The origin of the lecture notes presented here, is the IAG International Summer
School on "Data Analysis and the Statistical Foundations of Geomatics", which took
place in Chania, Greece, 25-30 May 1998 and was jointly sponsored by the International
Association of Geodesy and the International Society of Photogrammetry and
Remote Sensing. According to the responses of the attendees (who were asked to fill a
questionnaire) the School has been a great success from both the academic and organizational
point of view. In addition to the above mentioned scientific organizations
we would also like to thank those who contributed in various ways: The Department
of Geodesy and Surveying of The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the Department
of Mineral Resources Engineering of Technical University of Crete, the Mediterranean
Agronomic Institute of Chania, in the premises of which the school took
place, the excellent teachers, the organizing committee and especially Prof. Stelios
Mertikas who took care of the local organization.
This school represents a first attempt to put problems and methods developed in different
areas one in front of the other, so that people working in various disciplines
could get acquainted with all these subjects. The scope is to attempt tracking a common
logical structure in data analysis, which could serve as a reference theoretical
body driving the research in different areas.
This work has not yet been done but before we can come so far we must find people
eager to look into other disciplines; so this school is a starting point for this purposes
and hopefully others will follow.