Chapter Wrapup

Networks, geocoding, and routing are all powerful tools in everyday use in geospatial technology. With GIS, these concepts are used in a variety of applications and businesses today. Today 911 operators can geocode the address that a call is coming from, and emergency services can determine the shortest route to a destination. Delivery services can use geocoding and routing applications to determine locations quickly and reduce travel time by using the shortest paths to get to them. Also, the use and development of these types of techniques in vehicle navigation systems and smartphone apps represent rapidly changing technology that keeps getting better. For examples of current examples of geospatial technologies used for networks and routing, check out the Apps, Blogs, and Social Media box.

Geospatial Lab Applications 8.1 and 8.2 will use online geocoding applications, as well as Google Earth and GIS software for investigating shortest paths and TIGER/Line mapping uses. In the next chapter, we’re going to start looking at a whole different aspect of geospatial technology—remote sensing. All of these overhead images that you can see on applications like Google Maps or MapQuest have to come from somewhere to get incorporated into the program, and we’ll start looking at the methods behind remote sensing in the next chapter.

Important note: The references for this chapter are part of the online companion for this book and can be found at http://www.whfreeman.com/shellito2e.