This introduction to urban planning applications and problem solving with CIS is appropriate for students and professionals in the fields of geography, urban studies, urban planning, urban public health, urban environmental assessment, and hazard and emergency management. Technical jargon is minimized while the analytical concepts are fully described, enabling full use and understanding of GIS techniques. Infused in the included laboratory exercises are real-world activities that are often required in urban GIS projects but rarely included in prepared lab work, such as data acquisition, integrating data into the GIS, and manipulation of real data. Project design and analysis methodologies are also demonstrated with real-life examples of urban GIS projects.

Juliana Maantay is a professor at Lehman College, City University of New York, where she teaches GIS and environmental geography, and also directs the GIS program. She was formerly an environmental analyst and urban planner with the City of New York, and held senior planning positions in the private sector before that. Maantay is a leading authority on community-based participatory GIS and environmental health and justice research using GIS.

John Ziegler is founder and president of Space Track Inc., a New York City GIS consulting company founded in 1988. Previously, he was the New York regional director of the Federal Insurance Administration (FIA) and deputy regional director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). From 1989 to 2001, Ziegler taught urban planning and GIS as an adjunct professor at New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.