Experiment Title: Introduction to GIS software, spatial data creation and editing

 
Student Name: Sachin Joshi                                                   UID:
19BAG7121
Branch: UIAS                                                                  Section/Group: Hons 2 /Grp
A
Semester: 5th                                                            Date of Performance:
16/08/2021
Subject Name: Geoinformatics and Subject Code: AGP-
316
Nano-technology and Precision Farming- Lab                                                    
 
 
1. Aim/Overview of the practical: Introduction to GIS software, spatial data creation and
editing

Introduction:
A Geographic Information System (GIS Software) is designed to store, retrieve, manage, display,
and analyze all types of geographic and spatial data. GIS software lets you produce maps and
other graphic displays of geographic information for analysis and presentation 

What is GIS Mapping Software?

GIS software lets you produce maps and other graphic displays of geographic information for
analysis and presentation. With these capabilities a GIS is a valuable tool to visualize spatial data
or to build decision support systems for use in your organization.

A GIS stores data on geographical features and their characteristics. The features are typically
classified as points, lines, or areas, or as raster images. On a map city data could be stored as
points, road data could be stored as lines, and boundaries could be stored as areas, while aerial
photos or scanned maps could be stored as raster images.

Geographic Information Systems store information using spatial indices that make it possible to
identify the features located in any arbitrary region of a map. For example, a GIS can quickly
identify and map all of the locations within a specified radius of a point, or all of the streets that
run through a territory.
In addition to the above capabilities, Maptitude implements a professional-strength relational
database, a feature critical for GIS software. Attribute data may be freely joined to and detached
from geographic layers and tables. Relational data manipulation is integrated with robust and
powerful geoprocessing for spatial queries, polygon overlay, and other location-based analyzes.
This is supported seamlessly so that data are moved easily to and from relational tables and
geographic databases. In addition, the Maptitude fixed-format binary table supports 32,767 fields
and 1 billion records, and has unlimited character field widths.

Any GIS software applications are available–both commercial and open source. Two popular
applications are ArcGIS and QGIS.

ArcGIS 
A popular commercial GIS software is ArcGIS developed by ESRI (ESRI, pronounced ez-
ree),was once a small land-use consulting firm which did not start developing GIS software
until the mid 1970s. The ArcGIS desktop environment encompasses a suite of applications
which include ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcScene and ArcGlobe. ArcGIS comes in three
different license levels (basic, standard and advanced) and can be purchased with
additional add-on packages. As such, a single license can range from a few thousand dollars
to well over ten thousand dollars. In addition to software licensing costs, ArcGIS is only
available for Windows operating systems; so if your workplace is a Mac only environment,
the purchase of a Windows PC would add to the expense.

QGIS

A very capable open source (free) GIS software is QGIS. It encompasses most of the
functionality included in ArcGIS. If you are looking for a GIS application for your Mac or
Linux environment, QGIS is a wonderful choice given its multi-platform support. Built into
the current versions of QGIS are functions from another open source software:  GRASS.
GRASS has been around since the 1980’s and has many advanced GIS data manipulation
functions however, its use is not as intuitive as that of QGIS or ArcGIS
(hence the preferred QGIS alternative).
What is Spatial Analysis?

A distinction is made in this course between GIS and spatial analysis. In the context of
mainstream GIS software, the term analysis refers to data manipulation and data querying. In
the context of spatial analysis, the analysis focuses on the statistical analysis of patterns and
underlying processes or more generally, spatial analysis addresses the question “what could
have been the genesis of the observed spatial pattern?” It’s an exploratory process whereby
we attempt to quantify the observed pattern then explore the processes that may have
generated the pattern.

For example, you record the location of each tree in a well defined study area. You then map
the location of each tree (a GIS task). At this point, you might be inclined to make inferences
about the observed pattern. Are the trees clustered or dispersed? Is the tree density constant
across the study area? Could soil type or slope have led to the observed pattern? Those are
questions that are addressed in spatial analysis using quantitative and statistical techniques

Figure 1.1: Distribution of Maple trees in a 1,000 x 1,000 ft study area.

GIS software like ArcGIS are great tools to create and manipulate spatial data, but if one
wishes to go beyond the data manipulation and analyze patterns and processes that may have
led to these patterns, other quantitative tools are needed.
 What’s in an Acronym?

GIS is a ubiquitous technology. Many of you are taking this course in part because you have
seen GIS listed as a “desirable”" or “required” skill in job postings. Many of you will think of
GIS as a “map making” environment as do many ancillary users of GIS in the workforce.
While “visualizing” data is an important feature of a GIS, one must not lose sight of  what data
is being visualized and for what purpose. O’Sullivan and Unwin  (O’Sullivan and
Unwin 2010) use the term accidental geographer to refer to those “whose understanding of
geographic science is based on the operations made possible by GIS software” . We can
expand on this idea and define accidental data analyst as one whose understanding of data
and its analysis is limited to the point-and-click environment of popular pieces of software
such as spreadsheet environments, statistical packages and GIS software. The aggressive
marketing of GIS technology has the undesirable effect of placing
the technology before purpose and theory. This is not unique to GIS, however. Such concerns
were shared decades ago when personal computers made it easier for researchers and
employees to graph non-spatial data as well as perform many statistical procedures.

The different purposes of mapping spatial data have strong parallels to that of graphing (or
plotting) non-spatial data. John Tukey (Tukey 1972) offers three broad classes of the latter:

 "Graphs from which numbers are to be read off- substitutes for tables.
 Graphs intended to show the reader what has already been learned (by some other
technique)–these we shall sometimes impolitely call propaganda graphs.
 Graphs intended to let us see what may be happening over and above what we have
already described- these are the analytical graphs that are our main topic."

A GIS world analogy is proposed here:

 Reference maps (USGS maps, hiking maps, road maps). Such maps are used to
navigate landscapes or identify locations of points-of-interest.
 Presentation maps presented in the press such as the NY Times and the Wall Street
Journal, but also maps presented in journals. Such maps are designed to convey a very
 specific narrative of the author’s choosing. (Here we’ll avoid Tukey’s harsh description of
such visual displays, but the idea that maps can be used as propaganda is not farfetched).
 Statistical maps whose purpose it is to manipulate the raw data in such a way to tease
out patterns otherwise not discernable in its original form. This usually requires multiple data
manipulation operations and visualization and can sometimes benefit from being explored
outside of a spatial context.

Learning outcomes (What I have learnt):

1. We get to know about Geographical information system ( GIS software)