Introduction to

Geographic Information System (GIS)

Engr. Jessie Linn P. Ablao

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 Outline

I. Definition F) Method
2) Cartography
II. Significance
(Symbology)
III. Anatomy of GIS 3) Standards (OGC,
A) Data GDAL, OGC)
B) Network
C) Software
D) Hardware
E) People

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 Introduction to GIS

Definition Keywords
● A Geographic • (Geo)spatial data
Information System • Database/DBMS
(GIS) is a computerized • Web GIS/ Geospatial Stack
system for dealing with
information about
• FOSS GIS/ OSGEO
geographically located • Cartography (styling)
features • Spatial/overlay analysis
- HLURB

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 Significance
 Solves ”geographic problems” such as
 Health care – Where should the Department of
Health locate a new regional health facility?
 Transportation – Where should the Department of
Public Works and Highways lay out a new farm-to-
market road?
 Forestry – Where should the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources implement its
reforestation program?
 Banks (Gov't) – Where are the properties for
investigation and how will be valuated (againts LU,
Survey plans, slope, field investigation report, etc)
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 Significance

● Solves ”geographic problems” such as

– Local government – Where should the Department of
Interior and Local Government focus its anti-
poverty programs and delivery of basic services?
– Planning and Development Office – Is the location of
business permit applicant within a commercial or
industrial zone?
– Urban planning – Where should the city government
develop parks and recreation sites or locate agro-
industrial facilities?

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 Significance
 Solves ”geographic problems” such as
 Tourism – Where should the Department of
Tourism build deluxe hotels in Boracay Island?
 Justice Department – Where should the Justice
Department build the justice halls so that people
under its jurisdiction have better access?
 Trucking agency – What is the most efficient route
for the fleets to optimize fuel consumption
 Fast Food stores – Where to put up a new branch
with the highest projected income

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 Significance
– Utility Companies – Where to expand services and
how to monitor existing services
● For Geodetic Engineers (or Land Management
Sector)
– What are the nearest Hor./Ver. Control Point near a
survey site?
– Manage spatial/ survey data
– Visualize and analyze data
– Consolidate survey data from different sources
– Project management (survey planning, data
collection and conersion, data sharing, etc)
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 So Why is GIS Important?

 It is able to easily integrate data from various

sources with different formats to come up with
more accurate and timely decisions, thereby
solving problems more efficiently.
 Illustrate patterns and trends that tabular data
alone cannot show.
 Able to answer questions quickly and easily
about location (Where? Why? How?).

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 Anatomy of GIS

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 Anatomy of GIS

Adapted from: Longley et.al., 2010

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 1. Network

Probably the most fundamental component today:

 For rapid communication or sharing of digital
information
 GIS relies heavily on internet or intranet
(corporations, agencies, military)
 The use of WWW to give access to maps dates from
1993
 The internet is increasingly integrated into many
aspect of GIS use

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 2. Hardware

● consists of the computer system on which the GIS

software will run.
● Made up of a configuration of core and peripheral
equipment used for acquisition, storage, analysis,
and display of geographic information.
● The computer forms the backbone of the GIS
hardware, the heart of which is the Central
Processing Unit (CPU).

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 2. Hardware

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 3. Data

 The core of GIS

 May be geographic or tabular/attribute data
 Attribute data are additional information that
describe the characteristics of spatial data
 Primarily described based on:
 Metadata (map projection, sources, accuracy, etc)
 Data Models and Formats

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 3. Data

Source; http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/courses/Webcourse-contents/

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 3. Data

Source: http://www.croswell-schulte.com
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 3. Data
● Geographic data can be classified into three types:
– Geodetic control network – foundation of all
geographic data; established by high-precision
surveying methods
– Topographic base – result of mapping programs by
mapping agencies
– Graphical overlays – thematic data pertaining to
specific GIS applications; may be derived from the
topographic base, site investigation, field survey,
remote sensing, etc.

