The meaning of the letter 'S' in the acronym GIS appears to have been the subject of some debate in the world of geographers over the last 20 years or so (Wright et al., 1997; Pickles, 1997). Geographical information science or geographical information systems? Goodchild (2010) describes geographic information as information which links an entity to a location on or near the earth's surface as well as to a specific point in time, he alse quotes the definition of geographic information science put forward by David Mark: "The development and use of theories, methods, technology, and data for understanding geographic processes, relationships,and patterns." Geographical information systems have their roots in cartography. Schuurman (2004), who broadly describes geographical information science as the theoretical basis for GIS, points to the instance of Ian McHarg in 1962, who was tasked with planning the route of a road through an area with several different types of land cover. He set out to pick the route that would cause the least amount of disturbance to the habitats in the area. In order to do this he devised a method called overlaying which involved drawing each piece of land cover on a seperate sheet of tracing paper and laying them over eachother. This formed the foundation for spatial analysis and provided the basis for what would later become the layers we now use today in GIS. Another early example mentioned by Shuurman is that of John Snow, who located the source of a cholora outbreak in London by making a dot density map of each individual case. The spatial data this provided him with allowed him to narrow down the source to specific water pumps in the city. Though both of the above examples are far more simple than w... ... middle of paper ... ...graphic information science. International Journal of Geographic Information Science, 26(12), pp. 2227-2237. Pickles, J., 1997. Tool or Science? GIS, Technoscience and the Theoretical Turn. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 87(2), pp. 363-372. Schuurmann, N., 2004. GIS: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell. Sengupta, R. and Yan, C., 2004. A Hybrid Spatio - Temporal Data Model and Structure (HST - DMS) for Efficient Storage and Retrieval of Land Use Information. Transactions in GIS, 8(3), pp. 351 - 366. Wright, D. J., Goodchild, M. F. and Proctor, J. D., 1997. Demystifying the persistent amibuity of GIS as "tool" versus "science". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 87(2), pp. 346-62. Wright, D. J., 2012. Theory and application in a post GISystems world. International Journal of Geographic Information Science, 26(12), pp. 2197-2209.
Now that we’ve made our way through the journey of Ken Jennings’ incredible book I feel as if it’s important for me to try to sway you to become more involved in geography. It’s a truly fascinating subject and can take you places you never thought you could ever visit. If you don’t want to leave your home, at least buy an atlas, map, or visit Google Earth. You never know what you could discover in your journey. If you don’t think maps or an atlas is your thing, you never know if you never try. Jennings created a journey, for me I would have never cared to take had it not been assigned as a college class assignment, but now I’m so glad I did. Jennings shined a different light on geocaching, and map hunting. He made it fun, interesting, and overall thrilling.
Chrisman, Nicholas Exploring Geographic Information Systems. New York , NY : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002
Historical geographer JB Harley wrote an essay on Map Deconstruction in 1989, in which Harley argues that a map is more than just a geographical representation of an area, his theory is that we need to look at a map not just as a geographical image but in its entire context. Harley points out that by an examination of the social structures that have influenced map making, that we may gain more knowledge about the world. The maps social construction is made from debate about what it should show. Harley broke away from the traditional argument about maps and examined the biases that govern the map and the map makers, by looking at what the maps included or excluded. Harley’s “basic argument within this essay is that we should encourage an epistemological shift in the way we interpret the nature of cartography.” Therefore Harley’s aim within his essay on ‘Deconstructing the Map’ was to break down the assumed ideas of a map being a purely scientific creation.
The diverse nature of Geography has always attracted me to the subject, and the bridge it forms between the Arts and the Sciences reflects many of my interests. I am greatly enjoying the work which I am doing for the A level syllabus, on both the human and physical sides of the course, and would like to continue to study in both these fields. Geography gives the opportunity to accumulate a valuable range of skills, and I particularly enjoy the variety of analytical, numerical, bibliographical and research skills which I am called upon to use. The study of Geography will enable me to consider complex interactions between the human and physical environments, and the scope for useful research within the subject is very appealing. I have attended a number of Geographical Association lectures organised by my local branch, and look forward to taking responsibility for my own work in response to such stimulus.
