Geospatial Technology
Geospatial technology is a collective term used to describe the integrated use of
geographic information systems,remote sensing, global navigation satellite systems,
digital cartography and Internet mapping.
What is GIS?
-definition: A geographic information sys...
GIS Exam 1 Questions and Answers
2024/2025
Geospatial Technology
Geospatial technology is a collective term used to describe the integrated use of
geographic information systems,remote sensing, global navigation satellite systems,
digital cartography and Internet mapping.
What is GIS?
-definition: A geographic information system is a computer system* designed to
manage and analyze spatial
data, where spatial data can be any data that are tied to places or geographic coordinates.
*the five components of a computer system include:
--1) hardware, 2) software, 3) data, 4) people, and 5) work flow procedures
-to manage and analyze spatial data, a GIS has six major functions.
--GIS software provides users with the ability to: 1) capture, 2) store, 3) manipulate, 4)
query,
--5) analyze and 6) display spatial data (know these six main functions).
Origins of GIS
-the Canadian Geographic Information System (CGIS) was the first operational GIS
--developed in the early 1960's, the era of mainframe computers
--the system was designed to inventory land use and assist in the management of natural
resources
--Roger Tomlinson is considered the "father of GIS" for his role in the development of the CGIS
--ArcMap is used for data analysis and to create map products- ArcCatalog is used for file
management
- ArcGIS can be licensed at three levels with increasing functionality
- the three license levels of ArcGIS 10 are called Basic, Standard, and Advanced
- as you move from Basic to Standard to Advanced, the software includes more tools
(functionality)
- main advantage: user interface is the same across the Basic, Standard, and Advanced
versions
- there are also dozens of extensions available for core ArcGIS software
- some of the extensions are licensed and some are free
- some common extensions include: Spatial Analyst, Network Analyst, 3D Analyst, etc
- these extensions add specialized tools (functionality) to the core software
How does a GIS work?
- a GIS operates on the premise that all of the features in the real world can be
represented by:
--points (e.g. wells, landmarks, cities on a world map)
---note: how features are represented (as points, lines or polygons) depends upon the scale of
the map
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