Book excerpt: Computer science provides a powerful tool that was virtually unknown three generations ago. Some of the classical fields of knowledge are geodesy (surveying), cartography, and geography. Electronics have revolutionized geodetic methods. Cartography has faced the dominance of the computer that results in simplified cartographic products. All three fields make use of basic components such as the Internet and databases. The Springer Handbook of Geographic Information is organized in three parts, Basics, Geographic Information and Applications. Some parts of the basics belong to the larger field of computer science. However, the reader gets a comprehensive view on geographic information because the topics selected from computer science have a close relation to geographic information. The Springer Handbook of Geographic Information is written for scientists at universities and industry as well as advanced and PhD students.