Geographic Information Systems

IS4231
Chapter 1, Introduction to GIS

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Before starting GIS: Muhammad alIdrisi & Tabula Rogeriana

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Muhammad al-Idrisi & Tabula

Rogeriana contd
The Tabula Rogeriana was drawn by Al-Idrisi in 1154 for the Norman King Roger II of Sicily,
On the geographical work of al-Idrisi, S.P. Scott wrote in 1904:

The compilation of Edrisi marks an era in the history of science. Not only is its historical information most
interesting and valuable, but its descriptions of many parts of the earth are still authoritative. For three
centuries geographers copied his maps without alteration. The relative position of the lakes which form
the Nile, as delineated in his work, does not differ greatly from that established by Baker and Stanley
more than seven hundred years afterwards, and their number is the same. The mechanical genius of the
author was not inferior to his erudition. The celestial and terrestrial planisphere of silver which he
constructed for his royal patron was nearly six feet in diameter, and weighed four hundred and fifty
pounds; upon the one side the zodiac and the constellations, upon the other-divided for convenience into
segments-the bodies of land and water, with the respective situations of the various countries, were
engraved.

Al-Idrisi inspired Islamic geographers such as Ibn Battuta, Ibn Khaldun and Piri Reis. His map also
inspired Christopher Columbus and Vasco Da Gama.
-Extracted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_al-Idrisi
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Dr. John Snow

and the 1854 Cholera outbreak in London's Broad Street

region
Dr John Snow is known as the
father of modern epidemiology
and the father of GIS because
of the famous case of the 1854
Cholera outbreak in Londons
Broad Street region.
In the 1850s, cholera was
very poorly understood and
massive
outbreaks
were
a
common occurrence in major
industrial cities. An outbreak in
London in 1854 in the Soho
district was typical of the time,
and the deaths it caused are
shown in the map on the right.
Text source: Longley et al (2005) Geographic Information Systems
and Science. 2nd Edition. John Wiley and Sons Ltd. (Chapter 14,
pages 317-319)
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Source: UCLA
http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/snowmap1_1854_lge.htm

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Dr. John Snow

and the 1854 Cholera outbreak in London's Broad Street

region
The map was made by Dr John Snow, who
has conceived the hypothesis that
cholera was transmitted through the
drinking of polluted water, rather than
through the air, as was commonly
believed. He noticed that the outbreak
appeared to be centred on a public
drinking water pump in Broad Street
and if this hypothesis was correct, the
pattern shown on the map would reflect
the locations of people who drank the
pumps water.

Source:
http://blogs.esri.com/Info/photos/geogra
phy_matters/images/1440/secondaryth
umb.aspx

Although there were anomalies, in the

sense that deaths had occurred in
Source:
households that were located closer to
http://www.gisdevelopment.net/applicat
ion/health/overview/images/image1.jpg
other sources of water, but he was able
to confirm that these households also
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drew their water from the 12/4/16
Broad Street

What is GIS
A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a
computer system for capturing, storing, querying,
analyzing and displaying geospatial data also
known as geographically referenced data.

Source: Kang-tsung Chang, Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, fourth edi., McGraw Hill
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What is GIS
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are a special
class of information systems that keep track not only
of events, activities, and things, but also of where
these events, activities, and things happen or exist.

Source: Longley et al (2005) Geographic Information Systems and Science. 2nd Edition. John Wiley and
Sons Ltd.
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What is GIS
A geographical information system (GIS) has the
ability to store, retrieve, manipulate and analyse a
range of spatially related data. With a GIS the user
may ask questions of data related to the map, search
for patterns and distributions and investigate the
underlying relationships between different sets of
data. GIS handles data quickly and efficiently, proving
mapping facilities that may have taken many hours
to complete manually.
Source: http://www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk/fieldwork/info/teaching-technology/gis-and-maps-for-fieldwork-for-free/

