Mapping Human and Natural Systems covers our increasingly digital world - internet communications, cloud computing, etc., and how our ability to quickly and visually communicate is becoming increasingly important. The book provides the reader with a ready reference to learn about map creation and interpretation and to help them better interact with, and construct, maps. There are several software systems available that focus on maps and mapping, but no single resource that covers the fundamentals of mapping. This book fills that need.
Bettinger, Pete: - Pete Bettinger is a professor of forestry at the University of Georgia. He teaches forest planning, forest measurements, and aerial photogrammetry; and conducts research in applied forest management with particular emphasis on harvest scheduling, precision forestry, and geospatial technologies. Dr. Bettinger has worked with the forest industry in the southern and western United States, and maintains this connection to forestry professionals through his leadership in the Southern Forestry and Natural Resource Management GIS Conference and other continuing education courses he offers. Dr. Bettinger is also a co-author of two other books published by Academic Press, Introduction to Forestry and Natural Resources, and Forest Plans of North America.
Boston, Kevin: - Dr. Boston received a Bachelor's degree in forestry from Humboldt State University, and Masters and PhD degrees in forest engineering from Oregon State University. He obtained a JD from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Boston worked for the forest industry in the western United States, Europe and New Zealand. He was a principle in the GIS firm VESTRA Resources in 1988. Dr. Boston has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and is a co-author of four books published by Academic Press, Forest Management and Planning, Forest Plans of North America, Mapping of Human and Natural Systems, and Introduction to Forest Management and two with Springer, Forest Operations in the Tropics and Forest Road Operations in the Tropics. Dr. Boston is an editor of Mathematical and Computational Forestry & Natural-Resource Sciences. To our knowledge, he is the only person who has received teaching awards from three different university forestry programs.
Merry, Krista: - Krista Merry is a geographer and research coordinator in the School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia. She conducts research in applied forest management with an emphasis on remote sensing, geospatial technologies, landscape planning, and precision forestry. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees in geography from the University of Georgia. She has extensive experience in using geographic information systems (GIS), satellite imagery, and aerial photography, and has earned GISP certification from the GIS Certification Institute. She has published 35 peer-reviewed journal articles and is co-editor of Forest Plans of North America (Academic Press, 2015). She has acted as chair of the Proceedings of the Southern Forestry and Natural Resource Management GIS Conference four times (soforgis.uga.edu). She also has experience in developing online continuing education courses (introgps.uga.edu) and has led the data collection efforts for several human subject surveys.
