Book Review 9

Review

Title: Essential Image Processing and GIS for Remote Sensing

ISBN 13: 9780470510315

Published: 2009

Pages: 443

Cost: $149.95

Rating (1-5): 4

Submitted By: Wadia, Adil M.

Date posted: October 01, 2010

A Very Good Text for Remote Sensing and GIS

This is a very good textbook for upper level undergraduate and graduate level courses in remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS). The authors, Drs. Liu and Mason, are faculty members in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, U.K. and are qualified and experienced in the subject matter, as evidenced by the array of their research activities. Dr. Liu has published extensively in peer reviewed journals, written book chapters, presented at international conferences, received grants, and supervised students’ research. Dr. Mason has also published in peer reviewed journals, served as a referee for scientific journals, held positions as an external consultant, and as a geoscientist for private industry. The book is systematically divided into four sections, viz., aspects of remote sensing, GIS, case studies, and summary. The book has a good balance of descriptions along with the mathematical components for several operations. The algebraic operations for several features and how they could be enhanced using various indices is also helpful. The aspects crucial to image processing, such as principal component analysis (PCA) and the various methods of image classification, are also discussed in depth. In the GIS section, the authors well explained a variety of data sets and operations. There is also an extensive geostatistics section, which deals with the interpretation of the data sets. The authors also do well in explaining complex problems and the methods for combining multi-criteria processes. There is a chapter devoted to the operation strategy in GIS and image processing, which will be very helpful for generating maps for several cases. The case studies are also numerous for the research, commercial, and teaching disciplines, but they seem somewhat qualitative. The summary is inclusive and covers the important pieces of information regarding remote sensing-image processing and GIS. The use of color imagery could have been a little more extensive than what is currently used in the book. A glossary of terms at the end of the book would have been very useful. The questions at the end of each chapter will be of great benefit to the students and teachers alike. Overall, this is a very good text, serving its objective and should help students and teachers in their careers.