INTRODUCTION TO

GIS
Engr. Rosalyn D. Sontillanosa
Information System Analyst III
Geospatial Information System Management Branch
National Mapping & Resource Information Authority

Basic GIS Training

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Familiarize the participants with :

 Definition of a GIS
 History of GIS
 Components of a GIS
 Data Models
 Application of GIS

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 What is GIS?

GIS = Geographic Information System

Most popular Definition:

A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a
computer-based system including software, hardware,
people, and geographic information that can create,
edit, query, analyze, and display map information on
the computer

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 What is GIS?

Other Definition:
An interactive and engaging social environment to
help people learn how to develop geographic
knowledge and solve spatial problems.

Source: https://www.slideshare.net/aileenbuckley/learngis-a-novel-topdown-approach-to-learning-about-gis-
33814388?next_slideshow=1

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 What is GIS?
Geographic – 80% of government data
collected is associated with some location in
space

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 What is GIS?

Information -
attributes, or the
characteristics
(data), can be
used to symbolize
and provide
further insight
into a given
location

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 What is GIS?
System – a seamless operation linking the
information to the geography – which
requires hardware, networks, software, data,
and operational procedures

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 What is GIS?
 In GIS we build knowledge and solve
problems.
 GIS contain rich data sets and powerful
analytical tools.
 Create Maps and other useful
information products.
 GIS allows interaction with data in a
meaningful way.

https://www.slideshare.net/aileenbuckley/learngis-a-novel-topdown-approach-to-learning-about-gis-33814388?next_slideshow=1
NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 History of GIS

Source: https://www.slideshare.net/Shushmi406/gis-technology
NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 NAMRIA-GTC/RDS

History of GIS
Roger F. Tomlinson (1933-
2014)

- Father of GIS

- developed the first GIS

with the creation of the
Canada Land Inventory in
1962.

- first coined the

term Geographic
Information System (GIS)
Components of a GIS
NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 NAMRIA-GTC/RDS

Data

Indirect Data Capture

Secondary Data
Direct Data Capture
Primary Data
 Geographic Data Characteristics
 Geographic data contains four
integrated components, namely,
location, attribute, spatial
relationship and time.
 Geographic data include those
which are spatially referenced.
 A GIS includes operations which
support spatial analysis

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 NAMRIA-GTC/RDS

Kinds of Data GIS Handles

Spatial data
 simple objects: points, lines, areas and grids
(pixels).
 represented as maps.
Example: a parcel of land

Attribute data (Non-spatial or Aspatial Data)

 descriptive information about specified spatial
objects.
 often have no direct information about the
spatial location but can be linked to spatial
objects they describe.
 Usually organized in tables
Example: the owner of a parcel of land
 Kinds of Data GIS Handles
Identify if spatial(graphical) or non-spatial(textual)

1. This building
2. The color of this building
3. The people within this building
4. The name of this building
5. Rizal Park
6. Roxas Boulevard
7. Manila
8. Population of Marikina City

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 Hardwares

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 Softwares

Commercial software Open/ Free software

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 Softwares
Commercial software Open/ Free software
Rely mostly on individual efforts
Strategies such as sales team, Marketing Strategies like viral marketing (word of
paid advert, marketing teams and mouth) and search engine (SEO)
search engines (SEO)

Costs thousands of dollars on Pricing Completely free on the initial

initial purchase, does not include download and no licensing fee or
a yearly maintenance fee. maintenance fee

Excellent technical support to Support in the form of blog

guide users on the use of the Quality of Support posts, forums and youtube
software videos

Has its own unique source of Donations are the major source of
funds. It includes: product sales Funding fund for open source software. It
product licenses, product includes consulting sales and
renewals, software as service / Software as a service / Hosting
hosting and consulting sales
Open source GIS software apps
The apps developed are are cheap, develop by an analyst
expensive and licensing fee is Application
to meet their specific needs and
also included Development most importantly, there is no
headache of licensing fee
NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 Key Software Components
 Tools for the input and manipulation of
geographic information
 A database management system (DBMS)
 Tools that support geographic query,
analysis, and visualization
 A graphical user interface (GUI) for easy
access to tools

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 People

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 Methods

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 GIS Process
Data Collection
Preprocessing
Data Management
Manipulation and Analysis
Product Generation and
Visualization
Decision and Policymaking

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 Data Models

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 Data Models

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 Vector vs Raster

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 Raster
Divides the entire study area into a regular grid of cells
Each cell contains a single value
Is space-filling since every location in the study area
corresponds to a cell in the raster.
Raster data can be imagined as collection of cells organized
like a matrix.

