Introduction to Geographic

Information Systems

Miles Logsdon
mlog@u.washington.edu

http://sal.ocean.washington.edu/
GIS - consists of:

 Components
 People, organizational setting
 Procedures, rules, quality control
 Tools, hardware & software
 Data, information
 Functions
 Data gathering
 Data distribution
Geographic Data

 Spatial Data  Descriptive Data

 location  attributes, or
 shape  characteristics of the
 relationship among features
features

After Sinton, 1978:

Components of spatial information: time, space, theme (attribute)

Sounds obvious. useful starting point to remember

Role of these Dimensions: One must be fixed, one controlled, one
measured.
DATA - “more than one”
DATUM - “only one item, or record”

 Three Attributes of Data

 Thematic (Value Variable)
 Nominal, … name, label
 Ordinal, … rank ordered
 Interval / Ratio, … measurement on a scale
 Spatial (location)
 Temporal
Spatial Data: the spatial attribute is explicitly stated and linked
to the thematic attribute for each data item.
Spatial - thematic value
types

Sta. 94, DOC 4.9 200’

Stream,3
Former Land Fill 100’
FOREST

URBAN
Duvall, pop 1170

Brush
FOREST AGRICULTURE
100’ Creek, 2

200’ Snoqualmie
WELL River, 1
Geographies
Layers, Coverages, Themes
Land use
Soils

Streets
Hydrology

Parcels
Concept of Spatial Objects

 POINTS

 LINES

 AREA
Spatial Encoding - RASTER

POINT 0 0 0
0 1 0
0 0 0
5 5 3
AREA 1 3 3
1 1 2

LINE 1 0 0
0 1 0
0 0 1
Spatial Encoding - VECTOR
POINT - x, y * a single node
with NO area
LINE - x1, y1 * a connection of
(Arcs) - x2, y2 nodes (vertices)
. beginning with a
. “to” and ending
- xN, yN with a “from”

Area - x1, y1 * a series of arc(s)

(Polygons) - x2, y2 that close around
. a “label” point
.
- xN, yN (closure Point)
 Vector - Topology
Object Spatial Descriptive
VAR1 VAR2
1 x1,y1 1
2 x2,y2 2
3 x3,y3 3

Fnode Tnode x1y1, x2y2 VAR1 VAR2

1 1 1 2 xxyy, xxyy 1
2 3 2 2 3 xxyy,xxyy 2
1 2
VAR1 VAR2

2 3
15
1 10, 11, 12, 15 1
10 2 10, ……. 2
1 124
5 11
Raster Data Model
Set Selections

[ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ]

Reduce Select - RESEL GT 5 = [6 7 8 9 10]

Add Select - ASEL EQ 5 = [5 6 7 8 9 10]

Unselect - UNSEL GE 9 = [5 6 7 8 ]

Null Select - NSEL = [1 2 3 4 9 10 ]

AND, OR, XOR

1 2 3

AND = 2

OR = 1,2,3

XOR =1
Spatial Overlay - UNION

1 1 2
1
3 6
2 4 5
2 3
7
8
11
3 12
9 10
4 5
13 14
16 17
15

# attribute # attribute # IN attribut OUT attribute

1 1 1
2 A 2 102 2 102
3 B 3 103 3 A
4 C 4 A 102
5 D 5 B 102
Spatial Overlay -
INTERSECT

1 1
1

2
2
2 3 3
4 5
3
6 7
4 5
8 9

# attribute # attribute # IN attribut OUT attribute

1 1 1
2 A 2 102 2 A 102
3 B 3 103 3 B 102
4 C 4 A 103
5 D 5 B 103
Spatial Overlay -
IDENTITY

1 1
1
2
5
2
3 4
2 3
6 7
3
8 9
4 5
10
11
12 13

# attribute # attribute # IN attribut OUT attribute

1 1 1
2 A 2 102 2 A
3 B 3 103 3 A 102
4 C 4 B 103
5 D 5 B
Spatial Poximity - BUFFER

idth
s ta nt W
Con

Va
ria
ble
W idt
h
Spatial Poximity - NEAR

Assign a point to the

nearest arc
Spatial Proximity -
Pointdistance

DISTANCE

1 1 2,045
2 2 1,899
3 3 1,743
Spatial Proximity - Thiessen
Polygons
 Map Algebra
In a raster GIS, cartographic modeling is also named Map
Algebra.

