Introduction of Geographical

Information System

Tong Si Son
[email protected]

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 Chapter 2: Spatial analysis
1. Spatial analysis concept
2. Topology rules
3. Buffers, Overlays, and Spatial Joins

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 1. Spatial analysis concept
(Material based on Tadele Feyssa, Wollega
University )

• Analysis is the process of inferring meaning

from data.
• Analysis is carried visually in a GIS
• Analysis in a GIS can also be carried out by
measurements, statistical computations,
fitting models to data values other operation

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 Spatial analysis concept
• Spatial analysis is the process by which we turn raw data into useful
information
• Spatial analysis is the crux of GIS including: the transformations,
manipulations, and methods that can be applied to geographic data to add
value to them, to support decisions, and to reveal patterns and anomalies
that are not immediately obvious.
• In a narrow sense, spatial analysis is a method for analyzing spatial data,
while in a broad sense it includes revealing and clarifying processes,
structures, etc., of spatial phenomena that occur on the Earth’s surface.
• Ultimately, it is designed to support spatial decision making, and to serve
as a tool for assisting with regional planning and the formulation of
government policies, among other things.

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Spatial analysis

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Spatial Analysis Functions
• Measurements
• Query
• Extraction
• Proximity
• Classification
• Topology
• Network analysis

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 Measurement
Measurements are simple numerical values that describe aspects of
geographic data.

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 Queries
• Queries are the most basic of analysis operations, in which
the GIS is used to answer simple questions posed by the
user.
• No changes occur in the database, and no new data are
produced with these type of selection
• It involves picking features based on query expressions,
which use
Boolean algebra (and, or, not),
set algebra (>, <, =, >=, <=),
arithmetic operators (=, -, *, /), and user-defined values.
• Examples: ‘how many houses are found within 1 km of this
point’, or ‘which is the closest city to Ha Noi going north’.

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 Extraction
• Extracting portions of data helps to isolate specific areas for
further processing or data analysis.
• Similar to queries and selection sets, extraction functions can
reduce the size of datasets and/or facilitate more complex
interpretation.
• GIS software packages provide a suite of tools to extract
data: clip, select, and split

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 Classification
• The procedure of identifying a set of features as belonging to a group and
defining patterns.
• Some form of classification function is provided in every GIS
• Classification is important because it defines patterns.
• One of the important functions of a GIS is to assist in recognizing new
patterns.
• Using single data layers, as well as with multiple data layers
• Aggregating features into classes allows to spot patterns in the data more
easily.
• By altering the class breaks (the boundary between classes), we can create
very different-looking maps.
• Classes can be created manually, or you can use a standard classification
scheme. 10
 Topology
• Topology is the arrangement that defines how
point, line, and polygon features share
coincident geometry.

• For example, street centerlines and census

blocks share common geometry, and adjacent
soil polygons share their common boundaries

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 Proximity computation

• Using geometric distance to define the

neighborhood of one or more target locations.
• Proximity includes: buffering, interpolation,
Theissen polygons, and various topographic
functions.

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 Network Analysis
• Network is any system of interconnected linear features
• A network is a system of interconnected elements, such as
edges (lines) and connecting junctions (points), that represent
possible routes from one location to another
• Solving problems involving networks
• Its goal is efficiency – Saving time and money.

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 Network Analysis

• To solve common network problems:

- finding the best route across a city,
- finding the closest emergency vehicle or facility
- identifying a service area around a location
- servicing a set of orders with a fleet of vehicles
- choosing the best facilities to open or close

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 Network Analysis
• Direct path analysis : finding the
shortest path between your office
and home
• Optimum routing: helping a pizza
deliveryman visit numerous houses
in the most time: efficient manner,
that include length of the lines,
their capacity, maximum travel rate
and time

• Closest facility analysis :

finding the closest
hospital to an
automobile accident

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 Network Analysis
Service
Driving directions: the areas of
systems of computation Piza
also allow deriving shops
directions to keep
the Piza
hot
enough

Drive time
analysis: Helping
a store to
determine how
many customers
are within 5
driving miles
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2. Geodatabase Topology Rules
Material of ArcGIS-ESRI

Topology allows:
-Model spatial relationships between feature
classes in a feature dataset.
-Define those relationships between features in a
single feature class or subtype or between two
feature classes or subtypes.
-Define the spatial relationships that meet the
needs of your data model.
-Topology errors are violations of the rules
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• The topology rule
occurs within a
single feature
class or subtype.

• The topology rule

occurs between
two different
feature classes or
subtypes.

