Students in GIS certificate programs and undergraduate geography courses; social and applied researchers who want an accessible introduction to the topic; professionals who work with geographic information in government agencies, industry, and nongovernmental organizations. Serves as a primary or supplemental text in the introductory courses in GIS certificate programs and in undergraduate courses in GIS, cartography, and mapping.

Francis Harvey, PhD, is Head of the Department of Cartography and Visual Communication at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography and Professor of Visual Communication in Geography at Leipzig University in Germany. He was formerly Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Society at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Harvey's research addresses a range of central issues in geographic information science, including visualization, ethics, values, institutional aspects, cadastral issues, pedagogy, and overlay algorithms. His teaching has covered the use of evolving geographic information technologies for undergraduates and graduate students in the United States and internationally. Currently, he is Chair of the International Geographical Union Commission on Geographic Information Science.

I. Your World and Geographic Information Technology
1. Goals of Cartography and GI: Representation and Communication
2. Choices in How We Make Representations
3. GI and Cartography Issues
4. The Many Uses of GIS with Case Examples
5. Projections
II. The Functions and Methods of GIS
6. Locational and Coordinate Systems
7. Databases, Cartography, and Geographic Information
8. Surveying, GPS, Digitization
9. Remote Sensing
10. Locations and Fields: Discrete and Nondiscrete Geographic Information
III. Techniques and Practices
11. Cartographic Representation
12. Map Cultures, Misuses, and GI
13. Administration of Spaces
14. Online Mapping and Geocoded Worlds
IV. Fundamentals of Geographic Information Analysis: Understanding the World
15. GI Analysis and GIS
16. Geospatial Statistics
17. Considering the Past and Future of GIS