The James Bay Project GIS Concepts

GIS Concepts - Overview

• Web GIS• Geographic data• Symbolizing• Landsat Imagery

GIS Concept – Web GIS• A GIS combines people, hardware, software and data to capture,

manage, analyze and display all forms of geographic information. This allows users to understand, question, interpret and visualize data in ways to reveal relationships, patterns and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports and charts.

• A Web GIS is no different. It delivers the basic capabilities of a GIS to everyone through the Internet.

GIS Concept – Geographic Data

• Geographic data: Information describing the location and attributes of things, including their shapes and representation. Geographic data are the composite of spatial data and attribute data.- Attribute data: Tabular or textual data

describing the geographic characteristics of features.

- Spatial Data: Information about the locations and shapes of geographic features and the relationships between them, usually stored as coordinates and topology. Any data that can be mapped.

GIS Concept – Symbology• Symbology: The set of

conventions, rules, or encoding systems that define how geographic features are represented with symbols on a map. A characteristic of a map feature may influence the size, color, and shape of the symbol used.

• Symbolization: The process of devising a set of marks of appropriate size, color, shape, and pattern, and assigning them to map features to convey their characteristics at a given map scale.

GIS Concept – Landsat Imagery

• Landsat: Multispectral, earth-orbiting satellites, developed by the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), that gather imagery for land-use inventory, geological and mineralogical exploration, crop and forestry assessment, and cartography.

• Used to visualize the changes over time to an area from the images collected.

Next Step - Tutorials

• The following tutorials teach how to apply these GIS concepts:- Mapping your Data

- Using and interacting with a Web GIS- Working with geographic data- Symbolizing

- ChangeMatters- Explore Landsat imagery- Analyze change over time

edu.esri.ca