GEOG 1230

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GEOG 1230

• Lecture 3
• Types and Sources of Geographical Data

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Lecture Structure

• Review Geographical Data
• Review Spatial Component
• Review Methods of Collection
• Assignment Revisited
• Data Sources
• Your Examples
• Comments
• My Search
• Next time

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Review Geographical Data

• Remember that data are
• Facts about a phenomenon that enable us to
  understand, explain and make decisions about it.
• BUT
• Data are NOT information
• We turn data into information

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Review Geographical Data

• Remember we defined geographical data as
• facts that describe phenomena and their spatial
  characteristics on the Earth
• Geographical data has three components
• Temporal
• Thematic
• Spatial

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Review Spatial Component

• The spatial component can be described using one
  of two models
• location orientated data is given a coordinate
  either in an image or in a table
• object orientated data is linked to a spatial
  entity point, line, polygon or volume.

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Review Method of Collection

• Data can be classified by the method it was
  collected
• direct measurement
• remote sensing photography, satellite
• cartographic derived from maps
• administrative and statutory by-products of
  other processes
• census and surveys

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Assignment Revisited

• Last week you
• compiled a list of 6 sources of geographical data
• use the library catalogue, Athens resources, the
  internet and other library resources.
• Some of you were spot on but there was still some
  confusion
• Some examples

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Data Sources

• Geographical data comes in many forms
• some are still only in hardcopy
• many are available digitally
• many are available online
• Now some examples

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Your Examples

• Book OS Atlas of Great Britain
• Typical atlas of Great Britain with regional and
  national maps
• Is this geographical data?
• Yes - maps by their very nature display spatial
  data

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Your Examples

• Internet Countryside Information System (CIS)
• spatial info about the British countryside
  including a range of environmental data and maps
• Is this geographical data?
• Yes explains in the description that the data
  is spatial

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Your Examples

• Book Race in Britain Today
• Section at the beginning of the book with
  statistics from a variety of sources and time
  spans.
• Is this geographical data?
• No but the data might be linked to counties or
  by post code

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Your Examples

• Book Resource and Environmental Management, 2nd
  ed. Geographical data?
• No its just a book
• Book Population Geography, 2nd ed. Geographical
  Data?
• No its also just a book

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Your Examples

• Internet The course material on the web for
  GEOG1230.
• Is this Geographical data?
• Technically yes but not as weve defined it. So
• NO Its not spatial!

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Comments

• You should always be able to identify the spatial
  component of geographic data
• Helpful hints
• Always put your name and student number on every
  page
• Watch out for plagiarism
• Geography building locks at 5pm!

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My Search

• Internet
• search for sources of geographical data

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Specific Sources

• Some especially good sources
• British Geological Survey, National Geoscience
  Data Centre for NERC
• digital databases and maps, paper archives and
  materials collections, and library collections
  and archives
• Countryside Information System (CIS)
• information about the British countryside
• environmental data per km2 including admin.
  areas agriculture land classification land
  cover linear features species vegetation

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Specific Sources

• Scottish Environment Protection Agency
  Environmental Data
• Provides water quality data, classification
  schemes (river, esturine, coastal), harmonised
  monitoring data, discharge and bathing water
  data, environmental indicator series
• Planning Statistics
• Provides data such as commercial and industrial
  floorspace, development control, land use change
  and greenbelt statistics

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My Search

• Internet
• search for sources of geographic data
• Library Catalogue
• search for census

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More Examples

• Internet
• search for sources of geographic data
• Library Catalogue
• search for census
• Athens
• EDINA Digimap (Ordnance Survey online and
  downloadable map data)
• Map Library in geography!!
• Imagery aerial photography, satellite imagery

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More Examples

• Some sources of imagery
• Canadian centre for Remote Sensing Data Holding
  include
• CEOCat (catalogue of satellite images)
• National Atlas (maps)
• GeoGratis (free data)
• NASA Earth Observatory Data Images
• Provides data and animations under Atmosphere,
  Ocean, Land, Life on Earth and Heat and Energy

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More Examples

• US Census Bureau provides
• Census 2000 data
• Supporting thematic maps
• European Environment Agency Data Service
• Provides water, tropospheric ozone,
  acidification, climate change and ozone
  depletion.

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Next Time

• Sampling and Inference the first of two
  lectures.
• Read about sampling in
• Rowntree, D., (1991). Statistics Without Tears
  an Introduction for Non-Mathematicians, Penguin,
  London 195pp.
• Ebdon, D. (1985). Statistics in Geography,
  Blackwell, Oxford 232pp.
• Matthews, J.A. (1981). Quantitative and
  Statistical Approaches in Geography a Practical
  Manual, Pergamon, Oxford 204pp.