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 Vector
Represented by lines,
points, and polygons.
Fundamental primitive is a
point
Points are stored as x,y
coordinates and represent
features as having no
dimension.
Objects are created by
connecting points with
straight lines (or arcs)
Areas are defined by sets
of lines
NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 Format Issues
 Most GIS applications can utilize both vector and raster
formats, and/or they can convert between the two
 Converting from vector to raster is easy;
 Converting from raster to vector is difficult

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 GIS APPLICATIONS
Source:
1000 GIS Applications & Uses
How GIS is changing the World.

http://gisgeography.com/gis-applications-uses/

NAMRIA-GTC/RDS
 SPATIAL AUTOCORRELATION –
Testing whether the observed value of
a variable at one locality is
independent of the values of the
variable at neighboring localities.
 DATA MINING – Automating the
search for hidden patterns in large
databases
 SPATIAL REGRESSION – Building
spatial regression to models for
estimating the relationship between
spatial variables.
 ZONAL STATISTICS – Summing,
averaging or finding the range,
minimum or maximum in a given
range.
 PRECISION FARMING – Increase
in harvest using less fertilizer
 DISEASE CONTROL – Identifying
critical intervention areas to fight
or stop the spread of disease
 REAL TIME CROP YIELD –
Shifting to real time crop
monitoring
 CURRENT FOOD SECURITY -
Safeguarding food insecure
populations by establishing
underlying causes
 CROP RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE
CHANGE- Adapting to climate
change and shifting weather
patterns
 LOST CITIES– Revealing lost cities
using ground penetrating radar and
infrared sensor
 ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY–
Collecting physical locations of
excavation findings from a wealth of
sites.
 PRELIMINARY SITE INVESTIGATION–
Searching ancient maps for buildings,
Contours lines overlayed
cemeteries, roads and fences into a 3d Map
 CULTURAL HERITAGE INVENTORY-
Customizing and deploying the
collection of cultural heritage field
observations.
 3D ARCHAELOGY - Rendering
accurate and efficient 3D recordings of
archaeological heritage sites.
 FISH HABITAT MODELS–
Connecting fish species with their
habitat
 FISH HABITAT CONSERVATION
AREAS– Fine-tuning fish habitat
conservation areas.
 STRESS MONITORING –
Correlating fish stresses from the
local environment such as heat
stress
 SPAWNING SITES- Drawing
spawning site boundaries for
migratory fish that are known to
release eggs.
 WHALE AND SHARK TRACKING-
Monitoring Whales and Sharks
recovery rate.
 LIVE AIR TRAFFIC– Example is Flight Radar 24
 AIRPLANE IDENTIFICATION– Identifying planes using Flight Radar 24
 FLIGHT PATH– Flight Path simulations integrated with elevation data, imagery and
other spatial data
 SEARCH FOR FLIGHT MH370 –Crowd-sourcing the search for MH370
 DRONE NO-FLY ZONE- Delineation of No-fly zones for drones
 SEA LEVEL RISE– Collection of data for researches on sea-level rise
 DESERTIFICATION– Study the cause of desertification
 LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE CHANGE– Studying the changes in land surface
temperature
 POLLUTION MODELLING- Mapping air polution.
 CARBON SEQUESTRATION- Location based carbon management system
 CRIME PATTERNS– Responding to
crimes with a data-driven approach
and deliver tailored responses through
rapid deployment of personnel and
resources.
 INCIDENT MAP– Keeping the
community safer by streaming visual
mediums
 EMERGENCY CALLS AND
DISPATCH– GIS can manage both
911 calls and dispatching units to
precise locations.
 FORENSIC GIS- Applying science
and geographic information for the
investigating of a crime
 TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS- Collecting
and mapping traffic incident
 TERRORISM SEARCH– Finding
Osama Bin Laden study
 SAFE LANDINGS– Evaluation of the
underlying surroundings of the area for
parachute users.
 INTELLIGENCE DATA
INTEGRATION– Overlaying accurate
geographic data for battlefield
application and make life saving
decisions
 RECONNAISSANCE SATELLITES-
Spying on enemies with satellite
 UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING-
Humanitarian aid, developing peace in
war-torn countries.
 SHARED OPERATIONS–
Responding to disasters with
quickness and reliability using
a Common Operating Picture
and cloud services
 LANDSLIDE
