Geo Factsheet

www.curriculum-press.co.uk Number 322

Understanding GIS
What is GIS and why is it important?
GIS or Geographical Information Systems have become an important
Geography Geographic
part of a 21st century way of life. GIS has traditionally been a back-
Information
office technology, and many of the maps created by GIS professionals
only reach the hands of a few people. But all that is changing, and
it’s changing very rapidly. GIS has evolved into a technology that
is used by a huge number of industries and agencies to help plan,
design, engineer, build and maintain information infrastructures that
effects our everyday lives. There really is no limit to thetype of data
that can be includedin a GIS. Consequently GIS can beused in a huge GIS
range ofgeographical contexts, and is increasingly being used in real
time disaster management, to quickly map areas of damage (using
GPS),identify services, locate possible refugee sites etc.

“GIS in not about making maps, per-se. It is about analysing often large sets of data to generate information, hypotheses, conclusions, insights
and even new hunches. It’s about telling a story.” J.T Johnson (2003).

GIS has been around in the commercial world for half a century or more, yet its adoption in schools-based geography has been largely erratic.
There have been obvious historical barriers including lack of access to ICT, complex industry-standard software packages, and a difficulty for
teachers to work with and access large data sets. But Google Earth changed all of that – providing a brilliant point of entry into spatial data,
allowing everyone with access to a computer to visualise information in a creative and imaginative way. It made geographical-space cool.
But true GIS is not the same as visualisation (Google Earth, Bing Mapsetc). Importantlyreal GIS empowers the user with the ability to manipulate,
query and even interrogate complex data sets which have a spatial dimension. This functionality goes to the heart of a full GIS system thus
enabling high order questioning and creativity skills to be developed. See Figure 1

Figure 1 different types of geo-spatial maps

The different meanings of geo-spatial maps
“Where am I?” A location map can give us this answer
“How do I get there?” Use a navigation map (often enabled with GPS)
“How are these things related?” A spatial relationship map answers this question

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Understanding the basics and language of GIS

Geographic information is simply information that is a digital coded description of the locations of objects and features. It relates to the
distribution of any physical and human features that are found on the Earth’s surface. Types of geographic information are varied including
socio-economic and demographic data as well as physical and environmental data. The data can expressed as points, lines or areas. These
areas are called vectors or polygons and often coded as shapefiles.

Each location (point, line or area) has other data, or attribute data, linked to that place reference – see Table 1 which is an example of weather
data that could be displayed in a GIS system.

Table 1: An example of latitude and longitude (point data in green) with examples attribute data for weather.
Site Code Site Name Latitude Longitude Region Wind Direction Wind Speed
3017 KIRKWALL (3017) 58.954 -2.9 Orkney & Shetland W 14
3034 AULTBEA (3034) 57.859 -5.636 Highland &EileanSiar SW 10
ALTNAHARRA
3044 58.288 -4.442 Highland &EileanSiar SSW 5
SAWS (3044)
WICK AIRPORT
3075 58.454 -3.089 Highland &EileanSiar SW 10
(3075)
LOSSIEMOUTH
3068 57.712 -3.322 Grampian S 6
(3068)
3100 TIREE (3100) 56.497 -6.887 Strathclyde W 19
PRESTWICK RNAS
3136 55.515 -4.585 Strathclyde WSW 18
(3136)
3171 LEUCHARS (3171) 56.377 -2.862 Central Tayside& Fife SSW 9

Someone who understands GIS will be able to make use of a number of “geo-literacy” skills. These skills are not just restricted to geography;
they are important in many other aspects of decision-making. See Table 2.

Table 2: Examples of Geo-literacy – GIS

• It means being able to detect patterns that vary across space, and to understand how phenomena in one place and time relate to other
phenomena that may be that or similar places

• It means understanding how different groups might see and describe the value of a specific tree, a species, or an ocean, for example
differently.

• It means looking at a advert next to an empty car-park on the way home from school / college and being able to describe some of
what “Future home of BigBox Super-Store” might mean to the community beyond and in the regional neighbourhood.

• It means hearing a discussion about jobs, economy, local resources, and global patterns, and being able to talk about what different
groups / companies and individuals might value.
• It means carefully choosing which ideas or theories to support and which to question, and knowing how to learn about new things,
including deciding why certain bits of spatial information might be more valuable, accurate or reliable than others.

All these skills are becoming vital for A level students of geography.

Processing data with GIS – using volcano and UK crime example data
A key difference between a visualisation produced by Google Earth (a “digital view of the world”) and a full GIS system is the ability to
interrogate the data, by using a set of processing tools. Historically these processing tools could only be used in the full desktop versions of
the GIS systems and could only be used by professionals. This is now changing. The industry standard version of ArcGIS (Figure 2) now has
an online version for example (ArcGIS Online) which allows users to carry out analysis without having to learn how to use the full program.
Historically another barrier to GIS has been the complex language that has surrounded the software. In many instances this is becoming more
accessible with the shift online. Also refer to the GIS glossary at the end of this article.

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Figure 2 – the ArcGIS the full desktop program is complex to use and requires specialist training. This is an example of a flood alert area map
(green) using shapefile data the Environment Agency.

