Geographic Information

Systems
(CS 497)

Seyum A. (PhD)
Objectives and Outcomes
Objectives:

● To introduce the fundamentals and components of Geographic information

System
● To provide details of spatial data structures and inputs, management and
output processes

Outcomes :

● Have basic idea about fundamentals of GIS

● Understand the type of Data Models
● Gain knowledge on GIS softwares
● Gain Knowledge on data input,topology, quality and standard

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About The Course
● Course Materials
○ Principles of Geographic Information Systems. ITC Educational TextBook Series, International
Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (2004) (Third Edition)
○ Principles of Remote Sensing. ITC Educational TextBook Series, International Institute for
Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (2004) (Third Edition)
○ Geographic Information Systems: A Management Perspective. Stan Aronoff (1989), WDL
Publications, Ottawa, Canada.
○ Concepts and Techniques of Geographic Information Systems. C. P. Lo et al
(2002),Prentice-Hall, Inc., New Jersey, U. S. A.
○ ArcGIS Tutorial Books.

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Course Evaluation
● Mid exam – 20%
● Final Exam – 40%
● Projects and Assignments – 40%

* 75% of minimum class attendance is mandatory

* If you are late for 20 minutes - considered as absent

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Geographic Information System

A set of tools for

● Collecting
● Storing
● Manipulating
● Retrieving
● Transforming and display of spatial data from Real
world

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What is GIS ?
Geographic
● Implies that locations of data items are known, or can be calculated, in terms
of geographic coordinates (latitude, Longitude )

Information
● Implies that the data in GIS are organized to used useful knowledge, often as
colored maps and images, but also statistical graphics, tables and various on
screen responses to interactive queries

System
● Implies that a GIS is made up from several inter-related and linked
components with different functions. Thus, GIS have functional capabilities
for data capture, input manipulation, transformation, visualization etc
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What is GIS?
Geographical Information System (GIS)
● Links databases and maps
● Manages information about places
● Helps answer questions such as:
○ Where is it?
○ What else is nearby?
○ Where is the highest concentration of ‘X’?
○ Where can i find things with characteristics ‘Y’ ?
○ Where is the closest ‘Z’ to my location ?

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What is GIS ?
● A technology
○ Hardware and software tools
● An information handling strategy
● The objective: to improve the overall decision making
strategy

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GIS: a formal Definition

“ A system for capturing, storing, checking, integrating,

manipulating, analysing and displaying data which are
spatially referenced to the earth. This is normally
considered to involve a spatially referenced computer
database and appropriate application software. “

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In Short, a GIS is

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Why GIS Unique?

● GIS handles Spatial information

○ Information referenced by its location in space
● GIS makes connections between activities based on
spatial proximity

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Pandemic/Public Health

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GIS concepts

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GIS: Historical Background

This technology has developed from:

● Digital cartography and CAD
● Database management systems

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GIS Process

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GIS: Summary description

● A map with a database behind it.

● A virtual representation of the real world and its
infrastructure.
● A consistent “as-built” of the real world, natural and
manmade
● which is
○ queried to support ongoing operations
○ summarized to support strategic decision making and
policy formulation
○ analyzed to support scientific inquiry

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How GIS differs from Related Systems
•DBMS--typical MIS database contains implicit but not explicit locational information
–city, county, zip code, etc. but no geographical coordinates
–is 100 N. High around the corner or across town from 200 E Main?
•automated mapping (AM) --primarily two-dimensional display devices
–thematic mapping (choropleth,etc such as SAS/GRAPH, DIDS, business mapping
software) unable to relate different geographical layers (e.g zip codes and counties)
–automated cartography--graphical design oriented; limited database ability
•facility management (FM) systems--
–lack spatial analysis tools
•CAD/CAM (computer aided design/drafting)--primarily 3D graphic creation
(engineering design) & display systems
–don’t reference via geographic location
•CAD sees the world as a 3-D cube, GIS as a 3-D sphere
–limited (if any) database ability (especially for non-spatial data)
•scientific visualization systems--sophisticated multi-dimensional graphics, but:
–lack database support
–lack two-dimensional spatial analysis tools