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 Spatial Data Models

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 Spatial Data Models
RASTER

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 Spatial Data Models
Forest

Road

well

Drainage

tree Building

Farm
Post

Fence

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 Spatial Data Models

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 Spatial Data Models
Common formats
● TIFF/GeoTiff
● JPEG
● IMG
● BMP
● ASCII Grid
● ERS

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 Spatial Data Models
VECTOR
 The vector is composed of a string of points, each
represented by their exact spatial coordinates.

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 Spatial Data Models

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 Spatial Data Models

Vector common data formats

 Autodesk (DWG/DXF)
 ESRI Shapefile (SHP)
 Keyhole Markup Language (KML)
 GPS Exchange Format (GPX)
 GRASS (WKB)
 Javascript Object Notation (GeoJSON)

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 Combination of Raster and Vector

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 Data Models

Attribute Data Model (Database)

 GIS involves both spatial and attribute data.
 Spatial: geometry of map features
 Attribute: characteristics of the map features
 Attribute data are normally stored in tables.
 Record or tuple: row
 Field or item: column
 Attribute: intersection of row and column
 Data models relate spatial & attribute data.
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 Database

Spatial data (left) are linked to attribute data (right) by

the label ID.

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 Database

Spatial data (left) are linked to attribute data

(right) by the geocode ID.
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 Database
Spatial Database
● database that is optimized to store and query data
that is related to objects in space (spatial data),
including points, lines and polygons
● Additional capabilities where added to handle these
spatial data (e.g. Spatial reference system and
geometry)
● This makes it possible to do spatial query within a
DBMS
● PostGIS, Oracle Spatial, MySQL Spatial, etc
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 Spatial Database (PostGIS)
Sample spatial queries:
What is the area in acres of parcels built on
since 2000?
SELECT Sum(ST_Area(the_geom)) / 43560
FROM taxlot_ply
WHERE yearblt >= 2000;

What is the average property value in a

one-mile (5280 foot) radius?
SELECT Sum(landvalue + impvalue) / Count(*) as
avg_value
FROM taxlot_ply
WHERE
ST_DWithin(
the_geom,
ST_GeomFromText('POINT(4387009 402407)',
2270),
5280
);

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 Data Characteristics

● Good Data cost money

● Garbage In Garbage Out
Acquisition

Acquisition
cost

cost
cm m km 0% 100%
Spatial accuracy Data quality

FIGURE 3.5. Dataacquisition costs increasewith increasingspatial resolution and dataquality.

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 (Free) Data Sources

 Other government agencies (e.g. NAMRIA)

 Non-government Organizations (e.g. ESSC)
 Web
 Vector Data (Openstreetmap.org via Cloudmade and
Geofabrik)
 Vector and Raster Data (PhilGIS.org)
 High Resolution Satellite Imageries (Bing Maps via OSM)
 Satellite Imageries (http://glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/)
 DEM (http://www.gdem.aster.ersdac.or.jp/)
 … and many more

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 4. Software

● provides the functions and tools needed to store,

analyze, and display geographic information.
● Example are ArcGIS, MapInfo, AutoCAD Map,
Quantum GIS, uDig, GoogleEarth, etc.
● Can range from a simple package designed for a
single PC to a major industrial-level workhorse for
an entire group of networked computers.

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 4. Software
Proprietory Software - these are commercially
available applications
Software Developer
ArcGIS Environmental Systems Research Institute
(www.esri.com)
Geomatica PCI (www.pci.ca)
GeoMedia Intergraph Corporation (www.intergraph.com)
Idrisi Clark Labs (www.clark.edu)
Manifold Manifold
MapPoint Microsoft Corporation (www.microsoft.com)
MapInfo MapInfo Corporation (www.mapinfo.com)
GoogleEarth/ Google
Google Map
Engr. Jessie Linn Ablao
Introduction to Geographic Information System 35
 4. Software

FOSS GIS – Free and Open Source Software

– software that is liberally licensed to grant users the
right to use, study, change, and improve its design
through the availability of its source code.
– free refers to the freedom to copy and re-use the
software
– all FOSS GIS are being manage/funded/sponsored by
the Open Source Geospatial (OSGeo) Foundation

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 4. Software

Software Developer
Quantum GIS http://qgis.osgeo.org/
GRASS http://grass.osgeo.org/
Geoserver http://geoserver.org/
Ilwis ITC Netherlands (www.itc.nl)
GDAL Opensource library
Openlayers Opensource web mapping API
●Openlayers.org

