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Chapter 5: I found reading the introduction to this chapter very helpful because it related how learning GIS can transition right into real life work and why we need GIS in the first place. This chapter focused more on the big picture GIS world and how it fits into enterprises and machines. One important aspect that I pulled out from this chapter was city planning using GIS. Completing the assignment was a little challenging. There was a lot of different types of GIS applications that needed to be added and changed in this assignment. Lots of flipping back and forth between things. But it was a short chapter, so that was beneficial, and I still learned a lot. 

Chapter 6: One important thing from this chapter that stuck out to me was the differences between the types of spatiotemporal data that GIS has the ability to do. They include moving, discrete, stationary, and change. Creating maps, I believe that change maps would be the most intriguing to try and create due to the fact that when making the maps, you can physically see the change in GIS of the area. Going a step beyond and making a timelapse of the change map would also be a cool task to complete. The assignment for this chapter was fine to complete, again, lots of different aspects being added together. It was a little long so took time to complete the assignments and parts of this chapter. 

Application: Based on my interests in trying to make a city layout to see what layout makes the most sense, you can create a layout and compare the different layers using these applications. 

My final project consisted of creating two apps based on different ideas from the chapters we were assigned. I wanted to focus on two things I was passionate about, so I looked at bird breeding grounds in Ohio and I looked at land and tree canopy cover in Delaware. I found a lot of interesting things and it was cool to look at it all.

1. App Number 1: Focusing on applications from chapters 1-4. Bird Breeding Grounds in Ohio compared to Protected Areas in Ohio. 
   1. My main question was how much do bird breeding grounds overlap with already protected areas in Ohio? I created a map that is focused on the breeding blocks of birds in Ohio and how much they overlap with protected areas. The purpose of this app was to identify important habitats where bird conservation could be increased. It was interesting because I found that many of the protected areas are found in Southeast Ohio, which makes sense because the habitats down there are prime for housing birds during their breeding seasons. I also found out that there are specific blocks coordinated for different areas of Ohio, to make it easier on those who study the breeding patterns of different birds.  
   2. Link to app: https://owugis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/interactivelegend/index.html?appid=b0ae459cdbc649c8a27ff1092b462edf

1. App Number 2: Focusing on applications from chapters 5-7. 
   1. My main question throughout these chapters was centered around how much land cover and tree canopy cover there is in Delaware, Ohio. As we can see from the web scene/3D app I made, there isn’t much. It was interesting to see how in the city there is very little land cover, but if you expand the map outward, you can see where different parks, such as Alum Creek and Delaware State Park, have more land and tree cover. We could use this information to find out where the ideal places in the city would be to place more vegetation. We can also use this information to understand that the amount of land cover and tree cover in Delaware is less, so that means that more sunlight will reach into homes and buildings. If I were going to continue this project, I would examine how that relates to the amount of air conditioning being used in these areas. 
   2. Link to app: https://owugis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/3dviewer/index.html?appid=c993f8570d124ae0b63c11f47d4acbe7

 Chapter 5: 

On-premises and hybrid webGIS. The chapter begins by talking about the importance of these two features in GIS, stating how on-premises Web GIS allows users to actually use GIS within restricted situations, whether that be a lack of internet access or the necessity to use a specific internet connection. Hybrid Essentially allows organizations to keep their own information/data while still using services provided by ArcGIS Online. Although past this understanding, I was struggling to fully grasp the purpose and use of these services. Quite a bit of the explanations of different systems and services were very confusing to me. The chapter spent a lot of time explaining ArcGIS Online and Enterprise, but I’m still confused about the purposes of the two systems. It began to be a little easier to understand once I’d gotten to the parts talking about Raster and vector layers, and so on. Raster layers are beneficial for predominantly static information and basemaps. Vector layers work best as data maps that are customizable. These features seem quite similar to when we were learning about vectors and raster info in 291.

Tutorials: 

The tutorials within this chapter helped me quite a bit to understand map layers in a sense. We definitely crossed similar topics to map layers. 

