Foreword
We humans have drawn maps in sand, on clay, parchment, and paper, and now on computer screens and as holograms. More impressively, we have the spatio-temporal information in various types of databases available for complex computer analysis. This is important because our increasing population puts ever greater demands on our natural and societal resources. Better data and more complex analyses are needed to help meet those demands.
As our population has grown, our demographics have shifted increasingly toward greater concentrations of people. The World Bank estimated that the global population distribution shifted from being mostly rural to mostly urban in 2007. We have added an ever-expanding number of population centers and have ...
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