GIS, the first steps
Dr. Henk van Dijk
Foundation for the large-scale standardmap for the province of North-Holland
Maps around us
The use of maps becomes a part of everyday live. In newspapers and television more and
more maps are used. The modern car has a route map displayed and in our mobile telephones
or palms we use WAP technology to find our way. Also in government the use of maps
increases because it is an efficient way to present information.
To illustrate this, examples will be used both from the use of maps in mass media as well as in
government.
Maps and Mass media
In newspapers and on television maps are often used as an illustration of what is written or
said. Sometimes the use of maps in mass media is quite surprising. During the Gulf war there
was an everyday news program in the Netherlands about what happened in the Middle East.
As background in the studio there was a large map of the region (Fig. 1). On this map there
was drawn a strange borderline between Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan.
It is obvious that the first map is not correct; the borderline between Syria and Israel would
not exist. Maybe this is an example of “wishful mapping” because the problem of the Golan
Heights would be solved. Unfortunately reality tells us another story (Fig. 2).
Maps and Government
In the town of Zwolle, capital of the province of Overijssel (the Netherlands, appr. 100.000
inhabitants) there is a neighbourhood build in the late 1960’s. Twenty years later it developed
an image of a “problem area” and the local government decided that a program should be
carried out to improve the situation. As part of this program an atlas was made where all the
available data were shown in maps. While making the atlas questions arose like: “Can the
image of the neighbourhood be improved by making maps that show that, compared with
some other areas, the situation is not so bad.” Of course questions like these show that making
maps in a context in which decisions are made has ethical aspects.
More in general questions can be raised about the relation between the quality of democracy
and the way government produces information that is presented to their citizens.
Maps and people
When we agree that the use of maps increases, a good development, it raises the question if
the people where these maps are made for can use them. An almost already classical example
to illustrate the problem people have in using maps, was a program on Dutch television where
people having their holiday in Torremolinos on the Spanish cost were asked to show their
location on the map of western Europe showing borderlines and altitude. A lot of them had no
idea and pointed to a place somewhere in the Austrian Alps. It showed that not only did they
have no idea of the topography of Europe but also that they could not interpret the colours on
the map showing the highest mountains in the darkest colours and lowland in greenish
colours. It also can mean that they have no idea of the scale of the map. Maybe they thought
that the distance between the mountains and the sea on the map was in reality only a few
kilometres.
Maps and education
I used these examples to show that the making of maps is a tricky business but also that the
use of maps assumes skills to use this kind of information. This raises the question how
people acquire these skills. When we look at education on a very general level we see that
three systems of symbols are used to communicate, interpret and even to create our world.
The first and most important is still of course language. In education we teach children the
letters of the alphabet, then to combine these to words, sentences etc. We not only learn the
elements of words but also rules as to how we should combine the elements. With this
language-system we can talk, read, write and listen. So it is logical that a lot of time is spend
in learning this, also in other languages, so we can communicate with and understand more
people.
The second and also very important system is arithmetic. Again we start by learning children
the basic elements of numbers and the manipulations we can perform between these numbers
like the proposition of Pythagoras. When I look at my own children they started counting at
school when they were four and when the oldest finished secondary school she was still
having arithmetic as one of her exam subjects. So again a lot of time is spend in learning this
system we can use to communicate and to describe our world.
Now what about graphacy? About what?, most people would say. Which illustrates my point.
More and more we communicate with al kinds of graphic information like pie diagrams,
histograms and, indeed, maps. If we examine where children learn to use these forms of
information in the Dutch educational system in primary and secondary education, only very
limited attention is paid to this. If we focus on the use of maps, only in geography and
mathematics some attention is paid to this subject. In mathematics children learn about scales,
distances and direction and make excursuses about the surface area. Recent developments in
geography education pay more attention to the development of map skills. The next part of
this paper will focus on this issue.
Map skills in geography education
In 1996 a new set of objectives was formulated for Dutch geography education. In relation to
map skills the following objectives were formulated: “Children are able, partly by using
computers, to use atlases, archives, maps and remote sensing images (in particular aerial
photographs) by their orientation in areas as well as creation of images about areas,
geographical phenomena and processes. Related to this they can:

Use the register in atlases,
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
Name and use different kind of maps
Apply the following map skills:
 Map reading
 Map analysis
 Map interpretation
 Compare aerial photographs and maps
 Localise important places, areas and phenomena on a map
Although these objectives may not seem a very systematic description, progress is made in the
sense that acquiring map skills now is part of the curriculum. One of the questions raised by
these objectives is how these skills can be acquired. A research project at the Free University
in Amsterdam was designed to answer this question.
The first step was the development of a scheme that classifies the kind of assignments
children should perform in order to develop their map skills. Two criteria defined these
assignments:
 The geographical content of the map
 The intellectual activity that was required.
