I See What You Mean: Using GIS as a Visual Learning Tool

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I See What You Mean Using GIS as a Visual
Learning Tool
Dr. Kathy Moffitt Assoc. Director,
Interdisciplinary Spatial Information Systems
Center Director, Census Information Center
and Professor, Information Systems, Craig School
of Business kathym_at_csufresno.edu
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What is a GIS?

• A computer-based tool for analyzing things that
  exist and events that happen on Earth
• Estimated that 80-90 of data has a spatial
  component to it
• Integrates common database operations with the
  unique visualization and geographic analysis
  benefits offered by maps
• Users can access, visualize, and query both
  geographic and tabular data

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What is a GIS (cont.)

• The analysis and visualization capabilities are
  what make it valuable for explaining events,
  predicting outcomes and planning strategies
• GIS is creating a shift from thinking about data
  to thinking about relationships
• Professionals in every field are increasingly
  aware of the advantages of thinking and working
  spatially

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To Answer the Question What is a GIS?
A GIS is a system to gather together and analyze
dissimilar data based on the relationship of
where the data lies on the ground.
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How GIS Works

• Stores information about the world as a
  collection of thematic layers
• The layers are linked together by geography
• Relationships within and across thematic layers
  can be analyzed
• Information is linked by a geographic reference
  that already exists or is created through a
  process call geocoding.

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Geographic References

• Geographic information contains either
• an explicit geographic reference such as
  longitude and latitude or national grid
  coordinate
• or an implicit reference such as an address, zip
  code, census tract name, forest stand name, or
  road identifier
• Geocoding is an automated (mostly) process which
  is used to create explicit geographic references
  from implicit references
• This explicit reference allows you to locate
  features such as schools, businesses and resource
  locations to the Earth's surface for analysis

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Data Layering
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Data Layering
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Spatial data

• Represented as
• Points, Lines and Polygons known as Vector
  Data or as
• Grids known as Raster Data
• Linked to existing databases to describe the
  spatial feature

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Measuring and Integrating the Parts...
School boundaries
Zoning
Streets
Land Use
Environmental Considerations
Means Seeing the Whole
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Some Uses of GIS in an Educational Context. . .

• Presenting data
• Visualization
• Analysis
• Experiential learning
• Community awareness and involvement
• Community and resource management, intervention
  and improvement

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Percent of Children 5-17 years Speaking Language
Other Than English at Home
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Study of Active Volcanoes2001 Mt. Etna Volcanic
Eruption
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...and Extinct Volcanoes
A view of Lake Tahoe with Emerald Bay in the
center of the image. The distance across the
bottom of the image is approximately 5 km. A
broad glacial outwash fan blankets the southern
margin of the lake and is in turn traversed by a
series of channels. A hanging valley perched 250
m above the lake floor is seen on the far right
of the image, a relict of a glacier that once fed
directly into the lake basin.
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Perspective view looking west toward McKinney Bay
just south of Tahoe City. The view shows a large
failure of the lake margin. The debris tongue is
7.5 km wide and 9 km long. The large blocks
within the debris tongue are up to 20m high. The
top of the failure is at about 1635m and the toe
of the debris tongue is at 1434m from sea level.
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Study of Drought in US
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Study of Global Warming
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Where Human Populations are Concentrated
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http//zenith.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/topo/img/litesha2.
gif
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Teaching Government
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Teaching Government (cont)
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Current Earthquake Info
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Journey North Bald Eagle Migrations
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• ESRI's U.S. Community Atlas is a project in which
  teachers and students across the country define
  the nature of "their community" and post
  descriptions and maps about it.
• These presentations are combined on the web
  server and can be searched by characteristic and
  explored for similarities and differences.
• Goal is to help students understand the nature of
  their own community.
• Software Awards (Sept 2002-May 2003)
  http//www.esri.com/industries/k-12/atlas/award.ht
  ml

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ACommunity Description Project

• Goal is for students to illustrate "the nature of
  your community" through maps and text. Each class
  identifies the important elements defining the
  nature of "the community." Example topics might
  include,

• Boundaries of "the community"
• Natural landscape - landforms, geologic
  structure, water bodies etc.
• Population - count and density
• Demographic patterns - the character of the
  population
• Land use patterns
• Economic activities
• Transportation corridors and networks
• Historical patterns of settlement and development
  that are visible today
• Significant current local issues

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A Community Conservation Project
The goal is for students to identify and portray
a "threatened community resource" . The class
studies the importance of the resource and
alternatives for managing the threat and the
resource. Example topics might be

• Nearby "wild place" faces growing and
  diversifying human uses, creating conflicts
• Recent urban expansion is encroaching on existing
  agricultural land
• Local habitat zone for a particular species is
  also a valuable economic resource
• Local neighborhood faces division from
  construction of new transportation corridors
• Regional patterns of water consumption and
  recharge point to issues of water usage
• Long established network of community shops faces
  uncertain future as a new mall appears

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A study of flood zones in relation to school
locations.
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A study of earthquakes in relation to their
community.
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Thanks to Sources

• Hal Eidal and Gary Johnson, Fresno County
• ESRI, Inc (Environmental Systems Research
  Institute, Inc.)
• James V. Gardner, Larry A. Mayer , and John
  Hughes-Clarke, The Bathymetry Of Lake Tahoe,
  California-Nevada, August 2 through August 17,
  1998, Lake Tahoe, California and Nevada,
  Open-File Report 98-509
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• Drought Monitor, University of Nebraska, Lincoln

• US Census Bureau
• US Dept of Interior
• Mary Cook, AirPhotoUSA,
• US Geological Survey

• Journey North
• GLOBE Program
• Directions Magazine
• US Dept of Agriculture