GEOB 370
Jan-16
What is GIS?
Outline
• Some logistics
• Why geography matters
• Why scientific methods matter
• Why GIS? Why now?
• Brief history of GIS
• What is encompassed by ‘GIS’
Logistics: Labs, Forum, Quiz
• You need a USB (key) flash drive for the labs.
• Lab instructions and data are here:
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http://blogs.ubc.ca/advancedgis/lab-materialresources/lab-material/
You have to unzip the files.
You have to turn in your final map and a sheet of
your answers.
Lab submission can be done here:
http://blogs.ubc.ca/advancedgis/lab-materialresources/lab-submission/
Your quiz is due Friday night. It is open:
http://blogs.ubc.ca/advancedgis/activities/
You have to sign up for the forum by the end of the
week: http://blogs.ubc.ca/advancedgis/forum/
Arthur Gill Green
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GEOB 370
Jan-16
Geographic Information System
First, let’s consider Geography…
How does Geography affect our world?
Arthur Gill Green
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GEOB 370
Jan-16
Why geography matters
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Maps generate questions
Context (MAUP)
Politics / economy / ecology / resource management
Why geography matters
Geography integrates data.
Natural environment
A half-mile buffer zone
drawn around an existing
commercial well.
Land use and land cover
Used to eliminate
developed areas.
Point sources of pollution
and 500 m buffers around them.
Human environment
100 m buffers around
polluted streams.
Areas of sand
and gravel.
The final map that represents the sum of the
previous maps showing the areas suitable
for the development of a new water well.
Data integration: Locating a water well
Arthur Gill Green
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GEOB 370
Jan-16
Why scientific methods matter
• Although you can achieve
much by looking at things
qualitatively / subjectively, it is
also very important that a
quantitative (scientific)
approach be taken to many of
today’s complex problems.
• For example, in examining
maps of death and disease
people can (rightfully) become
very concerned if they
perceive a cluster of cases
around the area they live in.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/new-data-confirms-acreage-cancer-cluster-health-officials-206471.html
Chernobyl
• Wind direction over the Belarus territory in
April 1986. Using filtered kriging,
Byelorussian districts are colored according
to the probability that thyroid cancer rates in
children exceeded one case per 10,000. Red
represents the highest probability and cycles
through the spectrum to blue, the lowest
probability.
• As of 2006, 5000 cases of thyroid cancer had
been diagnosed.
What is a GIS?
Geographic Information System
Examples of information systems?
Arthur Gill Green
Wisdom
Applied
Flooding
Knowledge
Context
Richmond
Information
Meaning
M
(river ht)
Data
Raw
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GEOB 370
Jan-16
What components make a GIS?
Geographic Information System
Software
Hardware
 Data sets / databases
 Community of people working with geographic
information and tools
 Activity of advanced science and problem solving
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Definition of GISystems
A system of
hardware, software
data, people
for
collecting, sorting
analyzing and disseminating
information about areas of the Earth
Why geography matters:
GIS integrates disciplines.
Software
Arthur Gill Green
Data
Methods of analysis
Visualization
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GEOB 370
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GIS Data
• GIS data is made up of two fundamental data types:
• One is graphic (like you’d find on a map) – Spatial data
• One it textual (like you’d find in a table) – Attribute data
• Spatial data is made up of two fundamental data
types:
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One reflects a cartographic perspective
One reflects a remote sensing perspective
Spatial
Data
Attribute
Data
GIS data: both spatial and
aspatial
Spatial data: raster and
vector
The real world: analog realizations
The digital world: discrete representations
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GEOB 370
Jan-16
Placing GIS in context
Geographic Information System
Software
tools
User
Filter
Knowledge
!
Real
world
Geographic
database
Cartographic generalization
Purpose / intent of producer
Data models
Filter
! Mandates
Placing GIS in context
External
People
Internal
Spatial data and
associated
attributes
Hardware
Software
If geography matters, GIS can be used to study the problem.
•What areas are
preferred by
retirees?
•Where are the
important
ecosystem
services located?
•Which areas are
best suited for
vineyards?
Human
Geography
Natural
Environment
Population
Diseases Arts
Immigration
Precip Soils
Geology
Hydrology
Natural
Resources
Economic
Activity
Wetlands
Mines Parks
Oceans Forests
Pipelines Telco
Roads Industry
Power Network
•What is the most
optimum route for
the new hydro
corridor?
Why GIS? Why now?
Arthur Gill Green
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GEOB 370
Jan-16
GI is special
Multidimensional (well example) (context)
Voluminous (gigabytes of data)
Requires projection to flat surface (3D -> 2D)
Unique analyses methods (Spatial autocorrelation / MAUP)
Analyses require data integration (well example)
Keeping data current is expensive and time
consuming
• Map displays require fast data retrieval
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Short history:
Emerging concerns
• The first computer-based GIS conceived was the CGIS
in the early 60’s, developed in response to the rise of
environmental concerns (e.g., Silent Spring, A Sand
County Almanac). Canadian Land Inventory.
• The leading software vendor, ESRI, emerged from the
same beginnings (Environmental Systems Research
Institute). Originally it was an environmental
consulting firm that felt that spatial analysis was the
key to better management of our environment.
Eventually the software developed by the firm
‘became’ the firm.
Technological advances
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Computers becoming more mainstream in the late
50’s / early 60’s
Database management systems developed (mission to the
moon)
Quantitative methods in geography
Rapid advances in computer graphics
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Brief History of GIS
o 1960 – 70s Innovation
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First GIS – Canada Land Inventory 1969
DIME US Bureau of Census
Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics
Major vendors started (e.g., ESRI, Intergraph)
Landsat satellite launched 1972
Key academic conferences (AutoCarto)
Brief History of GIS
• 1980-90s Commercialization
• Commercial GIS software (e.g. ArcInfo)
• First GIS textbooks
• First global data sets (Digital Chart of the World – U.S. Defense Mapping
)
Agency
• Clinton Executive Order (The National Spatial Data Infrastructure)
1994
• 2000s Exploitation
• Internet becomes major deliver vehicle
• More than 1 million active users
• GISystems
• emphasis on technology and tools
• GIStudies (GISociety)
• Systematic study of the use of GI in society
• GIScience
• Fundamental issues raised by the use of
geospatial technologies
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Spatial analysis
Map projections
Social impacts
Data quality
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GEOB 370
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Summary
• Geography is important.
• GIS provides a unique perspective for
examining patterns and processes on the
Earth’s surface (‘ologies’).
• GIS is a science based on extensive
technology application (science and systems).
• From origins in 1960s, now a multi-billion $
industry.
• Widely studied in many different disciplines.
Arthur Gill Green
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