USING GIS TO EXPLORE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
‘GETTING PHYSICAL WITH GIS IN THE CLASSROOM’
BY MALCOLM MCINERNEY GTASA.
1. Introduction
The area of Physical Geography is considered broad by definition but in essence it can be considered as the
spatial study of the non-human features of the landscape. Such a study commonly involves the treatment of
topics such as soils, water circulation, atmospheric conditions, rocks (form and movement), animal and
vegetation communities and their distribution. Whether under the banner of Geomorphology, Climatology,
Natural Hazards, Biogeography or Pedology the key component of such studies is the examination of the
physical world. This workshop sets out to explore the use of GIS in the study of Physical Geography via the
use of a range of available GIS data and the collection of original data in the field. Available data includes the
plethora of sites providing GIS data on the net and from other resources provided by the Spatial Industry.
One such resource is the Geoscience Australia data, which provides the basis of the activities undertaken in
this workshop. The Geoscience Australia data includes fantastic data on soil types, aquifers, rock types,
bathymetry, mineral exploration and occurrence, earthquake distribution and risk and much more. Whilst the
use of data via the Internet is an excellent activity, the real potential of GIS in Physical Geography is the
opportunity to use spatial technology in the field. GIS encourages getting out in the field to collect
quantitative data such as tree canopy diameters, temperature readings, water salinity and noise levels to list
but a few potential field activities. No matter what the task may be or method of data acquisition, GIS
provides the medium to visualize the collected data in a clear and professional manner ready for analysis.
The basis of the activities discussed and demonstrated in this workshop come from the recently developed
book titled ‘Getting physical with GIS in the Geography classroom’.
2. The menu page of the CD Rom available to help use GIS in the teaching of Physical Geography
3. The use of GIS by students in physical geography could involve:
ƒ Analyzing change in space over time.
ƒ Attaching sources/data/images to location.
ƒ Tracking movement and diffusion over space.
ƒ Searching databases over space.
4. What skills are required to get going with GIS in the teaching physical geography?
The GIS skill development process
1. Adding data files to create a base map.
2. Using scanned maps to create a base map.
3. Thematic mapping.
4. Creating original maps with points, lines and areas on pre-existing maps.
5. Creating and customising data bases
6. Digitising layers
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7. Summarising and charting spatial data
8. Selection maps involving searching databases.
9. Hotlinking source files to a map.
10. Using GPS to plot features on a map.
Source: “Getting going with GIS in the classroom”: TECHGEOG 2004
5. The software: ESRI ArcView GIS
™ This book uses the ESRI ArcView 3x GIS programme. For more information about ESRI products
go to the ESRI website at http://www.esri.com/
™ If you wish to purchase ESRI ArcView go to the K-12 section of the ESRI Australia website at
http://www.esriaustralia.com.au/
6. Some achievable and practical examples to get started using GIS in the science classroom
The following examples use all of the skills listed above. They have been developed to show the potential of GIS in
the teaching of physical geography in the classroom and in no way attempt to provide a comprehensive guide to
the use of GIS for students.
An excuse to hug a tree: measuring green with Citygreen
Water matters: mapping water quality
Did the earth move? mapping world quakes
Quakes alive: shaking all over
Rock of the ages: rocks and deposits
Rock and water: mapping landforms and aquifers
Eureka underground! : mapping OZ minerals
In deep water: Australia’s unseen continent
o Nothing is the same: mapping microclimates
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7. Sample activity on Geoscience earthquake data
o Aims of unit:
Through the use of GIS for students to gain an understanding of the:
o Extent of earthquake activity around Australasia/South East Asia
o Location of severe earthquake activity close to Australia
o Varying depth of earthquake activity around Australia
o The degree of earthquake risk in Australia
o Resources and data used:
™ ESRI ArcView 3x
™ ESRI World data including ‘Country.shp’ and ‘Cities.shp’.
™ ArcAustralia CD Roms from Geoscience Australia (produced in collaboration
with ESRI Australia)
™ Data (shapefiles) used from the ArcAustralia CD’s:
9 Disk 2: ‘equakesdd.shp’ for Australian earthquake data and ‘eqriskdd.shp’
for risk data.
