"Spatial models have been in existence in the environmental and social sciences for a long time. More recently, specialized software for the capture, manipulation and presentation of spatial data, which can be referred to as Geographical Information Systems (GIS), have vastly increased the range of possibilities of organizing spatial data by new and efficient ways of spatial integration and spatial interpolation." "This book explores the potential and impact of GIS on spatial modelling. It draws on the work of a task force of the GISDATA research network, and is in large part derived from papers presented at one of its meetings, covering environmental and socio-economic modelling in hydrology, meteorology, landscape ecology, transport, land use planning, demography and economics."--BOOK JACKET