Week 4:
Chapter 6 delves into real-time GIS and spatiotemporal data, which enable tracking and visualization of movement, changes, and stability over time and space. Key data types include: Moving data – which tracks objects or events in motion like traffic or wildlife; Discrete data – for specific, semi-random occurrences such as accidents or weather; Stationary data – for fixed objects with changing properties like population density; and change data, illustrating growth or shifts, such as urban development or invasive species spread. These tools allow users to focus on specific moments or trends over time, offering flexibility to display many or few events and analyze their temporal dynamics.
Application: By using moving data we could look at program that would be able to track migratory birds. An application like this could help find specific fly ways a species uses.
Week 5:
Chapter 7 looks at 3D GIS. It offers additional dimensions over 2D, making it a powerful tool for applications such as urban planning, storytelling, and architectural design. It enhances understanding of object size, position, and relationships. Photorealistic 3D scenes recreate reality with photo-textured features, while cartographic scenes adapt 2D mapping techniques—using height, size, color, and transparency—to represent abstract data like population density or earthquake magnitude. 3D scenes consist of surfaces (foundations), operational layers (features anchored above or below surfaces), textures (interior and exterior covers), and atmospheric effects like lighting and fog. ArcGIS supports 3D mapping through tools like Scene Viewer, ArcGIS Pro, and CityEngine, which create web scenes grouped into photorealistic and cartographic layers. 3D scene layers include building models, integrated meshes (stitched from drone footage), point clouds (large datasets from lidar), point scene layers (optimized for speed), and voxel layers (volumetric data for atmospheric or oceanic studies). Advanced 3D forms—extended reality (XR), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR)—make GIS more immersive and interactive, while ArcGIS Urban integrates 3D mapping with planning tools to manage and visualize urban projects effectively.
Application: Making an app that looks at nesting sites of peregrine falcons on top of buildings and bridges would be kinda cool to help show nearby food sources and protection from weather.