For the metadata related to this Geoscience data view the documentation
word files on the ArcAustralia CD.
o Skills (‘Getting going with GIS in the classroom’ skill reference in brackets)
o Adding themes(layers) to a GIS view (Chapter 3: Developing a composite map)
o Create Thematic maps (Chapter 2: Creating Thematic maps)
o Doing queries of the database theme (Chapter 6: Querying with ArcView)
o Intersecting themes to determine relationships (Chapter 6: Querying with ArcView)
o Creating new themes (Chapter 5: Creating a new theme)
o Map Layouts (Chapter 3: Developing a simplified Thematic map)
Investigative questions:
Maps are to be produced to answer the following questions:
1. What is the extent of earthquake activity around Australasia?
2. What are the locations of severe earthquake activity close to Australia?
3. Is there a varying depth of earthquake activity along the plates surrounding Australia?
4. What areas of Australia are most at risk of earthquakes?
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Investigative question 1: What is the extent of earthquake activity around Australasia?
Step 1: Open ArcView and navigate to the ‘esri’ folder → ‘esridata’ → ‘world’→ and open the file called
‘country.shp’
™ Navigate to the Geoscience data: Disk 2 folder called ‘data’ →open the folder called ‘eq_epicentres’
and then select the file ‘equakesdd.shp’ to get the Australian earthquake data.
™ You should finish with a View as follows (make sure you tick the visibility box on each Theme)
™ Re-arrange your ‘View’ to look as below. Note the zoom tool needs to be used to zoom into Australasia
and the ‘Themes’ in the ‘Table of Contents’ needs to be rearranged with point themes at the top.
™ At this early stage take the opportunity to look at the data behind this map. To do so, highlight the
‘Equakesdd.shp’ theme and go to the ‘Open Theme Table’ icon on the top menu. Note the fields
‘Magnitude’ and ‘Depth’. These will be the fields used in this chapter for investigating the Australasian
earthquakes.
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™ Create a Thematic map of the earthquakes across Australia. Double click on the ‘equakesdd.shp’
theme and in the resulting ‘Legend Editor’ dialogue box play with the symbol size and colour for the
best representation showing the range and severity of earthquakes across Australia. For example:
™ Map for analysis:
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Investigative question 2: What are the locations of severe earthquake activity close to Australia?
Step 2: To identify the location of earthquakes greater than a magnitude of 7.
This query will result in a Theme that just shows earthquakes greater than 7. To do this, highlight the
’Equakesdd.shp’ theme in the ‘Table of Contents’ and select the ‘Query Builder icon.
™ Complete the dialogue box as below and select ‘New Set’:
™ Convert your query to a shapefile. Go to the ‘Theme’ menu on the top toolbar and select ‘Convert to
Shapefile’. Save the new theme as ‘Earthquakes greater than 7’.
™ Note that the new shapefile has been saved as ‘Earthquakes greater than 7’ and now appears as a theme in
the ‘Table of Contents’. Change the colour and symbol as required via the ‘Legend Editor’ (double click on
the ‘Earthquakes greater than 7’ theme to produce the ‘Legend Editor’).
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™ After making the theme for all earthquakes non-visible the completed map for the high magnitude
earthquakes around Australia would be as below.
Can you see any patterns with the earthquakes? If so, draw a line joining the quakes to identify the plate
boundaries. Follow this process to create a ‘Plate boundaries’ theme using the line tool.
™ To create a line theme go to ‘View’ and select ‘New theme”. Choose ‘Line’ as the ‘Feature type’.
™ Save as ‘Plate boundaries’ in the ‘New Theme’ dialogue box.
™ This new theme will now appear in the ‘Table of Contents’ and you should be ready to join the dots
(earthquakes epicentres) using the ‘Draw Line’ tool.
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Make sure you have the ‘Plate boundaries’ editable before drawing the line (to make the theme editable,
go to ‘Theme’ and select ‘Start Editing’). Customise the line by double clicking on the ‘Plate boundaries’
theme and selecting the line and colour required.
™ The earthquake map with possible plate boundaries drawn. How accurately does this joining the dots
exercise match the maps of the Australasian plate boundaries shown in the science books?
Investigative question 3: Is there a varying depth of earthquake activity along the plates
surrounding Australia?
