GIS

INTRODUCTORY
CONCEPTS
 INTRODUCTION
• The collection of data about the spatial distribution of
significant properties of the Earth’s surface in the form
of maps by navigators, geographers, and surveyors
has long been an important part of activities of
organized society.

• Topographical maps can be regarded as general

purpose maps

• Thematic maps for assessment and understanding of

natural resources are for specific purposes.
• Aerial photography and remote sensing
– map large areas with greater accuracy for producing
thematic maps of large areas, for resource utilization and
management.

• Handling of large volume of data

– quantitative spatial variation of data requires appropriate

tool to process the spatial data using statistical methods
and time series analysis.

• These operations require

– a powerful set of tools for collecting, storing, retrieving,
transforming, and displaying spatial data from the real world
for a particular set of purposes.

• This set of tools constitutes a Geographic

Information System (GIS).
• A GIS is an information system that is designed
to work with data referenced by spatial or
geographical coordinates.

Data collection Data storage Manipulation and

analysis

Planning User User action Output

needs products
 DEFINITION OF GIS
• A Geographical Information System should be thought of
as being much more than means of
– coding, storing, and retrieving the data about the aspects of
earth’s surface
– accessed, transformed, and manipulated interactively
– for studying environmental process, analyzing the results for
trends, or anticipating the possible results of planning and
decision making.
• Geographical Information System is associated with
basic terms:
– Geography
– Information system.
• GEOGRAPHY is ‘writing about the Earth’.
– In writing about the Earth, geographers deal with the spatial
relationship of land with man.

• To study the spatial relationships

– map which is a graphical portrayal of spatial relationships

and phenomena over a small segment of the Earth or the
entire Earth.
• INFORMATION SYSTEM

– chain of operations that consists of from planning the

observation to using the observation-derived information in
some decision making process.
• GIS is both

– a database system with specific capabilities for spatially-

referenced data
– set of operations for working with the data.
• Some of the definitions of GIS given in different
publications are
 DEFINITION OF GIS
• “A system which uses a spatial database to
provide answers to queries of a
geographical nature”.

• “A computer assisted system for the

capture, storage, retrieval, analysis, and
display of spatial data within a particular
organization”.

• “A powerful set of tools for collecting

storing, retrieving at will, and displaying
spatial data from the real world
 COMPLETE DEFINITION

• “An organized collection of

– computer hardware,
– software,
– geographical data, and
– personnel

designed to efficiently capture, store, update,

manipulate, analyze, and display all forms of
geographically referenced information” (ESRI).
• A GIS is also the result of linking parallel
developments in many separate spatial data
processing.
Computer aided design
and graphics

Surveying and
Cartography photogrammetry
(high quality drafting)
GIS
Remote sensing Spatial analysis using
technology rasterized data from thematic
maps
Interpolation from
point data

Linking of several related fields though GIS

 COMPONENTS OF GIS
• The components of GIS are:

(i) Computer system (hardware & operating system),

(ii) Software,
(iii) Spatial data,
(iv) Data management and analysis procedures,
(v) Personnel to operate the GIS.
 Hardware Components
• The hardware components of a GIS comprise of a
– Central Processing Unit (C.P.U.),
– disk drive,
– tape drive,
– digitizer,
– plotter, and
– visual display unit (V.D.U.)

• The disk drive and tape drive are basically data storage
devices.
• Can be used for communicating with other systems.
 V.D.U
Keyboard Mouse

Disk drive
Digitizer
C.P.U.
Tape
drive Scanner

Printer Plotter

Major hardware components of a GIS

• A digitizer and scanner are input devices to convert
graphics into digital data.

• The Visual Display Unit along with a keyboard or

mouse is required to interact with the computer.

• The printer is required to get hardcopy of the reports,

tables, charts, etc where as the plotter, an output
device, converts the digital data into the graphical form.

