Data Management and GIS
1. Planning your GIS project
2. A case study example and the problems encountered
3. Advantages of using a Geodatabase!
4. Worldwide frustrations! Nasty GIS...
5. Top tips for good GIS practice
Data Types in GIS
• Maps (road, rivers etc)
• Site locations (with attributes)
• Satellite data
• Topographic data
Data Management and GIS
1. Research question and project goals.
What is the purpose of the project?
What is the research question?
2. Methodology.
What types of analyses will you perform?
3. Data.
What type of spatial data do you need to achieve your goals? .
4. Presentation.
Where will your results be presented? (Journal papers?, Powerpoint?, Books,
Posters? Website?)
5. Archiving.
Where will the data be archived long-term. (On an external hardrive? on-line dataarchiving service (AHDS)? University server? Other user/Organisation)
Cultured Rainforest Project (McDonald Institute)
Cultured Rainforest Project (McDonald Institute)
Cultured Rainforest Project (McDonald Institute)
Data Management and GIS
Cultured Rainforest Project (McDonald Institute)
Data Management and GIS
Cultured Rainforest Project (McDonald Institute)
Data Management and GIS
Cultured Rainforest Project (McDonald Institute)
Data Management and GIS
Cultured Rainforest Project (McDonald Institute)
Data Management and GIS
Cultured Rainforest Project (McDonald Institute)
Data Management and GIS
Cultured Rainforest Project (McDonald Institute)
Data Management and GIS
Cultured Rainforest Project (McDonald Institute)
GIS: Global frustations which require a network support group!
“I loathe this program... I want to murder whoever
designed it... especially the bright spark who
thought that making Arc 9.2 incompatible with
previous versions was a good idea”
“I learnt the hard way, like many others, an
errant space in a filename can lead to hours of
work being undone. Instead of damaging
university property, I quietly left the room to
find a corner to scream in.”
• GIS and Data Management: top-tips
• Use a geodatabase while your project is ongoing.
• When your project is coming to an end, investigate the current advice on
the best ways to store individual files
• Always check the current AHDS guidelines for file storage types
• Use metadata and make time to keep on top of this! Perhaps keep
papers copies too..
• Always embed metadata within file names and use underscores
• Enrol to internet based GIS community groups to receive software
updates
• Backup entire geodatabases to remote hard-drives