Introduction to GIS for Beginners
Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer based information system used to digitally represent spatial and geographic features present on Earth’s surface. ‘Every object on Earth can be geo-referenced’ is the primary ideology that makes GIS so successful. GIS is a new planning and analytical tool. It comes with many advantages as well as drawbacks. The main purpose of this article is to inform the readers about the new technology, application of the technology and the pros and cons of GIS.
Every GIS system is essentially structured around five main components : spatially referenced data, hardware physically storing the data, software assembling the database, algorithms and data management procedures, and people, both the consumers and producers of spatial data. Every component mentioned increases the complexity of the GIS architecture and it solely depends on the complexity/scale of the project. The most basic operation that could be done by an amateur is to create maps by overlapping data stored as tables by adding attributes to all significant geo-coordinates. Once the features are mapped, geo-statistical analysis such as cluster analysis and network analysis important for applications such as disease monitoring and investigation.
Real world applications of GIS
GIS for conservation of Air Quality
Air pollution poses a major threat to health and climate. Breathing clean air is essential to our health and the environment. GIS technology can provide a clean architecture that manages statistical and spatial data to show the relationship between poor air quality and environmental health. GIS aids in monitoring pollutant emissions. GIS helps us to locate where the pollutants are coming from and monitor those areas to create new strategies to combat poor air quality.
GIS for Climate Change
A Geographical Information System (GIS) is a sophisticated tool for analyzing various types of location-based data, including meteorological data. The amount of stress humans are placing on the planet is rising on a daily basis. What prospective elements could aid us in combating this worldwide issue? We can properly comprehend the stresses and their influence on the extraordinarily complex system that is Earth’s climate by utilizing GIS.
GIS for Forest Assessment
Effective forest assessors keep an eye on changing environmental circumstances and make sound recommendations for long-term growth. GIS may be used to analyze conditions using historical data, stand inventories, soil types, and so on. Users may use modeling to examine alternatives in both temporal and geographical settings. Geospatial records provide forest managers a starting point for reviewing plans.
GIS for Forest Carbon Management
Trees play a crucial role in our ecology. We should allow trees to survive and do their work of carbon sequestration — a critical mechanism for mitigating the threat of climate change — while also providing hope to the greenhouse phenomenon generated by industrial society. GIS enables the visualization, comparison, and forecasting of temporal climate data.
GIS for Early Detection of Infectious Diseases
The solution to control infectious diseases depend on a lot of factors greatly depend on the ability to consider the surrounding context. Because GIS technology relates many kinds of data to geographic location, it excels in not only tracking diseases but also medical supply and many other sectors such as public health. During an outbreak, GIS technologies facilitate the collection of reliable field data. Complex statistical and other studies using GIS technology give pertinent information to support informed judgments. GIS analysis, for example, can identify a possible disease hot spot and determine the capacity of a neighboring hospital to handle the predicted increase in service demand if an epidemic occurs.
GIS for Wildlife Conservation
Climate change, human disruptions, such as pollution and, deforestation, are threats to wildlife biodiversity. GIS technology is a powerful tool for organizing, analyzing, and displaying wildlife data in order to pinpoint regions where conservation efforts are needed. GIS helps us to visualize and monitor population distribution, habitat use, historical and present regional biodiversity.
How can you start using GIS
In order to get started with GIS, a specialised software that can visualize, interpret, and annotate the spatial data is needed. There are many GIS software options available : ArcGIS Pro, QGIS, MapInfo etc. Its also important to understand the basic concepts and terminology used in GIS. To gain good knowledge in GIS, I recommend to get started with courses online on Udemy and Skillshare. Note that it is highly recommend for you to use real spatial data in all cases as it gives real knowledge that could be applied to your projects. Feel free to read my other articles where I go into detail about the GIS software, how to use them and also how to integrate them with contemporary technologies such as Machine Learning and Deep Learning.
Drawbacks of GIS
Limited Access to GIS Infrastructure : Lack of infrastructure has historically been a barrier to the utilisation of GIS technology. This is partly concerned with the need for sophistication. The equipment necessary such as the software licenses are also expensive. Open source GIS software is becoming increasingly user friendly by integrating a graphic user interface (GUI) making it a useable tool for all people interested in the field.
Limited Technical capacity and experience : There are analytical tools which are employed while using GIS in an open source software. Much prerequisite knowledge ( such as spatial data ) is also required before delving into the technical aspect of the field. However, many companies still lack access to even basic technical expertise, appropriately trained or dedicated personnel, and the ability to focus on GIS-related operations and follow established processes.
Limited Data Availability : The availability of real spatial data which include remote sensing data ( satellite images ) is less as it was very hard for newcomers to get hold of this information. But day upon day, this issue is being combatted as companies such as Google are making it easier to access spatial data with the help of engines such as Google Earth Studio.
GeoData and its types
Geographic data and information or GeoData is defined as data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a location relative to Earth. It is also called geospatial data and information, georeferenced data and information, as well as geodata and geoinformation.
Vector Data
Vector data is used to represent real world features in a GIS. A vector feature can have a geometry type of point, line or a polygon. Each vector feature has attribute data that describes it. Feature geometry is described in terms of vertices. Point geometries are made up of a single vertex (X,Y and optionally Z).
Raster Data
Raster consists of a matrix of cells (or pixels) organized into rows and columns (or a grid) where each cell contains a value representing information, such as temperature. Rasters are digital aerial photographs, imagery from satellites, digital pictures, or even scanned maps.
Remote Sensing
Remote sensing is the use of electromagnetic radiation sensors to record images of the environment, which can be interpreted to yield useful information. There are many advantages to remote sensing including :
- Large spatial coverage
- Complete spatial coverage
- Accessibility
- Repeatability
- Objective measurements
- Affordable ( over large areas )
Conclusion
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are becoming important tools for geographical data collection, storage, processing, and representation. Using a geographical coordinate system, GIS can portray a great quantity of data on a map in a short period of time. While systemic limitations (lack of infrastructure, training, long-term maintenance of database, uniform and complete data collection, sharing of databases) may have contributed to its underutilization, there are several opportunities to improve free or low-cost access to GIS infrastructure, develop local technical capacity, and improve data availability and analysis capacity.
In summary, GIS technology will continue to play a vital role in every sector. GIS becomes the primary repository of information that can be quickly accessed and viewed when required. GIS is becoming more suitable for emergency operations and is integrating tools that allow real-time display of information.