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Components of GIS

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Components of GIS
1. Hardware:It includes required computing resources and operating system to run GIS.
Additional equipment may include monitors to display, digitizers and
scanner for spatial data input, GPS receivers and mobile devices for
fieldworks and printers and plotters for hard-copy data display.
2. Software:It includes programs and user interfaces to do required processing.
3. People:People refers to GIS professional and users who define the purpose and
objectives and provide the reason and justification for using GIS.
4. Data:It may be of various types depending upon the computational need e.g.
tabular, scanned images, reconnaissance images, satellite images, GPS
etc.
5. Infrastructure:It refers to necessary physical, organizational, administrative, and cultural
environments that supports GIS operations, it includes requisite skills, data
standards, data clearinghouses
and general organizational
patterns.
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CCES, PSAU

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Some examples of GIS Applications

1. Disaster Management:GIS is used to find alternate routes accessible to affected regions,
Points of safety, points of aggregation in case of emergency, sharing
data about any natural calamity among various relief agencies.

2. Crime Statistics:GIS is now vital to law enforcement and planning in terms of crime
statistics. Though most police forces in the world have used them for a
long time, automated and digital mapping of reported crime has made
the process much easier, especially when looking at different types of
crime from different departments in larger cities. The ability to share
maps and look for correlations between different types of crime can
give police a much better idea of an overall picture of a wider region.
The study cited here also permitted community leaders and the police
to get a better understanding of each other, facilitating two-way
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dialogue.

Some examples of GIS Applications

contd
3. Archaeology:GIS is now critical to many elements of archaeology as it takes on more
elements and characteristics of an environmental science. There are
many applications in the field of historical research but none has been
more beneficial than the prediction of historic site location.
A historical geographic information system (also written as historical
GIS or HGIS) is a geographic information system that may display,
store and analyze data of past geographies and track changes in time.
It can be regarded as a subfield of historical geography and geographic
information science.
Most distinguishing among them is www.historicalGIS.com

4. Civic Planning:GIS has been a superb tool for rural and urban planning for the last few
decades, working out local tax rates, planning desirability and mapping
social deprivation, where new roads could go or which should be
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prioritized for repair. As with regular and previous methods of planning

Some examples of GIS Applications

contd
5. Health / Medical Resource Management:GIS is provides platform to estimate needs and urgencies for health
care packages in a particular geographical location. It can show trend
of any epidemic, more efficient strategies could be framed to stop/
slow down diseases with clear geographical locations affected by that
disease.

6. Transport:GIS has astonishing capabilities to find isolated packets of populace,

needs to be connected with main stream. Provide alternate connecting
routes to strategic locations. Can provide accurate information about
road networks, would help to find minimal distance route for
transportation of basic commodities, routes to avoid toll taxes,
information regarding cost saving Vs time saving routes etc.
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Some examples of GIS Applications

contd
7. Politics:GIS could provide political prediction based upon population, mind
sets, local interests, local issues, historical mandates, ethnicity,
religion, creed, races etc. could help into redistribution of districts.

8. Business:GIS can help business policy makers and market analyzers about
demographic information, information about inhabitants, market
shares about landscape segments, local choice preferences, needs,
demands, fashions, redistribution of holding goods, rerouting of
perishable commodities.

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Use of GIS in Govt. Agencies

The US Geological Survey has the National Map Program that provides
nationwide geospatial data for application in natural hazards. Risk assessment,
homeland security, and many other areas
(http://nationalmap.usgs.gov)
The US census bureau maintains an online mapping resource website, where
Internet users can map public geographic data of anywhere in US
(http://www.census.gov/geo/www/maps)
The US department of Housing and Urban development has mapping program
that combines housing development information with environment data
(http://www.hud.gov/offices/cio/emaps/index.cfm)
The US Department of Health and Human Services warehouse provides access
to information about health resources, including community health centers
(http://datawarehouse.hrsa.gov)

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Use of GIS in Saudi Govt. Agencies