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Examples of Applied GIS
•Urban Planning, Management & Policy •Civil Engineering/Utility
–Locating underground facilities
–Zoning, subdivision planning
–Designing alignment for freeways, transit
–Land acquisition
–Coordination of infrastructure maintenance
–Economic development
–Code enforcement • Business
–Housing renovation programs –Demographic Analysis
–Emergency response –Market Penetration/ Share Analysis
–Crime analysis –Site Selection
–Tax assessment •Education Administration
•Environmental Sciences – Attendance Area Maintenance
–Monitoring environmental risk – Enrollment Projections
–Modeling stormwater runoff – School Bus Routing
–Management of watersheds, floodplains, wetlands, forests, •Real Estate
aquifers –Neighborhood land prices
–Environmental Impact Analysis –Traffic Impact Analysis
–Hazardous or toxic facility siting –Determination of Highest and Best Use
–Groundwater modeling and contamination tracking •Health Care
•Political Science –Epidemiology
–Redistricting – Needs Analysis
–Analysis of election results Service Inventory
–Predictive modeling

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What GIS Applications Do:manage, analyze, communicate
• make possible the automation of activities involving geographic data
–map production
–calculation of areas, distances, route lengths
–measurement of slope, aspect, viewshed
–logistics: route planning, vehicle tracking, traffic management
•allow for the integration of data hitherto confined to independent domains
(e.g property maps and air photos).
•by tieing data to maps, permits the succinct communication of complex
spatial patterns (e.g environmental sensitivity).
•provides answers to spatial queries (how many elderly in Richardson live
further than 10 minutes at rush hour from ambulance service?)
•perform complex spatial modelling (what if scenarios for transportation
planning, disaster planning, resource management, utility design)
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GIS System Architecture and Components

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Knowledge Base for GIS

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The GIS Data Model

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The GIS Data Model: Purpose

● allows the geographic features in real world locations to

be digitally represented and stored in a database
● so that they can be abstractly presented in map (analog)
form,
● and can also be worked with and manipulated to address
some problem

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A layer-cake of information

GIS Data Model

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The GIS Data Model: Implementation
Geographic Integration of Information

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•Data is organized by layers, coverages or themes
(synonymous concepts), with each layer representing a common
feature.
• Layers are integrated using explicit location on the earth’s
surface, thus geographic location is the organizing principal.

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The GIS Model: example
Here we have three layers or themes:
e
ud
--roads,
tit

--hydrology (water),
la

longitude --topography (land elevation)

They can be related because precise geographic
coordinates are recorded for each theme.
de
itu

Layers are comprised of two data types

lat

•Spatial data which describes location (where)

longitude •Attribute data specifying what, how much,when
Layers may be represented in two ways:
e

•in vector format as points and lines

d
itu

•in raster(or image) format as pixels

lat

All geographic data has 4 properties:

longitude projection, scale, accuracy and resolution 33
Common GIS Data Models

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Spatial and Attribute Data
● Spatial data (where)
–specifies location
–stored in a shape file, geodatabase or similar geographic file
● Attribute (descriptive) data (what, how much, when)
–specifies characteristics at that location, natural or human-created
–stored in a database table
● GIS systems traditionally maintain spatial and attribute data
separately, then “join” them for display or analysis
– for example, in ArcView, the Attributes of … table is used to link a
shapefile (spatial structure) with a database table containing attribute
information in order to display the attribute data spatially on a map

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Spatial Entity
● Spatial data describes the location and shape of geographic features, and their
spatial relationship to the features
● The Spatial data can be represented through using

1. The Point

2. The Line

3. The Area

4. Network

5. The Surface
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GIS Data Modeling

● A data model describes the thematic layers used in the GIS application, their
spatial representation, their attributes, their integrity rules and relationships,
their cartographic portrial, and their metadata requirement
● A conceptual description of how spatial data are organized for use by the GIS
● Represents a set of guidelines to convert the real world to the digitally and
logically represented spatial objects consisting of the attributes and geometry
● The attributes are managed by thematic or semantic structure
● The geometry is represented by geometric-topological structure

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Representing Data with Raster and Vector Models
Raster Model
•area is covered by grid with (usually) equal-sized, square cells
•attributes are recorded by assigning each cell a single value based on the majority
feature (attribute) in the cell, such as land use type.
•Image data is a special case of raster data in which the “attribute” is a reflectance
value from the geomagnetic spectrum
– cells in image data often called pixels (picture elements)
Vector Model
The fundamental concept of vector GIS is that all geographic features in the real work can be
represented either as:
•points or dots (nodes): trees, poles, fire plugs, airports, cities
•lines (arcs): streams, streets, sewers,
•areas (polygons): land parcels, cities, counties, forest, rock type
Because representation depends on shape, ArcView refers to files containing vector data as shapefiles

