GEOG 60 – Introduction to Geographic Information Systems

Professor: Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue

Topic 1 – Introduction to Geographic Information

Systems

A – Information Technology and Geography

B – The Purpose of GIS
C – Organization of Information in a GIS
The Objectives of this Topic

■ Understand GIS as an information technology.

■ Understand the basic methods of information analysis in a
GIS.
A Information Technology and Geography

■ 1. What is Information?
■ 2. What is Geographical Information?
■ 3. What are Geographic Information Systems?
1 What is Information?

■ Information
Database A
• Knowledge about something.
Part No. Qty Description • Recorded in some way.
103521 5 Wheel spoke ■ Information age
105322 1 Ball bearing • The computer has become the
106832 6 Wheel rim main mean of storing and
104338 2 Tire
accessing information.
103922 7 Handlebars
• Tremendous amounts of digital
information created:
Database B • Spreadsheets.
• Databases.
Date Address Type • Internet.
1/22 123 James St. Robbery • Most of the “interesting” jobs
1/26 22 Smith St. Noise involve information processing.
2/24 9 Elm Dr. #4A Assault
3/02 12 Fifth Ave. Vandalism
3/10 1067 Park Robbery
1 What is Information?

Database B

Date Address Type

Geocoding
1/22 123 James St. Robbery
1/26 22 Smith St. Noise
2/24 9 Elm Dr. #4A Assault
3/02 12 Fifth Ave. Vandalism
3/10 1067 Park Robbery

Elm

Smith

Park

5th
James
1 What is Information?

■ Information Systems
Information System • Dominant tool.
• Set of computer programs that
Low order task are used to input (encode)
Encoding Repetitive information and store it in a
structured manner.
Automatic • Can be retrieved, analyzed and,
Management Established finally, reported as a table,
Structure graph, map or picture.

High order task

Analysis Unique

Medium order task

Reporting Common
1 What is Information?

■ “Knowledge is power”
• Having information offers a way
to control the parameters of our
“Pure Luck” No Information environment.
Available Information • Making decisions (resource
allocation).
• With perfect information, one
Sub-optimal Imperfect
Decisions Information should be able to make optimal
decisions.
• Impossible to be perfectly
informed, so decisions are
Optimal Perfect
Decisions Information always imperfect (sub-optimal).
2 What is Geographical Information?

■ Spatial information
• Between 70 and 80% of the
digital information is spatially
related.
• Can be placed on a map.
• Tools to deal with this
information are consequently
very useful.
• Reveal information that was
previously “hidden”.

Destination
Customer addresses
Store / factory / warehouse location
Census information
Environmental information
Resource location
1 A Taxonomy of Information

GIS • Population
• Land Use • Temperature
• Name of places Spatial
• Distance
• Density

Qualitative Information Quantitative

• Name of people and

• Stock market quotes
organizations Aspatial
• Quantitatives
• Qualitatives
2 What is Geographical Information?

■ Spatially related
• Can be assigned coordinates or
any spatial reference.
• On the surface of the earth.
• Involves location and
Coordinate system organization.
■ Scale
• Can be from general to specific.
• Simple to complex.
• A satellite can generate one
terabyte (1012 bytes) of
information per day.
Scale ■ Dynamics
• Spatial dynamics (variations in
space).
• Temporal dynamics (variations in
time).
Time 1 Time 2
B The Purpose of GIS

■ 1. What is a GIS?
■ 2. History of GIS
■ 3. General Purpose
1 What is a GIS?

■ Geographic Information System

• Form of Information System applied to geographical data.
• Produce information which will be useful in decision-making.
• Managing use of land, resources, transportation, retailing,
oceans or any spatially distributed entities.
• Connection between the elements of the system is geography,
e.g. location, proximity, spatial distribution.
■ System of hardware, software and procedures
• Support the capture, management, manipulation, analysis,
modeling and display of spatially-referenced data.
• Solving complex planning and management problems.
1 What is a GIS?

■ Information Systems
Geographic Information System • Information system specializing
Digitizing maps in the input, storage,
Encoding spatial data manipulation, analysis and
Encoding reporting of geographical
(census, vegetation,
topography, etc…) (spatially related) information.
Geographic
Management database in a
spatial data format

Analysis Spatial analysis

Reporting Thematic maps

1 Basic Structure of a GIS

Data Input

Geographic
Query
Database

Transformation
Output: Display
and Analysis
1 What is a GIS?

