GIS lecture 3:

1
• Data in GIS
• Raster
• Raster Vs. vector
• UTM system

2
• Spatial Data
• Attributed Data
• Data Layers
• Layer Types
• Topology
Spatial Data: Represents features that have a known location on earth.

Attribute Data: The information linked to the geographic features (spatial data) that
describe those features.

Data Layers: Are the result of combining spatial and attribute data. Essentially adding
the attribute database to the spatial location.

Layer Types: A layer type refers to the way spatial and attribute information are
connected. There are two major layer types, vector and raster.

Topology: How geographic features are related to one another and where they are in
relation to one another
• Spatial data (where)
– specifies location
– stored in a shape file, geodatabase or similar geographic file
• Attribute (descriptive) data (what, how much, when)
– specifies characteristics at that location, natural or human-created
– stored in a data base table
GIS systems traditionally maintain spatial and attribute data
separately, then “join” them for display or analysis
– for example, in ArcView, the Attributes of … table is used to link a
shapefile (spatial structure) with a data base table containing attribute
information in order to display the attribute data spatially on a map
• Projection: the method by which the curved 3-D surface of the earth is
represented by X,Y coordinates on a 2-D flat map/screen
– distortion is inevitable
• Scale: the ratio of distance on a map to the equivalent distance on the ground
– in theory GIS is scale independent but in practice there is an implicit range of scales for data
output in any project
• Accuracy: how well does the database info match the real world
– Positional: how close are features to their real world location?
– Consistency: do feature characteristics in database match those in real world
• is a road in the database a road in the real world?
– Completeness: are all real world instances of features present in the database?
• Are all roads included.
• Resolution: the size of the smallest feature able to be recognized
– for raster data, it is the pixel size

The tighter the specification, the higher the cost.

• Location within the “real world”.

• Latitude and longitude, UTM.

• Other x,y coordinate pairs.

• Latitude and Longitude are the units that represent the coordinates at geographic
coordinate system.

• Lat/lon are coordinates on a 3D spheroid (the 3D representation of the earth).

• There are several ways of calculating these that we call "datums".

• The latitude has the symbol of phi, and it shows the angle between the straight
line in the certain point and the equatorial plane.

• The latitude is specified by degrees, starting from 0° and ending up with 90° to
both sides of the equator, making latitude Northern and Southern.

• The equator is the line with 0° latitude.

• The longitude has the symbol of lambda and is another angular coordinate
defining the position of a point on a surface of earth.
•
• The longitude is defined as an angle pointing west or east from the Greenwich
Meridian, which is taken as the Prime Meridian.

• The longitude can be defined maximum as 180° east from the Prime Meridian and
180° west from the Prime Meridian.
• Latitudes and longitudes do they help in locating a place.

• Limitation to get an exact measure between two point.

• Longitudes come more closer to each other when one move towards the northern
direction or towards the pole hence they are not uniformly distributed.
• It provides an accurate and standardized way to locate positions on the earth’s surface.

• It is particularly useful for navigation purposes,

• The UTM coordinate system divides the world into sixty north-south zones, each 6
degrees of longitude wide.

• UTM zones are numbered consecutively beginning with Zone 1, which includes the
westernmost point of Alaska, and progress eastward.

• If UTM ticks are shown on a USGS topographic map, the zone is indicated in the credit
legend in...
• The Mercator uses a cylinder for its map projection.
• The Transverse Mercator takes a cylinder and places it on its side (rotates it 90°),
which is how the term “transverse” is derived.
• However, the Universal Transverse Mercator places this cylinder 60 times for each
UTM zone.
• This means that all 60 wedges are flattened out with a transverse cylinder. Each
time it’s slightly rotated using a different meridian as a central line.
 Representing Data with Raster and Vector Models
• Vector Model
The fundamental concept of vector GIS is that all geographic features in the real work can be
represented either as:
• points or dots (nodes): trees, poles, fire plugs, airports, cities
• lines (arcs): streams, streets, sewers,
• areas (polygons): land parcels, cities, counties, forest, rock type
Because representation depends on shape, ArcView refers to files containing vector data asshapefiles

Raster Model
• area is covered by grid with (usually) equal-sized, square cells
• attributes are recorded by assigning each cell a single value based on the majority feature
(attribute) in the cell, such as land use type.
• Image data is a special case of raster data in which the “attribute” is a reflectance value from the
geomagnetic spectrum
– cells in image data often called pixels (picture elements)
 Real World

Raster Representation
Vector Representation
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
0 R T
1 R T point
2 H R
line
3 R
4 R R
5 R
6 R T T H
polygon
7 R T T
8 R
9 R
1.Point

– A specific geographic location

– Each point may have a specific value depending on the

attribute table
2.Line
– A segment or arc with a specific geographic location

– Each line may have a specific value depending on the

attribute table

– Lines have direction and length

3.Polygon

– An enclosed areas with a specific geographic location

– Has a geographically defined shape

– Edges are straight lines with vertices

• Explicitly stores the spatial (i.e. geographic) attribute
Vector Data structures
• A point is represented by 1 coordinate pair
• A line segment consists of 2 or more coordinate pairs where the X,Y
location is stored.
• A polygon/area is represented by multiple pairs forming a CLOSED
area.
 Two types of selection

Selection based on Selection based on

features attributes
Not suitable in cases of detailed data that include huge number
of points lines and polygons.

High memory consumption.

long time to load and manipulate.

Needs high bandwidth to be transferred over the network.

 • The shapefile is the most common vector file format.
• “A” shapefile is actually a collection of several different files with different
extensions.

When adding files to ArcGIS Pro, you will Shapefile =

only see one file, not every extension. Make sure to keep all files together when
.shp .shx .sbx moving.

.dbf .prj

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• The (shapefile) format defines the geometry and attributes of geographically
referenced features in three or more files with specific file extensions that should
be stored in the same project workspace.
• There are three mandatory files for each shape file:
• .dbf is a standard database file used to store attribute data and object IDs. A .dbf
file is mandatory for shape files. You can open .DBF files in Microsoft Access or
Excel
• .shp is a mandatory file that gives features their geometry. Every shapefile has its
own .shp file that represent spatial vector data. For example, it could be points,
lines and polygons in a map.
• .shx are mandatory and AutoCAD shape index position. This type of file is used to
search forward and backwards.
•A raster is a tesselationof a surface.

•(A tesselationis defined as the process to cover a surface through the repeated use of
a single shape.)
•A raster based system stores data by using a grid of cells

•A unique reference coordinate represents each pixel either at a corner or in the

middle of the cell

•Each cell or pixel has discrete attributes assigned to it

•Raster data resolution is dependent on the pixel or grid size and may vary from
sub-meter to many kilometers.
• Raster data stores different information in layers; elevation, soil type, geology, forest
type, rainfall rate, etc.

• Generally, raster data requires less processing than vector data, but it consumes more
computer storage space.

• Remote sensors on satellites store data in raster format

• Digital terrain models (DTM) and digital elevation models (DEM)

• Continuous data (FIELD) suit a raster structure