Georeferencing: The Geographic Associations of Information

Description

Georeferencing--relating information to geographic location--has been incorporated into today's information systems in various ways. We use online services to map our route from one place to another; science, business, and government increasingly use geographic information systems (GIS) to hold and analyze data. Most georeferenced information searches using today's information systems are done by text query. But text searches for placenames fall short--when, for example, a place is known by several names (or by none). In addition, text searches don't cover all sources of geographic data; maps are traditionally accessed only through special indexes, filing systems, and agency contacts; data from remote sensing images or aerial photography is indexed by geospatial location (mathematical coordinates such as longitude and latitude). In this book, Linda Hill describes the advantages of integrating placename-based and geospatial referencing, introducing an approach to "unified georeferencing" that uses placename and geospatial referencing interchangeably across all types of information storage and retrieval systems.

After a brief overview of relevant material from cognitive psychology on how humans perceive and respond to geographic space, Hill introduces the reader to basic information about geospatial information objects, concepts of geospatial referencing, the role of gazetteer data, the ways in which geospatial referencing has been included in metadata structures, and methods for the implementation of geographic information retrieval (GIR). Georeferencing will be a valuable reference for librarians, archivists, scientific data managers, information managers, designers of online services, and any information professional who deals with place-based information.

Linda L. Hill is Specialist, Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara (retired). 
 

Table of Contents

Preface iii
 
 Acknowledgments ix
 
1. Laying the Groundwork 1
 
2. Spatial Cognition and Information Systems 21
 
3. Georeferenced Information Object Types and Their Characteristics 35
 
4. Representation of Geospatial Location and Coverage 63
 
5. Gazetteers and Gazetteer Services 91
 
6. Georeferencing Elements in Metadata Standards 155
 
7. Geographic Information Retrieval 185
 
8. Future of Georeferencing 215
 
 Glossary 227
 
 References 237
 
 Introduction to Index to Geographic Examples 247
 
 Index to Geographic Examples 249
 
 Index 253