GIS GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS An Overview Thomas Reynolds CSI668 May 7, 2001

What Is GIS ? Automated Systems, for the Capture, Storage, Retrieval, Analysis, and Display of Spatial Data

Spatial Data - What Where Streets, Houses, Trees, Schools, etc. Water Lines, Sewer Pipes Minerals, Oil, Aquifers, Soil Types Telephone Lines, Electric Power Lines Political Boundaries, Zip Codes Mountains, Rivers, Lakes Wildlife Habitat, Marketing Areas

Automated That's why we're here, right ? Developed 1950's to Present One Influence for Improving Graphics Growth Curve Presently Steepening Up Databases, Processing, Displaying, Communicating May be Huge, Entirely Automated Datasets – eg Satellite Images

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Some Vocabulary Lots of Acronyms Not just maps, "themes", the waterline – street – electric power line, etc. layers "RS" remote sensing "GPS" global positioning systems "GML" geographic markup language "OGC" Open GIS Consortium "AM/FM" automated mapping & facilities management "SVG" scalable vector graphics

Some More Basic Concepts Raster vs Vector Topology Projection Registration Geographic Reference Geocode So GIS != CAD

GIS: GIS: The Whole Picture A working GIS is an integrated whole of five components: hardware, software, data, personnel, and methods. Hardware can be big internet servers to standalone personal computers. Software ranges from multi-thousand dollar unix systems to free. Anything real is potential data. People and methods make the rest work.

TRAVEL TIMES BLUE : Shortest GREEN : Middle MAGENTA : Longest ______________ F : Fire Station

Tools, Products MapInfo ESRI GRASS IDRISI TNT* Oracle technet.oracle.com/products/spatial Smallworld Garmin

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Location Based Services - LBS Booming development Traditional programming jobs, lots of java People may talk about the global virtual world of the internet, but the world is still a real, spatial one. Info exchange anywhere, everywhere Built upon GIS, wireless, and the Internet GIS provides and structures the information Wireless handles the communication

LBS You are your cell phone What information is where you are, and what information can come from somewhere else to you wherever you are? But 1 st, where are you? Need open standards--wherever you are, your connectivity can transfer good info The info itself must be structured so it isn't hidden solely because not readable And the info should include spatial references

Maybe Not Utopia, Though " 'Ubiquitous Geospatial Information' will empower individuals and nations to become better informed and act more intelligently for the good of all. It is a vision of the not too distant future that will improve the health, wealth, and security of individuals, communities, and nations around the globe." ( 05/2001, no author shown )

What Makes This Possible? Java, the language of the Internet WAP, Wireless Application Protocol XML, Extensible Markup Language GML, Geography Markup Language

GML Based on XML A simple text-based language that can be understood anywhere Can express relationships among geo-spatial entities in one database or in databases distributed around the Internet Can be used to specify elements which can be interpreted to make maps

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GML Code ( from

Further References spatialnews.geocomm.com/education gis.about.com