UNIT-2

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM

Introduction of GIS

Geographic Information System (GIS) offers capabilities of integrating multisector,

multilevel and multiperiod database. GIS is a computerized database system for capture,
storage, retrieval, analysis, and display of spatial data. It is a general-purpose technology for
handling geographic data in digital form, and satisfying the following specific needs, 'among
others

(i) The ability to pre-process data from large stores into a form suitable for analysis,
including operations such as reformatting, change of projection, resampling, and
generalisation.
(ii) Direct support for analysis and modelling, so that forms of analysis, calibrations
of models, forecasting, and prediction are all handled through instructions to the
GIS.
(iii) post processing of results including such operations as reformatting, tabulation,
report generation, and mapping

In all these operations, the typical GIS user now expects to be able to define requirements and
interact with the system through a "user-friendly" intuitive interface icons and desktop
metaphors. The function of an information system is to improve one's ability to make
decisions. An information system is the chain of operations that takes us from planning the
observation and collection of data, to storage and analysis of the data, and to the use of the
derived information in some decision-making process.

History of GIS

The first example of linking the 'what' with 'where' takes us all the way back to 1854 and a
cholera outbreak. At the time, people believed that the disease was being spread through the
air. But an enterprising English Doctor, Dr Jon Snow wasn’t convinced. So, he decided to
map the outbreak locations, the roads and the property boundaries and the water pumps. And,
when he did, he made a startling discovery.

1
A pattern emerged. This pattern proved that the disease was not in fact airborne but was
being communicated via water and even more specifically by one infected water pump. John
Snow’s cholera map was a major event connecting the what with the where.

In the period between 1960 to 1975 three major technological advancements in new computer
technology led to the birth of modern GIS. Those were the ability to output map graphics
using line printers advances in data storage and the processing power of mainframe
computers. We now had the ability to record coordinates as data inputs and perform
calculations on those coordinates.

1990s-2000s: Technological Advancements:

 Increased computing power, the internet, and the development of GPS technology further
fueled the growth of GIS.
 GIS became integrated into various fields, including government, business, and research.
 The rise of the internet helped to spread GIS data, and capability.

GIS Today:

 GIS is now a ubiquitous technology used in countless applications.

 Cloud-based GIS and mobile GIS have made the technology more accessible than ever.
 The integration of GIS with other technologies, such as artificial intelligence and the
Internet of Things (IoT), is driving further innovation.

Components of GIS
A working GIS integrates five key components: hardware, software, data, people, and methods
2
1. Hardware:
 This includes the physical computer systems that run GIS software.
 This can range from desktop computers and laptops to servers and mobile devices.
 It also encompasses peripherals like GPS units, digitizers, scanners, and plotters, used for
data input and output.
 Essentially, it's the technological foundation on which GIS operates.
2. Software:
 GIS software provides the tools and functions needed to store, analyze, and display
geographic data.
 This includes programs for:
o Data input and manipulation.
o Database management.
o Spatial analysis and modeling.
o Map creation and visualization.
 Examples include ArcGIS, QGIS, and other specialized software.
3. Data:
 Data is the heart of a GIS.
 It comprises both spatial data (location information) and attribute data (descriptive
information).
 Spatial data can be represented in two main formats:
o Vector data: Points, lines, and polygons.
o Raster data: Grid-based data, such as satellite imagery.
 Attribute data describes the characteristics of spatial features.
 Data sources can include:
o Satellite imagery.
o Aerial photographs.
o GPS data.
o Census data.
o Existing maps.

4. People:
 GIS professionals are essential for designing, implementing, and managing GIS systems.

 This includes:
o GIS analysts.
o Cartographers.
o Database administrators.
o Programmers.
o And all of the end users that utilize the information that the GIS provides.
 Their expertise ensures that GIS is used effectively to solve real-world problems.

5. Methods:
 This component involves the procedures and techniques used to analyze and interpret
geographic data.
 It includes:
o Data analysis techniques.
o Spatial modeling.
o Data visualization methods.
o The way that data is gathered, and processed.

3
  Proper methods ensure that GIS analyses are accurate and reliable.

GIS Applications in Real Life:

GIS has permeated numerous aspects of our daily lives, often in ways we might not even realize.
Here are some key real-life applications:

1. Urban Planning and Development:

 Zoning and Land Use: GIS helps city planners analyze land suitability for different
purposes, such as residential, commercial, or industrial development.
 Infrastructure Management: It aids in planning and maintaining infrastructure like
roads, water pipelines, and power grids.
 Smart Cities: GIS is fundamental to smart city initiatives, enabling the integration of
various data sources for efficient city management.

2. Environmental Management:
 Natural Resource Monitoring: GIS is used to track deforestation, monitor water
quality, and assess the impact of climate change.
 Disaster Management: It plays a crucial role in predicting and responding to natural
disasters like floods, wildfires, and earthquakes.
 Conservation: GIS helps identify and protect endangered species and their habitats.