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Vector Data Model

● Vectors are graphical objects that have geometrical primitives to represent

geographical entities in the computer graphics
● A vector refers to a geometrical space which has a precise direction, length,
and shape
● points , lines and polygons can be defined by the coordinate geometry

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Vector Data
● Vector data provide a way to represent a real world features within a GIS
environment
● A vector feature has its shape represented using geometry
● The geometry is made up of one or more interconnected vertices
● A vertex describe a position in space using an X, Y and potentially Z axis
● In the vector data model, features on the earth are represented as:
○ Points
○ lines/ routes
○ Polygones / regions
○ TINs (Triangulated Irregular Networks)

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● Vector data model uses sets of coordinates and associated attribute data to
define discrete objects
● Point objects in spatial database represent location of entities considered to
have no dimension
● Simplest type of spatial objects
○ E.g. wells, sampling points, poles, telephone towers, etc.
● Line objects are used to represent linear features using ordered set of
coordinate pairs
○ E.g. infrastructure networks (transport networks: highways, railroads, etc.) ; utility networks:
(gas, electric, telephone, water, etc. ); airline networks: hubs and routes, etc.); natural networks
such as river channels

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● Polygon objects in spatial database represent entities which covers an area
○ E.g. lakes, Buildings, parcels, etc.
● Boundaries may be defined by natural phenomena (e.g. lake), or by man
made features (e.g census tracts, neighborhoods)
○ E.g. Land cover data: forest, wetlands, urban areas, etc.
○ Soil data – soil types

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● In vector world the point is the
basic building block from which all
spatial entities are constructed

● The simplest spatial entity, the

point, is represented by a single (X,
Y) coordinate pair

● Line and area entities are

constructed by connecting a series
of points into chains and polygones

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Point

● A point is a zero dimensional object and has only the property of location
● Points can be used to model features such as a well, building, power pole,
sample location etc.
● Other names for a point are vertex, node

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Line

● A line is one dimensional object that has the property of length

● Lines can be used to represent roads, streams, faults, dikes, boundaries,
contacts etc
● Lines are also called an edge, link, chain, arc
● Connected multiple lines are called polylines

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Polygon

● Polygon features are made of one or more lines that encloses an area
● A polygon is a two dimensional object with properties of area and perimeter
represented by a closed sequence of lines
● A polygon can represent a city, geologic formation, lake, river

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➔ The vector data structure mainly ensure the following
points. They are
● No node or line segment is duplicated;
● Line segment and nodes can be referenced to more
than one polygon;
● All polygon have the unique identifiers
● Polygon can be adequately represented.

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➔ In vector structure topology is concerned with connectivity between entities
and not their physical shape.
➔ Boundaries are identified through network of arcs, checking polygons for
closure, and linking arcs into polygons.
➔ The area of polygon can calculated and unique identification numbers are
attached
➔ This identifier would allow non spatial information to be linked to a specific
polygon.

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Vector Data Advantages

● Accurately representing true shape and size

● Representing non-continuous data (e.g rivers, political boundaries, road lines)
● Vectors can store information about topology
● A vector data model uses points stored by their real coordinates and so
requires a precise coordinate system
○ Geographic coordinate system - latitude/ longitude
○ Cartesian coordinate system - X/Y coordinate system

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Vector data Disadvantages

● The location of each vertex needs to be stored explicitly

● Vector data must be converted into a topological structure
○ This is often processing intensive and usually requires extensive data cleaning
● Updating or editing of the vector data requires rebuilding of topology

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Raster Data Model
● The term raster implies a regularly spaced grid
● Raster data consists of rows and columns of cells (or pixels)
● In this format a single value is stored against each cell
●

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Raster Data
● Raster Data Model defines the world as a regular set of cells in a uniform grid
pattern
● Cells are square and evenly spaced in the x and y directions
● Each cell represent attribute values and cell location of phenomena or entities
● Cell dimension specifies the length and width of the cell in surface units
● Raster data models represent continuous phenomena or spatial features
○ E.g. Elevation/DEM, bathymetry, precipitation, slope, etc.

