1. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Getting to grips with GIS : The technology Dr. Ian Gregory, Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth

2. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Structure of talk  1. The types of software in GIS i. Desktop GIS ii. Attribute database management systems iii. Spatially-enabled database management systems iv. Internet GIS  2. Examples of GIS software ArcView TimeMap

3. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Desktop GIS software  The beginning: – ArcInfo Launched in 1980 by ESRI Build Arc (GIS functionality) over Info (a RDBMS) Mainframe-based Command line driven Documentat ion 3 feet thick Set the standards until the mid-1990s

4. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Desktop GIS software (2)  The mid-1990s: – MapInfo: MapInfo Corporation Windows-based Point and click user interface Intuitive Moved GIS software into the mainstream – ArcView: ESRI’s response Originally just a viewer for ArcInfo Became (at 3.0) a fully-fledged PC-based GIS software package – ArcInfo: pcArcInfo – Cut down version of ArcInfo available from the early 1990s Full ArcInfo – Available under Windows NT by the late 1990s Retained more functionality than ArcView

5. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Desktop GIS software (3)  Now: – MapInfo still a strong product – ESRI has moved to combine ArcInfo and ArcView into ArcGIS (including ArcInfo 8.0) – TimeMap: Written by archaeologists at the University of Sydney Specifically aimed at arts and humanities applications Temporal functionality but not full GIS Linked to the ECAI metadata clearinghouse All the strengths and limitations of free software – Object-orientated GIS E.g. Smallworld Use an O-O data model rather than a hybrid GIS data model Not widely accepted

6. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Desktop GIS software (4)  Costs (academic site licenses through CHEST): – ArcGIS : £3,400 – ArcView: £1,250 – MapInfo: prices vary from £1,000- £2,500 – TimeMap: free (see http://www.timemap.net)http://www.timemap.net

7. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Attribute database management systems  Using a GIS does not require transferring all attribute data into a GIS  Attribute data linked to spatial data through a relational join  Can be accessed through either the GIS software or the host database management system  Examples: – MapInfo: Dbase, Access, Excel, Lotus 123, Oracle – ArcView: Dbase, Access, Excel, Visual FoxPro – ArcInfo: Oracle, Ingres, Dbase

8. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Spatially-enabled database management systems  Spatial extensions to existing DBMSs  Capable of handling spatial data – Eg. point-in-polygon operations  Do not provide full GIS capability – Eg. Vector overlay – Limited mapping capability  Examples: – Oracle Spatial – ArcSDE (ESRI)

9. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Internet GIS  Allows vector GIS data to be disseminated on the web  Clients can: – turn layers off and on – perform spatial and attribute queries – pan, zoom, etc.  Eg. ArcIMS

10. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth The ArcView interface Project window Menu bar Button bar Tool bar Document windows Status bar The interface is made up of a number of different parts. For each type of information you work with, there is a document window and interface. The application window has one project window – it displays the names of all the documents contained in an ArcView project. Descriptions of menu choices, tools and buttons appear on the Status bar. Also reports measurements and displays a progress bar for lengthy operations. © ECAI, 2002

11. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth ArcView documents View – display, query & analyze themes Table – display attribute data Layout – integrate documents to create presentation-quality maps Chart – represents tabular data graphically Script – program written in Avenue used to customize the interface, automate common functions or create applications Documents are components of a project. Each type has its own window and user interface. © ECAI, 2002

12. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth A project is a file for organizing your work. It contains a collection of documents (views, tables, charts, layouts and scripts) that are used to organize information. ArcView projects  Projects organize documents.  All project work is stored in a single file (.apr) that references your data. Views Tables Charts Layouts Scripts Project window When you save a project (.apr), it stores the status of the documents it contains, including how and where they are displayed, the current selection sets and the appearance of the application window. You are saving a “snapshot” of the state of ArcView at the time of the save. Displays the names of all project documents & acts as a gateway to all documents in the project. In an ArcView session, only one active project at a time. © ECAI, 2002

13. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Views and Themes  A theme is a specific way of displaying a data source.  Themes are displayed in views  Each theme has a title and a legend in the view’s Table of Contents Themes Table of ContentsMap Display The view window has 2 parts – the Table of Contents and the Map Display area. Different themes can reference the same data source. © ECAI, 2002

14. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Common Theme Operations  Control visibility  Specify active themes (raised)  Change display order (by dragging) When a theme is turned on, ArcView draws it in the map display area. Turning off a theme doesn’t delete it! And a theme doesn’t have to be turned on to perform operations on it. Many operations only work if theme is active. To make more than one theme active, hold down the Shift key as you click on each theme you want to make active. By making a theme active you are telling ArcView that you want to work with the features in that theme. Table of contents draw order is bottom to top – the last theme in the TOC will draw on the bottom (or first in the draw order). © ECAI, 2002

15. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Symbol Window Fill Palette Pen Palette Marker Palette Font Palette Color Palette Palette Manager Use the Palette Manager to load, save, clear, create a default palette or reload the system palette. You can also import an icon file – bitmap format. To invoke the Symbol window double click on the symbol patch in the Legend Editor or use the shortcut of CTRL-P when you don’t have the Legend Editor open. A palette is a collection of symbols and colors – all the palettes in ArcView are collectively referred to as the Symbol window. © ECAI, 2002

16. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Using ArcView’s Help system  Online help  Help Topics: Contents, Index, Find  Help for buttons, tools, menus Help button  Help for dialog boxes: F1 key © ECAI, 2002

17. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth TimeMap  The primary purpose of TimeMap is to act as a viewer of GIS data as well as many other types of information.  TimeMap does not have all of the features of a typical geographic information system such as: – Data creating – Data editing – Data analysis – Advanced map display  TimeMap does: – Allow easy visualisation and exploration of datasets – Allow integration of disparate datasets using the ECAI metadata clearinghouse – Provide effective temporal functionality © ECAI, 2002

18. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth The Sasanian Empire Website  http://ecai.org/sasanianweb http://ecai.org/sasanianweb  Provides a text based browser interface for the publication.  Provides access to: – Document "Sasanian Seals from the Collection of the Late Edward Gans, at the University of California, Berkeley" by Guitty Azarpay, Et al © ECAI, 2002

19. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Sasanian Publication in TimeMap  Provides an example of the capabilities of the ECAI system to include – GIS data – Historic maps – Images – Texts in a time and place context © ECAI, 2002

20. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Sasanian Publication in TimeMap  Zoom in to see more information. © ECAI, 2002

21. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Sasanian Publication in TimeMap  A gazetteer of Sasanian Empire places and their attributes is included with information derived from the Sasanian Empire Map published by Tubinger in Germany. © ECAI, 2002

22. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Sasanian Publication in TimeMap  Five key sites in the Sasanian Empire are presented in a map layer that links to images and descriptions of the sites. © ECAI, 2002

23. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Sasanian Publication in TimeMap  View border for different time ranges © ECAI, 2002

24. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Sasanian Publication in TimeMap  Control which layers display based on time. © ECAI, 2002

25. Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Conclusions  In practice their are only a limited number of GIS software packages available ArcView/ArcGIS (http://www.esri.com) MapInfo (http://www.mapinfo.com/) TimeMap (http://www.timemap.net, see also http://ecai.org)  The learning curve is steep but not unmanageable  Hardware and software costs are significant  Do not be constrained by the tools offered by the software