VULNERABILITY– Relief
maps and 3D analysis
 COASTAL SURGES– Study of
Storm Surges over coastal
areas.
 EVACUATION- Suitability
analysis for evacuation centers
 FLOOD FORECASTING-
Simulation with stream
discharge hydrographs with
variations of water over time
 SHIPPING ROUTES – Stitching together shipping routes using the Satellite-based
Automatic Identification Systems.
 INTERNATIONAL WATERS– Aligning the boundaries of international waters in a
georeferenced system.
 LIVE MARINE TRAFFIC – Turning your computer into a marine traffic monitoring
station giving perspective of nearby ships on the ocean. (Live Marine Traffic)
 SPATIAL ECONOMETRICS – Intersecting
spatial analysis with economics. (GeoDa)
 WORLD ECONOMIC OUTLOOK –
Projecting the future economy and key
macroeconomic indicators with the World
Economic Outlook – IMF (World
Economic Outlook)
 EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE (EEZ) –
Carving out boundaries for sovereign rights
regarding the exploration of marine resources
below the surface of the sea
 ECONOMIC COST OF POLLUTION –
Assessing greener growth options and the
costs of pollution in India by understanding
the current state of environment degradation.
 ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACT ASSESSMENT–
Measuring anticipated
effects on the environment
of a proposed
development project
 WETLAND INVENTORY–
Delineating wetland by
types and functions.
 FIRE GROWTH
SIMULATION–
Extinguishing fires faster
by understand how they
grow in discrete steps
bringing together wind,
weather and fuel for the
fire.
 FOREST INVENTORY–
Prioritizing timber
harvesting
 DEFORESTATION–
Gauging deforestation
using land cover change
in time
 WILDFIRE RESCUE–
Saving lives through
real-time wildfire satellite
monitoring.
 FOREST DISEASE-
Mapping the impact of
how forest infestations
like the mountain pine
beetle has on forests and
the economy.
 HEALTH MAP- Delivering real-time, global disease monitoring
 CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL– Serving county-level maps of heart disease
and stroke by race/ethnicity, gender, and age group, along with maps of social and
economic factors
 AMBULANCE RESPONSE – Responding to emergencies faster with the quickest
geographic route.
 RHU ATLAS/DATABASE- Mapping of Rural Health Units by DOH and NAMRIA
 CATHMENT AREAS–
delineating watershed
catchment areas, where
rainfall flows into a river.
 FLOW DIRECTION-
Coding the direction of
flow with eight valid
directions
 AQUEDUCTS- Mining,
Modeling and analyzing
water risk with the
current and future
stresses.
 WATER SHORTAGE-
Modelling water
shortage.
 LANDFILL SITE SELECTION–
Analyzing and eliminating sites
within a buffer distance of
sensitive populations
 TAX MAPPING– Assembling tax
parcels, zoning information with
color schemes on a web viewer.
 LAND USE POLICY–
Formulating land use policy
depending on the impacts of the
surrounding landscape.
 LAND USE CHANGE-
Summarizing statistics, graphs
and tables in spatial units.
 COAST COastal Adaptation to
Sea level Rise Tool - Adapting
to climate change decisions
 THEMATIC MAPPING – Thematic
mapping poverty with equal-intervals,
quantiles, natural breaks and unique
schemes. (“Making Maps Third Edition
by John Krygier”)
 Socio-Economic Data and Application
Center (SEDAC) – Serving socioeconomic
and Earth science data as an information
gateway between the Earth and social
sciences focuses on human interactions in
the environment. (SEDAC)
 WORLD LANGUAGES – Mapping the
world’s languages through social media
and micro-blogging platforms. (World
Languages)
 CENSUS – Utilizing decennial TIGER
data to support and improve selected
demographic and economic studies.
 RAINFALL– Illustrating rainfall in
NOAA’s National Weather Service
web map
 WEATHER WARNING– Feeding out
live warnings with physical locations
from National Weather Service.
 SKY VIEW FACTOR– Considering
the visible sky and topographic
influences to estimate radiation
balances, temperature and
evapotranspiration.
 WEATHER STATIONS- Obtaining
the latitude and longitude positions
of weather stations around the world.
 DOPPLER RADAR – Predicting
rainfall using Doppler Radar.
 CONCLUSION
 GIS is a powerful tool in analyzing spatial
information
 GIS is a great planning and decision making
tool
 GIS technology can be used to find suitable
sites for urban growth and its direction,
health facilities, and many more for
economic development
GIS MATTERS BECAUSE
LOCATION MATTERS