Chapter 1 Introduction to GIS PDF

Chapter 1 Introduction to GIS Dr. Tareefa Alsumaiti , Edited by Abdallah Al Bizreh January 10, 2024 Outline GIS Definitions GIS Components What can GIS answer? What can GIS be used for? Free and Open-Source GIS Packages History of GIS History of Ove...

Chapter 1 Introduction to GIS Dr. Tareefa Alsumaiti , Edited by Abdallah Al Bizreh January 10, 2024 Outline GIS Definitions GIS Components What can GIS answer? What can GIS be used for? Free and Open-Source GIS Packages History of GIS History of Overlay Analysis Layers of a GIS  What is GIS? Geographic Information System (GIS): is a computer system for capturing, storing, querying, analyzing, and displaying geospatial data. GIS is the core of geospatial technology, which is related to a number of fields including remote sensing, Global Positioning System (GPS), cartography, surveying, geostatistics, Web mapping, programming, database management, and graphics design. Geospatial Data: describe both the locations and characteristics of spatial features. – To describe a road, for example, we refer to its location (i.e., where it is) and its characteristics (e.g., length, name, speed limit, and direction). The ability of a GIS to handle and process geospatial data distinguishes GIS from other information systems and allows GIS to be used for integration of geospatial data and other data. An example of geospatial data. The street network is based on a plane coordinate system. The box on the right lists the x- and y-coordinates of the end points and other attributes of a street segment (Length, Name, Speed, Direction, ….etc.)  GIS Components GIS constitutes of five key components: Hardware: PCS, laptops, workstations, Servers, storage, monitors, printers, plotters, digitizers, scanners. GPS, mobile devices. Software: 1) Operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, UNIX… etc 2) Source code and programming languages such as C++, Visual Basic, and Python. 3) User interface such as ArcGIS (ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcScene, ArcInfo), EDRISI, and ERDAS IMAGINE. People: GIS professionals Data: Existing data or new data (more details in chapter 5) Data Sources: - Digitized and Scanned Maps - Data Bases :Tables of data - GPS and Field Data: Accurate locations& attributes - Remotely Sensed Data: Satellite images & Aerial Photography Methods of Analysis: The various techniques used for analysis, map creation & further usage for any project.  GIS answers the following A GIS can be distinguished by listing the types of questions it can (or should be able to) answer: 1. Location: What is at ? : The first of these questions seeks to find out what exists at a particular location described in various ways (e.g., place name, Post/Makani code, or geographic references). 2. Situation/Condition Where does it exist ? : The second question is the converse of the first and requires spatial analysis to answer. Instead of identifying what exists at a given location, a location is found where certain conditions are satisfied (e.g., an empty land of at least 2000 square meters in size, within 100 meters of a road, and with soils suitable for supporting buildings, Which stores lie within 20 km of each other? Where is the nearest petrol station to me ? What is the shortest route from Al Ain to Dubai, What is the fastest route from Al Ain to Abu Dhabi ?) 3. Trends: What has changed since ? : Find the differences over time; for example, what vegetation land changed to buildings ? Which un-inhabited areas 10 years ago that become inhabited today ? 4. Patterns: What spatial patterns exist ? The fourth question is more sophisticated; for example, asking to determine whether air pollution is a major cause of lung disease among residents near an industrial area ? 5. Modeling: What if ? : e.g. What happens if a new road is added to a network? or if a toxic substance seeps into the local ground water supply? Answering these question requires both geographic and other information as well as specific models. A few examples of what can GIS be used for: (more at http://gis.com ) Natural resource management. In forestry, caring for existing and future trees ensures a steady supply of wood for the world's building needs. GIS provides cools to help determine where to cut today and where to seed tomorrow, while minimizing negative impacts. Business. Every day, businesses deliver goods and services to clients all around a city. Each truck driver needs a route of how to most efficiently visit each client. GIS provides tools to create efficient routes that save time and money and reduce pollution. Defense. In the military, leaders need to understand terrain to make decisions about how and where to deploy their troops, equipment, and expertise. They need to know which areas to avoid, and which are safe. GIS provides tools to help get