GIS Week 2 HW
CH 1:
I found this chapter very introductory and not super informative as it was introducing the basics of GIS a lot of which I’m already generally familiar with. It focused on how to structure and approach GIS projects and gave steps on how to process your data within a given project which will be helpful I imagine for this course. I found the section labeled “Types of Features” a little hard to understand as its wording was very technical and lacked some background explanation of what these different feature types were. I found the part about Discrete Features especially confusing but hopefully these are things that I will sort out as I work through projects. The section on Vector and Raster made a little more sense to me as they are two different models used for different GIS projects depending on the data group you are trying to represent but I also think this section lacked a little verbiage or examples that would help break down the concepts. Another large focus of this chapter was on types of attribute values such as ratios which help represent the relationship between two quantities and these are made by dividing one quantity by another. The final part of this chapter talked about how to interact with data tables by selecting, calculating, and summarizing them. I again found this section a bit dry and hard to understand but I imagine this will make sense once we start using them.
CH 2:
Chapter two starts to go a little more in depth in why we use maps to represent data and how this can and should be presented to your given audience. It starts off by discussing why we map where things are and the main reason why we do this is to see if there are any patterns or trends that overlap and relate to each other such as a relationship between assault crimes and auto theft. We also map things where they are to see if correlation equals causation as a data point’s physical location can affect what it represents and why it represents it. Another interesting part of this chapter is the small section on how you present you maps to your target audience as there are effective ways to represent your data and results and very ineffective ways so choosing the right map size, boundaries, and reference points can change how the info is comprehended. The next half of the chapter becomes a bit more technical with how GIS forms maps and what it does with the data points its given. It talks about very basic one layer maps that businesses can use for customer data too maps with many layers to represent multiple data points can possible correlations between them. It also discuses mapping by categories which allows for more specific data representation such as types of roads instead of simply roads. Categorizing data again allows for more accurate mapping and data representation.
CH 3:
Chapter 3 seemed the most interesting to me. I’ve never thought about the very basic use of numbers for understanding things as it seems so simple but this chapter discusses how having it or not makes a huge difference in what you represent. I found all the maps at the start of the chapter showing various symbols used to represent numbers very interesting as they all subconsciously convey their point but looking at it from this perspective helps understand 1) how simple yet complex these decisions of data representation are and 2) how you can represent the same data set in two different ways and have the understanding be completely different. I think the question of “Are you exploring data or representing a map” is a very key point for GIS and something I need to keep in the front of my mind when working on GIS projects. I think this question shows the two sides of mapping which are maps that you create strictly for analysis of numbers and data, and then maps that you create to represent and communicate social issues or other things that numbers alone can’t represent. This chapter also features some technical topics such as classes and outliers which are things you need to understand to make sure you create an effective map. Overall I liked this chapter the most because it branched away from the technical side of GIS and began discussing the importance of map representation and presentation which are the aspects of GIS that I am most interested in.