GGY 283 Introductory Geographic Information Systems Practical 2

Practical Exercise 2: Introduction to online Geospatial technology

Table of Contents
Web mapping and crowdsourcing ......................................................................................... 1
Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1
Study Goals .......................................................................................................................... 2
Data ...................................................................................................................................... 2
Tasks .................................................................................................................................... 2
1. Task 1: Be the Crowd - Log your future ideal working environment [10 min] ............... 2
2. Task 2: Exploring a crowdsourced web map [45 min] ................................................. 2
3. Task 3: Assessment quiz [15 min] .............................................................................. 9
References: ........................................................................................................................ 10

Web mapping and crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is a broad term that refers to collection of information from a broad audience
which is then synthesized to solve a problem, analyse trends, etc.

“Crowdsourcing has become a mega trend in recent years, fuelling innovation and
collaboration in research, business, society, and government alike.” Bott & Young (2012)

In this practical you will take part in a crowd sourcing exercise by creating a geopoint at the
location where you would ideally want to be living and working in and around 2030. You will
also add some attributes to the Geopoint and use some web mapping functions to explore
data logged by another student group.

Introduction

Think about your life about 10 plus years from now. How do you ideally see your life at that
point? Where do you want to live and what will you be doing there? Keep in mind that we are
not talking about a holiday destination!

The tasks contained in this practical will demonstrate how online applications can be used to
collect and view spatial information. You will also look at spatial information created by another
“crowd”, analyse the data and make changes to the visualisation of the information in a web
map environment.

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Study Goals
After completing these practical tasks, you should be able to:

 Confidently create a geo-point in an online environment.

 Add suitable information about the location.
 View and examine other online mapping applications.

Data
The data used in this practical will be created or viewed within a web mapping environment
on the internet.

Tasks
The tasks in this section are designed to be tackled in sequence, with later exercises
depending on data that you have created in earlier ones.

1. Task 1: Be the Crowd - Log your future ideal working environment [10 min]

In this task you will make a contribution to an online survey called “My 30-Something
dream”.

Note: You will add a location (a geopoint) and some associated information to a
crowdsourcing survey. The survey has been created using the ArcGIS Survey 123
application.

1.1.1. Click on the following link (or copy the link to your browser) to access the
survey and log your future happy place location and associated information:
https://arcg.is/Pm4m0

2. Task 2: Exploring a crowdsourced web map [45 min]

In this task you will explore the geospatial data created in a similar manner by another
student group. In this case they use a different application, but they also logged their “Future
Happy Places”. While exploring the data, you will answer questions which will help you to
complete the P2 Quiz on clickUP.

2.1. Open the “Happy place” crowd sourced “story” map at https://arcg.is/z5GWT.
Hint: If clicking on the link does not work, open a new tab or a new window in Google
Chrome and copy and paste the link in the address bar.

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The following ArcGIS online map should open:

2.2. Open the Content tag (to “Show contents of map”).

In the content list you can see that there are six layers available in this online map. The top
layer (Future Happy Places) is ticked, which means that it will display in the map window.
This layer shows the location of the places logged by a previous group. You can also see a
background basemap of the world named “National Geographic” at the bottom of the list.

2.3. Tick the box next to the Gross Domestic Product 1960 – 2016 layer to activate its
display on the map.

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2.4. Do the same to explore the other map layers.

Note that the layers will draw on top of each other, which means that you have to deactivate
some layers to fully see the layers underneath.
o Keep the top and bottom layers on, but un-check all the other layers again.
o Select the “Future Happy Places” layer and explore the various options that became
available:

2.5. Click on the table icon to show the table with attribute information and explore
the content of the table that opens below the map.

 Quiz question 1: What is the Name of the first place shown (by default) in the
table?

……………………………..

2.5.1. For this first listed place, read the description, motivation and look at the
picture that the person attached.

2.5.2. Do the same for the second place name in the table: Nairobi, Kenya.

You will see that, if you click on the name in the attribute table, the location will
be highlighted on the map. While it is highlighted, use the mouse scroll button or
the + sign to zoom in to Nairobi on the map.
e.g.

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2.5.3.Zoom in even closer to Nairobi and then change the basemap to

OpenStreetMap. (Click on the icon and explore the available

options.) You should be able to get a better idea of the layout of the United
Nation (UN) offices. You may also try some of the other basemaps…

 Quiz question 2: Which street name suggests that the location of this logged
geopoint is fairly accurate?

……………………………….

2.5.4.Click on the column heading of the ‘Name’ in the table and sort the data from A
to Z.

2.5.5. Scroll down to and find the record named Botshabelo, Middelburg,
Mpumalanga. Read the description and look at the picture attached. Then zoom
in and explore the area where the geopoint has been logged.