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 Polygons: Must not overlap

• Polygons must not

overlap within a
feature class or
subtype. Polygons can
be disconnected or
touch at a point or Ex. A voting
touch along an edge
district map
cannot have any
overlaps in its
• Polygon errors are coverage
created from areas
where polygons
overlap.

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 Polygons: Must not have gap
Ex: Soil polygons
• Polygons must not have a cannot include gaps
void between them within a or form voids—
feature class or subtype. they must form a
continuous fabric

• Line errors are created from

the outlines of void areas in a
single polygon
or between polygons.
Polygon boundaries that are
not coincident with
other polygon boundaries
are errors.

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 Polygons: Contains point
• Each polygon of the first
feature class or subtype must Parcels must
contain within its boundaries contain at
at least one point of the least one
second feature class or address point.
subtype.

• Polygon errors are created

from the polygons that do not
contain at least one point. A
point on the boundary of a
polygon is not contained in
that polygon.
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Polygons: Must be covered by feature class of
• The polygons in
the first feature class States are
or subtype must be covered by
covered by the counties
polygons of the
second feature
class or subtype

• Polygon errors are

created from the
uncovered areas of
the polygons in
the first feature
class or subtype.
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 Polygons: Must not overlap with
• Polygons of the
first feature class Lakes and land
parcels from two
or subtype must
different feature
not overlap classes must not
polygons of the overlap.
second feature
class or subtype .

• Polygon errors are

created where
polygons from the
two feature classes
or subtypes
overlap

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 Polygons: Must cover each other
• All polygons in the
first feature class and all
polygons in the second Vegetation and soils
feature class must must cover each other
cover each other.
- FC1 Must be covered by
feature class of FC2.
- FC2 Must be covered by
feature class of FC1.

• Polygon errors are

created where any
part of a polygon
is not covered by
one or more
polygons in the
other feature class
or subtype 24
 Point: Must be properly inside polygons

• Points in one
feature class or
subtype must be
inside polygons of State capitals must
another feature be inside each state
class or subtype

• Point errors are

created where the
points are outside or
touch the boundary
of the polygons.
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 Point: Must be covered by boundary of

• Points in one
feature class or
subtype must touch Utility service points might
boundaries of be required to be on the
polygons from boundary of a parcel.
another feature
class or subtype.

• Point errors are

created where points
do not touch the
boundaries of
polygons.
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Point: Must be covered by endpoint of

• Points in one
feature class or
subtype must be Street intersections must be
covered by the covered by the endpoints of
ends of lines in street centerlines
another feature
class or subtype.

• Point errors are

created on the
points that are not
covered by the
ends of lines

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 Point: Point must be covered by line

• Points in one
feature class or Monitoring stations
subtype must be must fall along streams
covered by lines in
another feature class
or subtype

• Point errors are

created on the
points that are not
covered by lines

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 Line: Must not self intersect
• Lines must not cross
or overlap themselves
within a feature class Contour lines cannot
or subtype. Lines can intersect themselves
touch themselves and
touch, intersect, and
overlap other lines

• Line errors are

created where lines
overlap themselves,
and point errors are
created where lines
cross themselves
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 Line: Must not self overlap
For transportation
• Lines must not overlap analysis, street and
themselves within a highway segments of
feature class or subtype. the same feature
Lines can touch, should not overlap
intersect, and overlap themselves
lines in another feature
class or subtype.

• Line errors are

created where
lines overlap
themselves.

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3. Buffers, Overlays, and Spatial Joins

• Buffers
• Overlays
– Clip
– Intersection
– Union
– Dissolve
– Merge
• Spatial Joins

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 Buffers
Buffering separates a map into two areas: one area that is
within a specified distance of selected features and the other
area that is beyond. The area that is within the specified
distance is called the buffer zone.

• Can add a buffer to a point, line, or polygon

• Pay attention to map units when specifying buffer distance

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 Variations in Buffering 3. Boundaries of
buffer zones may
remain separate
1. The buffer distance can 2 . Features may polygons or be
vary according to the values have more than one dissolved (no
of a given field. buffer zone. overlapped areas)

A nuclear power plant

may be buffered with
distances of 5, 10, 15, and
Buffering with 20 miles, thus forming
different buffer multiple rings around the Buffer zones dissolved
distances (top) or not dissolved
plant (Why?)
(bottom) (Why?)
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 Applications of Buffering
•A city ordinance may stipulate that no liquor stores or pornographic shops
shall be within 1000 feet of a school or a church.

