Allan Brimicombe Boca Raton London New York CRC Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742 © 2010 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business No claim to original U.S. Government works Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number: 978-1-4398-0870-2 (Hardback) This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. 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G70.212.B75 2010 628.0285--dc22 2009035961 Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com and the CRC Press Web site at http://www.crcpress.com Contents Acknowledgments .................................................................................................ix The Author ..............................................................................................................xi Abbreviations ......................................................................................................xiii Statement on Trade Names and Trademarks ....................................................xv 1. Introduction .....................................................................................................1 Metaphors of Nature .......................................................................................2 A Solution Space? .............................................................................................4 Scope and Plan of This Book ..........................................................................5 Section I 2. From GIS to Geocomputation ....................................................................11 In the Beginning … .......................................................................................12 Technological Facilitation .............................................................................14 Representing Spatial Phenomena in GIS ....................................................19 Putting the Real World onto Media ............................................................24 Vector ..........................................................................................................26 Tessellations ...............................................................................................28 Object-Oriented .........................................................................................31 Data Characteristics .......................................................................................32 Data Collection Technologies .......................................................................37 GPS and Inertial Navigation Systems ....................................................38 Remote Sensing .........................................................................................39 Ground Survey ..........................................................................................41 Nontraditional Approaches to Data Collection ....................................42 Basic Functionality of GIS.............................................................................42 A Systems Definition of GIS .........................................................................44 Limitations of GIS and the Rise of Geocomputation and Geosimulation ................................................................................................46 3. GIScience and the Rise of Geo-Information Engineering ..................49 Technology First … .......................................................................................49 Science to Follow … ......................................................................................52 And Now … Geo-Information Engineering ..............................................59 v vi Contents Section II 4. Approaches to Modeling .............................................................................63 Model of an x ..................................................................................................64 Typology of Models .......................................................................................66 Building Models .............................................................................................69 Modeling Landslides ................................................................................70 Modeling Topography ..............................................................................75 Spatio-Temporal Dimensions and the Occam–Einstein Dimension ..................................................................................................77 Evaluating Models .........................................................................................81 Applying Models ...........................................................................................83 A Summary of Model Development ...........................................................87 5. The Role and Nature of Environmental Models ....................................91 Context of Environmental Modeling ..........................................................92 Environmental Impact Assessment........................................................94 An Integrated Approach ..........................................................................97 Sustainable Development ........................................................................99 Hazard, Vulnerability, and Risk ...........................................................101 Decision Environment ................................................................................105 Conceptual Models ......................................................................................107 Empirical Models .........................................................................................110 Models Incorporating Artificial Intelligence ...........................................117 Knowledge-Based Systems ....................................................................117 Heuristics .................................................................................................118 Artificial Neural Networks ....................................................................119 Agent-Based Models ...............................................................................121 Process Models .............................................................................................124 Lumped Parameter Models ...................................................................126 Distributed Parameter Models ..............................................................131 Discretization ......................................................................................131 Routing across a Digital Elevation Model ......................................132 Transport through a Medium ..........................................................134 Section III 6. Case Studies in GIS, Environmental Modeling, and Engineering .................................................................................................147 Modeling Approaches in GIS and Environmental Modeling ...............147 Spatial Coexistence ......................................................................................150 Source–Pathway Characterization ............................................................157 Basin Management Planning ................................................................158 Contents vii Coastal Oil Spill Modeling ....................................................................169 Cluster Detection .........................................................................................172 … and Don’t Forget the Web ......................................................................182 7. Issues of Coupling the Technologies ......................................................185 Some Preconditions .....................................................................................186 Initial Conceptualizations ..........................................................................189 Independent .............................................................................................190 Loosely Coupled ......................................................................................190 Tightly Coupled .......................................................................................191 Embedded ................................................................................................191 An Over-Simplification of the Issues ........................................................192 Maturing Conceptualizations ....................................................................197 Integration versus Interoperability ......................................................198 Environmental Modeling within GIS ..................................................201 Model Management ................................................................................203 Maturing Typology of Integration ............................................................207 One-Way Data Transfer ..........................................................................207 Loose Coupling .......................................................................................207 Shared Coupling .....................................................................................209 Joined Coupling .......................................................................................209 Tool Coupling ..........................................................................................209 De facto Practices ..........................................................................................210 8. Data and Information Quality Issues ....................................................213 The Issue Is … Uncertainty ........................................................................213 Early Warnings .............................................................................................217 So, How Come … ? ......................................................................................219 Imperfect Measurement .........................................................................219 Digital Representation of Phenomena .................................................220 Natural Variation ....................................................................................221 Subjective Judgment and Context .........................................................223 Semantic Confusion ................................................................................224 Finding a Way Forward ..............................................................................224 Measuring Spatial Data Quality ................................................................226 Modeling Error and Uncertainty in GIS ...................................................231 Topological Overlay ................................................................................231 Interpolation ............................................................................................236 Kriging .................................................................................................238 Fuzzy Concepts in GIS ...........................................................................242 Theory of Fuzzy Sets .........................................................................243 Example of Fuzzy Sets in GIS ...........................................................244 Sensitivity Analysis ................................................................................256 Managing Fitness-for-Use ..........................................................................259 viii Contents 9. Modeling Issues ..........................................................................................263 Issues of Scale ...............................................................................................264 Issues of Algorithm .....................................................................................277 Issues of Model Structure ...........................................................................285 Issues of Calibration ....................................................................................288 Bringing Data Issues and Modeling Issues Together .............................293 10. Decision Making under Uncertainty .....................................................297 Exploring the Decision Space: Spatial Decision Support Systems ........299 Communication of Spatial Concepts.........................................................304 Participatory Planning and the Web-Based GIS .....................................307 All’s Well That Ends Well? ..........................................................................311 References ...........................................................................................................315 Index .....................................................................................................................341 Acknowledgments First Edition First, a heartfelt thanks to my wife, Lily, for her unwavering support in this venture and for her hard work in preparing most of the figures. Second, I would like to thank my colleague, Dr. Yang Li, for his assistance with some of the figures and particularly for the preparation of the coastal oil-spill modeling examples. Third, I would like to thank Professor Li Chuan-tang for his invaluable insights into finite element methods. Fourth, I would like to thank my sequential employers—Binnie & Partners International (now Binnie Black & Veatch, Hong Kong); Hong Kong Polytechnic University; University of East London—for providing me with the opportunities and space to do so much. Second Edition Again I must thank my wife, Lily, for all her effort in recapturing the figures and for reformatting and preparing the publisher’s electronic copy of the first edition for me to work on. My thanks to Irma Shagla and other staff at Taylor & Francis for support- ing and seeing this project through. ix