• The Central Processing Unit of a computer interacts

with various hardware components, and performs
computations and analysis.
 SOFTWARE
The GIS software package has the following
set of modules for performing

a) digitization,
b) editing,
c) overlaying,
d) networking,
e) vectorising,
f) data conversion,
g) Analysis,
h) for answering the queries, and
i) generating output.
 SPATIAL DATA
• Spatial data are characterized by information about
position, connections with other features and details of
non-spatial characteristics.

• All GIS software are designed to handle spatial data.

• Spatial data require spatial referencing using a suitable

geographic referencing system which should be flexible
and lasting, since a GIS may be intended to last many
years.
• A traditional method of representing the geographic
space occupied by spatial data in a GIS environment is
in the form of a series of thematic layers.
• The spatial data represented as either layers or
objects are simplified by breaking down all geographic
features with three basic entity types,
– points,
– lines and
– Areas
 DATA MANAGEMENT & ANALYSIS
• Input data in the forms of spatial data and non-spatial
data, and information about their linkages, and
updating of data are the most expensive and time-
consuming part of any GIS project.
• Data input is the process of converting data from its
existing form to one that can be used by the GIS.
• The management of data in GIS includes
– storage,
– organization, and
– retrieval
using a database management system (DBMS).
• The DMBS should provide support for
– multiple users and
– multiple databases
allowing efficient updating and minimizing the
redundant information.
• It should also allow
– data independence,
– security, and
– integrity.
GIS analysis procedures include

a) storage and retrieval capabilities for presenting the

required information,
b) queries allowing the user to look at patterns in the
data,
c) prediction or modeling capabilities to have
information about what data might be at different
time and place.
d) The data output in GIS depends on
i. cost constraints,
ii. the type of users, and
iii. output devices available.
 Personnel Operating GIS
• A GIS project requires trained personnel who can
plan, implement and operate the system.
• They should also be capable of making decisions on
the basis of the output.
• The success of any GIS project depends upon the
skill and training of the personnel handling the
project.
 GEOGRAPHICAL CONCEPTS
• The geographic features can be represented by three
basic entity types, points, lines, and areas.

• A spatial object represents a geographical area having

a number of different kinds of associated attributes or
characteristics.
• A spatial object with no area is a point that can be
associated with a range of data, such as wells, rain
gauge stations.

• One of the key attributes of a point is its geographical

location represented in terms of coordinates, such as
latitude and longitude.
 GEOGRAPHICAL CONCEPTS
• When a spatial object is made up of a connected
sequence of points, it is referred to as a line.

• Lines have only linear dimension, i.e., they do no have

width, and a specified location is given on one side of
the line and not on the line itself.

• Attributes to a line could be the number of the wells

that the line separates in an area having wells.

• Nodes are defined as the special kinds of points that

usually indicate the junction between lines or the ends
of line segments.
• A closed area is represented by a polygon.

• A polygon can be simple when it consists of undivided

areas or complex when it is divided into areas of
different characteristics.

• Chains are special kind of line segments which

correspond to a portion of the bounding edge of a
polygon.
• In the context of spatial objects, the concepts of scale
and resolution must also be clearly understood.

• Scale is the ratio of distances represented on a map

or photograph to their true distances on the Earth’s
surface.

• A scale of 1:50,000 indicate that one unit of distance

on a map is equal to 50,000 of the same unit, on the
ground.

• A map may be a small-scale map or large-scale map.

• Resolution is an important concept when dealing with
spatial data.
• It literally meaning is ‘distinguishing the individual parts
of an object’, or ‘the degree to which detail is visible in a
photograph or on a television’.
• In case of spatial data, a more specific definition is “the
content of the geometric domain divided by the number
of observations, normalized by the spatial dimension”.
Mean resolution element =  Area 
 
 Number of Obseration 

Smaller value of Mean Resolution Element; higher is the

resolution of dataset.
 INPUT DATA FOR GIS
Input data for GIS cover all aspects of capturing spatial
data and the attribute data.
The sources of spatial data are
existing maps,
aerial photographs,
satellite imageries,
field observations, and
other sources such as UAV.
The spatial data not in digital form are converted into
standard digital form using digitizer or scanner for use in
GIS.
 Aerial Satellite Field Other
Map photograph imagery observation Sources
UAV

