Interview with David Maguire

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Endnu et enterview med GIS videnskabsmanden ... David Maguire ...
/Sik

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Yet another interview with the GIS Scientist ... David Maguire ...
/Sik

Quote

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Editor Maria Pellegrini talked to ESRI’s Chief Scientist, David Maguire, about the

exciting future for spatial analysis and evolving tools for 3D and 4D.

GEO: What 3D and 4D functionality is available within GIS in general and

ESRI products in particular for geo-spatial risk analysis? For example, one

interesting presentation at the ESRI San Diego conference was about

radioactively contaminated soil. How would spatial analysis be used for

something like that?

DM: Historically ESRI has been very strong, like the rest of the industry, on

representing 2D data structures and looking at what I call “static, deterministic

map modelling”. But at ESRI we have already started and we will

continue aggressively to refine our work on extending static 2D modelling

and analysis into 3D, incorporating the elevation values, and also into 4D,

incorporating time values, so that users can create proper space/time

models.

ArcGIS can represent, analyze and display 3D data. There are a number

of tools we have just introduced in 9.3, our current shipping release, to calculate

3D buffers for proximity analysis and 3D overlay processing (identity, and

overlap and intersection). We already have a good framework for looking at

how things change over time by examining the dynamics of different

datasets including using animation and other visualization techniques.

Since the ArcGIS 9.2 release, we have had the ability to include randomness

in models (in terms of random functions, random distributions and also

random activations of values) so we can deal with stochastic (probabilistic)

processes and events and objects. [...]

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Read more: http://www.geoconnexion.com/uploads/david_maguire_interview_ukv7i1.pdf

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