3. Transportation and Navigation:

 Navigation Systems: GPS-enabled navigation apps rely heavily on GIS data for route
planning and real-time traffic updates.
 Transportation Planning: GIS is used to analyze traffic patterns, plan public
transportation routes, and optimize logistics.

4. Agriculture:
 Precision Agriculture: Farmers use GIS to analyze soil conditions, monitor crop health,
and optimize irrigation and fertilizer application.
 Yield Prediction: GIS helps predict crop yields and assess agricultural productivity.

5. Public Health:
 Disease Mapping: GIS is used to track the spread of diseases and identify high-risk
areas.
 Healthcare Planning: It helps in planning the location of healthcare facilities and
optimizing resource allocation.

4
6. Business and Marketing:
 Market Analysis: Businesses use GIS to analyze customer demographics, identify
potential market areas, and optimize store locations.
 Logistics and Delivery: GIS is essential for optimizing delivery routes and managing
supply chains.

7. Emergency Services:
 Emergency Response: GIS helps emergency responders locate incidents, plan
evacuation routes, and coordinate relief efforts.
 Crime Analysis: Law enforcement agencies use GIS to analyze crime patterns and
allocate resources effectively.

The Nature of Geographic data:

Geographic data like place, time, and attributes.

Place, or location, is essential in a geographic information system. Locations are the basis for many of
the benefits of geographic information systems: the ability to map, to link different kinds of information
because they refer to the same place, and to measure distances and areas. Without locations, data are said
to be "spatial" and have no value at all within a geographic information system.

Time is an optional element. Many aspects of the earth's surface are slow to change and can be thought of
as unchanging. Height above sea level changes slowly because of erosion and movements of the earth's
crust, but these processes operate on scales of hundreds or thousands of years, and for most applications
(except geophysics) we can safely omit time from the representation of elevation. On the other hand,
atmospheric temperature changes daily, and dramatic changes sometimes occur in minutes with the
passage of a cold front or thunderstorm, so time is distinctly important.

Attributes refer to descriptive information. The range of attributes in geographic information is vast.
Some attributes are physical or environmental in nature (e.g., atmospheric temperature or elevation),
while others are social or economic (e.g., population or income). There are five main types of attributes:
nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio, and cyclic.

 Spatial Component:

 Geographic data inherently involves location. This "where" aspect is crucial. Locations
are typically defined by coordinates (e.g., latitude and longitude).
 This spatial component allows us to understand the distribution, patterns, and
relationships of phenomena across the Earth's surface.

 Attribute Component:

 Alongside location, geographic data includes attributes, which are descriptive

characteristics of those locations. This "what" aspect provides context.
 Attributes can be qualitative (e.g., land use type) or quantitative (e.g., population
density).

 Spatial Relationships:

 A key aspect of geographic data is that it allows us to analyze how features relate to each
other in space. This includes concepts like:
o Proximity: How close things are to each other.
5
 o Connectivity: How things are linked or connected.
o Containment: Whether one feature is within another.

 Representation:

 Geographic data is commonly represented in two primary forms:

o Vector Data: Represents features as points, lines, or polygons. This is useful for
discrete objects with defined boundaries (e.g., roads, buildings, parcels).
o Raster Data: Represents data as a grid of cells (pixels). This is useful for
continuous phenomena (e.g., elevation, satellite imagery).

 Spatial Dependence (Spatial Autocorrelation):

 A fundamental principle is that things that are closer together tend to be more similar
than things that are farther apart. This is known as spatial autocorrelation.
 This property influences how we analyze and interpret geographic data.

 Temporal Component:

 Geographic data can also have a time component. Meaning that information can be
tracked through time, showing how things change location, or how their attributes change
over time.

Map

A map is fundamentally a visual representation of an earth that shows countries, rivers,

mountains, roads, etc. A map is a symbolic depiction of spatial relationships it shows how things
are located in relation to each other within a given space.

Types of Maps

The 4 main types of maps are Topographic, Thematic, Navigational and Cadastral Maps

Topographic Maps: These maps focus on the shape and elevation of the land, using contour
lines to represent changes in altitude.

Thematic Maps: These maps are designed to show a specific theme or data, such as climate
zones, population distribution, or economic activities.

Navigational maps: Navigational maps also known as charts, are specialized maps designed for
navigation, primarily used by Ships, Aircraft and Road Transport providing essential information
like water depths, coastlines and navigational hazards. Road maps provide detailed information
about roads, cities, and other features for land-based navigation.

Cadastral Map: These maps provide meticulous information about land divisions, boundary
sizes, and the lengths of various segments.

Map Scale

6
The ratio between the reduced depiction on the map and the geographical features in the real
world is known as the map scale that is the ratio of the distance between two points on the
map and the corresponding distance on the ground. The scale may be expressed in three
ways.
The three main types of map scales are verbal (or statement), graphic (or bar), and representative
fraction (RF).
 Verbal Scale: Expresses the relationship between map distance and real-world distance in
words, like "1 cm represents 1 km".
 Graphic Scale: Uses a line divided into segments to visually represent distances on the map,
allowing for easy measurement.
 Representative Fraction (RF): A ratio or fraction that shows the relationship between a
unit of distance on the map and the same unit on the ground, such as 1:100,000.