Hillier, A., & Culhane, D. (2013). GIS Applications and Administrative Data to Support Community Change. In M. Weil (Ed.), The Handbook of Community Practice (2nd ed., pp. 827-844). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Retrieved from
Gilbert Castle has noted that real estate is essentially a game of information arbitrage. The likely winner of the game is the person that takes advantage of computerized analyses. Castle explains that GIS is an attention-getting way of showing what you know.(n1) Of course, larger data sets are used for GIS analysis, not just the minimum "three comps."
Geographers plan new communities, decide where new highways should be placed, and establish evacuation plans. Computerized mapping and data analysis is known as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a new frontier in geography. Spatial data is gathered on a variety of subjects and input onto a computer. GIS users can create an infinite number of maps by requesting portions of the data to plot.
Yi-Fu Tuan once stated “Geography is the study of earth as the home of people”. The quote is saying that Geographers study the earth and how the earth affects humans that live on the planet. It is also saying that humans can affect the earth as well. Geography comes from the Greek roots geo and graphia. Geo means Earth and graphia is the study of. Therefore, Geography is the study or the writings of Earth. Geography is a science devoted to the study of earth and its ways. Geography developed as a science to show humans certain things on Earth, such as landforms, locations, landmarks, and other specific places or objects on maps. Most geographers can agree that geography is the study of how humans change their environment or adapt to it to
Geography goes beyond the studying and memorization of a map as there are certain fields of study that require an adequate background in the knowledge and understanding of geography. Among this is epidemiology which is the study and analysis of the patterns, causes and effects of health and disease conditions in defined populations.
De, Blij Harm J., and Peter O. Muller. Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts. New York: J. Wiley, 1997. 340. Print.
A map is much more then just a sheet of paper, a map is a product of human creativity and has been made since human prehistory to represent the concepts of humanity’s place in the world. They were created by imperial states as tools of power and used by individuals to aid in the understanding of the study itself. When asked to describe what cartography is, most will respond with it being both an art as well as a science. But in reality, it is best to be thought of as a craft that combines knowledge from both graphic design as well as mathematics. To thrive in the study of cartography, one must expand their skills in both of these areas. For thousands of years cartography...
As it is clear from the name, physical geography is referred to the Earth Sciences.
There are many definitions that refer to the term geography. You can take the technical term straight from a geography textbook that says, “Physical geography is the study of spatial distributions of phenomena across the landscape, processes that created and changed those distributions, and implications for those distributions on people.” While physical geography refers to the geography of the land, urban geography refers to the geography of the city. By definition urban geography is, “the sub-discipline of geography which concentrates on those parts of the Earth’s surface that have a high concentration of buildings and infrastructure.” Geography is not only a natural science though; it is a social science as well. When building a city and
GIS is an emerging method of data storage and interpretation. GIS is, simply put a database. It is many tables of data organized by one common denominator, location. The data in a GIS system is organized spatially, or by its physical location on the base map. The information that is stored in the database is the location and attributes that exist in that base map, such as streets, highways, water lines, sewers, manholes, properties, and buildings, etc. each of these items don’t just exist in the database, the attributes associated with the item is also stored. A good example of this would be a specific sewer line, from and arbitrary point A to a point B. Ideally, the sewer line would be represented graphically, with a line connecting the two points or something of the like. When one retrieves the information for that line in particular, the attribute data would be shown. This data would include the size of pipe, the pipe material, the upper invert elevation, the downstream invert elevation, the date installed, and any problem history associated with that line. This is the very gist of what a GIS system is.
Agriculture is the science of farming, cultivating land, breeding, feeding and other products. GIS has proven to play a huge role in Agriculture as it has increased the production and reduced cost for farmers worldwide. GIS has enabled farmers to examine, measure and monitor many conditions on there farm which makes it quite powerful. An example of the use of GIS in Agriculture is in an article named More Crop per Drop, this article describes that during the late 1990s professor Wim Bastiaanssen developed and algorithm to display the surface energy balance which would help calculate the crop water consumption. This would allow farmers to determine the precise amount of water needed to sustain a healthy plant life in any part of the world