Table 3 provides some examples of tools that can be used in the context of analysis.

Table 3 – examples of GIS processing activities

Querying a database to determine the types of features existing at given place answers the question “what is at…?” (i.e. what is the
1
population density of city X?).

Finding the location of sites which have certain characteristics responds to the question “where is it…?” (i.e. where are the
2
residential areas within 200m. from aspecific river?).

Monitoring how things change over time provides answer to the question “what has changed…?” (i.e. whatis the change in the
3
traffic flow along a certain road or motorway?).

Allowing the description and comparisons of the distribution of data help answer the question “what is the pattern…?”, which in
4 turn can help in understanding the processes which influence their distribution (i.e. is there a pattern in the distribution of crimes
which are thought to be related to higher than average index of multiple deprivation?).
Calculating the “best” (fastest, quickest, shortestetc) route between places answers the question “which is the best way…?”, a
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question related to interaction of factors (i.e. which is the best way to the hospital if the main road is flooded?)

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Case Study 1: Volcanoes

Data on volcanoes earthquakes for example, can be downloaded from the USGS website (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/feed/v1.0/
csv.php) . This is available as a CSV (spreadsheet) file which includes latitude and longitude as well as a number of other attributes. This can
be imported into a GIS system and displayed as dots – see Figure 3a. It can then be filtered – Figure 3b as a separate layer.

Figure 3a – showing the distribution of all volcanoes (orange dots). Figure 3b – overlaying other layers (plate boundaries – pink) and
“filtering” only active volcanoes (green dots) for a different part of
the world.

The importance of this proper GIS system is the ability to interrogate the data, as well as turn layers on and off. Figure 4, for example, shows
the example of a buffer query to find out how many people live within a 6km radius of CampiFlegrei, Naples, Italy. This is displayed as a pop-
up showing the population. Buffers can be displayed as proportional circles.

Figure 4– an example of GIS processing to find out how many Figure 5 – examples of different types of crimes plotted by
people live within a 6km radius of CampiFlegrei location (downloaded from police.gov.uk)

Wiveliscombe
Primary School

Wiveliscombe

0 300 600 ft

Case Study 2: Crime

A huge range of other data can be downloaded, for example local crime Anti-social behaviour Burglary Crimnal damage and arson
data for the UK (http://data.police.uk/). In Figure 5 you can see for Other crime Other theft Poscession of weapons
example, a month’s worth of local crime data has been plotted using Public order Shoplifting Vehicle crime
different colours to display the different types of crime reported. A
very simple exercise since once again the data is a CSV file. Violence & sexual offences
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Much more sophisticated analysis also exists, such as producing ‘heat Figure 6a – Screenshot from a smartphone
maps’ to identify crime hotspots, or combining crime points to overlay app that allows the user to collect a variety of
districts to look at population profiles – such as percentage of young fieldwork data
males, percentage living in terraced homes etc.

GIS and industry – an example from retailing

GIS is really important in a whole range of industries and activities,
including:
• Aid and development
• Defence and intelligence .Figure 6b – an example of GIS data collected
• Local, regional and national government on the “RGS GIS Day” in November 2013.
• Public health systems
• Mapping and charting, e.g. aeronautical and nautical
• Natural resources allocation and distribution
• Public safety
• Transportation
• Utilities and communications
• Disaster management

In retail, deciding where to put a new store is a complex geo-spatial

decision involving a range location-based data to be analysed. Argos
for example, has used GIS software to gain a better understanding of
boththeir customers and competitors. So called “location analytics” has
helped the retailer to identify new store locations and prioritise store
refurbishment, using detailed GIS drive-time and postcode analysis.
GIS helps the company understand the spatial distribution of its store
network to ensure it offers optimum coverage of the UK and Ireland.
GIS technology will be used to inform of many marketing and property
decisions, helping to drive a strategy based around a particular customer
group (or segment). 42 -59 59-63 63-66 66-71 71-92