•Government regulations may stipulate that logging operations must be at

least 2 miles away from any stream to minimize the sedimentation problem
and set the 2-mile buffer zones of streams as the exclusion zones.

•A national forest may restrict oil and gas well drilling within 500 feet of
roads or highways; within 200 feet of trails; within 500 feet of streams, lakes,
ponds, or reservoirs; or within 400 feet of springs.

•A dumping ground must 1 km far from the village, 1.5 km far from the
school and 2 km far from water resources (How to find the location for the
dumping ground?)

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 What is an overlay?
Map overlay combines the geometries and attributes of two feature maps
to create the output. One of the two maps is called the input map and the
other the overlay map.
• Take two or more layers
– Typically with the same extent (they are one on top of another)
• Combine the layers in some way
– Specific overlay techniques
• Create an output layer

New
Layer 1
Layer 2 Layer

What are the criteria to perform overlay?

All layer must be the same coordinate systems to avoid crashing the program
or inaccurate results
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Feature Type and Map Overlay
Point in Polygon
Line in Polygon
Polygon on Polygon

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Point in polygon overlay

The input is a point map (the dashed lines are not part of the point
map). The output is also a point map, which has attribute data from
the overlay polygon map.

Line in polygon overlay

1B
1 + A B =
1A

The input is a line map (the dashed lines not part of the line map). The output is
also a line map. But the output differs from the: the line is broken into two
segments, and the line segments have attribute data from the overlay polygon.
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 Polygon-on-polygon overlay

1 1A 1B

+ A B =

2 2A 2B

The two maps to be overlaid have the same area extent. The
output combines the geometry and attribute data from the
two maps into a single polygon map.

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 Overlaying Vector Data
• Common vector overlay/geoprocessing operations
– Clip (cookie cutter)
– Intersect – keeps only common features between two
layers
– Union – combines all features in two layers
– Dissolve – combine (simplify) features in one layer
– Merge – combine two layers into one
• Always recalculate areas/perimeters of polygons after
one of these operations

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 Clip
• Use one layer as a boundary to clip (cut) out features from
another layer

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 More on clip
• Be sure to have correct layers as the input layer (the
one to be cut) and the clip layer (the one to use as a
cutting guide)
• Must use polygons as the clip layer
• Can use selected features or all features as a clip
layer

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 Intersect
• Combines two layers and outputs only the
features common (spatially) to both layers

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 More on Intersect
• Be sure to know which layer is the input layer
and which is the overlay layer
• The overlay layer must be polygons
• Attributes will come from both layers
• Will need to re-calculate polygon areas

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 Union
• Combines two layers and all features (whether
or not they overlap)

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 More on Union
• Be sure to know which is the input and which
is the overlay layer
• May use all or selected features as overlay
• Overlay must be polygon
• Attributes will come from both layers

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 Dissolve

• Combine features in a layer based on one attribute

• Example: aggregate counties in US by state name

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 More on Dissolve
• Have to specify common feature
• Points, lines, and polygons
• Need to specify how to deal with remaining
attributes
– First or last
– Sum, min, max, mean

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 Merge
• Combine features from two or more layers into one
layer

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 More on Merge
• Can have multiple layers
• Must specify which layer will define attribute
table fields for the output
• Need to be aware of:
– Differing attribute tables
– Presence of gaps (spatially) in merged layers

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 Summary: vector overlay
• Powerful tools for creating new information
• Consider attributes
• Recalculate area and perimeter
• Files with different coordinate systems can
cause problems – convert coordinate systems
first

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 Practice
1. Practice buffer, overlay
2. Digitalize Land cover
3. Add attribute data (area)
4. Editing a map

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 Practice buffer, overlay
1. Digitalize 4 houses
2. Define the location to build a toilet
Criteria: Distance (houses and toilet)< 130m

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 DEFINITION OF LAND COVER, LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION

• Land cover is the natural/artificial compositions at the surface

Land cover data documents how much of a region is covered by forests,

wetlands, impervious surfaces, agriculture, and other land and water types. Water
types include wetlands or open water
Each group of above object is defined as a class in land cover map.

• Land cover classification

Classification is the “ordering or arrangement of objects into groups or sets on
the basis of their relationships” (Sokal, 1974). It is an abstract representation of the
situation in the field, using well-defined diagnostic criteria.

- Classification scheme = land cover classification system

- Images (Satellite images, Aerial photos)
- Interpretation key = class samples
- Methods for classification
www.noaa.gov
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