Chapter 1:
At the beginning of chapter 1, it explains the logistics of how web GIS has enabled a much wider use of the system that wasn’t necessarily available before. It also references how important GIS is as a science because of its wide use by government programs, businesses, and among many other users. There is also quite a bit of contrast from ArcGIS Pro. It was interesting to see the parts of ArcGIS broken down, like explaining datasets and layers, which seem somewhat similar to Pro we used in 291. In contrast, something new that we learned about was the apps and app features, and the different user features, which allow you to see how GIS is used in different ways. Later in the chapter, it dives into the history of webGISs and explains the differences from previously used websites versus the now-in-use web services, then continues to explain Hosted and non-hosted, which was interesting because they kind of explain (hosted) already available data to look at Vs “user managed data” (non-hosted) which, allowed for organizations to create their own data to look at using GIS. This chapter also continues to talk about 2D and 3D Mapping throughout some of the tutorials as well.
Chapter 2:
At the beginning of the chapter, it was interesting to learn just how many different kinds of feature layers there are in detail, along with the purpose of each one, and hosted feature layers being the most common use, which makes sense. While this chapter is focusing on hosted feature layers,s it continues to talk about the many forms of mapping we will use, starting with smart mapping. It ultimately doesn’t seem very complicated, as it works as both a function in web GIS and something you have to work out yourself, a process to decide the best functionality in properly putting together your different kinds of layers within an individual map. It was also interesting to learn about popups and ArcGIS Arcade, as they’re both individual features within maps, and I just thought it was interesting that GIS basically has its own simple Expression language. The Living Atlas serves the purpose of easily accessible information for your basempaps and layers, making finding the necessary content for whatever you need significantly easier, so it is an incredibly important part of webGIS. A few other topics that were interesting to learn about were storytelling and express maps.
Application: I think that an application that could be really interesting is mapping wildfires to potentially see where the most damage would be within the areas, and further seeing the range of effects on surrounding areas.