Mathematical combinations of raster layers

several types of functions:
• Local functions
• Focal functions
• Zonal functions
• Global functions

Functions can be applied to one or multiple layers

Local Function
Sometimes called layer functions -

Work on every single cell in a raster layer

•Cells are processed without reference to surrounding

cells

•Operations can be arithmetic, trigonometric,

exponential, logical or logarithmic functions
Local Functions: Example
•Multiply by constant value

2 0 1 1 6 0 3 3
2 3 0 4 6 9 0 12
X3 =
1 1 2 3 3 6
3 2 9 6

•Multiply by a grid

2 0 1 1 2 0 2 2 4 0 2 2
2 3 0 4 3 3 3 3 6 9 0 12
X =
1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 4
3 2 1 1 3 2
 Focal Function
Focal functions process cell data depending on the values of
neighbouring cells

We define a ‘kernel’ to use as the neighbourhood

•for example, 2x2, 3x3, 4x4 cells

Types of focal functions might be:

•focal sum,
•focal mean,
•focal max,
•focal min,
•focal range
Focal Function: Examples
•Focal Sum (sum all values in a neighborhood)

2 0 1 1 (3x3)
2 3 0 4 12 13
=
2 1 1 2 17 19
2 3 3 2

•Focal Mean (moving average all values in a neighborhood)

2 0 1 1 (3x3) 1.8 1.3 1.5 1.5

2 3 0 4 2.2 2.0 1.8 1.8
=
4 2 2 3 2.2 2.0 2.2 2.3
1 1 3 2 2.0 2.2 2.3 2.5
Zonal Function
Process and analyze cells on the basis of ‘zones’

Zones define cells that share a common characteristic

Cells in the same zone don’t have to be contiguous

A typical zonal function requites two grids

•a zone grid which defines the size, shape and location of each zone
•a value grid which is processed

Typical zonal functions

•zonal mean,
•zonal max,
•zonal sum,
•zonal variety
 Zonal Function
An Example
•Zonal maximum – Identify the maximum in each zone

2 2 1 1 1 2 3 4 5 5 8 8
2 3 3 1 5 6 7 8 5 7 7 8
=
3 2 1 2 3 4 7 5
1 1 2 2 5 6 7 8 8 8 5 5

Useful when we have different regions “classified” and wish to

treat all grid cells of each type as a single “zone” (ie. Forests,
urban, water, etc.)
Global function
In global functions -

•The output value of each cell is a function of the entire

grid

•Typical global functions are distance measures, flow

directions, or weighting measures.

•Useful when we want to work out how cells ‘relate’ to

each other
 Golbal Function
An Example
•Distance Measures – Euclidean distance based upon cell size

1 1 2 1 0 0
1
= 1.4 1 1 0
2 1 0 1 1
1.4 1 1.4 2

Or – some function which must consider all cells before

determining the value of any cell – (“cost” associated with a
path across the surface)
Examples

outgrid = zonalsum(zonegrid, valuegrid)

outgrid = focalsum(ingrid1, rectangle, 3, 3)

outgrid = (ingrid1 div ingrid2) * ingrid3

Spatial Modeling
Spatial modeling is analytical procedures applied with a GIS. Spatial modeling uses geographic
data to attempt to describe, simulate or predict a real-world problem or system.

There are three categories of spatial modeling functions that can be applied to geographic
features within a GIS:
•geometric models, such as calculating the Euclidean distance between features,
•coincidence models, such as topological overlay;
•adjacency models (pathfinding, redistricting, and allocation)

All three model categories support operations on spatial data such as points, lines, polygons,
tins, and grids. Functions are organized in a sequence of steps to derive the desired information
for analysis.

The following references are excellent introductions to modeling in GIS:

Goodchild, Parks, and Stegaert. Environmental Modeling with GIS. Oxford University Press, 1993.
Tomlin, Dana C. Geographic Information Systems and Catograhic Modeling. Prentice Hall, 1990.