This tutorial survey brings together two lines of research and development, the interaction of which promises to have significant practical impact on the area of spatial information processing in the near future: geographic information systems (GIS) and geometric computation or, more particularly, geometric algorithms and spatial data structures. In nine uniformly structured chapters, the authors present a survey ranging from the history and basic characteristics to current issues of precision and robustness of geometric computing.

Since its inception in Savannah, Georgia (USA) in 2000, the highly successful GIScience conferenceseries (www.giscience.org)has regularlyattractedover250 researchers from all over the world whose common interest lies in advancing the research frontiers of fundamental aspects of the production, dissemination, and use of geographic information. The conference is bi-annual and brings together leading researchers from all cognate disciplines re?ecting the interdisciplinary breadth of GIScience, including (but not limited to) geography, cognitive s- ence, computer science, engineering, information...