Author: caskidmore

Delaware Data Inventory

– Parcel
This data shows all the parcels that are within Delaware County, Ohio.

– Street Centerline
Shows all the centerlines on all public or private roads within Delaware County, Ohio. This helps 911 emergency response systems and other systems that need this data.

– Hydrology
Shows all the waterways within Delaware County, Ohio based on a 2018 LIDAR scan.

– Zip Code
Shows the zip code boundaries within the county.

– Recorded Document
Consist of recorded documents found in the Delaware County Recorder’s Plat Book, which include; vacations, subdivisions, centerline surveys, annexations, and miscellaneous documents.

– School District
Shows the school district boundaries within Delaware County.

– Map Sheet
(No Description)

– Farm Lot
The data set contains all the farmlots and their boundaries within Delaware County.

– Township
Shows the boundaries of all the townships within Delaware County.

– Annexation
Shows all of the annexations related to municipalities within Delaware County.

– Condo
Shows that sites of all of the condominiums within Delaware County.

– Subdivision
Shows all thew subdivision boundaries within Delaware County.

– Survey
Shows all the locations where surveys have been done within Delaware County.

– Dedicated ROW
Shows all of the locations where Right-of-Way is designated within Delaware County

– Tax District
Shows the boundary of the tax districts within Delaware County.

– GPS
Shows all the GPS monuments established between 1991 – 1997 within Delaware County.

– Original Township
Shows the original township boundaries within Delaware County.

– Precinct
Shows the boundaries of the voting precincts within Delaware County.

– PLSS
Shows all the Public Land Survey System within Delaware County.

– Address Point
Shows all the data points of certified addresses within Delaware County.

– Building Outline
Shows all the building outlines or boundaries within Delaware County.

Chapter 6
Much like chapter 1, this chapter’s goal is to have the reader make the audience use different ArcGIS Online features. In this chapter, you create data that can be analyzed and used in ArcGIS Online.

Chapter 7
In chapter 7 you use multiple features to geocode data associated with a map. In this case, you match addresses to the correct businesses or create a zone within walking distance from a bike path to a company.

Chapter 8
In chapter 8 you create a density map that is used to make a 3D map of the data using cubes. This is then used to show how the frequency of crime happens at hotspots over a certain amount of time. The time used is 1 month period over a year.

Chapter 9
In chapter 9 you are analyzing the suitability of a vineyard at a location. In this example, you create an elevation map of a vineyard to find the slope of the location. This then allows you to see where certain areas are suitable but also allows you to analyze how much shade is found in the location over a certain amount of time.

Chapter 10
In chapter 10 you are mostly creating labels and boundaries for your map. This is helpful for the person making the map but also is better for future people that may look at the map in the future to understand the boundaries and the features better.

Chapter 1:
At the beginning of chapter 1, the author goes over the uses of GIS and spatial analysis. They discuss that using GIS gives the viewer a unique view of data that can be seen in correlation to geographic features. Modern GIS is host to a swath of information and collaborators that allow for real-time interaction among a large group of people. The Open Data movement has grown in the GIS field from where it took a few specialists to make a map to now anyone can make a map due to the data available. The only data that is being protected is copyrighted or private but primarily all data that is needed is open to anyone who needs it. Then the chapter goes into information that has already been covered in the previous books such as vector or raster maps and attributes. In ArcGIS Pro projects are the spaces that contain your work, in these spaces, you can view multiple maps. Geoprocessing is the tool that is used to do your spatial analysis within ArcGIS Pro. The tutorial in this section gave a general overview of some of the features in ArcGIS and showed use cases such as accidents related to public schools.

I originally started this out by doing a summary for every chapter then I realized that was kind of dumb overall since there is not enough to cover in each chapter. After chapter 1 the book focuses on giving the reader practical uses for ArcGIS Pro. Chapter 2 main goal seems to be to introduce some of the basic features when looking at and manipulating a map in the program. None of the chapters deals with data analysis but rather spatial analysis on a basic level. Chapter 3 starts with a more advanced spatial analysis by removing unnecessary data but then turns in more of the data analytics side of ArcGIS Pro by creating new data sets and adding data to tables. Chapter 4 focuses on how to combine spatial analysis with data analysis, and also shows some basic ways it may be used in real scenarios. Much of chapter 5 is associated with how to streamline processes that you may be doing multiple times in an analysis.

These chapters showed how ideas or concepts in the previous book can be applied to the ArcGIS Pro software. Much of what is happening in these chapters is to show normal or common steps or processes used in GIS analysis to have a basic understanding of these processes. At times I think this book lacks some explanation or practical understanding of some tasks which is partly due to the quickly updating software the book is based on but beyond that none of the tasks were too difficult.

