Scribd
Upload
8 views10 pages

Geographical Information Systems: Grade 12

grade 10,11 nd 12

Uploaded by

hontasp049
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
8 views10 pages

Geographical Information Systems: Grade 12

grade 10,11 nd 12

Uploaded by

hontasp049
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 10

Geographical

Information Systems
Grade 12
Basic Concepts:

 What is GIS?
 A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer system for capturing, storing,
checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth’s surface. GIS can show
many different kinds of data on one map. This enables people to more easily see,
analyse, and understand patterns and relationships.
Basic Concepts:

 Remote Sensing
 Remote sensors collect data by detecting the energy that is reflected from Earth.
These sensors can be on satellites or mounted on aircraft.
 Remote sensors can be either passive or active. Passive sensors respond to external
stimuli. They record natural energy that is reflected or emitted from the Earth's
surface. The most common source of radiation detected by passive sensors is
reflected sunlight.
 In contrast, active sensors use internal stimuli to collect data about Earth. For
example, a laser-beam remote sensing system projects a laser onto the surface of
Earth and measures the time that it takes for the laser to reflect back to its sensor.
Basic Concepts:

 Remote Sensing
 Resolution - Spatial Resolution describes how much detail in a photographic image
is visible to the human eye. The ability to "resolve," or separate, small details is
one way of describing what we call spatial resolution. Spatial resolution of images
acquired by satellite sensor systems is usually expressed in meters. Images
acquired from aeroplanes has resolutions measured in sub-meters.
 There are four types of resolution:
 Spatial – What does one pixel of the image represent on the ground? If the pixel size of an aerial
image represents 0.3m x 0.3m, then the GSD or Ground Sampling Distance or resolution of the
image is 0.3m.

 Spectra – This describes the ability of a sensor to define fine wavelength intervals. The finer the
spectral resolution, the narrower the wavelength range for a particular channel or band.

 Radiometric – Sensor’s sensitivity to the magnitude of the electromagnetic energy.

 Temporal – This is the revisit period, and is the length of time for a satellite to complete one entire
orbit cycle. In cases of the eThekwini Municipality, the temporal resolution is 1 year.
Basic Concepts:
Examples of: Spatial Resolution Temporal Resolution – Useful for Change Detection
2001

2015

2004
Basic Concepts:

 Spatial and Attribute data


 Spatial data is about WHERE something is located on the earth. This is usually
indicated by degrees, minutes and seconds.
 Attribute Data is about the DESCRIPTION of the spatial data.

Schools location on earth Attributes about the school


Basic Concepts:

 Data Layering in GIS


 This is a very powerful concept in GIS as it indicates the relationship between
different real world objects.
 Each layer references a dataset and specifies how that dataset is portrayed using
symbols and text labels. When you add a layer to a map, you specify its dataset
and set its map symbols and labelling properties.
 You can access attribute information from layers and run analysis tools to find
hidden relationships between the layers.
 By stacking layers on top of an image, relationships between layers becomes clear.
 Knowing the relationships between objects on the ground will help you capture
new data that can then be added as another layer to the map.
Basic Concepts:
Example:
Basic Concepts:
An obvious conclusion after looking at the layers:

The buildings to the North-East corner of the


image is clearly in danger of flooding. The
blue area indicates the 100 year flood zone.
Basic Concepts:
 Data Buffering
 A buffer is a reclassification based on distance: classification of within/without a
given proximity. Buffering involves measuring distance outward in directions from an
object. Buffering can be done on all three types of vector data: point, line, area.
 Most often buffers are measured in uniform distance. For example, creating a 500
meter buffer around all rivers. A buffer based on different distances is called a
variable buffer. For example, the noise level surrounding a street network may be
based on the traffic load. Therefore a variable buffer may be used to illustrate the
noise level by using a larger distance for high traffic roads and a shorter distance for
quieter roads.

Variable buffer based on traffic density


and resulting noise

You might also like