personnel and materials to the place where they can best do their job. Emergency preparedness and response. During floods and hurricanes, emergency response teams save lives and property. GIS provides tools to help locate shelters, distribute food and medicine, and evacuate those in need. Communications and media. In telecommunications, when phone service is out, it means part of the network may be disconnected. GIS provides tools to help find out what part of the network is affected and brings that information to the field so workers can get everyone talking again. Planning. Planners of all kinds-business analysts, city planners, environmental planners, and strategists from all organizations-use GIS to lay out a framework so that growth can occur in a managed way.  List of Commercial, Free and Open-Source GIS Packages Commercial Free and Open Source Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri) Center for Spatial Data Science, University of (http://www.esri.com/): ArcGIS Chicago (http://spatial.uchicago.edu/): GeoDa Autodesk Inc. (http://www.autodesk.com/): Open Source Geospatial Foundation AutoCAD Map3D and Autodesk Geospatial (http://grass.osgeo.org/): GRASS Bentley Systems, Inc. gvSIG Community (http://www.gvsig.com/en): (http://www.bentley.com/): Bentley Map gvSIG Intergraph/Hexagon Geospatial (http://www International Institute for Aerospace Survey and.intergraph.com/): GeoMedia Earth Sciences, the Netherlands (http://www.itc Blue Marble.nl/ilwis/): ILWIS (http://www.bluemarblegeo.com/): Global MapWindow GIS Project (http://mapwindow Mapper.org/): MapWindow Manifold (http://www.manifold.net/): Open Jump (http://www.openjump.org/): Manifold System OpenJump Pitney Bowes (http://www.mapinfo.com/): Quantum GIS Project (http://www.qgis.org/): MapInfo Maptitude QGIS Caliper Corporation (http://www.caliper.com/): SAGA User Group (http://www.saga-gis.org): SAGA GIS Refractions Research (http://udig.refractions.net/): uDig  A Brief History of GIS Written records of property boundary locations date to 1400 BC. The origins of GIS in its present form lie in the application of rapidly developing computing tools, especially computer graphics in a variety of fields such as urban planning, land management, and geocoding in the 1960s and 1970s. The term “geographic information system” dates to the 1967, where Roger Tomlinson developed the first operational GIS for Canada Land Inventory. Tomlinson is acknowledged as the "father of GIS”. Fisher, in 1964, founded the Harvard Laboratory of Computer Graphics. Several computer mapping programs were developed and distributed through out the 1970s such as GRID, ODESSEY, & SYMAP. These earlier programs were run on mainframes and minicomputers, and maps were made on “line printers” and “pen plotters”. The flourishing of GIS activities in the 1980s was in large part prompted by the introduction of personal computers such as IBM PC and graphical user interface such as Microsoft Windows. The term geo-information system or Geo-IS first appears in the 1967 paper shown here.  Also, in the 1980s, commercial and free GIS packages appeared in the market. Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (Esri) released ARC/INFO, which combined spatial features of points, lines, and polygons with a database management system for linking attributes to these features. Partnered with Intergraph, Bentley Systems developed Microstation, a CAD software product. Other GIS packages developed during the 1980s include GRASS, MapInfo, TransCAD, and Smallworld. Two trends of GIS evolvement have emerged in recent years. 1. GIS has increasingly been integrated with other geospatial data such as satellite images and GPS data. 2. GIS has been linked with Web services, mobile technology, social media, and cloud computing. Occurrences of the phrases “geographic information system,” “geospatial data,” and “geospatial technologies” in digitized Google books in English from 1970 to 2008.  History of Overlay Analysis The integration of multiple sources of information. Many associate overlay analysis with modern day GIS. Demonstrated manually in 1854 by Dr. John Snow in his isolation of cholera sources in London. Demonstrated again: – 1954, Jacqueline Tyrwhitt, Town & Country Planning Text Book – 1969, Ian McHarg, Design with Nature (included map overlay method for suitability analysis) Layers of a GIS: A geographic information system involves storing information about a location in layers. Each layer represents a different piece of human or environmental information. The layers can be viewed individually or in combination.  Questions? References Kang-Tsung Chang, Introduction to Geographic Information Systems. Chapter 1. 9th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill http://gis.com Carl Dahlman & William Renwick, Introduction to Geography: People, Places & Environment. 6th Edition.