Think Globally, Act Regionally: GIS and Data Visualization for Social Science and Public Policy Research explores the spatial aspects of everything from the preservation of farmland, endangered plants, and animals to urban and regional planning and management of light rail lines.

            Think Globally, Act Regionally shows how spatial analysis can help users turn knowledge into action, capitalize on opportunities to solve problems, and put theory to work for a better world. Topics range from the broad themes of urbanization, geographic information system (GIS) technology, and data visualization to a look at multivariate data graphics, the balance between the built and natural environments, and issues of spatial equity and regional integration. Think Globally, Act Regionally concludes by exploring regional planning in Portland, Oregon, with a look at how applied social science and regional planning works even as new challenges and conflicts arise.

The book is designed as a month long module focused on applying GIS in social science and public policy research method coursework. Structured exercises using data on the accompanying CD-ROM are designed to be completed in six hours of computer lab time, with four suggested final exercises at the end of the book. Think Globally, Act Regionally is appropriate for students who have not completed a course in statistics or social science data analysis and have only basic computer skills.

Author Richard LeGates received a joint juris doctor and master of community planning degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in law and city planning. He is a professor of urban studies at San Francisco State University, teaching GIS, regional planning, housing, and land use. LeGates is also coeditor of a widely used, interdisciplinary anthology—The City Reader, third edition, and co-series editor of the Routledge Urban Reader series.

Think Globally, Act Regionally: GIS and Data Visualization for Social Science and Public Policy Research (ISBN 1-58948-124-0, 538 pages, $64.95) is available in bookstores and from online retailers worldwide or can be purchased at www.esri.com/esripress or by calling 1-800-447-9778. Outside the United States, you may also contact your local ESRI distributor; see www.esri.com/international for a current distributor list. Books published by ESRI Press are distributed to the trade by Independent Publishers Group (Tel.: 1-800-888-4741, Web: www.ipgbook.com).

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About ESRI Press
ESRI Press publishes books on GIS, cartography, and the application of spatial analysis to many areas of public and private endeavor including land-use planning, health care, education, business, government, science, and many others. The complete selection of GIS titles from ESRI Press can be found on the Web at www.esri.com/esripress.

About ESRI
Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 5,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. Headquartered in Redlands, California, ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.