Chapter 6: 

Real-time GIS is structured as a system that works with active data to consistently update said data. I initially thought the Internet of Things (IoT) was a really odd abbreviation, but overall it fits the latter topics the chapter talks about, including the smart cities and smart homes, which can exist through IoT, and the large variety of devices that this entails. Then the ingest and process parts of IoT seem to be essentially the communication aspects of interacting with smart technologies, ingest being the understanding of input information, and process being filtering and analysing possible responses, and lastly output being the final action. The chapter then later continues to talk about several GIS applications, or systems that are beneficial to different fields. One of these systems, which we’ve touched on the topic before, is ArcGIS Arcade, which is a simple expression language. I think this is interesting,g especially just because any kind of coding or system has always been really confusing for me. 

Tutorials: 

In the beginning sections, I’m able to see how real-time GIS is implemented and the tools that allow for maps to be automatically updated after a certain period, one of the examples being every 30 seconds. It was also interesting to learn how to make a dashboard. It seemed to make it an easy way to track the changes in different data systems, which is great for quite a lot of things. 

Application Ideas: 

I wanted to leave the application idea somewhat open so I could better decide how to apply it later on in the course, but similarly to some of the things we went over in the tutorials, I would be tracking deforestation ( based on my interests specifically around an expanding city) to see the further pollution impacts of it. I do this by using some of the features we used in chapter 5, and specifically in chapter 6,  the time-embedded feature layer. 

Chapter 5: ArcGIS Online is used for creating layers and web apps for the public, but ArcGIS Enterprise is used for building a private Web GIS. ArcGIS Enterprise is used in situations where there is a need for on-site Web GIS (no internet or government regulations), hybrid Web GIS (keep their own infrastructure), and functions only available with ArcGIS Enterprise due to security. Both ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise can create multiple web layer types. A raster tile layer is commonly called a tile layer and delivers maps as image files. They are commonly used as basemaps. Vector tile layers deliver maps as grouped vector files in PBF. Vector data is usually smaller than raster data and can be generated much quicker. Map image layers can be drawn using tiles and are used much less today. They can be used for color-shaded relief and large datasets. Feature services can create feature tiles on demand. Map image layer requests are not reusable and run slowly. Raster and vector tile service requests are precached on the web server and are faster than map image layers. Feature layers are used for editing workflows and changing data. If the data is only used for visualization, use raster or vector tile layers. To use ArcGIS Pro to create web layers, you have to prepare your data using ArcGIS Pro, remove unused layers and complex symbols, and then share the web layer and verify it in your ArcGIS Online or Enterprise portal to confirm it is working correctly. When sharing to ArcGIS Enterprise, you can choose to reference registered data or copy all data.

Chapter 6: Spatiotemporal data moves or changes over time. It is categorized into four groups: moving, discrete, stationary, and change. Discrete data is something that “just happens,” such as crimes and earthquakes. The time value is stored in a single attribute field if it happens in a moment, and stored in two attribute fields if it has a start and end time. IoT is the network of devices embedded with sensors that allow them to collect and exchange data. These devices can be things like airplanes, lights, and security cameras. Enterprise IoT applications include smart cities and environmental quality monitoring. Consumer IoT applications include connected cars and smart homes. Geolocation provides context for the IoT ecosystem to understand values. ArcGIS Velocity and ArcGIS GeoEvent perform continuous data processing and analysis, and send alerts when specific conditions occur. ArcGIS Velocity introduces feed items, real-time analytic items, and big data analytic items. The poll method is where a client periodically polls the server to retrieve new data. The push method pushes data to a web client, which is good for analyzing real-time data. Mission is a real-time situational awareness product that helps coordination among a team. It is good for emergencies and military operations. Mission Manager is the web app where missions are created, and Mission Responder is a mobile app that allows location tracking and geomessaging.

Application: You can create a map comparing air quality and temperature, and then create an app that shows how air quality changes over the course of a year.

Chapter 5

In this chapter, I learned how Web GIS can be built not only on the public cloud using ArcGIS Online, but also through “on-premises” systems with ArcGIS Enterprise. On-premises means the system is locally hosted. This is especially useful when security or specific functionality is needed. I explored the similarities and differences between ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise and found that they share more in common than they differ. I also learned about three main types of web layers (vector tile, raster tile, and map image) and when each type is most appropriate to use compared to feature layers. The tutorial in this chapter teaches how to connect ArcGIS Pro to portals as well as publishing the different web layers previously talked about. This chapter is useful even if I don’t plan on using on-premises Web GIS because most of this applies to online GIS as well!

