Overview and History

Question 1

14th century: mechanical revolution

Answer 1

paper maps produced for world exploration

Question 2

20th century: digital revolution

Answer 2

demand for better resource management

Question 3

1800s

Answer 3

Dr. John Snow mapped out the locations of cholera outbreaks to track the source of the outbreak

Question 4

1950s

Answer 4

Projects to automate cartography were attempted by the government but failed

Question 5

1963

Answer 5

development of cgis by roger tom linson to analyze canada’s inventory

Question 6

1964

Answer 6

harvard lab for computer graphics and spatial analysis is established by howard fisher

Question 7

1965

Answer 7

inception of forest survey of india (FSI) and space science and tech centre (SSTC) established in india

Question 8

Explain Canadian Land Inventory

Answer 8

• a land inventory of rural canada that covers over 2.5 million sqkm of land and water
• produced layers of homogenous zones from best to poorest (agriculture - land use)

Question 9

Explain CGIS

Answer 9

• developed to analyze the data collected by CLI and produce stats to be used for developing land management

Question 10

What are some CGIS innovations

Answer 10

• vectorization of scanned images
• separating data into map sheets, themes, attribute and locational files

Question 11

1971

Answer 11

CGIS becomes fully operational

Question 12

What is considered geographic data?

Answer 12

• information found on a map
• info about positions on or relative to the earth
• spatial and non-spatial data - “where and when”

Question 13

Define geographical

Answer 13

Dealing with spatial features such as physical, cultural, or economic

Question 14

What are examples of non-spatial data?

Answer 14

Road types, forest species, or site quality - considered alpha numeric data

Question 15

Define GIS

Answer 15

Computer based system which allows the display and analysis of spacial and non-spacial features and their attributes

• a spatially referenced dataset with real-world characteristics
• a map with an associated spreadsheet

Question 16

Define topology

Answer 16

A set of rules that model how points, lines, and polygons share coincident geometry

Question 17

Define projection

Answer 17

The curved surface of the earth is portrayed on a flat surface

Question 18

Explain automated cartography

Answer 18

• map production
• assigned static symbology
• not good at analysis
• doesn’t support topology
• can support projections

Question 19

Explain CAD

Answer 19

• automates drafting table
• doesn’t support analysis, projections, and topology

Question 20

Explain DBMS

Answer 20

• spreadsheets
• only non-spatial data
• no appropriate for linear or areal data

Question 21

Analog map vs digital map

Answer 21

Analog: scale dependent and static

Digital: scale independent and dynamic

Question 22

What are the 5 components of GIS?

Answer 22

Hardware, software, data, wetware, and methods n procedures

Question 23

Explain hardware

Answer 23

The computer itself - backbone of gis

Question 24

Explain software

Answer 24

Software packages that run on hardware

Question 25

Explain methods and procedures

Answer 25

how the gis is used

Question 26

4 things you can do with gis

Answer 26

1. find geographic features
2. measure geographic features
3. summarize data
4. compare map layers

Question 27

5 benefits of gis

Answer 27

1. cost savings
2. better decision making
3. improved communication
4. better recordkeeping
5. efficient geographic management