Introduction to Geographic Information Systems

GIS224 Lecture 1

Laboratory for Teaching and Research in GIS

2008 Dept Geography UFS

Laboratory for Teaching and Research in GIS

2008 Dept Geography UFS

Opening Definitions
Data numbers, text, symbols

Geographic Information
(map, digital form)

Sea surface temperature, soil type, population numbers

Information differentiated from data

implying some degree of selection, organization, and preparation for particular purpose, or data given some degree of interpretation

Information about places on Earths surface Geographic versus spatial Geographic refers to Earths surface and near surface Spatial refers to any space (more general) Knowledge about where something is Knowledge about what is at a given location Can be very detailed or very course Can be relatively static or change rapidly Can be very sparse or voluminous

Laboratory for Teaching and Research in GIS

2008 Dept Geography UFS

Information Systems

Help us to manage what we know Make it easy to organize and store, access and retrieve, manipulate and synthesize, and apply solution of problems Examples of Information Systems

Laboratory for Teaching and Research in GIS

2008 Dept Geography UFS

Geographic Information Technologies

Technologies for collecting and dealing with geographic information

Cartography Mapping surveying Remote Sensing Global Positioning System (GPS) Geographic Information System (GIS)

Laboratory for Teaching and Research in GIS

2008 Dept Geography UFS

What is GIS?
GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems

Special kind of information system Uses special information about what is where on the Earths surface

Laboratory for Teaching and Research in GIS

2008 Dept Geography UFS

What does a GIS look like?

How would I know one if I saw one?

Two distinct meanings of the question Is this a GIS?

1.

2.

GIS is a real application including hardware, data, software and people needed to solve a problem (a GIS application) GIS is a type of software sold by a software developer

GIS hardware like any other computer with perhaps some extra components. What is important is the kind of information thats stored. In addition, a GIS includes tools to do things with this information.

Special functions that work on geographic information

Laboratory for Teaching and Research in GIS

2008 Dept Geography UFS

Spatial is Special

Almost all human activities and decisions involve a geographic component Technical reasons why geographic information is special [Longley et al. (2001)]

Multidimensional (at least 2 coordinates to define a location) Voluminous Often must be projected onto flat surface Requires special methods of analysis

Laboratory for Teaching and Research in GIS

2008 Dept Geography UFS

GIS Software Vendors

ESRI http://www.esri.com Intergraph http://www.intergraph.com Autodesk http://www.autodesk.com Clark Labs http://www.clarklabs.org .

Laboratory for Teaching and Research in GIS

2008 Dept Geography UFS

What is GIS used for?

Why go to all this trouble and expense? Who needs to know what is where? Few of the most important uses:

Utility companies Transportation Farmers Planning Forestry

Laboratory for Teaching and Research in GIS

2008 Dept Geography UFS

Why Does GIS Matter?

Almost everything that happens, happens somewhere.
Knowing where something happens is critically important. Longley et al. (2001, 6) Because location is so important, it is an issue in many of the problems society much solve

Laboratory for Teaching and Research in GIS

2008 Dept Geography UFS

Geographic problems
Problems that involve an aspect of location

Information used to solve the problem Solutions themselves Spatial scale Intent or purpose Temporal scale Location of a new highway Management of forests Precision agriculture
2008 Dept Geography UFS

Classifying geographic problems

Examples

Laboratory for Teaching and Research in GIS

Systems, Science, Studies

What does it mean to be doing GIS?

Whats the S in GIS

Using the tools and helping to build the tools of geographic information systems (GISystems) Studying the theory and concepts that lie behind GIS and other geographic information technologies (GIScience) Study the societal context of geographic information legal context, issues of privacy, economics of geographic information (GIStudies)

Wright, D.J., M.F. Goodchild, and J.D. Proctor. 1997. GIS: Tool or Science?, Annuals of the Association of American Geographers, 87(2): 346-362.

Laboratory for Teaching and Research in GIS

2008 Dept Geography UFS

Geographic Information Science

Term coined in a paper by Goodchild (1992)
Goodchild, M.F. 1992. Geographic Information Science. International Journal of Geographical Information Systems, 6:31-45.

Studies the fundamental issues arising from geographic information; body of knowledge that GISystems implement and exploit Address questions:

How does a GIS user know that the results obtained are accurate? What principles might help a GIS user to design better maps? How can user interfaces be made readily understandable by novice users?

Other terms meaning same as GIScience Evolved significantly over the past 10 years

Research journal renamed UCGIS http://www.ucgis.org

In 1996, UCGIS institutions held an assembly to identify the most important research topics

International Conference on GIScience - http://www.giscience.org

2008 Dept Geography UFS

Laboratory for Teaching and Research in GIS

Scholarly Journals Emphasizing GIS Research

International Journal of GIScience (formerly International Journal of

GISystems)

Cartography and GIScience (formerly American Cartographer and

Cartography and GISystems)

Computers and Geosciences Computers, Environment and Urban Systems Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing Transactions in GISystems Geographical and Environmental Modeling Geographical Analysis GeoInformatica Annals of the Association of American Geographers Journal of Geographical Systems (successor to Geographical Systems)

Laboratory for Teaching and Research in GIS

2008 Dept Geography UFS

Disciplines of GIScience
Traditionally researched

geographic information technologies digital technology and information studied Earth worked to integrate knowledge from different disciplines within context of Earths surface studied nature of human understanding and its interactions with machines

Laboratory for Teaching and Research in GIS

2008 Dept Geography UFS

Next

Spatial awareness your learners licence for GIS

Laboratory for Teaching and Research in GIS

2008 Dept Geography UFS