GIS is equally important in food retailing. The Co-operative for Quieter areas are shown with a green colour and noisy areas with a red
example,visualise and manipulate a whole range of GIS information, colour, with varying shades in between. The noise level was measured
from competitor sites and transport networks to demographics, natural with an app. The use of GIS for fieldwork will be explained in detail
features, Experian credit data and new housing developments. The in one of a series of Neo-Geo factsheets designed to support the 2016
supermarket also has a customer loyalty card. They use location new A level specification.
analytics to understand where their customers live, shop and how far Conclusions
they are prepared to travel to a store. This information is particularly The geospatial revolution has really started. Location and place is
valuable when assessing current stores for possible extensions or woven into the fabric of how we live in the 21st century. Almost anyone
downsizes. The Co-Op also use GIS to help model information about can publish a map or spatial data, or put dots on a map, or create a “cool”
customer segments (lifestyle, income, family size etc) and shopping web-mapping app to show something of interest to them, their friends
preferences so that individual stores can be customised in terms of their or even the wider community. The role of geography is a platform for
product range to better match the needs of that particular customer understanding the world so GIS is making geography come alive. It
hinterland. condenses our data, information, and science into a language that we
can easily understand: maps.
For retailers in particular,the role of location-based data is only going
to become more important in the future, especially with an increasing Sources and references
move to more online deliveries. It’s likely that new services will • An article from the RGS about GIS – “Ask the Expert” http://
be created, which could include personalised offers in real-time to www.rgs.org/OurWork/Schools/Geography+in+the+News/
people as they enter a predefined area or alert them to other relevant Ask+the+experts/GIS.htm
information about shops and restaurants nearby. Retailers will further • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXS0bsR0e7w – “Geospa-
use GIS to reduce transport costs and streamline distribution networks. tial Revolution” video 2. Some useful information about how
GIS works.
Using GIS with fieldwork • Co-Op and Argos case studies https://www.esriuk.com/sites/de-
GIS has great potential to enhance and streamline your fieldwork. It can fault/files/uploads/Think%20GIS_Retail_online.pdf
save time and hard work and allow a large amount of both qualitative • The RGS GIS day in November 2013 http://www.rgs.org/Our-
and quantitative data to be collected in a short space of time. All that Work/Schools/GIS+Day.htm
data is geo-located, even photographs if they are taken on smartphones • Examples of topic GIS maps from ERSI http://www.arcgis.com/
with a built-in GPS. home/
• Download up to date earthquake data here: http://earthquake.
usgs.gov/earthquakes/feed/v1.0/
Acknowledgements;
This Geo Factsheet was researched and written by David Holmes, a GIS Schools Partner Trainer and geography consultant. www.david-holmes-
geography.co.uk. Curriculum Press, Bank House, 105 King Street, Wellington, TF1 1NUSSN 1351-5136
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A general GIS Glossary

ArcGIS Online A set of web-based base maps, globes and other data and services created by ESRI for use inside ArcGIS
(AGOL) products and GIS applications on the internet.
Rather than a single point on a map, and area is a closed shape (see polygon). Can be used for instance to
Area
define census output areas.
Descriptive information about a geographic feature or location that is usually stored in a table. Examples
Attribute include ownership of a parcel of land, the population of a neighbourhood, depth of earthquake, or the speed
limit or name of a road.
A map containing geographic features used for locational reference. Roads are commonly found on basemaps.
Basemap ArcGIS Online has several different basemaps that can be chosen. They should be changed depending on
what you are trying to show.
A zone of a specified distance or time around coverage features, useful for proximity analysis. Buffers are
Buffer typically used to create areas that can be further analysed using a tool such as Overlay Layers. For example, if
the question is “What buildings are within one mile of the school?” 
An ESRI smartphone app (iOS and Android) which allows users to capture, update, and report spatial and
Collector App tabular information directly from your phone. In geography it’s something we would be using alongside
fieldwork.
Coordinates Positions, X, Y, i.e. latitude and longitude. Form the basis of a GIS system along with attributes.
Similar to a spread as CSV (Comma separated file) should contact lat/long or other locational data to allow
CSV File ArcGIS to display data. Can be dragged into AGOL and represented. CSV files need to contain address
information or latitude & longitude coordinates in decimal degrees.
A table (or CSV) that has columns and rows of data. The data must contain a geospatial element, i.e. a
Database
location (such as lat-long or postcode) and an attribute for that position.
Field In a database (or spreadsheet), another term for column.
A GIS process for converting street addresses, intersections or named locations into spatial data that can be
Geocoding displayed or mapped. For example, the geographic location for an address may be found by comparing it to
reference data, such as address points, street center-lines or zip code boundaries.
Layer A thematic set of spatial data, layers are organized by subject matter.
A set of ordered coordinate pairs that represent a linear feature with no area, or with a shape too narrow to be
Line
displayed as a polygon. Lines make up vector maps.
A way of filtering or selecting data that you want to show. Can be used as part of the perform analysis tool,
Logical query
e.g. showing attributes with data > a specified amount.

Point A single x, y coordinate point that represents a geographic feature, i.e. a specific location.
A representation of an area defined by lines that make up its boundary. For example, it may represent a
Polygon
building footprint, parcel, city limits, or country’s boundary
A mathematical model that transforms the locations of features on the Earth’s surface (sphere) to locations on
Projection
a two-dimensional surface (flat map).
A way of representing geographic features by dividing the world into discrete squares called cells. Aerial
photos are a common example of raster data. It’s really like a picture and depending on its resolution it can
Raster
become coarse / grainy / pixelated when the user zooms-in. Raster maps may be converted into a more useful
vectors.
A shapefile is a dataset that is associated with ESRI’s GIS software products (like a.doc for MS Word).
Shapefile
Shapefiles contain spatial geometry (points, lines, polygons) in multiple files.
 A coordinate-based data model that represents geographic features as points, lines, and polygons. Each point
Vector feature is represented as a single coordinate pair, while line and polygon features are represented as ordered
lists of vertices. Attributes are associated with each vector feature. Can require a lot of computer processing.
(World Geodetic Survey 1984). Standard model of the earth used frequently in GIS and the model on which
WGS84
most GPS operate (need to check – including smartphones).