This book focuses on the modeling and management of spatial data in distributed systems. The authors have structured the contributions from internationally renowned researchers into four parts. The book offers researchers an excellent overview of the state-of-the-art in modeling and management of spatial data in distributed environments, while it may also be the basis of specialized courses on Web-based geographical information systems.

Alberto Belussi is associate professor at the Computer Science Department of the University of Verona, Italy. He graduated in Electronic Engineering (with specialization in Computer Science) at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) in 1992 and he received the Ph.D in Computer Science and Automatic Engineering at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) in 1996. During his Ph.D he spent six months at the Computer Science Department of the University of Maryland (USA), where he cooperated with Prof. Christos Faloutsos in the area of spatial query optimisation. His current research interests are: geographical information systems design, design of interfaces for update of geographical data, multi-resolution geographical databases and interoperability in geographical databases.

Barba a Catania is Associate Professor at the Department of Computer and Information Sciences of the University of Genova, Italy. In 1993, she graduated from the University of Genova, Italy, in Information Sciences. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Milan, Italy, in 1998. She has been Visiting Researcher at the European Computer-Industry Research Center of Bull, ICL, and Siemens in Munich, Germany, and at the National University of Singapore. Her main research interests include: deductive and constraint databases, spatial and geographic databases, XML and Web databases, pattern management, indexing techniques, and access control. She is a member of the ACM.

Eliseo Clementini. 1990 Laurea degree in Electronics Engineering (Dr. Eng.) summa cum laude from the University of L'Aquila. 1/90 - 6/93 Research Associate. 7/93 -10/98 Assistant Professor of computer science at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of L'Aquila. 11/98 - to date Associate Professor of computer science at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of L'Aquila. Visiting researcher at Simon Fraser University, Canada, at Hiroshima University, Japan, at National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, University of Maine, USA, at Technical University of Munich, Germany, and at Department of Geography and Geomatics, University of Glasgow, UK. His main research interests are about modelling and computational aspects of geographic information science.