Description
Book SynopsisOver the last fifteen years GIS has become a fully-fledged technology, deployed across a range of application areas. However, although computer advances in performance appear to continue unhindered, data volumes and the growing sophistication of analysis procedures mean that performance will increasingly become a serious concern in GIS. Parallel computing offers a potential solution. However, traditional algorithms may not run effectively in a parallel environment, so utilization of parallel technology is not entirely straightforward. This groundbreaking book examines some of the current strategies facing scientists and engineers at this crucial interface of parallel computing and GIS.; The book begins with an introduction to the concepts, terminology and techniques of parallel processing, with particular reference to GIS. High level programming paradigms and software engineering issues underlying parallel software developments are considered and emphasis is given to designing modular
Table of ContentsSection 1 Concepts and software infrastructure: introduction; the development of hardware for parallel processing; the software environment and standardization initiatives; the design of portable parallel utility libraries. Section 2 Modular design of parallel algorithms: design issues and requirements; a generic vector topological data model; a modular approach to parallel GIS algorithm design; parallel sort/merge techniques for processing vector data; creation of vector topological data structures; raster data management in parallel. Section 3 Design of selected GIS operations: vector-to-raster conversion; raster-to-vector conversion; vector polygon overlay; implementation case studies I - the generalization of raster data; implementation case studies II - raster- vector conversion. Section 4 Related development in parallel processing: parallel database technology - a review; algorithms for parallel terrain modelling and visualization; parallel processing for spatial statistics and spatial analysis; parallel methods for remotely-sensed image analysis.