PS: Tell people to read the preface to get the Geospatial scenarios (I did not know about this until Thursday)

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Chapter 5:
When mapping some people want to define what’s inside of an area to compare two sites or to see what’s inside a single area. A single area allows you to summarize data found inside or monitor the activity going on inside, whereas multiple areas allow for a better comparison between locations. Discrete features are those that are unique and continuous features are those that are seamless that can be summarized for a whole area. There are three types of information you can obtain a list, count, or a summary which wholely depends on the information needed. Some features may be partially inside of an area so you may exclude them in the case of a summary but in a list or count you will want to include them. Drawing areas are good to see a few features within a selected location. Selecting features is good for lists or summaries within a selected area. Overlaying both of these data is a combination and is good when comparing more than one area. Once all of the above has been considered the next step is drawing the map. If you are mapping linear features you can use a single symbol by creating a category. Discrete locations depend on whether your focus is on the inside of the location or just the area itself, but you will want to label these features. If mapping continuous features you will want to map the data and then place the area lines over top to separate the inside from the outside. In some GIS software, you will be able to select locations within the area and highlight them which can allow for better analysis. When doing your analysis you can count, find the frequency, or summarize a numeric attribute. Maps using areas with discrete features can use a linear model whereas maps using continuous features have to use a vector or raster model to show the data.

Chapter 6:
When mapping in GIS you may want to find what’s nearby to a location to find what’s within a certain distance which can be used by planners. To define nearness you can set a distance or a specific location. In a set distance the data is linear whereas a specific location or time is found to be geometric data defined by data limits on your map. When mapping distance curvature of the Earth can be chosen to be included or not depending on the creator of the map and the data. Much like the last chapter since the data being mapped is an area the information that is needed can be found in a list, count, or summary. Inclusive rings are when all the data within a range is included whereas distinct bands show data differently within each band. Straight-line distance is good for finding what’s within a boundary, distance or cost network is good for finding data that follow a linear path, or cost over a surface which is good for calculating overland travel. In a straight-line distance model, you will need to create a buffer to define your area and select the data you will want. In a distance surface model, you will use a raster model where each cell could have a potentially unique value. In a distance or cost network, the GIS software used will have an updated street map you will use but also will need you to define the layer used and the center starting point. Much like the distance over the surface model, the cost over surface model uses a raster model but each cell would define a certain cost rather than the distance from the center point.

Chapter 7:
Mapping allows you to better predict the future by seeing where things have been and predicting where they could be going. There are two types of change being mapped, location and magnitude both of these can be discrete or continuous. Time can be measured as a trend, before and after, or a cycle these each can be used for different analyses. Snapshots show the conditions in a given moment of time whereas summarizing is showing discrete events that are happening or not. When mapping trends you will need to set dates and intervals which may already be defined by the data you have collected or you will need to set them yourself. When doing your analysis you either calculate their amount or rate of change. A time series is used to show the changes in boundaries, a tracking map shows the movement in discrete locations, and measuring change shows the amount of change in a place.

Chapter 1:
Since the book was published the use and abilities of GIS have grown, from making maps to analysis that can solve problems. GIS analysis is finding patterns within your data, starting with a question. To decide what method to use to obtain your data you will need to understand the data you are working with. To understand GIS analysis you need to understand the geographic features you will be working with; discrete, continuous phenomena, or summarized. Discrete locations can be pinpointed with their exact location. Continuous blanket the entire area of your map, these can either be continuous or non-continuous data. If the data is non-continuous the software will use interpolation to fill in the gaps. Summarized data represent data within a given area, not specific points given as the density of individual features. These features can be shown using vectors which are defined as a location within a table that can be connected to create areas or a raster model which uses a matrix of cells that can be increased or decreased in size. A map projection system converts data from global or rounded data to a flat or 2D plain so it will distort some features. To do the analysis you need to separate your data into categories, ranks, counts and amounts, or ratios. When working with data for a GIS analysis you will need to create tables for your information these come as selecting, calculating, and summarizing.

Chapter 2:
When doing GIS analysis mapping is a large part of the work because it allows you to see patterns forming. Knowing your audience is important when deciding how complex a map should be or the data that is being mapped. Before creating your map you will need to assign values to your data for their location and code on the map. Creating the map requires you to tell GIS what feature you want to be present in the final product. Often used in this process is single-type mapping where the data is only shown by one symbol on the map. Once you have done the above steps GIS then takes the data and symbols with the geographical location and creates a map that matches your inputs. Instead of having all data present on one layer, you can create subsets so that there are categories within that correspond with different symbols. When creating different categories you can also change the size of different symbols based on key values within your table. If you are doing this though you will want to keep in mind your audience because most people cannot distinguish more than 7 different categories. One key thing is included features that are recognizable for people unfamiliar with the area such as street names. Even if you have found a pattern in your map you still need to find if it is statically backed.

