This leading-edge study focuses on the latest techniques in analysing
and representing the complex, multi-layered data now available to
geographers studying urban zones and their populations. The volume
tracks the successful results of the SPANGEO Project, which was set up
in 2005 to standardize, and share, the syncretic, multinational mapping
techniques already developed by geographers and computer scientists.
SPANGEO sought new and responsive ways of visualising urban geographical
and social data that reflected the fine-grained detail of the inputs. It
allowed for visual representation of the large and complex networks and
flows which are such an integral feature of the dynamism of urban
geography. SPANGEO developed through the 'visual analytics loop' in
which geographers collaborated with computer scientists by feeding data
into the design of visualisations that in turn spawned the urge to
incorporate more varied data into the visualisation. This volume covers
all the relevant aspects, from conceptual principles to the tools of
network analysis and the actual results flowing from their deployment.
Detailed case studies set out in this volume include spatial multi-level
analyses of flows in airports and sea ports, as well as the fascinating
scientific networks in European cities. The volume shows how the primary
concern of geography-the interaction of society with physical space-has
been revivified by the complexities of new cartographical and
statistical methodologies, which allow for highly detailed mapping and
far more powerful computer analysis of spatial relationships.
