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Faculty of Applied Engineering and Urban Planning Civil Engineering Department

The document discusses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and introduces key concepts. It defines GIS as a computerized system that facilitates data entry, analysis and presentation of georeferenced data. The document outlines the typical GIS workflow of obtaining data, processing it to enable analysis and interpretation, and presenting results. It also discusses how GIS represents real world phenomena through maps, databases and spatial databases.

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Mohammed Al Maqadma
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39 views

Faculty of Applied Engineering and Urban Planning Civil Engineering Department

The document discusses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and introduces key concepts. It defines GIS as a computerized system that facilitates data entry, analysis and presentation of georeferenced data. The document outlines the typical GIS workflow of obtaining data, processing it to enable analysis and interpretation, and presenting results. It also discusses how GIS represents real world phenomena through maps, databases and spatial databases.

Uploaded by

Mohammed Al Maqadma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Faculty of Applied Engineering and

Urban Planning

Civil Engineering Department

Geographic Information Systems

Introduction

Lecture 1
Week 2
1st Semester 20013/2014
Content

• The Purpose of GIS

• GIS Definitions

• GIS Workflow

• The Real World Representation of GIS


• Maps
• Databases
• Spatial Databases
• Capabilities of GIS
The Purpose of GIS

We, humans, are inquisitive. We want to understand


what is going on in our world, and this is why we study
the phenomena of geographic change.

In many cases, we want to deepen our understanding,


so that there will be no more unpleasant surprises; so
that we can take action when we feel that action must
be taken.
The Purpose of GIS
El Niño
El Niño is a severe atmospheric and oceanic disturbance in the
Pacific Ocean that occurs every seven to fourteen years.

Warm surface waters flow from the central Pacific towards the
eastern Pacific, suppressing the cold, nutrient-rich upwelling of the
Humboldt Current off the coast of South America. This disturbance
leads to a fall in the number of plankton, wreaking havoc upon the
entire ocean food chain and devastating the fishing industry. The
influence of these currents also leads to a complete reversal of the
trade winds, bringing torrential rain, flooding, and mudslides to the
usually dry coastal areas of Peru and Ecuador. Another result is
the collapse of the monsoons in Asia, which can bring severe
drought to Indonesia and northern Australia. The phenomenon also
causes severe weather disturbances in other parts of the world,
such as droughts in areas of Africa and central North America.
The Purpose of GIS
El Niño
The effects have been noticed, monitored and recorded. But there
was no generic description of the phenomena.

Sir Gilbert Thomas Walker (1868-1958) a


British mathematician and meteorologist, who
became Director-General of Observatories in the
Indian Meteorological Service, was the first to
introduce a statistical model for this phenomena.
The Purpose of GIS
The mechanism of El Niño is still under research. However, GIS
makes it easy.

Many professionals study that phenomenon closely, most notably


meteorologists and oceanographers. They prepare all sorts of
products, such as the maps, to improve their understanding. To do
so, they need to:
1.obtain data about the phenomenon, which obviously here will
include measurements about sea water temperature and wind speed
in many locations.
2.Next, they must process the data to enable its analysis, and allow
interpretation.
3.This interpretation will benefit if the processed data is presented in
an easy to interpret way.
The Purpose of GIS

Sea Surface Temperature (SST, in colour) and average Wind Speed


The Purpose of GIS
The Purpose of GIS
The three important stages of working with
geographic data:

1.Data preparation and entry: The early stage in which


data about the study phenomenon is collected and
prepared to be entered into the system.

2.Data analysis: The middle stage in which collected


data is carefully reviewed, and, for instance, attempts are
made to discover patterns.

3.Data presentation: The final stage in which the results


of earlier analysis are presented in an appropriate way.
GIS Definition
A geographic information system as a
computerized system that facilitates the phases
of data entry, data analysis and data
presentation especially in cases when we are
dealing with georeferenced data.

A similar definition:
A system of hardware, software, data, people,
organizations and institutional arrangements for
collecting, storing, analyzing, and disseminating
information about areas of the earth.
GIS Principle
GIS Workflow
Spatial data and
Geoinformation
Data, is representations that can be operated upon by a
computer.

Information, is data that has been interpreted by a


human being.

spatial data: data that contains positional values

Geospatial data: spatial data that is georeferenced

Geoinformation is a specific type of information that


involves the interpretation of spatial data.
The real world and
representations of it
Modeling: is the representation of some part of the real
world.

Models -as representations- come in many different


forms:
•Maps
•Databases
•Spatial Databases
The real world and
representations of it
Definition of a map
A map is a graphic form, normally to scale, of spatial
abstraction of features on, or in relation to, the surface of the
Earth.

Topographic map: A reference tool, showing the outlines of


selected natural and man-made features of the Earth.

Thematic map: A tool to communicate geographical


concepts such as: the distribution of population densities,
climate, movement of goods, land use etc.
The real world and
representations of it
The real world and
representations of it
The phrase ‘data modelling’ is the common name for the
design effort of structuring a database. This process
involves the identification of the kinds of data that the
database will store, as well as the relationships between
these data kinds.

A completed database design is known as the database


schema. To define the database schema, we use a language,
commonly known as a data model.
The real world and
representations of it
Spatial databases are a specific type of database. They
store representations of geographic phenomena in the
real world to be used in a GIS. They are special in the
sense that they use other techniques than tables to store
these representations.
The real world and
representations of it
The real world and
representations of it
The real world and
representations of it
The real world and
representations of it
The real world and
representations of it
The real world and
representations of it
The real world and
representations of it
The real world and
representations of it
The real world and
representations of it
Differences between Database
and GIS
Databases are good at
storing large quantities of data, they can deal
with multiple users at the same time, they
support data integrity and system crash
recovery, and they have a high-level, easy to
use data manipulation language.
GISs are not very good at any of this.
Differences between Database
and GIS
GIS, however, is tailored to operate on spatial data, and
allows all sorts of analysis that are inherently geographic in
nature. This is probably GIS’s main stronghold: combining in
various ways the representations of geographic phenomena.
GIS packages, moreover, nowadays have wonderful, highly
flexible tools for map production, of the paper and the digital
type. GIS have an embedded ‘understanding’ of geographic
space. Databases mostly lack this type of understanding.

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