Krystal Sarcone
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GIS Resources

The Wonderful World of GIS & Geography!

What is GIS?

 

"GIS software is not considered user friendly. There are many ways in which it does not act like other software applications.  There is a very sharp learning curve and you will need to be willing and able to undertake a lot of trial and error with procedures.  You might (will) have to repeat things several times. Persistence will eventually pay off. However, if you are a person who is easily frustrated by software glitches, repetition, and lack of control, you have a challenge ahead of you." Lynn Carlson

Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI)

The ArcGIS Suite!

Collector App, Survey 123 App, ArcGIS Server, Business Analyst, ArcGIS Explorer... ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap, ArcCatalog) 

Works with Remote Sensing Software, Computer Aided Design/Drafting Software (CAD), Global Positioning System (GPS) Software, Graphic Production Software(Photoshop, InDesign, Powerpoint) & Programming Language Integrated Development Environments (IDE)

Other Options: IDRISI, Global Mapper, Manifold, Maptitude, QGIS

What is Brown's EARTH Lab?

The best place on campus to work on all GIS projects. With fast computers with the most updated version of ArcGIS.

Geography

 

John Snow and the 1854 Pandemic of Cholera in London
& and the Birth of Geospatial Analysis
+ GIS Application of real-time mapping of Swine Flu during the Haj to Mecca in 2009

Historical and contemporary looks at disease tracking through data collection, mapping and geospatial technologies.
 

Ebola Case Study of 2014

Extracted from the ESRI 2015 User Conference series to support student's learning how GIS is used to assist with the control of a disease epidemic.

Arcmap document... .mxd = reference where data resides

maps are not just maps, but data maps that can be used for analysis and have embedded attributes 

Data Types

  • Vector, points, lines, and polygons. 
    • shapefiles, geodatabase feature classes
      • shape file: .shp, .dbf, .shx, .prj, .... .xml, .sbn, .sbx, .ain
      • geodatabase, .gdb: feature classes within will not have an extension 
  • Raster = better for boundaryless items, no edgs, rain, elevation etc. 
    • lots of file formats, .jpeg, .bmp, .tif, .grid, .sid, .img, ecw, .bil
  • Coverage = need two folders, zipped = old format .e00 files
  • CAD = 

Naming Conventions

  • avoid spaces
  • no number for first character
  • no special characters
  • try to short file names
  • Uppercase and underscores or numbers in middle or end are fine!

Geographic Addresses: x= longitude y= latitude accepted worldwide, but expressed in different ways e.g. decimal degrees, degrees minute seconds, feet or meters *different ways to communicate xy spot

GCS = dd, dms

  • 1. Unit of Measure
    • dd, dms, *degrees
  • 2. Origin
    • usually 0, 0 prime meridian and equator
  • 3. Sphere Size
    • complicated measurement of the earth- so many possibilities.... 
      • Clarke 1866, GRS80
  • 4. Datum
    • complicated too
      • not a perfect sphere, and lots of options
        • North American Datum of NAD83, 
        • Geodetic Datum of Australia 1994
        • World Geodetic System 1984, less than 2cm of error National defense, Google!

PCS= ft. meters.

  • same 4 as above...
  • 1. ft or meters
  • 2. revised origin
  • 3. 
  • 4. 
  • plus 5th - projection.... flattened, local!
Case Study
A brief overview of Datum and why there are so many different Datum around the world. It also explains why Google Earth uses WGS84.

oblique spheroid

In this series, we talk about the basics of map projections, including coordinate systems and datums. Resources and references: USGS Report http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1532/report.pdf GEOID: http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1532/report.pdfhttp://geomatica.como.polimi.it/elab/geoid/geoidViewer.html Mercator Projection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPQZ7NcQ6YQ Equirectangular Projection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ic5ZIf74Ls
 
The road to choosing custom projections is not paved with sundrops and lilies. It is time to start learning the nuts and bolts of coordinate systems. Minute Markers: -0:27- Geodesy, the geoid. -1:10- Ellipsoid, geographic coordinate system. -2:09- Can't effectively measure with ellipsoid. -3:21- Planar coordinate system. -3:49- Geodetic datums. -5:41- Projections.
UTM is a coordinate system designed for projecting a 3D sphere (Earth) onto a 2D map, while latitude and longitude are used to locate places on Earth's 3D surface.

UTM, US Army. mercador projection transverse cylindrical projection. scale is true at meridian, 60 zone 6 degrees wide, NAD83 datum GR80 elipsoid

Geodesy

Geodesy is a field of study that deals with the measurement and representation of the Earth, and NASA contributes to this field with radio telescopes, ground surveys, satellites, and more! Learn about geodesy here!
 
How can we unfold the Earth? Making a map of the earth is a classic problem. Here a new method is shown: Divide the surface of the globe in many triangles and unfold it. Ten variations are shown, which get stranger and stranger...