Combinations of the following aspects defined the geographical content of a map:
 Points (spatial distribution)
 Areas (areal differentiation)
 Lines (showing spatial interaction)
The intellectual activity applied to maps:


Map reading (the ability to identify and name phenomena shown on a map)
Map analysis 1 (the ability to classify phenomena on a map according to common
traits)
 Map analysis 2 (the ability to formulate generalisations that refer to spatial
relationships of phenomena shown on the map)
 Map interpretation (the ability to give explanations and make predictions, while using
both map information and knowledge acquired earlier)
These two components can be put together in a matrix, which made it possible to define the
complexity of an assignment. (Fig. 3)
Complexity of geographical content
Points
Areas
Complexity Map reading
of
Map analysis 1
Map skills
Map analysis 2
Map interpretation
Fig. 3: Classifications of assignments
Lines
Research was carried out in which children in the age 12-13 were given assignments that
covered the first three steps of complexity of map skills and the more complex geographical
content in which combinations of points areas and lines were presented. After training in map
skills, new assignments were given with the same kind of content (Fig. 4).
One of the findings was that children in the age group of 12-13 years find it difficult to
answer questions about maps on which line patterns occur. A lot of children tend to think in
what is some times called “vertical relationships”. In describing the traits some areas could
have in common, they hardly formulated the fact that, e.g. two new towns both are a short
distance from a major city. Children tend more to describe aspects such as: Both new towns
are in areas with sandy soils or have a large commuting population. As fig. 4 shows,
assignments that involve these line patterns always have lower scores than assignments of the
same complexity of map skills with only points and areas.
A second interesting conclusion is that children find it difficult to formulate generalisations in
particular using maps with more complex geographical content. After a training program the
results were substantial improved.
Type of assignment
Map reading
Percentage correct % correct answers postanswers on pretest; most successful
tests
training program
Points and Areas
61
99
Points, Areas and Lines
10
46
Mapanalysis 1
Points and Areas
76
95
(Classification)
Points, Areas and Lines
13
40
Map analysis 2
Points and Areas
34
72
(Making
generalisations)
Points, Areas and Lines
11
34
Fig. 4 Pre- and Post Test Scores
Combining the results of this research project and the objectives about map skills as defined
for geography education it was possible to develop a training program for the second phase in
secondary education (15-18 year old children). A publisher developed a new series of
geography textbooks called “Atlantis”. It consists of a number of thematic modules like “Man
and environment”, ”Migration and mobility”, “Transport and physical planning”.
One of the modules is called “geographic research”. A part of this module is dedicated to the
use of a computer-mapping program. There are two elements in this program one is called;
Mapwiser the other one is called Mapmaker. Mapwiser is a program with an existing database
and maps of the Netherlands. Mapmaker offers the user the possibility to use or make their
own databases and make their own maps.
One of the essential elements of this module is a problem-based approach. So children start
with a question that they should try to answer. In the remaining part of this paper a description
of how children work with this simple “GIS” is presented.
Working with GIS-Atlantis.
Mapwiser consists of two parts: A dataset and standard maps of the Netherlands. These maps
are defined at three spatial levels (fig. 5):

The Netherlands divided in 12 provinces
 The Netherlands divided in 40 regions
 The Netherlands divided in 633 municipalities
The database of course has the same structure. Data are used from the Dutch Central Bureau
of Statistics. (CBS). About 250 variables are in the database covering issues such as:










Size and population
Demography
Work and economy
Voting behaviour
Building
Leisure and recreation
Holidays
Traffic, transport and communication
Safety
Landuse
As mentioned before, the module is based on a problem solving approach. Working with this
module children have to take subsequent steps.
1.
Define the question;
2.
Choose the map with the relevant spatial level (local, regional, provincial);
3.
Choose the relevant kind of map (choropleth etc.);
4.
Choose the relevant data (e.g. population-density);
5.
Choose a number of classes to subdivide the data;
6.
Choose the correct kind of colours/shadings to make the map;
7.
Answer the question by analysing the map.
In the next paragraph an example is chosen to illustrate the way secondary schoolchildren
work with this approach.
Phosphate, farms and cattle
Step : Define the question.
A question raised in the volume “Man and environment” is where high concentrations of
phosphate in the soil are found and how this can be explained.
Step 2: Choose the map with the relevant spatial level (local, regional, provincial).
In choosing the relevant spatial level often a a-priory theory is used. Sometimes a spatial scale
is already defined in the question. If no level is indicated it can be of interest to compare the
distribution of a phenomenon at different spatial levels.
Step 3: Choose the relevant kind of map (choropleth etc.).
The program gives the opportunity to make choropleth maps, histograms, pie diagrams and
population diagrams. In this case we choose the choropleth.
Step 4: Choose the relevant data
In this case we look in the list of data available and find that FPrtotK means: quantity of
phosphate in animal manure in kilograms per hectare produced in cattle breeding in 1995
Step 5: Choose a number of classes to subdivide the data.
The program offers the opportunity to choose the number of classes as well as the possibility
to divide the data based on:
 The same number of scores in every class
 Equal distances between the classes
 Own classification by the mapmaker
Step 6: Choose the correct kind of colours/shadings to make the map.
