Technology Overview Technology Overview Geographic Information Geographic Information Systems Systems
Technology OverviewTechnology OverviewGeographic Information SystemsGeographic Information Systems
GIS: GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
• Geographic data converted to digital format and georeferenced
• Developed by national, state and local sources
• Can provide information on a many types of features
• Combines geographic information with tabular data
Remote SensingGPS
GIS Data Sources
Paper Maps
Common types of GIS data
• Topographic maps
• Infrastructure– Roads, Rail, Trails, Water,
Sewer, Phone lines
• Geology
• Hydrography– Lakes, Ponds, Rivers,
Streams
• Demographic (Census)
• Wetlands– NWI, USGS, Remote Sensing
• Soils
• Groundwater resources
• Landcover/Landuse
• Digital Elevation Models
• Watershed delineations
What makes GIS work?
• GIS SOFTWARE - Stack different data layers• GIS SOFTWARE - Knows how features are related to each other spatially
GIS System Data Types
SWAINS LAKE
Young Rd
– Attribute Data• names, labels
SITE A SWAINSDate SD CHL Color
5/5/98 3.5 2.7 246/12/98 4.2 2.0 226/19/98 3.9 3.1 216/26/98 3.4 3.9 227/3/98 2.9 4.2 20
7/10/98 2.7 4.5 20
– Reference Data• relational data
Wetlands
Lake
WatershedBoundary
Streams
Roads
SamplingSites
Wells
Graphs
Maps
Tables
What can you do with GPS and GIS?
Present information as...
Slight
Severe
Not all GIS uses are related to “bugs and bunnies”
METADATA…
Who developed the data?
What was the original source data?
When was the data developed?
When was the last update?
What is the scale of the data?
What are the attributes of the data?
Who to contact to find out more?
…helps keep track of your GIS data
Questions?