The Ministry of Health, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia provides visitors location, names and other
information of health facilities with coordinates locations
(http://www.moh.gov.sa/en/eServices/Geographic/Pages/GeographicInformation.aspx )
The KACST GIS Technology Innovation Center (GISTIC) at Umm Al-Qura University is an
interdisciplinary technology, innovation, and research center contributing to the effective
understanding, managing, analyzing, and visualizing of spatial and spatio-temporal geographic
phenomena in Saudi Arabia.
GISTIC has brought a number GIS Apps to help pilgrims perform their rituals with ease and
effectiveness and simultaneously stay connected with their respective groups, friends and
family members
(http://www.gistic.org/)
The Saudi Post department maintains a Saudi Locator portal for finding location addresses
(http://maps.address.gov.sa /)
The Saudi post department has launched Mashair Locator, a digital geographic system for the
holy Mashair area inside Saudi Arabia. its maps contains information for parcels, Hajj camps,
streets, districts, public services and Mashair boundaries
(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sa.com.sp.mashairlocator )
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Use of GIS in Saudi Govt. Agencies

contd
The Saudi post department has launched Taibah Locator, a digital
geographic system for the Al Madinah Al Munawwarah inside Saudi
Arabia. its maps contains information for parcels, districts, and public
services
(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sa.com.sp.taibahlocator)
A number of Government Institutions together under the patronage of
General Commission for Survey, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia formed
National Committee for GIS, to promote GIS Infrastructure in Country
(http://
www.gcs.gov.sa/Geospatial-Information/Geospatial-Information-Center/
NationalGISCommittee.aspx?feed=Rss-feed
)

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Some GIS Software

GRASS GIS ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED BY
THEU.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: A
OPEN
SOURCE-DESKTOPS
COMPLETE GIS.
GVSIG WRITTEN IN JAVA. RUNS ON LINUX,
UNIX, MAC OS X AND WINDOWS.
ILWIS(INTEGRATED LAND AND WATER
INFORMATION SYSTEM) INTEGRATES
IMAGE, VECTOR AND THEMATIC DATA.
JUMP GIS/ OPENJUMP ((OPEN) JAVA
UNIFIED MAPPING PLATFORM) THE
DESKTOP GISS OPENJUMP, SKYJUMP,
DEEJUMP ANDKOSMOALL EMERGED FROM
JUMP.[3]
MAPWINDOW GIS FREE DESKTOP
APPLICATION AND PROGRAMMING
COMPONENT.
QGIS(PREVIOUSLY KNOWN AS QUANTUM
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GIS) RUNS ON LINUX, UNIX, MAC
OS X

AUTODESK PRODUCTS THAT INTERFACE

WITH ITS FLAGSHIPAUTOCADSOFTWARE
PACKAGE INCLUDE MAP 3D, TOPOBASE,
PROPRIETARYDESKTOPS
ANDMAPGUIDE.
BENTLEY SYSTEMS PRODUCTS THAT
INTERFACE WITH ITS
FLAGSHIPMICROSTATIONSOFTWARE
PACKAGE INCLUDE BENTLEY MAP AND
BENTLEY MAP VIEW.
ENVI UTILIZED FOR IMAGE ANALYSIS,
EXPLOITATION, AND HYPERSPECTRAL
ANALYSIS.
ESRI PRODUCTS
INCLUDEARCMAP,ARCGIS,ARCSDE,ARCI
MS,ARCWEBSERVICES ANDARCGIS
SERVER.
INTERGRAPH PRODUCTS
INCLUDEG/TECHNOLOGY,GEOMEDIA,GEO
MEDIA PROFESSIONAL,GEOMEDIA
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WEBMAP,
AND
ADD-ON
PRODUCTS
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GIS in forms of Cloud

SaaS Software as a Service: Software available as a service on the Internet
ArcGISOnline
CartoDB
Mapbox provider of custom online maps for websites
PaaS Platform as a Service:Geocodingor analysis/processing services
Google Maps Javascript API version 3
Microsoft Bing Geocode Dataflow API
US Census Geocoder
DaaS Data as a Service: data or content services
Apple Maps
Google Maps
OpenStreetMap
MicrosoftBing Maps