Geographic coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system (GCS) is a spherical or geodetic coordinate system for
measuring and communicating positions directly on Earth as latitude and longitude. It is the
simplest, oldest, and most widely used type of the various spatial reference systems that are in
use and forms the basis for most others. Although latitude and longitude form a
coordinate tuple like a cartesian coordinate system, the geographic coordinate system is not
cartesian because the measurements are angles and are not on a planar surface.

7
Map Projections

Map projection is a basic principle of map making in that when projected on to a flat map,
objects on the earth's surface are distorted in some way, either in size, shape or in relative
location.

Mercator projection: The Mercator projection is a map projection that uses a cylindrical shape
to represent the Earth. It was created by Gerardus Mercator in 1569. The Mercator projection
uses equally spaced vertical lines called meridians and horizontal lines called parallels of
latitude.

Transverse Mercator Map Projection: The transverse Mercator map projection (TM, TMP) is
an adaptation of the standard Mercator projection. The transverse version is widely used in
national and international mapping systems around the world, including the Universal Transverse
Mercator. When paired with a suitable geodetic datum, the transverse Mercator delivers high
accuracy in zones less than a few degrees in east-west extent.

Oblique Mercator Map Projection: The oblique Mercator map projection is an adaptation of
the standard Mercator projection. The oblique version is sometimes used in national mapping
systems. When paired with a suitable geodetic datum, the oblique Mercator delivers high
accuracy in zones less than a few degrees in arbitrary directional extent.

8
Polyconic Projection: A polyconic projection is a map projection that uses an infinite number of
cones to represent the Earth's surface. It's also known as the American polyconic projection. The
scale is true on the central meridian and each parallel becomes a circular arc having true scale.

Cassini projection: The Cassini projection is a transverse cylindric projection. The equator,
central meridian, and meridians 90° from the central meridian project as straight lines. Other
meridians project as complex curves concave toward the central meridian and perpendicularly
intersect with the equator.

Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM): UTM is a specialized application of the transverse

Mercator projection, a method for transforming geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude)
into a plane coordinate system (easting and northing). The transverse Mercator projection is used
to map each zone onto a flat plane, with the central meridian of each zone as the point of zero
distortion.

Lambert conical orthomorphic projection: The Lambert Conformal Conic (LCC) projection,
also known as a conical orthomorphic projection, Lambert conformal conic is a conic
projection. All the meridians are equally spaced straight lines converging to a common point,
which is the nearest pole to the standard parallels. The parallels are represented as circular arcs
centered on the pole.

9
Polar Stereographic Projection: A polar stereographic projection is a map projection that views
the Earth from above either the North or South Pole, with latitude lines appearing as circles and
meridians as straight lines radiating from the pole.

Map Transformation
The term "map transformation" can have slightly different meanings depending on the context. It
generally refers to the process of changing or converting the spatial representation of geographic
data.
This involves changing the coordinates of geographic data from one coordinate system to
another. For example, converting coordinates from a local coordinate system. This is crucial for
integrating data from different sources.
Convert the Earth's curved surface to a flat plane, inevitably introducing distortions. Therefore,
changing from one map projection to another is a map transformation.
"Map transformation" refers to applying a function to each element of a dataset. This can involve
changing the values or format of the data.
Image Transformations: When dealing with raster map data (like aerial photos), map
transformations can involve warping or rubber-sheeting the image to align it with other
geographic data. This is often part of the georeferencing process.
Applications:

 Map transformations are fundamental to GIS for data integration, analysis, and
visualization.
 Transformations are used to correct distortions in satellite and aerial imagery.
 Map projections and other transformations are essential for creating accurate and useful
maps.
 In big data processing, map transformations are used to transform data sets for analysis.

Map transformations are essential operations that allow us to manipulate and convert geographic
data for various purposes.
Geo-referencing

 Geo-referencing means that the internal coordinate system of a digital map or aerial photo
can be related to a ground system of geographic coordinates.
10
 It involves taking an image of the Earth's surface, and placing it accurately on a map of the
same area.
 Georeferencing typically involves identifying Ground Control Points, which are points that
can be precisely located both in the image or data and on the ground.These points serve as
reference points for the transformation.

Accurate Mapping: Georeferencing ensures that maps and spatial data are accurate and reliable.
Data Integration: It allows for the integration of data from various sources, which is essential for
many GIS applications.
Spatial Analysis: It enables spatial analysis, such as:
 Measuring distances and areas
 Identifying spatial relationships
 Modeling spatial processes

Geo-referencing bridges the gap between digital data and the real world, making it possible to
analyze and understand spatial information.

11