Maps and the Geospatial Revolution

Lesson 2 Lecture 1

Anthony C. Robinson, Ph.D

Lead Faculty for Online Geospatial Education John A. Dutton e-Education Institute Assistant Director, GeoVISTA Center Department of Geography The Pennsylvania State University
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Spatial is Special
Geography depends on spatial thinking and spatial relationships Toblers First Law of Geography:
Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things

Common sense, right? More related more similar

Spatial is Special
Spatial-autocorrelation
Measures the degree of similarity between observations located near each other

For example
Airports collect business dudes who use bluetooth headsets and drink massive lattes

Thinking like a Geographer

Spatial thinking underpins everything a Geographer does You use spatial thinking all the time
Making a decision on where to take your next vacation Determining whether or not you can make it to the next rest area

Good way to start exploring this is by trying to think aspatially first

Thinking like a Geographer

Lets look at some fake data!
# of Annoying People
72 48 776 789 469 525 62 2300 9654 779

Total Population
998 2000 2250 3500 1200 1400 65 16450 52510 1459

Average Age
26 65 44 36 31 43 33 51 44 41

Average Income
48000 32000 72000 12000 22500 66000 92000 35000 49000 61000

# of SUVs

County
72 Hatchback 48 Dialupia

State
Wholefood Wholefood Traderjo Wholefood Traderjo Wholefood Wholefood Traderjo Traderjo Traderjo

750 Sriracha 700 Muffintown 461 Fixieplaid 400 Burb-on-Burb 59 Bluetooth Village 1950 Pabsto 8912 University Collegeville 398 Kingo

Thinking like a Geographer

Thinking like a Geographer

Graduated Circles = each circle size represents a range of values

Thinking like a Geographer

Choropleth Map = areas filled with colors to represent a range of values

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Maps and the Geospatial Revolution www.coursera.org/course/maps Twitter @MapRevolution Online Geospatial Education @ Penn State www.pennstategis.com