Step 3: To identify the deepest earthquakes surrounding Australia
Highlight the earthquake theme (‘equakesdd.shp’) and open the attribute table by clicking on the ‘Open
Theme Table’ icon on the top menu
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Do a query on the 'depth' field. For example:‘Depth>= 200’
™ Via ‘Theme’ → ‘Convert to Shapefile’ and name it ‘Deep quakes’.
™ The resulting map with the ‘Earthquakes greater than 7’ and ‘Deep quakes’ themes visible looks as
below (again play with ‘Table of Contents’ order, theme colours and symbols for map clarity):
™ What doe this new theme of depth tell us about the severity of earthquakes. What is important about
depths when reviewing the severity of quakes? Would you redraw the plate boundaries due to this
new information?
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Investigative question 4: What areas and cities of Australia are most at risk of earthquakes?
Step 4:
™ Navigate to the ArcAustralia Disk 2 folder called ‘data’ →open the folder called ‘eq_risk’ and then select the
file ‘eqriskdd.shp’ to get the Australian earthquake data.
™ Open ArcView and navigate on the ‘C’ drive to the ‘esri’ folder → ‘esridata’ → ‘world’→ and open the file
called ‘cities.shp’
™ Configure the map as below, showing the earthquake risk zones and the major cities of Australia (label
the cities by highlighting the ‘Cities.shp’ theme and going to ‘Theme’ → ‘Auto-label’).
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™ Have a look at the ‘Eqriskdd.shp’ theme via ‘Open Theme Table’ icon. Note the ‘Riskval’ field.
™ Create a query identifying the zones of greatest earthquake risk (>10). Highlight the ‘Eqriskdd’ theme
and then click on the ‘Query builder’ tool. Configure the query as below and select ‘New Set’.
™ Convert the query to a Shapefile via ‘Theme’ → ‘Convert to Shapefile’ and call it ‘High risk areas’.
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™ Whilst one can see the areas at greatest risk of earthquake damage on the Australian continent, in
Australia most people live in the major cities shown on the map. To determine which cities are at
greatest risk of earthquake damage an accurate way using GIS is to do the ‘Select by Theme’ process
to determine which cities are within 50 kilometres of a high risk zone.
™ Highlight the ‘Cities’ theme and then go to ‘Theme’ on the top menu and select ‘Select by Theme’.
™ Configure the ‘Select By Theme’ dialogue box as above.
™ Convert the selection to a shapefile via ‘Theme’ → ‘Convert to Shapefile’ and save as ‘cities in danger’.
™ The cities in danger of earthquake map and theme table:
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™ Layout the map (via ‘View’ → ‘Layout’) with the table insert to answer the question: Which cities of Australia
are within 50 Kilometres of a high earthquake risk zone?
8. ArcAustralia CD Roms: METADATA info
These data were produced by GA for the inclusion in the GIS in Schools Program for the purposes of basic GIS
training in Australian schools. Geoscience and topographical data consists in the format of ESRI shape files. Data
have been compiled from the corporate data store of GA and further datasets are available for downloading from
the GA Internet webpage at http://www.ga.gov.au . The complete training dataset includes basic geology, surfical
geology, groundwater, land tenure, towns, roads, railways, geological basins, geophysical images, and various
geohazard layers.
