Thông tin địa lý khoa học gần đây đã nổi lên như một lĩnh vực kiến thức liên ngành khác nhau liên quan đến nhiều lĩnh vực đa dạng như địa lý, kỹ thuật, bản đồ và khoa học máy tính. | CHAPTER ONE Introduction Geographical information science has recently emerged as a distinct interdisciplinary knowledge field involving many diverse areas such as geography cartography engineering and computer science. In this field geographic information systems GIS have been used for analysing spatio-temporal data sets pertaining to social environmental and economic studies. This has led to the integration of a variety of socio-economic and environmental models with GIS. Examples include the innovative GIS-based monitoring model developed by Blom and Loytonen 1993 to monitor current epidemics in Finland including HIV. This model integrates spatial diffusion spatial interaction and environmental modelling into a GIS-based model for monitoring the passing of infectious diseases between individuals. The goal of this model is to provide disease-specific forecasts for the future course of an epidemic. The European Groundwater Project Thewessen Van de Velde and Verlouw 1992 is one example of the integration of existing non-spatial simulation models with spatial data sets. The result is the design of a GIS-based environmental model that provides rapid and coherent access to the most significant causes and effects of groundwater contamination. Physical and chemical models have been integrated into the GIS-based model so it can identify serious threats to the quality and quantity of groundwater resources in the European Union. The integration of the CLUE model conversion of land use and its effects with a GIS is an example of a dynamic multi-scale land use change model developed to explore the complexity of the interactions between socio-economic and biophysical factors in land use changes. It was applied to data from China Ecuador and Costa Rica Verburg et al. 1997 . The results indicate the importance of understanding the dynamics of land use within a multi-scale scenario. Implementation of such a model was essential to explore the spatio-temporal patterns of land use