A few relevant aspects should be taken into account. If there is a phenomenon on the map that
can be defined as qualitative or nominal, colours or shading should be discrete. A map for
instance with shows the largest political party per area should use all different colours per
party. When a map is made of the percentage of voters on a specific political party then we
should use colours where higher percentages are reflected by more intensive shading or a
difference in value or lightness.
Step 7: Answer the question by analysing the map
Looking at the map it is quite clear that in particular the south and east of the Netherlands
suffer from an “overdoses” of phosphates (Fig 6.)
Looking for explanations
One of the next questions is of course why these areas do have such a large production of
phosphate. To answer such a question children should formulate an a-priori theory that
explains this. One of them could be that in these areas we find a lot of intensive farming
because of the small size of the farms. Small farms require a more intensive use of land.
Intensive farming is an important way of making high productivity on a small farm. So from
this “theory” the hypothesis can be derived: High phosphate production is related to areas
with small farms. Again the seven steps are taken to make the map.
Analysis can be made by comparing the maps. When we take a look at the map with the
distribution of farms < 5 hectares (Fig. 7) we can see that indeed the south and east have a lot
of small farms. However it is obvious that also in the west we will find a lot of the smallest
farms.
Fig. 8: Correlation between farm size and phosphor production
If we want to make some statistical analysis to found our image produced by comparing the
maps the program offers the possibility to make a scattergram, a correlation coefficient as
well as a regression line (Fig 8). The correlation between farm size and phosphor production
is only .24, which is a very weak correlation. This is also shown in the rather flat regression
line.
A next part of the a-priori theory could be that in some areas of the Netherlands intensive
farming is not related to cattle but to other forms of intensive agriculture.
So now the focus is on making a map of the occurrence of cattle. Because we want the
different kind of cattle in one map we use
histograms. Fig. 9 shows that intensive cattle
farming is concentrated in the South and
East of the country. Looking at the different
kind of cattle, fig. 9 shows that cows only
occur in small numbers compared with pigs
and poultry. Comparing the maps of fig. 6
and 9 shows that intensive farming for both
poultry and pigs is spatially related to the
occurrence of phosphor. Again this visual
comparison can be completed with the same
kind of statistical evidence by making a
scattergram, the correlation coefficient and
drawing the regression line. Correlation
coefficient between poultry and phosphor
occurrence is + 0.88 (fig.10) Correlation
coefficient between pigs and phosphor
occurrence is +.90. (Fig. 11).
By comparing maps 7 and 9it is obvious that
a lot of the small farms in the west of the
Netherlands are not having much cattle. This
brings a next question. What is the kind of
agriculture in the small farms in the western
parts of the Netherlands? If we look in the list of available data we find two categories of
horticulture. Again maps can be made to analyse this.
Fig. 10 and 11: Correlation Coefficients between poultry and phosphor, and pigs and phosphor
Going into detail
Another possibility of the program is to zoom in to a specific region. Suppose we would like
to analyse the situation in the area with the highest concentration of phosphor in the
Netherlands e.g. the southeastern part of the province of North-Brabant, the region around
Eindhoven. Mentioning the name of this city brings associations with the Philips factory
instead of intensive agriculture. This already indicates that it makes more sense to compare at
the local level of municipalities. To zoom in we take the following steps. Select the province
of North-Brabant, choose Zoom Everything and choose the municipality as the relevant
spatial level.
If we make the same maps and analysis, the results show that poultry and pigs produce very
high levels of phosphor in a few municipalities around the city of Eindhoven. Health statistics
show that in these municipalities there also are more people with headache and other
complaints that can be related to the occurrence of phosphor.
Another problem occurred a few years ago in the area. A serious outbreak of pig plague
threatened the local economy. So both from an economic as well as a health perspective it
could be wise to diminish the number of pigs and poultry in the area.
One strategy of the government could be to stimulate farmers to change to another way of
production. So recently, there is a growing number of farmers that are working in the other
form of intensive farming; horticulture. Finally there is another solution. Fig. 16 shows how
pig stables are demolished to make room for exclusive villas.
Fig 16: Demolishing pig stables for building purposes
By selling their land to a real estate developer some of the older farmers can make enough
money to retire. So far we have seen that children on geography education are stimulated to
use a GIS to work in a problem-based approach. They are also stimulated to think in different
spatial levels when looking at a problem. A part of the program that is not shown in this paper
is called “Mapmaker”. It offers the user the opportunity to create basic maps as well as
databases for themselves using very simple techniques. So children are stimulated to draw
their own maps and collect data form local fieldwork etc.
This paper shows that the approach described makes education an ongoing research project.
Every answer raises new questions. Children are stimulated to develop their skills in finding
answers as well as raising new questions. The example also shows that using a simple GIS is
a powerful resource in this kind of educational approach.
References
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Dijk, H. van. & J.A. van der Schee, “The Effect of Student Freedom of Choice in Learning Map
Skills, International research in Geographical and Environmental Education 8. 3, PP. 256-267, 1999.
Kraak, M.J. & F.J. Ormeling, Cartography, Visualisation of spatial data, Harlow, Essex, England
Addison Wesley Longman Limited,1996.
Nijnatten, H. van, Atlantis, Zutphen, Netherlands, Thieme, 1998.
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