Technology Overview Geographic Information Systems

Technology OverviewTechnology OverviewGeographic Information SystemsGeographic Information Systems

GIS: GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM

• Geographic data converted to digital format and georeferenced

• Developed by national, state and local sources

• Can provide information on a many types of features

• Combines geographic information with tabular data

Remote SensingGPS

GIS Data Sources

Paper Maps

Common types of GIS data

• Topographic maps

• Infrastructure– Roads, Rail, Trails, Water,

Sewer, Phone lines

• Geology

• Hydrography– Lakes, Ponds, Rivers,

Streams

• Demographic (Census)

• Wetlands– NWI, USGS, Remote Sensing

• Soils

• Groundwater resources

• Landcover/Landuse

• Digital Elevation Models

• Watershed delineations

What makes GIS work?

• GIS SOFTWARE - Stack different data layers• GIS SOFTWARE - Knows how features are related to each other spatially

GIS System Data Types

SWAINS LAKE

Young Rd

– Attribute Data• names, labels

SITE A SWAINSDate SD CHL Color

5/5/98 3.5 2.7 246/12/98 4.2 2.0 226/19/98 3.9 3.1 216/26/98 3.4 3.9 227/3/98 2.9 4.2 20

7/10/98 2.7 4.5 20

– Reference Data• relational data

Wetlands

Lake

WatershedBoundary

Streams

Roads

SamplingSites

Wells

Graphs

Maps

Tables

What can you do with GPS and GIS?

Present information as...

Slight

Severe

Not all GIS uses are related to “bugs and bunnies”

METADATA…

Who developed the data?

What was the original source data?

When was the data developed?

When was the last update?

What is the scale of the data?

What are the attributes of the data?

Who to contact to find out more?

…helps keep track of your GIS data

Questions?