● Raster data model may also be used to represent discrete data

○ E.g. Land cover: forest, wetlands, urban areas

● Rasters are digital aerial photographs, imagery from satellites, digital pictures, or
even scanned maps

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Raster Data
● Cell based data such as aerial imagery and digital elevation models is
characterized by pixel values
● Basically a raster file is a giant table, where each pixel is assigned a specific
value from 0 to 255.
● The meaning behind these values is determined by the user
○ They can represent elevations
○ Temperature
○ Hydrology etc

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Cell size of Raster Data
● The level of detail represented by raster is often dependent on the cell (pixel)
size or spatial resolution of the raster
● The cell must be small enough to capture the required detail but large enough
so computer storage and analysis can be performed efficiently

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Three types of raster data
● Thematic raster data
● Imagery raster data
● Spectral raster data

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➔ In the raster data model the basic building block is the individual grid cell, an
➔ the shape and character of an entity is created by the grouping of cells.
➔ The size of the grid cell is very important as it Raster is a method for the
storage, Processing and display of spatial data.
➔ Each area is divided into rows and columns, which form a regular grid
structure. Each cell must be rectangular in shape, but not necessarily square.
➔ Each cell within this matrix contains location coordinates as well as an
attribute value. The origin of rows and column is at the upper left corner of
the grid.
➔ Rows function as the “y”coordinate and column as”x”coordinate in a two
dimensional system. A cell is defined by its location in terms of rows and
columns.
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Several methods exist for encoding raster data from scratch. Three of these models
are as follows:

● Cell-by-cell raster encoding

● Run-length raster encoding
● Quad-tree raster encoding

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Raster Data Advantages

● Raster is the best way to store continuously changing values such as

elevation, slope
● Analysis faster and more flexible than vector for many applications
● Rapid computations (“map algebra”) in which raster layers are treated as
elements in mathematical expressions

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Raster Data Disadvantages
● It is especially difficult adequately represent linear features depending on the
cell resolution
● Network linkages are difficult to establish
● Processing of associated attribute data maybe cumbersome if large amount of
data exists
● Raster maps inherently reflect only one attribute or characteristics of an area
● Most output maps from grid cell systems don’t confirm to high quality
cartographic needs

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Difference between Raster and Vector

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Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN)

● Is a vector approach to handling a digital elevation model

● Used to interpolate surfaces using multiple triangles
● Are able to interpolate surfaces by selecting representative points that are
usually data points
● Connect these points to form a set of continuous and connected triangles
● The data points consists of X,Y, and Z values
● The final result gives a TIN surface

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Types of TIN methods and Processes
There are different types of TIN interpolation methods. Some of them are

● Natural Neighbour
● Kriging
● Spline
● Nearest Neighbour
● Inverse distance weighting

➔ Each of the above methods are mathematical algorithms in order to generate

interpolated surfaces
➔ Each of these methods will produce different types of surfaces

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Digital Elevation Model (DEM)
● DEM is a data model which represents the surface of a terrain in 3 dimension
● Can be represented as a raster or as a TIN
● The TIN DEM dataset is also referred to as a primary DEM or measured DEM
● Raster DEM is referred to as secondary DEM or computed DEM

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Types of DEM

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Spatial Data Structure

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Spatial Data Structure

● Data structures provide the information that the computer requires to

reconstruct the spatial data model in digital form.
● There are many different data structure in use in GIS
● Based on that the spatial data structures can be classified according to
whether they are used to structure raster or vector data structure.

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Raster Data Structure

● Raster or grid data structure refers to the storage of the raster

data for data processing and analysis by the computer

● Three commonly used data structures

○ cell-by-cell encoding
○ run-length encoding
○ quadtree
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Cell-By-Cell Encoding Data Structure
● This is the simplest raster data structure and is characterised by subdividing a
geographic space into grid cells
● Each pixel or grid cell contains a value
● A grid matrix and its cell values for a raster are arranged into a file by row
and column

value 1 represents the gray

cells and 0 has no data

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Run-Length Encoding Data Structure
● Run-Length Encoding (RLE) algorithm was developed to handle the problem
that a grid often contains redundant or missing data
● When the raster data contains more missing data, the cell-by-cell encoding
method cannot be suggested
● In RLE method, adjacent cells along a row with the same value are treated as
a group called a run
● If a whole row has only one class, it is stored as the class and the same
attributes are kept without change
● Instead of repeatedly storing the same value for each cell, the value is stored
once together with the number of the cells that makes the run
● RLE data compression method is used in many GIS packages and in standard
image formats.

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● run-length encoding structure of a
polygon.

