(Geographic Information Systems)

GIS--What is it?
No easy answer anymore!

Geographic/Geospatial Information
information about places on the earths surface knowledge about what is where when
(Dont forget time!)

Geographic/geospatial: synonymous

GIS--whats in the S?
Systems: the technology Science: the concepts and theory Studies: the societal context
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Geographic Information Technologies

Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
a system of earth-orbiting satellites which can provide precise (100 meter to sub-cm.) location on the earths surface (in lat/long coordinates or equiv.)

Remote Sensing (RS)

use of satellites or aircraft to capture information about the earths surface Digital ortho images a key product (map accurate digital photos)

Geographic Information Systems (GISy)

Software systems with capability for input, storage, manipulation/analysis and output/display of geographic (spatial) information GPS and RS are sources of input data for a GISy. A GISy provides for storing and manipulating GPS and RS data.
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Defining Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

The common ground between information processing and the many fields using spatial analysis techniques. (Tomlinson, 1972) A powerful set of tools for collecting, storing, retrieving, transforming, and displaying spatial data from the real world. (Burroughs, 1986) A computerised database management system for the capture, storage, retrieval, analysis and display of spatial (locationally defined) data. (NCGIA, 1987) A decision support system involving the integration of spatially referenced data in a problem solving environment. (Cowen, 1988)
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Geographic Information System: intuitive description

A map with a database behind it. A virtual representation of the real world and its infrastructure. A consistent as-built of the real world, natural and manmade Which is queried to support on-going operations summarized to support strategic decision making and policy formulation analyzed to support scientific inquiry
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Why Study GIS?

80% of local government activities estimated to be geographically based
plats, zoning, public works (streets, water supply, sewers), garbage collection, land ownership and valuation, public safety (fire and police)

a significant portion of state government has a geographical component

natural resource management highways and transportation

businesses use GIS for a very wide array of applications

retail site selection & customer analysis logistics: vehicle tracking & routing natural resource exploration (petroleum, etc.) precision agriculture

civil engineering and construction

Military and defense

Battlefield management Satellite imagery interpretation

scientific research employs GIS

geography, geology, botany anthropology, sociology, economics, political science Epidemiology, criminology

Where Most Students Come From/Go To The major areas of GIS application
Local Government
Public works/infrastructure management (roads, water, sewer) Planning and environmental management property records and appraisal

Real Estate and Marketing

Retail site selection, site evaluation

Public safety and defense

Crime analysis, fire prevention, emergency management, military/defense

Natural resource exploration/extraction

Petroleum, minerals, quarrying

Transportation
Airline route planning, transportation planning/modeling

Public health and epidemiology The Geospatial Industry

Data development, application development, programming

Examples of Applied GIS

Urban Planning, Management & Policy
Zoning, subdivision planning Land acquisition Economic development Code enforcement Housing renovation programs Emergency response Crime analysis Tax assessment Monitoring environmental risk Modeling stormwater runoff Management of watersheds, floodplains, wetlands, forests, aquifers Environmental Impact Analysis Hazardous or toxic facility siting Groundwater modeling and contamination tracking Redistricting Analysis of election results Predictive modeling

Civil Engineering/Utility
Locating underground facilities Designing alignment for freeways, transit Coordination of infrastructure maintenance Demographic Analysis Market Penetration/ Share Analysis Site Selection Attendance Area Maintenance Enrollment Projections School Bus Routing Neighborhood land prices Traffic Impact Analysis Determination of Highest and Best Use Epidemiology Needs Analysis Service Inventory

Business

Education Administration

Environmental Sciences

Real Estate

Health Care

Political Science

What GIS Applications Do:

manage, analyze, communicate
make possible the automation of activities involving geographic data
map production calculation of areas, distances, route lengths measurement of slope, aspect, viewshed logistics: route planning, vehicle tracking, traffic management

allow for the integration of data hitherto confined to independent domains (e.g property maps and air photos). by tieing data to maps, permits the succinct communication of complex spatial patterns (e.g environmental sensitivity). provides answers to spatial queries (how many elderly in Richardson live further than 10 minutes at rush hour from ambulance service?) perform complex spatial modelling (what if scenarios for transportation planning, disaster planning, resource management, utility design) 9

GIS System Architecture and Components

Data Input

Query Input

Geographic Database

Output: Display and Reporting

Transformation and Analysis

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Knowledge Base for GIS

Computer Science/MIS
graphics visualization database system administration security

Application Area: GIS

public admin. planning geology mineral exploration forestry site selection marketing civil engineering criminal justice surveying

Geography and related:

cartography geodesy photogrammetry landforms spatial statistics.