PostGIS Opensource database management system

(DBMS)
http://www.postgis.org/

Engr. Jessie Linn Ablao

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 4. Software
Web GIS
– Web mapping is the process of designing,
implementing, generating and delivering maps on
the World Wide Web and its product
– Web GIS is similar to web mapping but with an
emphasis on analysis, processing of project specific
geodata and exploratory aspects
● Examples
– Google map/GoogleEarth (maps.google.com)
– Openstreetmap (openstreetmap.org)
– Cloudmade (http://maps.cloudmade.com/)
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The Geospatial Stack (Web-GIS)

Engr. Jessie Linn Ablao

Introduction to Geographic Information System 39
The Geospatial Stack (Web-GIS)

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 4. Software

Scripts
 GIS task performed repeatedly are automated
using scripts and macros
 Support for scripts is an important aspect of a
GIS software
Extensions/plugins
 This are programs that extends the
functionalities of the core GIS program

Engr. Jessie Linn Ablao

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Some Applications - Transportation

(left) Sample map produced from the MMDA GIS; (right) web-
based traffic information of MMDA (source: MMDA)
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 Some Applications - Environment

A map derived from GIS showing the concentration of contaminants (source:

UP-ENE)

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 Some Applications - Environment

The watersheds and stream networks were derived by GIS using the
shuttle radar topography mission digital elevation model (SRTM-DEM).
This is also used for hydrologic modelling of the watershed.
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 Some Applications - Education

Snapshot of the UP-DGE web-based GIS

(source: http://www.dge.upd.edu.ph)
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Some Applications – Education and
community mapping

Web mapping application using the Free and Open Source Software
application Ushahidi where CWTS students can report campuse issues
via web
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 Some Applications – Local
Government

Web-based GIS portal of Naga City (source: http://gis.naga.gov.ph)

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 Some Applications – Local
Government and Data Sharing

Naga City Base map from its web GIS (source: http://gis.naga.gov.ph)

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 Some Applications – Tax Assessment

ITAX system developed by GIZ for the province of Negros Oriental

(http://www.my-itax.com/)
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 Some Applications – Peace and
order

Web crime blotter interface and crime hotspots in Sta. Cruz, Manila area
using GIS (Ildefonso et.al, 2011)
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 5. People

 GIS users range from technical specialists who

design and maintain the system to those who
use it to help them perform their everyday work.
 Can be classified into three categories:
– Viewers
– General users
– GIS specialists

Engr. Jessie Linn Ablao

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 GIS Users and their Interaction
GIS
Develop specialist
applications for
Develop
Request support applications for
General GIS from
users
Geographic
information
Use GIS as a viewers
means to provide
Source: Lo and Yeung (2002)
service to
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 Requirements

● Thus, a GIS manager or analyst should be proficient

in the fields related to these components which
includes but not limited to:
– database management, geography, geomatics,
information technology, statistics, computer
management, project management, planning, etc.
● This also makes GIS as a multi-disciplinary field.
● Note: Geographic information is embedded in over
80% of all the goods and services a municipality
provides
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 6. Methods

Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)

 an international industry consortium of 444
companies, government agencies and
universities participating in a consensus
process to develop publicly available interface
standards.

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 6. Methods
OGC Standards
● Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL)
– translator library for raster geospatial data formats
that is released under an X/MIT style Open Source
license by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation
(OSGEO)
● OGR Simple Features Library
– is a C++ open source library (and commandline
tools) providing read (and sometimes write) access
to a variety of vector file formats including ESRI
Shapefiles, S-57, SDTS, PostGIS, Oracle Spatial,
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and Mapinfo mid/mif and TAB formats 55
Introduction to Geographic Information System
 OGC Standards (Web GIS)

 WMS
 WFS (WFS-T)
 WCS
 SLD

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 Links

● http://www.osgeo.org/
● http://www.gdal.org/ogr/index.html
● http://www.gdal.org/
● http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards
● www.openstreetmap.org
● www.cloudmade.com
● www.dge.upd.edu.ph

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