Lab 1b: What is GIS?

What exactly is GIS?

"A geographic information system (GIS) integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information."

source: http://www.esri.com/what-is-gis/index.html

"At its simplest level, Geographic Information Science (GIS) can be thought of as high-tech mapping, but the complicated software and the people who work with it are responsible for so much more than simply creating a map."

source: http://www.worldwidelearn.com/online-education-guide/science/gis-major.htm

"a computer system capable of capturing, storing, analyzing, and displaying geographically referenced information; that is, data identified according to location."

source: http://egsc.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/gis_poster/


Based on these three assertions of the meaning of GIS, all of them agree on the fact that GIS serves an important role in analyzing and capturing geographical information, yet they differ in the fact that a Geographic Information System is the actual program or method of GIS whereas a Geographic Information Science focuses on the actual science of GIS. Very similar, but different interpretations of the acronym.

Real world applications of GIS:

1.) Your friend invites you to a house party and gives you the address. You log onto maps.google.com to look up where the party is located. maps.google.com = GIS

2.) You're stuck in traffic and choose to exit the highway and find an alternate route. You plug in your GPS and let it do the work. GPS = GIS

3.) A group of researchers rebuilding New Orleans are trying to find which parts of the city are below sea level and which areas are in dire need of higher seawalls. They begin to construct an elevation map of the entire city. Elevation mapping = GIS


GIS vs "maps"

Differences:

1.) Maps are static, GIS are interactive
2.) Maps do not evolve, GIS is constantly changing
3.) Maps involve a solid medium, GIS can exist as a satellite.

Similarities:

1.) They both serve the purpose of providing direction and navigation.
2.) They both aim to plot out the surface of the earth.
3.) They both mark similar features (roads, rivers, etc)

Lab 1a: Interesting Maps

I found this map on another blogger's page and thought it was very interesting. It shows the most popular social networking websites by country. Not surprisingly, Facebook and Myspace are dominant in Anglophone countries, whereas Europe, Asia, and South America seem to all have their own sites more popular than Facebook!

This particular map I found on Geographer Garry Peterson's website, from a post dated in 2006. It's a map of the world based on population size. China and India (as well as parts of Europe) seem to be grossly overrepresented on this map, as countries with higher population densities tend to be larger than their counterparts. Note how small Australia, Canada, and Russia are!

This map is a map of far northeastern Asia at night, which I found from paradoxoff.com. What is interesting about this map is how industrialized and modern South Korean, Japanese, and Chinese cities have become. Yet at the same time, almost the entire country of North Korea is shrouded in massive darkness.