2.5.6. To validate the location of the logged point, use the search bar on the top right
of the map to search for, and select the Botshabelo Historical Village in
Mpumalanga.
e.g.

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 Quiz question 3: The location of the Botshabelo point in the Future Happy
Place layer is not very accurate. Approximately how far (by road) is the logged
point from the real location? (Hint: use the available measure tool )

……………………………….

2.5.7. Close the attribute table and zoom out again until you can see the full world
map. (Or click the Home icon)

2.5.8. On your map, use the Style tab to change the style of the points used to
show the Future Happy Place locations (use a different single symbol and
increase the symbol size.)

 Quiz question 4: What is the effect on the visual distinction between point
locations if you make the symbols a lot bigger like in the next image?
………………………………………………………………………………………

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2.5.9. Create a heat map using the Future Happy Places points. Under “Change
Style”, select Heat Map.

2.5.10. Click on “Options” to change the heat map symbol, range and colour.

2.5.11. Use the transparency slider to view the effect of the transparency level in a
map.
 Quiz question 5: What happens if you change the transparency level to a
very high percentage, e.g. above 50%?

………………………………………………………………………………………
 Quiz question 6: On visual inspection, where is the concentration of
“Happy Place Points” highest?

………………………………………………………………………………………

2.5.12. Change the style of the Happy Place layer back to single points.

2.5.13. You can use the filter tool to filter the data based on a specific value in the
attribute table. Find all the data points that refer to Dubai.
Hint: Set the filter up as follows and click on APPLY FILTER AND ZOOM TO

 Quiz question 7: How many records remained in the layer’s attribute table after
you applied the “Dubai” filter?
………………………………………………………………………………………

2.5.14. The map application does not seem to sufficiently zoom in to the actual Dubai
area.

Quiz question 8: Why did the map application not zoom in sufficiently to the
correct Dubai region after you applied the “Dubai” filter?

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……………………………………………………………………….

Note that the first two records seem to be exactly the same. In a crowdsourcing
exercise like this, such an occurrence should be flagged as a possible duplication
error.

 Quiz question 9: How many of the filtered points are actually located in Dubai?
(Note: For this question count the two possible duplicate points as one and use
a suitable basemap)

………………………………………………………………………………………

Take Note:
From the previous steps it is clear that information obtained through crowdsourcing methods
may not always be correct and should always be checked and edited before use.

2.5.15. Select the filter icon again and remove the filter.

2.5.16. Activate the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 1960 to 2016 layer.
2.5.17. Click on the “Show Legend” icon

 Quiz question 10: The GDP for 2016 is the default data illustrated when
you activate the layer. Where in the layer properties can this be changed
to illustrate data from a different year?
…………………………………………………………

 Quiz question 11: Open the attribute table for the GDP layer. What was
the GDP for Lesotho in 2016?
…………………………………………………………..

2.5.18. Activate the “Median age by country, 2015” layer and expand the legend to
see what the symbols mean.

 Quiz question 12: According to the 2015 data, which country had the
highest number of people older than 80? (Hint: Use the attribute table to
sort your data and get exact numbers)
…………………………………………………………..

2.5.19. Activate the “Physicians per 1000 Pop by country, 2010” and expand the
legend

Note that there are several countries (including South Africa) without data in this
layer. and that it may not be clear what is

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2.5.20. When using data from an outside source, you must make sure that you fully
comprehend the data descriptions. To understand what is meant by the term
“Physicians” you will explore the metadata. Open the Item Details tab to
access metadata about this layer. In this window you will also find some links
to the original data sources on this page.

 Quiz question 13: In the “Physicians per 1000 Pop by country, 2010”
data layer, what does the term “Physicians” include?

…………………………………………………………..

2.5.21. Close all the data layers and attribute tables and change the basemap to
OpenStreetMap if it is not.
2.5.22. Zoom in to Southern Africa and use the measure tool on the
map to answer Questions 14 and 15.

 Quiz question 14: What is the approximate straight-line Euclidian

distance (not via a road and not taking into account the topography)
between Cape Town and Durban?
…………………………………………………………..

Quiz question 15: Which coordinate pairs (in decimal degrees) best represents
the approximate location of the following towns and cities:
o Cape town
o Durban
o Welkom
o Gaborone
o Maputo
o Livingstone

3. Task 3: Assessment quiz [15 min]

COMPLETE the P2_2021_GGY283_ QUIZ on ClickUP (Assessments and tasks – Practical

Classwork Submissions).
Hint: You have handled most of the material necessary to answer the quiz questions during
the previous tasks. Marks will be deducted if you do not complete and submit Task 1.

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References:
Bott, M and Young, G. 2012. PRAXIS The Fletcher Journal of Human Security, VOLUME
XXVII, p47-70
END

Acknowledgements:

Applications used in this practical exercise are:

Esri ArcGIS online: Storymaps and Survey123

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