Geoinformatics for Marine and Coastal Management

"Particular strength of this volume is the ability to demonstrate how the new data and technologies serve the governance and decision-making. As such the book becomes a revealing journey on the boundaries – between land and sea, information technologies and management, remote sensing and crowdsourcing, and still remains relevant to practical needs of fisheries, energy, emergency rescue, law enforcement, hydrography, or vulnerability assessment – serving the overall goal of advancing ecosystem-based management approach."
—Andrus Meiner, European Environment Agency, Copenhagen, Denmark

"This book is an excellent vision into the geotemporal nature and challenge of marine and coastal systems. The variety of technical, scientific, and management issues are confronted in Geographical Information Science terms and illuminated by instructive examples. And, rather than a litany of individual cases, the chapters portray the integrative character of the marine and coastal environment and the opportunities to apply innovative approaches as well as to use the products of our increasing database in this mileau."
— Norbert P. Psuty, Rutgers University, Sandy Hook, New Jersey, USA

"This book is a must read for students who want an overview of the range of issues to be considered in coastal management and how geoinformatic tools contribute to such management. The book is also very relevant for those active in the field who require to be updated on the latest developments and trends in relation to how we manage our coasts and oceans."
— Ned Dwyer, EurOcean - the European Centre for Information on Marine Science and Technology, Lisbon, Portugal

"Geoinformatics for Marine and Coastal Management presents an insightful and skilful interweaving of the old with the new, of the familiar with the frontier (e.g., GIS expanded to ICT and geoinformatics). There is also a fluid interweaving of academic, government, NGO, and industry perspectives. These characteristics make for essential reading by coastal managers and policy-makers navigating the challenging waters of the 21st century. As such, the book will be an especially useful guide in implementing the UN’s sustainable development goals 2030, in particular SDG 14. And don’t miss the hidden gem that is the book’s foreword by Bruce McCormack."
—Dawn J. Wright, ESRI, Redlands, California, USA

"… a welcome addition to the published literature focusing on coastal geomatics and development of coastal and marine information tools and their application from authors with global experience. Researchers and practitioners of coastal systems management offer valuable practical contributions on the latest technologies in the areas of coastal mapping, remote sensing, marine and coastal ecosystem analysis and a wide range of geoinformatics applications, including infrastructure and fisheries management, hydrography, navigation and security. Equally welcome are chapters covering non-technical information management issues including data interoperability, the role of volunteered geographic information (VGI) in the marine/coastal world, accessing indigenous knowledge and spatial analysis applied to coastal vulnerability and the Arctic. Each of the 16 chapters is clearly written and accessible to readers of all levels, well-illustrated, with extensive references, and offers practical information to assist educators, researchers and most importantly coastal and marine information managers in applying geomatics to the wide range of issues faced daily in their difficult jobs."
—Roger Longhorn, GSDI Association, Bruges, Belgium

"We are used to boundaries, and when they do not exist we create them. One such boundary is the land water boundary which extends into the realm of remote sensing and GIS. Thus we have land remote sensing as opposed to water resources and oceanography. Our land based surveyors look for stable ‘monuments’ as ground control points, but then how do you create them in the oceans? This book is an attempt to break down these barriers and look at the oceans as an integral part of a total ecosystem of the earth and its people. The water land interface which comprises the coastal areas are the first to experience the results of thoughtless anthropogenic development. The ocean is not impenetrable. It has a bed which contains treasures hitherto not explored. The book explores applications of both Remote sensing and GIS and illustrates that these technologies take on a total different character here. Nowhere is sustainability more important than in these areas. Lastly, the oceans themselves provide navigation, sustenance and influence the weather which impacts human activities on ground as well as at sea. The book covers the importance of ICT in providing the wherewithal to handle data coming from the survey of the coastal areas and oceans with illustrative examples."
—Arup Dasgupta, Geospatial Media and Communications, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India