Contents of ArcAustralia Disk 1:
BATHYMETRY
CULTURE
AUSLIG
LAND_TENURE
MARITIME_BNDS
DEP2BASE
GEOLOGY
GEOREGIONS
GRAVITY
MAG
REGOLITH
Contents of ArcAustralia Disk 2:
AUSLIG
Roads, Railways, Towns, Rivers, lakes and Reservoirs,Coastline,
BASINS
EQ-EPICENTRES
GEOL_5MIL
GRATICULES
HYDROGEOLOGY
LANDSLIDES
MINERAL_DEPS
MINERAL_OCCS
OIL_AND_GAS
SURFICAL_GEOL
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9. Surfing the Internet for GIS
Some useful websites to consider for GIS and physical geography activities:
ESRI Australia: www.esriau.com.au
Click “GIS in Schools” on left navigation bar
Australian Bureau of Statistics
http://www.abs.gov.au/
Geography Network
http://www.geographynetwork.com/
Australian Spatial Data Directory (ASDD)
http://www.environment.gov.au/database/metadata/asdd/
AURISA (Australian Spatial Information Association)
http://www.aurisa.asn.au/
SICOM Spatial Information Committee
http://www.dehaa.sa.gov.au/mapland/sicom/
GISCA (Adelaide University)
http://www.gisca.adelaide.edu.au/gisca/flash.html
GIS Internet portal
http://www.gis.com/
National Geographic Map Machine
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/
City of Sydney- Live Maps
http://citymap.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/
Atlas of South Australia
http://www.atlas.sa.gov.au/
Spatial Information Technology
http://www.spatial.org
National Public Toilet register- Live Maps
http://www.toiletmap.gov.au
US Geological Survey
http://info.er.usgs.gov/research/gis/title.htm
GIS data on the web
http://gis.esri.com/ims/index.cfm
GIS in schools with ESRI
http://www.esri.com/industries/k-12/index.html
ESRI Virtual campus
http://campus.esri.com/acb2000/showdetl.cfm?DID=6&Product_ID=753&CFID=5075709&CFTOKEN=
94685092
GIS lessons online
http://gis.esri.com/industries/education/arclessons/arclessons.cfm
Technology School of the Future GIS support
http://www.tsof.edu.au/curriculum/gis/index.htm
Worldwide image coverage
http://earth.google.com/
GIS in schools
http://kangis.org/
GIS portal Internet sites
http://www.gisportal.com/gis3q.htm
GIS data port
http://data.geocomm.com/
GIS resource list
http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/giswww.html
http://www.giscafe.com/
http://www.geoinfo.org/
GIS map server
http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/
GIS dictionary
http://support.esri.com/index.cfm?fa=knowledgebase.gisDictionary.gateway
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GIS gateway: US Census
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gis_gateway.html
GIS Conservation Society
http://www.scgis.org/
Free GIS resources
http://www.mapcruzin.com/free_gis.htm
GIS tutorials
http://www.gisdevelopment.net/tutorials/
GIS notebook of Internet resources using GIS
http://www.gisnet.com/notebook/
Using GIS for Biodiversity mapping
http://www.diva-gis.org/
GIS resources: GIS Server
http://www.geo.uni-bonn.de/members/haack/gisinfo.html
Environmental Sciences and GIS
http://www.geo.uni-bonn.de/members/haack/gisinfo.html
GIS Zone: Exciting student projects and activities
http://www.google.com/search?q=GIS+zone
GIS in the science classroom
http://kangis.org/learning/ed_docs/process.pdf
K-12 GIS teacher training
http://kangis.org/learning/calendar/enroll/details.cfm?id=551
GIS related resources and websites
http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~shekhar/links.html
Physical science links
http://pathfinderscience.net/teachers/urls/results.cfm?SCIENCE=PHYSICAL&SEARCHKEY=
Biology links
http://pathfinderscience.net/teachers/urls/results.cfm?SCIENCE=BIOLOGY&SEARCHKEY=
Earth space
http://pathfinderscience.net/teachers/urls/results.cfm?SCIENCE=Earthspace&SEARCHKEY=
GIS Technology in Science
http://pathfinderscience.net/teachers/urls/results.cfm?SCIENCE=TECHNOLOGY&SEARCHKEY=
Teacher resources
http://pathfinderscience.net/teachers/urls/
GeoScience and maps
http://kangis.org/maps/
GEOSCIENCE Australia: Free data
http://www.ga.gov.au/download/nmd_download/index.htm
GEOSCIENCE Australia: Education
http://www.ga.gov.au/education/
GEOSCIENCE Australia
http://www.ga.gov.au/links/
United States Geological Survey:
Home page: http://www.usgs.gov/index.html
GIS and Science: http://info.er.usgs.gov/research/gis/title.html
Geomatics/ uK
http://geomatics.ncl.ac.uk/geomatics.org/geomaticsdotorg/home/index.asp
SARS and GIS
http://www.esrichina-hk.com/SARS/Eng/sars_eng_main.htm
CSIRO and GIS
http://www.sentinel.csiro.au/sentinel.html
http://www.sentinel.csiro.au/mapping/viewer.htm
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10. SUMMARY SCREENS OF THE ‘USING GIS IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY’ CD ROM
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