Exploring the Urban Community: A GIS Approach (2e)

Authored by accomplished urban geographers and GIS experts, Exploring the Urban Community: A GIS Approachleverages the modern geographer’s toolset, employing the latest GIS methodology to the study of urban geography. The Second Edition expands upon this timely, applied approach by incorporating new “internet GIS” Google Earth™ activities, which do not require students to own expensive software or travel to a school lab. New exercises are also provided for ArcGIS 9.3 and 10, the latest version of the industry-dominant software. Coupled with current examples and applications from around the world, including a greater focus on India and China, Exploring the Urban Community: A GIS Approach presents an engaging and uniquely hands-on applied approach to the study of urban geography.

Chapter 1    The Spatial Display of Urban Environments    
Chapter 2    Defining the Metropolis    
Chapter 3    The Internal Structure of Cities    
Chapter 4    Systems of Cities    
Chapter 5    Neighborhoods    
Chapter 6    Migration and Residential Mobility    
Chapter 7    Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Poverty    
Chapter 8    Industrial Location and Cities    
Chapter 9    Urban Core and Edge City Contrasts    
Chapter 10  Environmental Problems    
Chapter 11  Urban and Regional Planning

• NEW! Class-tested Google Earth exercises have been added to stimulate active learning and provide other visualization activities unavailable via ArcGIS exercises alone (panoramic images, 3D terrain and buildings, etc.)  These exercises are ideal for instructors who want to make this open source technology part of the course, including for homework assignments, as Google Earth is accessible to students outside of the campus labs.
• NEW! ArcGIS exercises have been incorporated into all of the book's chapters—a feature not found in any other text in this market. These ready-to-use exercises are updated and usable in ArcGIS v10, and in ArcGIS v9.3.
• NEW! Analyzing an Urban Issue chapter sections are integrated with the Google and ArcGIS exercises, stimulating further research initiatives; e.g., instructors can use these as a springboard to introduce examples from their own local urban areas.

• The latest theory, current events, and examples include:
• Updates to the urban environment chapter that incorporate recent research and debates with respect to global environmental processes and human impacts, as well as environmental justice concerns
• The U.S. Gulf Oil Spill disaster, the U.S. housing crisis of 2007-2009, Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans, immigration of Hispanics and African Americans to the U.S., Wal-Mart in the context of consumer services
• Climate change and cities, renewable energy, technological change, disasters and terrorism, stimulating creativity, and political will and leadership
• New Google Earth and ArcGIS exercises on air pollution and asthma in Chicago that ask students to use data and maps to confront issues like environmental justice, encouraging scrutiny of the strengths and weaknesses in the underlying data models
• Viable downtowns and urban policies of the Obama Administration
• Internet and the city, mobile spatial connectivity, and urban digital divide
• Updated maps and photos

• Expanded, in-depth international coverage in the Second Edition provides a more global perspective, with discussion of a broader set of international regions and cities, leveraging the latest applications from today’s headlines:
• New examples from China, India, Japan, and Africa; strong legacy coverage of Mexico.
• New sections that define the metropolis, mega-regions, and Chinese and Indian global cities, including profiles of Tokyo, Beijing, and Mumbai.
• A new exercise on China's urban system.
• GIS and the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

• NEW! The text’s premium website hosts Google Earth and ArcGIS media files, and also includes web links, flashcards, quizzes, “In the News” RSS feeds, images, and PowerPoints.

• Wide coverage of both traditional and contemporary topics covers all the important traditional urban geography topics, but also expands to include contemporary topics such as global cities, gender, activism, technology, postmodernism, transnationalism, sexuality, and environmental justice.
• A hands-on, applied approach utilizes ArcGIS and Google Earth to extend the exploration of urban geography.
• A global perspective precludes a U.S. or European bias, and offers deeper coverage of India and China.
• A flexible presentation makes this text appropriate for a variety of urban studies and urban planning courses, as well as applied GIS courses with an urban focus.
• Excellent maps, charts, photos, and artwork provide visual appeal.

Richard P. Greene holds a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Northern Illinois University. Greene has published in a variety of journals including Landscape and Urban Planning, The Social Science Journal, the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Urban Geography, and Economic Geography. 

Greene’s emphasis is on urban regeneration, edge cities, and land conversion processes on the urban-rural fringe, with expertise on Chicago, Los Angeles, and China’s urban system.  He conducts applied GIS research with regional and local governments in the Chicago metropolitan area, and he developed a GIS system for evaluating the loss of prime farmland to urbanization for the American Farmland Trust.

Greene is co-editor of Chicago’s Geographies: Metropolis for the 21st Century, and is currently serving as the Book Review Editor for The Social Science Journal, and is on the editorial board of the Urban Geography Journal. He is a member of the Association of American Geographers, Arid Lands Studies Association, and the Western Social Science Association (WSSA).

James B. Pick holds a B.A. from Northwestern University, an M.S.Ed. from Northern Illinois University, and  a Ph.D. from the University of California Irvine. Pick is professor in the School of Business at University of Redlands. He is the author of 120 journal articles, book chapters, and refereed proceedings in the research areas of urban studies, population, renewable energy, management information systems, and geographic information systems. He is author or co-author of eleven books.

His awards include three Outstanding Faculty Research Awards from University of Redlands, Outstanding Alumni Award of College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Northern Illinois University, and Fulbright Senior Lecturer/Research Award in Mexico. He has been funded by the Ford Foundation, U.S. Small Business Administration, and other agencies, and serves on five journal editorial boards.