● In the figure, the starting cell and

the end cell of the each row
denote the length of group and is
generally called as run

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Quadtree Data Structure
● To compress the data as well as to save the space in original grid, quadtree
data structure can be used
● A quadtree works by dividing a grid into four quadrants for the available
data
● The available data quadrant is again split into four half-size quadrants and so
on until the individual pixel is reached
● The attribute data for all the pixels of the quadrant remains the same even if it
is divided.

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Vector Data Structure
● Vector files were simply lines and were having only starting and ending point
● The vector file consists of a few long lines, many short lines, or even a mix of
the two
● The files are generally written in a binary or ASCII (American Standard Code for
Information Interchange) code
● two types of data structure.
○ Topological Data Structure
○ Non-Topological Data Structure

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Topological Data Structure

● Topology is the arrangement of how point, line, and polygon features share
geometry
● Topology is used for the following:
○ Constrain how features share geometry
● Topological data structure is often referred to as an intelligent data structure
○ because spatial relationships between geographic features are easily derived when using them
● Topological vector data structure is important in undertaking complex data
analysis
● In a topological data structure, lines cannot overlap without a node

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● The arc-node topological data structure is now used in most of the systems
● In the arc-node data structure, the arc is used for the data storage and it also
works when it is needed to reconstruct a polygon
● In file of arcs, point data is stored and linked to the arc file
● Node refers to the end points of the line segment
● The arc has information not only related to that particular arc but also to its
neighbours in geographic space

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● Important topological vector data structures
○ Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER)
○ Coverage Data Structure.

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Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER)

● It is an early application of topology in preparing geospatial data

● created by US Bureau of Census as an improvement to the Geographic Base
File/Dual Independent Map Encoding (GBF/DIME) data structure
● In the TIGER database, points are called 0-cells, lines 1-cells, and areas 2-cells
● The main advantage of this data structure is that the user can easily identify
an address on either the right side or the left side of a street or road

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Coverage Data Structure
● A coverage is a georelational data model that stores vector data—it contains
both the spatial (location) and attribute (descriptive) data for geographic
features
● Coverages use a set of feature classes to represent geographic features
● Coverage data structure was practised by many GIS companies like ESRI, in
their software packages in 1980s to separate GIS from CAD (Computer Aided
Design)
● A coverage data structure is a topology based vector data structure that can
be a point, line or polygon coverage
● A point is a simple spatial entity which can be represented with topology
● The point coverage data structure contains feature identification numbers
(ID) and pairs of x, y coordinates

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Point coverage data structure

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Line coverage data structure

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Polygon coverage data structure 86
GIS Database

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What is a database
● A database is any organized collection of data
● Some examples common examples
○ a telephone book
○ T.V. Guide
○ airline reservation system
○ motor vehicle registration records
○ papers in your filing cabinet
○ files on your computer hard drive.

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Database Definitions
What is a database?
It’s an organized collection of data, it need not be a computer
based system.

What is a database management system (DBMS)?

A software system designed to:
–Organize that data in a flexible manner,
–Provide tools to add, modify or delete data from the database,
–Query the data,
–Produce reports summarizing selected contents.

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Spatial Database
● A spatial database is a general-purpose database (usually a relational
database)
○ is a collection of spatial data types, operators, indices, processing
strategies, etc.
○ that has been enhanced to include spatial data that represents objects
defined in a geometric space, along with tools for querying and
analyzing such data
○ Most spatial databases allow the representation of simple geometric
objects such as points, lines and polygons
○ Some spatial databases handle more complex structures such as 3D
objects, topological coverages, linear networks, and triangulated
irregular networks (TINs)

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What is SDBMS?
● A SDBMS is a software module that
○ can work with an underlying DBMS
○ supports spatial data models, spatial abstract data types (ADTs) and a
query language from which these ADTs are callable
○ supports spatial indexing, efficient algorithms for processing spatial
operations, and domain specific rules for query optimization

● Example: Oracle Spatial data cartridge, ESRI SDE

○ can work with Oracle DBMS
○ Has spatial data types (e.g. polygon), operations (e.g. overlap) callable
from SQL3 query language
○ Has spatial indices, e.g. R-trees

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SDBMS Example

● Consider a spatial dataset with:

○ County boundary (dashed white line)
○ Census block - name, area, population,
boundary (dark line)
○ Water bodies (dark polygons)
○ Satellite Imagery (grayscale pixels)