Geographic Information System

Records

Fields
2 History of GIS

■ Prior to 1960
• GIS’s origins lie in thematic cartography.
• Many planners used the method of map overlay using manual
techniques.
■ The 1960s and 1970s
• Many new forms of geographic data and mapping software.
• First GIS developed in Canada for land use inventory.
• Development of the first computer cartography packages for
mainframe computers.
• First remote sensing images.
• Mathematical Models.
2 History of GIS

■ The 1980s and 1990s

• First commercial GIS Packages.
• Diffusion of Microcomputers.
• Integration with other software (mainly CAD and databases).
• US Census Bureau efforts in the 1980s:
• Digitize spatial, economic and demographic attributes of the United
States.
• Creation of the TIGER format (Topologically Integrated Geographic
Encoding and Reference ).
■ The 2000s
• Integrated Information technologies with geography.
• Powerful applications on desktop computers.
• Web/network based data sources.
• Portable and inexpensive field GISs with GPS capabilities.
3 General Purpose

■ GIS is a database application

• All information in a GIS is linked to a spatial reference.
• Other databases may contain locational information (street
addresses, zip codes, etc.).
• GIS database uses geo-references as the primary means of
storing and accessing information.
3 General Purpose

■ GIS is a tool
• Must serve a purpose.
• Not an end in itself but a mean (process) to achieve this end.
• Should be viewed as a process rather than as software or
hardware.
• For decision-thinking (scenarios) and decision-making
(strategies).
• 75% of the time used to be spent at building the spatial
database:
• Acquiring data for a new GIS has become much simpler.
3 General Purpose

■ Advantage
• Ability to integrate vast quantities of spatial information.
• Provide a powerful repertoire of analytical tools to explore this
data.
• Ability to separate information in layers:
• Combine it with other layers of information.
• Good employment opportunities (information society).
■ Disadvantage
• Long process of encoding and verifying the integrity of
information.
• Compatibility between different GIS (less an issue).
• Technology changes rapidly.
• Information overload.
3 General Purpose

■ GIS as an Integrating Technology

• Evolved by linking a number of discrete technologies:
• A whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
• Integrate geographical data and methods:
• Support traditional forms of geographical analysis.
• Map overlay analysis.
• Thematic mapping.
• New types of analysis and modeling:
• Beyond the capability of manual methods.
• Possible to map, model, query, and analyze large quantities of data all
held together within a single database.
• Integrates people, data, hardware and software.
3 General Purpose

■ People
• Map user: end consumer.
People • Cartographer: producer of the end
product of a GIS.
• Analyst: applies methods to solve
geographical problems.
• Database administrator: build,
Software GIS Data update and administer databases.
■ Data
• Remote sensing images or aerial
photographs.
• Topographic maps.
Hardware • Land records. Etc.
3 General Purpose

■ The GIS Job Market

• About 500,000 GIS users in the United States (another 500,000
for the rest of the world).
• 10% (50,000) are using GIS full-time.
• 15% growth each year.
• 75,000 people a year receive GIS training.
• Shortfall in training and advanced degrees.
• High demands to integrate GIS in all levels of the educational
system.
C Organization of Information in a GIS

■ 1. Layers
■ 2. Features
■ 3. Attributes
■ 4. Relationships
1 Representation of Geographical Information in a GIS

Thematic Map of the Continental United States

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1 Maps are Composed of Layers

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Rivers
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Lakes

Roads

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2 Features

■ Layers contain features or surfaces

■ Features
• Real world objects.
• Natural or man-made.
• Represented on a map as a single entity.
• Each map feature has a location, shape, and symbol that
represents one or more of its characteristics.
■ Surfaces
• Some elements do not have a distinct shape.
• E.g. : elevation, slope, temperature, rainfall.
• Raster is the most common surface; composed of a grid.
2 Features

■ Points
• Points represent objects that have discrete locations and are too
small to be depicted as areas.
• Schools, traffic lights, crime locations, and park benches are
examples of point features.
■ Lines
• Lines represent objects that have length but are too narrow to be
depicted as areas.
• Freeways, streets, pipelines, and waterways are examples of
line features.
■ Polygons
• Polygons represent objects too large to be depicted as points or
lines.
• Parks, census tracts, postal codes, and trade areas are
examples of polygon (or area) features.
2 Features in ArcMap (Data View)
3 Attributes

Street name, Width, Direction, Lanes

■ Attributes
• Features are stored in a
database along with information
describing them.
• The descriptive information
stored with a feature.
• Attributes of a street might
include its name, street type,
length, street code, number of
lanes, and pavement type.
• The attributes of a park may be
its name, area, hours of
operation, and maintenance
schedule.
Address, Lot #, Type, # Rooms, Owner, Value
3 Attributes

■ Relationships
• Features and their attributes are
linked.
Features • Types:
• One feature as one record in a
database.
• Many features to one record.
• Access the attributes for any
feature or locate any feature
from its attributes.
• Attributes are displayed in a
spreadsheet-like ArcView
Attributes
document called a Table.
3 Attributes
4 Layout

■ Layout
• A GIS links sets of features and their attributes and manages
them together in units called layout.
• Consists of a collection of geographic features.
• Attributes for those features.
■ Thematic map
• A map (set of features) which visually represents a set of data
(attributes) is called a thematic map.
4 Layout View in ArcMap