PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
November 2018
673
BOOK
REVIEW
Integrating Scale in Remote Sensing and
GIS
Edited by Dale A. Quattrochi, Elizabeth Wentz,
Nina Siu-Ngan Lam, and Charles W. Emerson
January 19, 2017, by CRC Press. Hardback: $160.
Reference - 402 Pages - 134 B/W Illustrations
ISBN 9781482218268
Review by
Mingshu Wang, Assistant Professor, Faculty
of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC),
University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands.
The scale is a fundamental concept in geographical anal-
ysis, and this book addressed the importance of scale in
remote sensing (or broadly GIScience) from different per-
spectives. This well-organized book includes four themes
(13 Chapters), namely scale/multi-scaling issues, physical
scale, human scale, and social scale. The first chapter pro-
vides a succinct review of the basic concepts of space, time,
and space-time in GIScience. It highlights the concern of
scale on the past, present, and future of GIScience research,
which lays a solid foundation for subsequent chapters. The
second chapter introduces the idea of complexity science to
a broader audience in layman’s term. It covers the funda-
mental topics of systems (e.g., complex systems, self-orga-
nization), framing practice, and the well-known modifiable
areal unit problem with various examples in geographical
analysis. Chapter 3 starts from a physics perspective to ex-
amine issues related to complexity in remotely sensed data.
Chapter 4 introduces multiscale modeling and data fusion
techniques, and Chapter 5 highlights the importance of er-
ror and accuracy assessment in data fusion.
The second theme focuses on the physical scale in relation
to natural resource management. Chapter 6 demonstrates
a web-based system of fire monitoring and mapping for
wildfire suppression planning assistance and postfire dam-
age assessment. Chapter 7 focuses on complexity and scale
issues in geomorphology and mountain dynamics. Chap-
ter 8 discusses the problem of scale related to on-demand
web mapping services. The third theme is related to hu-
man scale in a sense of urban settings. Chapter 9 applies
spectral mixing models to analyze urban areas in multiple
scales. Chapter 10 integrates LiDAR and high-resolution
satellite imagery to identify urban road infrastructure with
object-based image analysis technique. The last theme ex-
amines the scale of remote sensing data for social conse-
quences including public health. Chapter 11 illustrates
how climate and environmental information derived from
remote sensing contributes to fighting vector-borne diseas-
es. Chapter 12 describes and discusses the scale of trans-
mission, surveillance, and the control efforts of different
infectious diseases. Finally, the last chapter (Chapter 13)
provides a meta-analysis from peer-reviewed articles that
integrate NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Cen-
ter (SEDAC) products and remote sensing data.
Despite the fact that the first theme is more theory-orient-
ed, the following chapters ultimately show how multiple
scale issues combined with the application of geospatial
technologies in natural resources, urban studies, and pub-
lic health. It is worth mentioning that over 20 years ago, a
book entitled “Scale in Remote Sensing and GIS” was ed-
ited by Drs. Dale Quattrochi and Michael Goodchild. This
book can be regarded as a continuation of the importance
of scale as a foundation for geographical analysis, which
indeed has many implications on GIScience applications.
Nevertheless, the theories and methods of scale in GI-
Science still need further exploration.
Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing
Vol. 84, No. 11, November 2018, pp. 673.
0099-1112/18/673
© 2018 American Society for Photogrammetry
and Remote Sensing
doi: 10.14358/PERS.84.11.673
