This text focuses on the ways in which GIS could be made multi dimensional, based on modelling limitations of current two-dimensional GIS. It suggests extending GIS to incorporate the third dimension (3D GIS) as well as time (spatio-temporal GIS), using a variety of programming techniques. This book represents late 1990s knowledge about 3D and 4D GIS.

The intersection of two disciplines and technologies which have become mature academic research topics in the 1990s was destined to be a dynamic area for collaboration and publication. However, until now no significant book-length treatment of the meeting of GIS and Virtual Reality has been available. This volume puts that situation to rights by bringing these together to cement some common understanding and principles in a potentially highly promising area for technological collaboration and cross-fertilisation.
The result is a volume which ranges in subject matter from studies of a...

One of the ongoing problems researchers in geography and GIS have is studying data that is inherently spatial over a long period of time. One of the main hurdles they have to overcome is the study of groups of people classified by their socio-economic status (one of the main means for governments, companies and research organisations to group together segments of the population).
The amount of data collected by governments, business and research organisations has increased markedly in recent years. Geographic Information Systems have been more widely used than ever before for the storage...

This study surveys the approaches used and problems encountered in the modelling of real geophysical data. It addresses key themes of the modelling process including the selection of reliable data, the choice of data structure and the objective analysis of 3-D information presented in the model.