In GIS, understanding the layout of interior spaces has important applications in the analysis of energy efficiency, indoor navigation and atmospheric pollution. However, detailed models of building internals are usually held in engineering or architecture software, including Building Information Modelling (BIM) software such as Autodesk Revit, and are not easily understood by GIS in this forma...

GIS eased into geography without much discord until the 1990s, when a flurry of commentaries about the relative merits of GIS made their way into a number of geographic journals. The ensuing decade was marked by varying degrees of friction between GIS practitioners and their critics in human geography. Despite the methodological chasm between the two groups, little discussion of the implication...

In 2003, an internet-based monitoring system of influenza-like illness (ILI), the Great Influenza Survey (GIS), was initiated in Belgium. For the Flemish part of Belgium, we investigate the representativeness of the GIS population and assess the validity of the survey in terms of ILI incidence during eight influenza seasons (from 2003 through 2011). The validity is investigated by comparing est...

Floods are one of the most dangerous and common disasters worldwide, and these disasters are closely linked to the geography of the affected area. As a result, several papers in the academic field of humanitarian logistics have incorporated the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for disaster management. However, most of the contributions in the literature are using these systems for ...

A promising approach to environmental assessment and decision making analyses is based on integrating Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) and GIS tools. Integration of GIS and MCDA tools can be potentially achieved through interoperability, where these tools can exchange relevant information to tackle a particular environmental problem. However, the problem of semantic heterogeneity caused b...

While the open source movement already plays in the field of operating systems a significant role, many GIS users know about open source Geographical Information Systems. A number of GIS related projects have been launched the last years with different focus. The paper introduces the major open source GIS GRASS with emphasis on recent developments. Moreover three other projects are described, w...

This tutorial provides a foundation in GIS including its basic structure and concepts, and spatial analysis. Spatial Decision Support Systems are introduced, emphasizing one current model. The links of GIS to related technologies such as GPS, wireless, location-based technologies, and RFID are examined. The tutorial gives an overview of vertical-sector uses of GIS, and concentrates on a few exa...

Geographical information systems (GIS) facilitate the incorporation of spatial relationships into epidemiological investigations of wildlife diseases. Consisting of data input, management, analysis and presentation components, GIS act as an integrative technology in that a range of very varied data sources can be combined which describe different aspect of the environment of wild animals. The a...

Public participatory geographic information systems (PP GIS) aim at enlarging citizen’s involvement and participation in decision-making processes. In this paper we review existing online PP GIS applications and present the framework of our analysis. We concentrate on the aspects of interactivity of such applications and the GIS functionalities needed for their operation. First results of ongoi...