Headway in Spatial Data Handling

Geographic information is a key element for our modern society. Put s- ply, it is information whose spatial (and often temporal) location is fun- mental to its value, and this distinguishes it from many other types of data, and analysis. For sustainable development, climate change or more simply resource sharing and economic development, this information helps to - cilitate human activities and to foresee the impact of these activities in space as well as, inversely, the impact of space on our lives. The Inter- tional Symposium on Spatial Data Handing (SDH) is a primary research forum where questions related to spatial and temporal modelling and analysis, data integration, visual representation or semantics are raised. The first symposium commenced in 1984 in Zurich and has since been organised every two years under the umbrella of the International Geographical Union Commission on Geographical Information Science (http://www. igugis. org). Over the last 28 years, the Symposium has been held in: st 1 - Zrich, 1984 nd 2 - Seattle, 1986 rd 3 - Sydney, 1988 th 4 - Zurich, 1990 th 5 - Charleston, 1992 th 6 - Edinburgh, 1994 th 7 - Delft, 1996 th 8 - Vancouver, 1998 th 9 - Beijing, 2000 th 10 - Ottawa, 2002 th 11 - Leicester, 2004 th 12 - Vienna, 2006 th This book is the proceedings of the 13 International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling.