earth sciences

This book is a textbook for a course I am taking. The information is good, but the writers use strange sentence construction from time to time, making the material hard to understand, and a rather dry.

I use this book to teach my university-level students. As someone who prefers a practical approach to GIS, but still wishes to back it up with theory, I have great appreciation for this book. It provides an excellent overview of topics relevant to GIS without overwhelming computer-wary students. Don't be fooled by the colorful, pretty pictures in this book,though-this is a serious primer on almost every theoretical topic related to GIS. My students tell me they especially like how much of the theory is backed up with practical examples. I especially recommend this book to GIS professionals who wish they had a background in Geography. It tells you everything you need to know and little that you don't.

One caveat-if you are not an ESRI user (ArcInfo, ArcView, ArcGIS) this may not be the book for you. Although other software packages are covered in the examples, the focus is heavily on ESRI.

For years I've searched for a GIS textbook comparable in scope and design to the standard Biology, Geography or Physics text. The existing GIS texts were either overly dense or painfully reductionist, lacked the interdisciplinary range necessary to fully represent the art of GISc, were minimally illustrated and designed, and generally failed to inspire students and practitioners alike. The new textbook by Longley, et al, challenges the conventions of the GISc textbook and in the process raises the bar on what we should expect from these texts.

A few of the features of this marvelous text: Illustrated in glorious full color, includes the range of fields and disciplines making use of GISc (Civil Engineering, Geography, Urban Planning, Environmental Science, Business, etc.), presents GIS within its broader scientific context (the "GIScience" in the title), leads the reader through the discipline by first presenting the principles of the field, then the techniques, and finally gives real world examples in its practices section, written at a fundamental level yet doesn't shy away from advanced language and applications when appropriate.

A wonderful addition to GISc literature, I heartily recommend this text for any intermediate GISc course looking to explore the richness of this exciting field.