KAAF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY

COURSE; Principles of GIS (GEO 360)

REPORT ON PRACTICALS

OFORI EMMANUEL 22300413

All other materials and articles are dully referenced and acknowledged.

JULY 29TH, 2015

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TABLE OF CONTENT

1.0 INTRODUCTION

2.0 Uses of GIS

3.0 DATA MODELS

4.0 PRACTICAL EXAMPLE, PROCEDURES

4.1 CREATING POINTS ON NIGERIAN MAP AND LOADING IT ON AFRICAN

COUNTRIES (.shp)

4.2 BOREHOLE (CREATING POINTS)

4.3 POLYGON LAYER

5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

GIS is a technological field that incorporates geographical features with tabular data in order to

map, analyze, and assess real-world problems.

The key word to this technology is Geography – this means that some portion of the data is

spatial. In other words, data that is in some way referenced to locations on the earth.

(Gislounge.com, 2015)

Or better still a GIS is a computer system capable of assembling, storing, manipulating, and

displaying geographically referenced information, i.e. data identified according to their locations.

Practitioners also regard the total GIS as including operating personnel and the data that go into

the system.

2.0 Uses of GIS

1. Management of resources

2. Investigations of the earth’s surface that is scientific in nature

3. Archeological uses

4. Planning of locations and management of assets

5. Urban & regional planning

6. Criminology matters

7. An Impact assessment of the environment

8. The assessment and eventual development of infrastructure

9. Studies of the demographics of an area plus its population

10. Analysis with regards to engineering

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3.0 DATA MODELS

Vector data model: A representation of the world using points, lines, and polygons.

Vector models are useful for storing data that has discrete boundaries, such as country

borders, land parcels, and streets.

Raster data model: A representation of the world as a surface divided into a regular grid

of cells. Raster models are useful for storing data that varies continuously, as in an aerial

photograph, a satellite image, a surface of chemical concentrations, or an elevation

surface. (Gis.stackexchange.com, 2014)

4.0 PRACTICAL EXAMPLE, PROCEDURES

4.1 CREATING POINTS ON NIGERIAN MAP AND LOADING IT ON AFRICAN

COUNTRIES (.shp)

 Launch QGIS Desktop software on a computer (a working window appears)

 Click on Raster-Georeferencer-further click on Georeferencer…( a working window appears)

 Click on open raster and browse to where Nigeria map is stored in the required folder and

load. (click ok to system selective menu, a Nigerian map appears on the working screen)

 Click on the add point icon and create a required points (4no.) on the Nigerian map with the

help of the longitude and latitude coordinate on the map, input points in the enter map

coordinate which pops out after clicking a location on the map.(X for East and Y for North)

after all point loaded click ok.( points chose includes, 5E-12.50N,12.50E-12.50N,5E-7.50N

and 12.50E-7.50N)

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 Click on transformation setting icon set required mode. Thus thin plate (type), spline nearest

neighbor (sampling), EPSG: 4326(target SRS), choose required saving destination, check

load in QGIS when done and click ok.

 Click start georeferencing icon and minimize that window to go back to main working

window.

 A layer Nigeria appears in the layer list (right click to its properties to manipulate it

looks/colour and reduce map colour opacity (transparency).

 Click on add vector icon at the top and further click on add vector layer, browse to where

African-Countries (.shp) file is and load.(click ok to CRS menu)

 Another layer appears in the layer list named African-countries (it properties can also be

manipulated to effect its appearance). When all above procedures is done correctly, A map of

Africa appears on top of the old Nigeria plotted coordinate map, the Nigeria map fits

perfectly where Nigeria is supposed to be since in the African-Countries layer. (Since

coordinate match each other’s position.

4.1 BOREHOLE (CREATING POINTS)

The below procedure shows how a borehole point can be demarcated on the previous map.

 Click layer - create layer - then to new shape file layer and choose point at type.

 Add below attribute names

1. BH_Number (type-whole number) click add attribute and same applies to the

following

2. Depth - whole number

3. Diameter - Decimal

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 4. Drilled_by – Test, click ok after, name (Borehole) and save files to required location.

A new layer is formed named Borehole as named earlier.

 Active borehole layer and click on toggle editing and click on add feature tool.

 Click on any required point on the map to locate a borehole.

 Input parameters for id-01, BH number-4, depth-200, drilled by-EM.LTD and click ok. (a

borehole layer point appears on map)

 Re-click on toggle editing to save work. Attribute table can be seen upon checking

borehole properties then to borehole attribute.

4.3 POLYGON LAYER

Adding polygon layer to demarcate boundaries of the Nigeria map on the African Countries.
(.shp)
 Click layer - create layer - then to new shape file layer and choose polygon at type.

 Add an attribute name and set type (boundary-decimal)

 Click ok name file Polygon and save to a required destination. (A new layer is formed

named Borehole as named earlier.)

 Active borehole layer and click on toggle editing and click on add feature tool.

 Mark out the boundary of the Nigerian map by Click on edges of entire Nigerian map

(with the help of pan/zoom) the more closer the point the more detailed map would be

achieve. After the map is archived right click to end operation and label Id (1).

 Re-click on toggle editing to save work. Attribute table can be seen upon checking

polygon properties then to polygon attribute.

 A clear polygon demarcating the Nigerian map is achieve.

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5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

The above procedure portrayed how some aspect of the QGIS software is used in plotting

coordinate on maps.

Today People working in many different fields use GIS technology. Many businesses use GIS to

help them determine where to locate a new store. Biologists use GIS to track animal migration

patterns. City officials use GIS to help plan their response in the case of a natural disaster such as

an earthquake whist the engineers uses them in road construction and community estate

development.

As such, there is the need for expanded education to support GIS usage in the country which

might aid in development.

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REFERENCE

 Morais, D.C (2015) what is GIS? , [Online], Available: http://www.gislounge.com/what-is-

gis/ accessed [29th July, 2015].

 James,S. (2014) differences between vector and raster[Online], Available:

http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/57142/what-is-the-difference-between-vector and

raster-data-models [29th July, 2015].