Digital input
data

GIS
 Existing Maps
Paper maps are the most important source of data for
GIS. Maps of various scales, sizes, formats, and time
periods showing different features are available for large
portion of the Earth, and these are major sources of data
for the GIS database.
The information available on a paper map is converted into
digital form by the process of digitization for use in GIS.
The advanced countries like U.S.A. also have the digital
maps, which can directly be used in GIS without going into
the process of digitization.
 Aerial Photographs and
Digital Ortho-photographs
• Another major source of data for a GIS application is the
aerial photographs.
• Aerial photographs rectified for relief displacement or radial
distortions are known as ortho-photos.
An ortho-photo is geometrically equivalent to a
conventional line map, and represents planimetric features
on the ground in their true orthographic positions.
 Survey Data and Records
Some survey data and records about rock types, soil
types, elevation, population, and other features are
collected by the related national agencies of a country
and maintained in the form of maps and tables.
These data can also be incorporated into a GIS.
 Satellite Imagery
• Remote sensing data in the form of satellite imagery is
an important element of the organization of any GIS
database as it makes possible repetitive coverage of
large areas.
• Satellite imagery can be used as a raster backdrop on
vector GIS data.
 Other Sources
Conventionally, terrain data can be obtained by field
surveying using grid levelling, stadia tachometry or other
field surveying methods.
These methods have been replaced by the new
generation surveying instruments, such as electronic
tachometer or total station, and the Global Positioning
System (GPS) for collecting locational as well as
attribute data.
Another source of GIS data could be the internet.
Almost all analog or digital data available for use in a
GIS may have limitations, and pose problems while
organizing the GIS database.
 TYPES OF OUTPUT PRODUCTS

a) Thematic maps
b) Chloropleth maps
c) Proximal or dasymetric maps
d) Contour maps
e) Dot maps
f) Line maps
g) Land form maps
h) Animated maps
i) Non-map graphics
• Thematic maps
– spatial variations of a single phenomenon
(e.g., population) or
– relationship between phenomena
(e.g., different classes of land cover).

• Choropleth maps
– relative magnitudes of continuous variables as they occur
within the boundaries of unit areas
(e.g., average annual per capita income).

• In these maps, different tones, colours, and shading

patterns are used to convey the variations in different
areas.
• Proximal or dasymetric maps
– location and magnitude of areas exhibiting relative uniformity
(e.g., land cover classes).
• Different colours and shading patterns are used to
describe differences in the thematic values.

• Contour maps
– quantities by lines of equal value to emphasize gradients
among the values.
Contour lines may be used to indicate variation in
topography of a region, high and low pressure regions
• Dot maps
– spatial distribution of features by varying numbers of uniform
dots (e.g., population)

• Line maps
– direction and magnitude of potential or actual flow
(e.g., to show sources and destinations as well as the volume
of product transported from one state to others).

• Land form maps depict the earth’s surface as it were

viewed from an oblique aerial point view.
• Animated maps are generally used to display
sequences through time (e.g., growth of a city
as its population and area increase through
time).
• Some users/analysts prefer to get the results of
analysis displayed by means of non-map graphics.
• Some of the simple and common graphic
presentation techniques are

a) Bar charts
b) Pie charts
c) Scatter plots
d) Histograms
• Bar charts used to illustrate difference in an attribute
between categories (e.g., time-varying distribution of
land use in an area such as urban, suburban, and
rural).

• Pie charts for displaying information by dividing a circle

into sectors representing proportions of the whole
(e.g., in a state percentage of rural, suburban, and
urban population).
• Scatter plots for displaying behaviour of one attribute
verses another attribute (e.g., yield and applied
fertilizer).

• Histograms show the distribution of a single attribute

to examine the way the attribute is apportioned among
the different possible values (e.g., percentage of
education at primary, secondary, higher, and other
levels).
END