Month: December 2024

Chapter 1:

After taking 291 WebGIS seems much easier to grasp and it seems like a more streamlined and beginner centered software. I feel like in Chapter 1 this is reflected with the user base of the software and how popular it is for businesses and government while still being easily usable by more casual, day-to-day users. The group and organization system seems really cool and makes the data much more accessible which is very convenient for businesses especially. The tutorials were also a lot easier to follow in my opinion. I was able to follow them and learn the ropes in a more efficient manor than when I used ARCGIS. Apps are also a pretty cool aspect of WebGIS that I found very interesting and very easy to understand.

Chapter 2:

Chapter 2 of the GIS guide explores tools for crafting visually compelling and meaningful maps. It highlights feature layers as the most versatile type of interactive layer, easily shared across web maps, 3D scenes, and applications. Esri’s geospatial cloud offers extensive resources, enabling users to design custom layers using their own datasets, pre-made templates, or by starting from scratch. With intuitive smart mapping tools, creating polished maps—like heat maps, dot density visualizations, and color-coded comparisons—becomes accessible even to those with minimal technical expertise. The ArcGIS Living Atlas is another valuable resource, providing ready-made layers such as base maps, satellite imagery, and data on topics like infrastructure and environmental conditions.

For a project I would want to create an interactive map that shows some good birding spots at my favorite park.

Chapter 6 explored the use of real-time GIS and spatiotemporal data, which helps track and visualize how things move, change, or stay the same over time and space.                                                Moving Data: Tracks objects or events in motion, like traffic or wildlife.
Discrete Data: Displays specific, random events, like accidents or weather occurrences.
Stationary Data: Shows fixed objects whose properties change over time, such as population density.
Change: Illustrates growth or shifts, like urban development or the spread of invasive species.
Real-time GIS lets us view this data in real-time or over time, and we can decide whether to focus on specific moments or ongoing trends.

Tutorial 1: I initially struggled to find the map needed for the exercises, but importing data from the Living Atlas solved the issue.
Tutorial 2: I created a dashboard to monitor incidents in Delaware County, customizing the appearance and data displayed.
Tutorial 3: I used categories to organize data on the map, making it easier to focus on specific areas.
Tutorial 4: Arcade scripting allowed for more advanced formatting, improving the display of the data.
Tutorial 5: I worked with time-series data, organizing it by time zones to keep it accurate.
Tutorial 6: The final tutorial animated population changes in the U.S. over 200 years, showing how populations shifted over time.
Application Idea: Real-time GIS could be used to track crowd sizes in Delaware businesses or OWU dining halls, helping people avoid crowded places. This would be similar to a “popularity tracker”  which showed peak and off-peak times.

 

Chapter 6: Spatiotemporal Data & Real Time GIS
Within spatiotemporal data as well as real time GIS, there are several things to consider displaying. These are:
Moving: To show where things are going
Discrete: Show what is going on, good for semi random occurrences
Stationary: things that stay still, but have valuation shifts.
Change: Seeing how things change or grow.
I can also use these to display many or few things, and showing either specific points of time or the duration of time for events.
Tutorial 1: I immediately ran into a problem where I was unable to find the map that is likely required for the rest of the tutorials in this chapter. I am able to add a temporal layer by importing more data from the living atlas or finding it on my own.
Tutorial 2: To create a dashboard, i will want to click on “create dashboard”, add some tags, and bind it to a new folder. And it will essentially act as an individual app which will let me analyze what is going on if I were to view it independently. I can also add it onto my map / workspace. I can also set some different bounds based on like percentage points, different looks for the gauges, and different ways to make it look better. We can also display the different items being displayed on the gauge, the book decides to do the most recent incidents through an advanced formatting field.
Tutorial 3: For the 3rd tutorial it will be creating a category. These categories can be used to make different selections and things appear on the map. This will be in conjunction with other lists that can be made, this function can also be used to zoom into different areas of the map based on the category selections.
Tutorial 4: By using the methods of an Arcade feature, advanced formatting can be used. The arcade feature works similarly to a script, where various codes can be implemented in order to display things at a more advanced level than once otherwise done.
Tutorial 5: For the 5th tutorial, this is essentially finding a spreadsheet and uploading a timeseries data, and utilizes time zones in order to organize things properly. In this case, it is UTC-05 which is US Eastern Time.
Tutorial 6: For this tutorial, this is all about animating the population of various cities as time changes. I will want to use the options seen on the time slider to show the method of displaying population change over time.
Description of an application: Creating a dashboard that actively sees 311 incidents reported within Delaware County.