Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Presented By,
S Bensinghdhas, M.E (Design)
Asst. Lecturer
SJCET, Dar Es Salam
Error
Whenever you work with spatial data (or any
data for that matter) you will deal with some
sort of error due to the many steps involved
in creating spatial data.
Spatial data is just an abstraction of what is
really there. Because of this abstraction, we
can expect error due to:
How we conceptualize the data in the first
place
How we collect the data
How we present the data
Additionally, there are other sources of error
such as:
Obvious Errors
Errors in natural variation
Data Quality
GIS IS A GARBAGE MAGNIFIER
GARBAGE IN / GARBAGE OUT
Obvious Error
Positional Accuracy
Attribute Accuracy
Logical Consistency
Resolution
Completeness
Spatial Accuracy
Relative Accuracy
Even though the USGS
quadrangle has much less
absolute accuracy than the
photogrammetrically
derived map, if were were
to zoom into an area and
measure the distance
between two points, the
relative distance, and the
angle would be fairly
similar. In this case, the
distance along Tower Road
is only about 15 feet
different, and the azimuth
Positional Accuracy
Attribute Accuracy
Connecticut
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
New York
Logical Consistency
Representation of
data that does not
make sense
Road in the water
Contours that cross
or end
Features on steep
slopes
Resolution
Generalization may
improperly represent
size and shape
Cartographic
Asthetics
Entire regions may be
eliminated (islands,
peninsulas, etc.)
Completeness
Fragmented
coverage of many
developing
countries
Soils
Vegetation
Must determine
methods for
uniformity
Obvious Errors
The statement to err is human is very applicable to creating spatial data. Humans
make a lot of errors. Typing in the wrong value in a computer is a common mistake that
humans make. However, there are other sources of obvious error besides human error:
Age: a map is a representation of real-world objects at a given point in time. The
reliability of a dataset typically goes down as it gets older. This is especially true of
data that would frequently change such as housing within a city. Many GIS projects
take years to complete, and it is entirely possible that much of the data collected in
the beginning of a project may be out of date by the end of the project.
Map Scale: In general, larger scale maps show more detail than smaller scale maps.
Also, larger scale maps tend to have greater accuracy than smaller scale maps,
especially maps within the same family such as the differences between 1:250,000,
1:100,000 and 1:24,000 USGS maps. Computers, and GIS software really dont care
what data you give it. That being the case, a GIS will process any of your data,
whether the processing is appropriate or not. Therefore, you can combine data from
different scales rather easily, however, doing so may not be a good idea due to the
different accuracies of the products.
Data Format: The way we represent data also presents an obvious source of error.
For example, a raster map of landuse represented by 10 meter grid cells will differ
significantly from a raster map of landuse represented by 100 meter grid cells. The
following is a grid of landuse values around Ithaca, New York. You can see the
differences in representation between a map with 10 meter grid cells, 30 meter grid
cells, and 100 meter grid cells.
Aerial Coverage: Many data sets may not have uniform coverage. That is, there
may be pieces missing in one section.
Accessibility: Not all data sets are equally accessible. For example, land resources
in one country may be available, but are considered a state secret in another country.
Also, due to the recent events of September 11, 2001, some data are unavailable
due to security reasons.
10 meter
30 meter
100 meter
You can see why each of the previous error types are called
Obvious Errors. But there are other types of errors that are not
so obvious, and oftentimes overlooked. Nonetheless, you will
have to be aware of these kinds of errors too. The errors are
termed errors in natural variation, and take the form of:
Accuracy of Content
Attribute errors caused by miscoding, or faulty
equipment (thermometer, pH meter)
Measurement Error
Laboratory Errors
Results of World-wide Laboratory Exchange
Program
Same soil samples in different laboratories
exceeded:
11% for clay content
Accuracy is defined as
displacement of a plotted point
from its true position in relation to
an established standard while
Precision is the degree of
perfection; or repeatability of a
measurement.
For mapping, accuracy is
associated with position of an
object to its true position.
Precision is then the ability to
repeat a measurement, or how
likely you are to return to the same
location time and time again.
The figures to the right illustrate
the differences between accuracy
and precision.
Therefore, if there are natural
variations in either the instruments
used for measurement, or the
Raster to Vector
GIS allows you to convert raster and vector features between one another.
For example, we can take a raster feature and convert it to vector format.
Or, we can take a vector feature and convert it to raster. But, as the
examples show, depending upon the resolution of the features, the
representation of the geographic objects may be quite different. In some
cases, you can see how the raster version of the map actually caused
some buildings to merge together.
pa
ve
m
en
ti
s
gr
ea
te
r
th
a
et
er
s
Digital Representation
Curves are approximated by many vertices
Boundaries are not absolute, but should have a
confidence interval
Sliver Polygons
In the following example, there are two polygons. When we overlay the
two of them, the resulting polygon has not only the logical intersection
between the two polygons, but also many small polygons that are probably
due more to the fact that the representation of the polygon boundaries are
slightly different. These smaller, or sliver polygons, represent spatial errors
in the data.