Lecture 2 11/01/2017

Question 1

How old is the worlds oldest map and where was it found?

Answer 1

14,000 years ago, Spain

Question 2

Where was the first GIS created and by who?

Answer 2

First ever GIS created in Canada for the government in 1963 by Roger Tomlinson

Question 3

What was Roger Tomilson’s work centred around?

Answer 3

Land inventory and suitability for activities such as Ag.

Question 4

Are video game landscapes an example of GIS?

Answer 4

Yes.

Question 5

What are the 5 major components of a GIS?

Answer 5

1. Software
2. Hardware
3. People
4. Methods
5. Data

Question 6

Large scale gives ____ detail, small scale gives ____ detail.

Answer 6

more detail

less detail

Question 7

What are the 3 problems GIS revolves around?

Answer 7

1. Scale
2. Purpose
3. Time

Question 8

3 main views of GIS

Answer 8

1. Map view
2. Database view
3. Model view

Question 9

Spatial data v. aspatial data?

Answer 9

Spatial data - have unique geographic coordinates (lat,long) or other spatial identifiers that allow the data to be located in geographic space.

Aspatial data - such as your age, height, measurement have no geographic information associated with them.

Question 10

Geographic information can be expressed in 3 basic ways:

Answer 10

1. Continuous - Information or values continue unrestrained across the Earth’s surface or study area; continuous geographical variables (e.g., topographical, isopleth, or bathymetric map using interval-area symbology).
2. Discrete - “Information or values restrained to a given point or area on the earth’s surface or study area of interest - they have a finite fixed area of space that they occupy on the Earth’s surface (e.g., school distribution map using nominal-point symbology).
3. Geographic Area - Taking a number of discrete measurements within a geographic area (i.e. a polygon) and then summarizing these data with a single value associated with the region (e.g., chloropleth map using ordinal-area symbology)

Question 11

Continuous (C) and Discrete (D) data can be categorized into 4 geometry types:

Answer 11

1. Points (D)
2. Lines (D)
3. Areas/Polygons (D)
4. Surfaces (C)

Question 12

How is Spatial Data Stored in a GIS?

Answer 12

1) In layers
2) As features (points, lines, and areas/polygons)
3) In vector + raster formats
4) With associated databases

Question 13

What is Meta Data? Provide an example.

Answer 13

1. Meta data is data about data
2. Meta data is information that describes items in ArcGIS (e.g., coordinates, geometry type [point, line, polygon/area, surface], geographic coordinate system, projection system, datum, etc.)

Question 14

What are the questions we can answer with GIS?

Answer 14

1. Location (e.g., where is the nearest fire hydrant, where is the closest school, etc?)
2. Trends (e.g., traffic flow, population distribution, wealth distribution, population density etc.)
3. Patterns (e.g., property value relative to the proximity of recreational trails, obesity rate relative to wealth distribution, B & E occurrence relative to wealth distribution, etc)
4. Conditions (e.g., biomass density, area of parking lot space, bike lane facilities, sidewalks, etc.)
5. Implications (e.g, modelling: surface runoff before/after development, recreational trail use before/after renovation, traffic flow before/after traffic calming measures, etc.)

Question 15

Who uses GIS? Provide examples.

Answer 15

1. Traffic Engineers
2. Urban Planners
3. Surveyors
4. Geologists
5. Cartographers
6. Researchers
7. Epidemiologists