Fundamentals of GIS:
What is GIS?
Agenda
1. Define GIS and related terms
– Geographic Information
– GIS as:
• a type of software
• a set of tools
• an approach to analysis
– Geographical Information Science (GISc)
2. Data in GIS
– Spatial and attribute
– Geo-referencing data
– Raster and vector
– Layers of data
3. Querying a GIS database
4. Integrating data with GIS
Geographical Information (GI)
Information that refers to a location on the
Earth’s surface
– Has both a spatial and a thematic component
• Census data
• Hospitals admissions data
• Relief data (e.g. from contours)
• Information on transport networks
• A text about a specific place (eg Defoe’s description of
London during the Plague)
• A photograph or painting of a building
– Locational component can be an explicit (e.g. a co-
ordinate or a precisely defined administrative unit) or
vaguer (e.g.. “The area around London”or “In Gaelic
speaking areas”)
Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
1. GIS: A type of software
– A computer system that allows us to handle
information about the location of features or
phenomena on the Earth’s surface
– Has all the functionality of a conventional DBMS plus
much of the functionality of a computer mapping
system
– GIS as a DBMS that allows us to explicitly handle the
spatial
– Common examples:
• ArcView
• ArcGIS
• MapInfo
Geographical Information Systems (2)
2. GIS: A tool-kit
• Manipulate spatially:
– Calculate distances and adjacencies
– Change projections and scales
– Integrate disparate sources
• Analyse spatially:
– Quantitative analysis
– Exploratory spatial data analysis
– Qualitative analysis
• Visualise data:
– Maps!
– Tables, graphs, etc.
– Animations
– Virtual landscapes
Geographical Information Systems (3)
3. Approach:
– Explore the database:
• In conventional ways
• AND geographically
– Allows us to think about the implications of location
– Allows us to think holistically
– Should not be restricted by vendor-provided
functionality
– Should be used imaginatively taking into account :
• the advantages and limitations of geographical information
• the traditions of humanities scholarship
Geographical Information Science (GISc)
Deals with making appropriate or best use of
geographical information
Closely related to GIS but is not application
specific
Examples
– Analysis techniques
– Visualisation techniques
– Algorithms for geographical data
Types of data
– Two types of data are stored for each item in the
database
1. Attribute data:
– Says what a feature is
• Eg. statistics, text, images, sound, etc.
2. Spatial data:
– Says where the feature is
– Co-ordinate based
– Vector data – discrete features:
• Points
• Lines
• Polygons (zones or areas)
– Raster data:
• A continuous surface
Geo-referencing data
Capturing data
– Scanning: all of map converted into raster data
– Digitising: individual features selected from map as
points, lines or polygons
Geo-referencing
– Initial scanning digitising gives co-ordinates in inches
from bottom left corner of digitiser/scanner
– Real-world co-ordinates are found for four
registration points on the captured data
– These are used to convert the entire map onto a real-
world co-ordinate system
Example of geo-referencing
Source: ESRI (1997)
Layers
Data on different themes are stored in separate “layers”
As each layer is geo-referenced layers from different sources
can easily be integrated using location
This can be used to build up complex models of the real world
from widely disparate sources
Raster data: Hastings
Scale: 1:100,000
Grid cell size: 50 m.
Minimum altitude: 0 m.
Maximum altitude: 174 m.
© Ordnance Survey
Example: Vector data
Querying GIS data
Attribute query
– Select features using attribute data (e.g. using SQL)
– Results can be mapped or presented in conventional
database form
– Can be used to produce maps of subsets of the data
or choropleth maps
Spatial query
– Clicking on features on the map to find out their
attribute values
Used in combination these are a powerful way of
exploring spatial patterns in your data
Attribute query: Lung disease in the
1860s
Spatial data: Registration
Districts, 1/1/1870
Attribute data: Mortality rate
per 1,000 from lung disease
among men aged 45-64
Source: Registrar General’s
Decennial Supplement, 1871
Query: Select areas where
mortality rate > 58.0
Spatial query: Lung disease in the 1860s
District: Alston with Garrigill
County: Cumberland
M_rate: 68.4
Mapping through attribute query
Data integration: Overlay
Joins two layers to create a new layer
The output layer will contain both the spatial AND attribute data from
both of the input layers
Conclusions
Advantages of GIS
– Exploring both geographical and thematic components of data in
a holistic way
– Stresses geographical aspects of a research question
– Allows handling and exploration of large volumes of data
– Allows integration of data from widely disparate sources
– Allows analysis of data to explicitly incorporate location
– Allows a wide variety of forms of visualisation
Limitations of GIS
– Data are expensive
– Learning curve on GIS software can be long
– Shows spatial relationships but does not provide absolute
solutions
– Origins in the Earth sciences and computer science. Solutions
may not be appropriate for humanities research