The convergence of technological fields and traditional disciplines.

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The GIS Data Model

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A layer-cake of information

GIS Data Model

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The GIS Data Model: Implementation

Geographic Integration of Information
Administrative Boundaries
Utilities Zoning Buildings Parcels Hydrography Streets Digital Orthophoto

Data is organized by layers, coverages or themes (synonomous concepts), with each layer representing a common feature. Layers are integrated using explicit location on the earths surface, thus geographic location is the organizing principal.
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The GIS Model: example

roads longitude
Here we have three layers or themes: --roads, --hydrology (water), --topography (land elevation)
They can be related because precise geographic coordinates are recorded for each theme.

Layers are comprised of two data types hydrology longitude Layers may be represented in two ways: in vector format as points and lines in raster(or image) format as pixels All geographic data has 4 properties: projection, scale, accuracy and resolution 16
Spatial data which describes location (where) Attribute data specifing what, how much,when

topography longitude

Spatial and Attribute Data

Spatial data (where)
specifies location stored in a shape file, geodatabase or similar geographic file

Attribute (descriptive) data (what, how much, when)

specifies characteristics at that location, natural or humancreated stored in a data base table

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Representing Data with Raster and Vector Models

Raster Model area is covered by grid with (usually) equal-sized, square cells attributes are recorded by assigning each cell a single value based on the majority feature (attribute) in the cell, such as land use type. Image data is a special case of raster data in which the attribute is a reflectance value from the geomagnetic spectrum
cells in image data often called pixels (picture elements)

Vector Model The fundamental concept of vector GIS is that all geographic features in the real work can be represented either as: points or dots (nodes): trees, poles, fire plugs, airports, cities lines (arcs): streams, streets, sewers, areas (polygons): land parcels, cities, counties, forest, rock type
Because representation depends on shape, ArcView refers to files containing vector data as shapefiles

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Concept of Vector and Raster

Real World

Raster Representation
0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 R R R R R R R R R R T T T T H 6 7 R T T H 8 9

Vector Representation

point
line

polygon

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Dumb Images & Smart GIS Data

Smart VectorPavement polygons

Smart Raster5 feet grids

Imagesdumb rasters (although they look good!)

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Projection, Scale, Accuracy and Resolution

the key properties of spatial data Projection: the method by which the curved 3-D surface of the earth is represented by X,Y coordinates on a 2-D flat map/screen
distortion is inevitable

Scale: the ratio of distance on a map to the equivalent distance on the ground
in theory GIS is scale independent but in practice there is an implicit range of scales for data output in any project

Accuracy: how well does the database info match the real world
Positional: how close are features to their real world location? Consistency: do feature characteristics in database match those in real world
is a road in the database a road in the real world?

Completeness: are all real world instances of features present in the database?

Resolution: the size of the smallest feature able to be recognized

for raster data, it is the pixel size

Are all roads included.

The tighter the specification, the higher the cost.

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Examples

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Layers
Vector Layers
Street Network layer: lines Land Parcels layer: polygons

Raster (image) Layer Digital Ortho Photograph Layer:

Digital Ortho photo: combines the visual properties of a photograph with the positional accuracy of a map, in computer readable form.
0
1500 3000 Feet

Projection: State Plane, North Central Texas Zone, NAD 83 Resolution: 0.5 meters Accuracy: 1.0 meters Scale: see scale bar

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Overlay based on Common Geographic Location

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Analysis
Data Table

Scanned Drawing Photographic Image

Parcels within a half mile buffer of Park and Central 25

Vector Layers

Attribute Tables

Raster Layers

Anatomy of a GIS Database: City of Plano 26