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Geospatial Data
Geospatial data distinguishes GIS from other Information Systems. E.g. to
describe a road, we refer to its location (i.e. where it is) and its
characteristics (e.g. length, name, speed limit, direction etc.); here the
location, also called geometry or shape, represents Spatial Data
whereas the characteristics are Attribute Data. Combination of these
two make Geospatial data. Thus we can say-

Geospatial Data = Spatial Data (Shape) + Attribute Data

(characteristics)

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Spatial Data
Spatial Data describes the location of spatial features, it may be discrete
or continuous.

Discrete Features: These features are individually distinguishable,

they dont exit between observations. It includes points (e.g. wells, ATMs),
Lines (e.g. Roads, Highways) and Polygons (e.g. Land Use Types)

Continuous Features: These. features have spatial existence

between observations, like elevation and precipitation

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Attribute data
Attribute data describe the characteristics of spatial features Raster Data: each cell has a value that corresponds to the attribute of
the spatial feature at that location. A cell is tightly bound to its cell
value.

Vector Data: the amount of attribute data to be associated with a spatial

feature can vary with situations. E.g. a line representing a road segment
may carry name, length and speed limit where as a soil polygon may
have several attributes associated with.

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Vector vs Raster vs Real World

Raster
Representation

Vector
Representation

Real World
Landscape

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GeoSpatial Data
Geospatial Data

Spatial Data

Discrete
Features
(point, line,
polygon)

Attribute Data

Continuous
Features
(elevation,
precipitation)

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GIS Operations
Although there is no sequential order for GIS activities, Broadly we can
identify some major activities in each GIS
1. Spatial data input
2. Attribute data management
3. Data display
4. Data exploration
5. Data analysis
6. GIS modeling

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Spatial Data Input

Its most tedious, costly and time consuming part of any GIS project, new
digital spatial data can be created from satellite images, GPS data, field
surveys, street addresses and text files with x, y coordinates.
The sizeable amount of GIS data evolve from manual scanning and
digitizing of legacy maps.
Major activities involved area.

Data Entry: use existing data, create data

b.

Data editing

c.

Geometric transformation

d.

Projection & re-projection

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Attribute Data Management

An attribute data resides in relation tables, each row represents a spatial
feature and each column or field describing a characteristics.
Two basic elements in the design of relational tables are important viz. Key
and Type of relationship;
key stablishes connection between corresponding record of in two tables
and type of relationships controls how two tables are joined.
Major activities involved area.

Data Entry and verification

b.

Database Management

c.

Attribute data manipulation

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Data Display
Map making is a routine GIS operation as maps are most effective media
to disseminate GIS information.
Mostly maps are output of data query and analysis.
Maps have various elements viz. title, subtitle, body, legends, north arrow,
scale bar, acknowledgement, border etc.
Major activities involved area.

Cartographic symbolization

b.

Map Design

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Data Exploration
Its a precursor activity to data analysis, it requires powerful map based
visual tools for data classification, data aggregation and map comparisons
Aesthetically designed interface, interactive and dynamically linked
windows give power of spatial information processing and synthesis.
Major activities involved area.

Attribute Data Query

b.

Spatial Data Query

c.

Geographic Visualization

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Data Analysis
Major activities involved are1. Vector Data Analysis: Buffering, overlay, distance measurement,
spatial statistics, maps manipulations
2. Raster Data Analysis: local, neighborhood, zonal, global, raster data
manipulation
3. Terrain Mapping and analysis
4. Viewshed and watershed
5. Spatial interpolation
6. Geocoding and dynamic segmentation
7. Path analysis and network application
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GIS Modeling
GIS modeling refers to use of GIS and its functionalities to make model
with geospatial data
Major types of models1. Binary models
2. Index models
3. Regression models
4. Process models

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