Chapter 3:
When mapping man people want to find the most and the least amount found in the patterns. To decide how to map these you will need to know whether your data is continuous or non-continuous. To understand your data you will want to keep in mind your audience and whether you are presenting the data. If you want to find a deeper analysis you will have to explore your data further than the patterns on the map. Counts show how many of a thing are found on a map whereas amounts are the value associated with each item. Ratios are used to smooth out data and are useful when summarizing data within an area. Ranks are used when the mapped data is hard to quantify and show relative values. Once you understand the data you are working with you will need to assign values and symbols to the items which come with the trade-off of showing things accurately or generalizing. Individual items when mapping lead to complex data that is hard to read for certain audiences, whereas creating classes generalizes that data allowing for an easy analysis for some. When creating classes you can either do it yourself which is normally for more specific data or use previous breaks mentioned these include, natural breaks, quantile, equal interval, or standard deviation. To decide on which of these methods you need to use you will typically create a bar chart to see how the data is distributed across the x-plain. In doing these methods outliers may be found that can cause a problem with your analysis these can be a problem with your data set, wrong, or involved. The final step in creating classes is how many are you going to include and how will you show these on your map. If you have properly done the correct method in separating them this step should be easy and some GIS software will automatically make the classes continuous. Now that you have quantified your data you will need to map it, the normal reaction is to make the mapped complex but that should not happen. Graduated symbols are typically used for volumes or rank in linear systems, whereas graduated colors are mapped to show continuous data within the specified area. Charts are used typically for a quick study of the area and not complex data. Contour lines show the rate of change from one set of data to the next and are typically used for spatial data. The most complex form of this data visualization is the 3D form which is typically used to allow the audience to better visualize the surface of the data. The most important part of 3D data is the viewer location since larger sets of data will block the view of other data and allow for worse analysis. The next two z-factor which exaggerate the data for easier visual separation of data and the light source which is the location of the source help the audience better view the patterns.

Chapter 4:
Mapping density rather than individual locations better allows you to see concentrations. You can either map points and lines or summarized data with density maps. You can either map density features such as businesses or feature locations such as employees per location. Density defined by area is where you map each location then divide and then summarize the data within a given polygon size to create density or by a surface that uses a raster model to create density per cell. A dot density map is a method of density defined by are but rather than a shaded color within an area, it uses dots to represent your data which better allows for a generalized area to be more accurately shown specifically population density. In a raster model cell size is the most important decision and that does not change is density surface. Along with cell size, another thing to keep in mind is the search radius which defines how many features will be calculated within each cell. There are two types of calculations used in the GIS simple method which uses rings around the cell and the weighted method which uses a mathematical function. Areal units are what define the legend of the map rather than cell units. When graphing density surface it can either be shown in graduated colors or contours.

Hello, I am Connor Skidmore from Bellefontaine Ohio. I am an Environmental Studies major and a member of the Cross Country and Track teams.

In Schuurman Ch.1 the author begins by discussing the wide range of modern uses of GIS. They describe GIS as a system used by many but not understood for what it is to the public. The history of GIS seems very confusing because it started as a standard practice done by cartographers that quickly became a digitized field. All around the same time, people from different parts of the world started to make similar systems that today are the foundations of the modern GIS system. The author states that GIS would have been inevitable without interest from Geography but I do not see how that is true because the base field of understanding the information is needed. Even the definition of GIS is very convoluted based on the person and their needs with the system.

This chapter as a whole gave me the ability to understand that GIS is more of a broad net that covers a ton of information rather than one stable thing. GIS is shown in the chapter as a broad and sweeping term that is applied to certain things that by themselves are convoluted. Two people can both use GIS but come up with two very different understandings of the software and its use cases. To me, the history of GIS seems to be a known yet unknown variable based on the chapter because if so many different fields and researchers were doing the same things at the same time how did they finally decide to make the broad sweeping net? This is in my opinion why GIS can have so many different definitions and use cases because the history of it comes from many different people who at the time were doing very different things.

I enjoyed reading this chapter though because it provided a unique into GIS. The chapter also showed how GIS itself is confusing to understand as a whole.

Since I have an interest in City Management I used the keyword City in my search for GIS applications. In my first article, I found that GIS was being used to find if rooftop wind turbines were feasible in Bari, Italy. Since Europe and the Bari have had increasing discussions in “Smart Cities” and energy the study was born to find if rooftop wind turbines were feasible.

In my second article, it discusses how GIS would be used inside of “Smart Cities” which are described as cities that are on the cutting edge of technology and developing new technologies. These cities would use GIS to optimize planning throughout all sectors of the cities while the businesses that innovate in these cities would use GIS to create new technologies.

Sources:

1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.12.005.
2. https://doi.org/10.1080/10095020.2013.774108