

      • Beniamino Murgante, Giuseppe Borruso, Alessandra Lapucci
      Pages 1-15
    2. Renewable Energy Sources: The Case of Wind Farms Analysis

      • Silvana Lombardo, Massimiliano Petri
      Pages 57-72
    3. Identifying Viewshed: New Approaches to Visual Impact Assessment

      • Maria Danese, Gabriele Nolè, Beniamino Murgante
      Pages 73-89
    4. Using Environmental Geostatistics for the Geochemical Characterization of Soils from the Polluted Site of National Interest of Tito (PZ – Italy)

      • Pietro Lucia, Achille Palma, Beniamino Murgante, Carmela Miriam D’Alessandro, Adriano Sofo, Antonio Scopa
      Pages 123-144
    5. Evaluating the Impact of Resolution on the Predictions of an Air Quality Model over Madrid Area (Spain)

      • Marta G. Vivanco, Oier Azula, Inmaculada Palomino, Fernando Martín
      Pages 145-162
    6. Spatial OnLine Analytical Processing of Geographic Data through the Google Earth Interface

      • Sergio Di Martino, Sandro Bimonte, Michela Bertolotto, Filomena Ferrucci, Vincenza Leano
      Pages 163-182
    7. Nonlinear Black-Box Models for Short-Term Forecasting of Air Temperature in the Town of Palermo

      • Maurizio Cellura, Simona Culotta, Valerio Lo Brano, Antonino Marvuglia
      Pages 183-204
    8. Automatic Mapping and Classification of Spatial Environmental Data

      • Mikhail Kanevski, Vadim Timonin, Alexei Pozdnoukhov
      Pages 205-223
  3. Back Matter

About this book

The experience developed by Ian McHarg represents the first attempt to base environmental planning on more objective methods. In particular, he supposed that the real world can be considered as a layer cake and each layer represents a sectoral analysis. This metaphor represents the fundamental of overlay mapping. At the beginning, these principles have been applied only by hand, just considering the degree of darkness, produced by layer transparency, as a negative impact. In the following years, this craftmade approach, has been adopted for data organization in Geographical Information Systems producing analyses with a high level of quality and rigour. Nowadays, great part of studies in environmental planning field have been developed using GIS. The next step relative to the simple use of geographic information in supporting environmental planning is the adoption of spatial simulation models, which can predict the evolution of phenomena. As the use of spatial information has definitely improved the quality of data sets on which basing decision-making process, the use of Geostatistics, spatial simulation and, more generally, geocomputation methods allows the possibility of basing the decision-making process on predicted future scenarios. It is very strange that a discipline such as planning which programs the territory for the future years in great part of cases is not based on simulation models. Sectoral analyses, often based on surveys, are not enough to highlight dynamics of an area. Better knowing urban and environmental changes occurred in the past, it is possible to provide better simulations to predict possible tendencies.

The aim of this book is to provide an overview of the main methods and techniques adopted in the field of environmental geocomputation in order to produce a more sustainable development.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of Architecture Urban and Regional Planning Transport Planning and Infrastructure Laboratory of Urban and Territorial Systems, University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy

    Beniamino Murgante

  • Department of Education Science and Cultural Processes, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy

    Giuseppe Borruso

  • Department of Civil Engineering Laboratory of Territorial and Environmental Systems Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Alessandra Lapucci

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access