…well not really, but Geographic Information Systems and Cartographic Modeling by Dana Tomlin sparked the scientific interest in it. The original concepts surrounding surface analysis date back to late 1970s and were championed by Dana Tomlin with his PhD dissertation in 1983, which was later published as this book. In the book, Tomlin introduces map algebra operators based on how a computer algorithm obtains data values for processing raster surfaces. He identifies three fundamental classes: local, focal and zonal functions. Tomlin is a must to any academic student of GIS, since much or nearly all work on raster GIS springs off from Tomlin’s work. The illustrations clearly show that this is an old book, but the knowlegde still remains as brilliant today as it was then. This is a book you want to own, simply because it is very sought after and constantly unavailable from your university library.

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