● Storage in a SDBMS table:

create table census_blocks (
name string,
area float,
population number,
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boundary polygon );
How is a SDBMS different from a GIS ?
● GIS comprise set of tools to visualize and analyze spatial data using spatial
analysis functions such as
○ Search Thematic search, search by region, (re-)classification
○ Location analysis Buffer, corridor, overlay
○ Terrain analysis Slope/aspect, catchment, drainage network
○ Flow analysis Connectivity, shortest path
○ Distribution Change detection, proximity, nearest neighbor
○ Spatial analysis/Statistics Pattern, centrality, autocorrelation, indices of
similarity, topology: hole description
○ Measurements Distance, perimeter, shape, adjacency, direction
● GIS uses SDBMS
○ to store, search, query, share large spatial data sets

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● SDBMS focusses on
○ Efficient storage, querying, sharing of large spatial datasets
○ Provides simpler set based query operations
○ Example operations: search by region, overlay, nearest neighbor,
distance, adjacency, perimeter etc.
○ Uses spatial indices and query optimization to speedup queries over
large spatial datasets.
● SDBMS may be used by applications other than GIS
○ Astronomy, Genomics, Multimedia information systems, ...

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Components of SDBMS

● Components include
○ spatial data model,
○ query language,
○ query processing,
○ file organization and indices,
○ query optimization, etc.

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Architecture of SDBMS

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Spatial Analysis

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What is spatial Analysis

● Spatial analysis is any of the formal techniques which studies entities using
their topological, geometric, or geographic properties
● Spatial analysis includes a variety of techniques using different analytic
approaches, especially spatial statistics
● Through spatial analysis you can interact with a GIS to answer questions,
support decisions, and reveal patterns
● it includes all of the transformations, manipulations, and methods that can be
applied to geographic data to turn them into useful information

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Types of Spatial Analysis

● Types of spatial analysis vary from simple to sophisticated

● spatial analysis will be divided into six categories:
○ queries and reasoning,
○ Measurements,
○ transformations,
○ descriptive summaries,
○ optimization, and
○ hypothesis testing

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● Queries and reasoning are the most basic of analysis operations, in which the
GIS is used to answer simple questions posed by the user. No changes occur
in the database and no new data are produced

● Measurements are simple numerical values that describe aspects of

geographic data. They include measurement of simple properties of objects,
such as length, area, or shape, and of the relationships between pairs of
objects, such as distance or direction.

● Transformations are simple methods of spatial analysis that change data sets
by combining them or comparing them to obtain new data sets and
eventually new insights. Transformations use simple geometric, arithmetic, or
logical rules, and they include operations that convert raster data to vector
data or vice versa. They may also create fields from collections of objects or
detect collections of objects in fields.
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● Descriptive summaries attempt to capture the essence of a data set in one or two
numbers. They are the spatial equivalent of the descriptive statistics commonly
used in statistical analysis, including the mean and standard deviation.

● Optimization techniques are normative in nature, designed to select ideal

locations for objects given certain well-defined criteria. They are widely used in
market research, in the package delivery industry, and in a host of other
applications.

● Hypothesis testing focuses on the process of reasoning from the results of a

limited sample to make generalizations about an entire population.
○ It allows us, for example, to determine whether a pattern of points could have arisen by chance
based on the information from a sample.
○ Hypothesis testing is the basis of inferential statistics and forms the core of statistical analysis, but
its use with spatial data can be problematic.

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Spatial Data Acquisition

● Spatial data can be obtained from various sources

● It can be collected
○ from scratch, using direct spatial-data acquisition techniques,
○ or indirectly, by making use of existing spatial data collected by others
●

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Primary sources
● SURVEYING,
● PHOTOGRAMMETRY,
● GNSS AND REMOTE SENSING

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Secondary Methods
● Digitization
● Automatic Line Following
● Scanning

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Surveying

● Is a technique on mapping features using different

instruments
● Equipments include
○ TAPE(Short Distance),
○ Level(Height)
○ Theodolite / Total station (distance )

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Photogrammetry
● It is a technique of mapping features using aerial
photographs
● Photos taken by set of cameras on board an airplane
● Instruments that can be used to help in the interpretation
are
○ Stereoscope
○ Stereo plotters

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Remote Sensing
● Mapping features using satellite imagery
● Images taken by a set of sensors on board a satellite
● Features are mapped from satellite imagery using
○ Visual interpretation or
○ Automatic classification

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Digitizing and Scanning
● Digitization is the process of converting existing maps to
digital form (Vector format) - called Vectorization
● Scanning is a process of converting existing maps to
digital form (Raster format) - called Rasterization

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