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 is all about a very interesting concept: real-time GIS! This software is used to deal with and gather data from objects and events that move and change through time. Data can be generated via mobile phones, sensor networks, smart cities, and the IoT. The IoT was a concept I had never heard of before. It stands for the Internet of Things, and is a large sensor network that collects and exchanges data from any physical object that has sensors and network connectivity. Also in this chapter were different types of spatial temporal data. Dynamic data follows something that moves, like an airplane. Discrete data is happening events, like a car incident or an earthquake. Stationary data is collected from something that stands still but has fluctuating values, like wind speed at weather stations or street traffic speed. Change data is the final type discussed in the chapter, and tracks change or growth- like urban sprawl or or land cover changes. I really enjoyed reading about the variety of spatial temporal data that can be collected.

Future Application

Using spatial temporal data from a geodata base, you could make a raster tile layer or a map image layer to display the change in wooded growth outside a conservation area, or really anywhere to track the movements of deforestation. This would be helpful to monitor how widespread deforestation becomes, and how the surrounding landscape changes shape over time.

Chapter 5: 

Chapter 5 discusses something called ArcGIS Enterprise. This is another form of ArcGIS web services that allows the user to create high-performance WebGIS systems, but has key differences from ArcGIS Online. These differences make it useful for organizations or individuals who want to have more security and privacy. For example, ArcGIS Online has its data stored on a cloud managed by Esri. ArcGIS Enterprise is housed on a more customizable/private on-premises system that the organizations can control themselves. This ability also makes it possible to operate with limited or no internet access.  

Another key concept from chapter 5 was tile caching and tile layering. Caching is a method of storing pre-rendered map tiles at different scales so they can be retrieved and displayed quickly to users, instead of rendering the map from scratch each time a user interacts with it. This helps improve the performance of web maps by significantly reducing the load time. When discussing tile layering, the chapter refers to many different types of layers that are used for different purposes. For example, Raster and Vector files. I was already very familiar with the concept of raster and vector from my background in graphic design. I knew that raster files are made up of pixels and tend to lose quality when scaled up. Vector files are composed of mathematical paths/points that allow them to maintain sharpness and clarity at any size. I never thought about how these could also be applied to GIS tile layers. Raster tiles could be great for static map imagery, but they can lose quality when zooming in. Vector tiles are more flexible as they maintain good clarity at different scales, making them generally more efficient for interactive maps. 

Chapter 6: 

Chapter 6 introduced spatiotemporal data. Meaning data that can be tied to a specific location and continuously changes over time. You can track and collect spatiotemporal data from certain things that often change over time, like moving vehicles, weather patterns, or pedestrian movement. Because these things are constantly changing, they need to be continuously updated. This chapter introduces Real-time GIS as a solution. Real-time GIS utilizes spatiotemporal data, as it can continuously collect and process the incoming spatiotemporal data so users can monitor changes as they happen. A key distinction can be made between two types of spatiotemporal data: point-in-time data and duration-of-time data. Point-in-time data captures an observation at a specific moment, like where an object or event is located at one exact timestamp. These data points of collective events can be compared to each other. Duration-of-time data captures how an object or event changes over a continuous interval of time, observing the start to finish. 

Chapter 6 also discusses the Internet of Things (IoT). This refers to the existing network of devices that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies that allow them to exchange data with other devices and the internet. Together, these “things” (smartphones, household appliances, vehicles, etc) contain a vast amount of raw data, especially spatiotemporal data. This network of devices/data can be utilized by GIS applications and turned into useful real-time geographic information systems. The example the chapter used to show this concept, being smart cars, allowed me to understand this concept better, as I often see this system being used in my day to day commute without thinking about its connection to GIS until now. 

Application: 

   An application based on ideas from Chapters 5 and 6 could be to create a traffic monitoring system for the area using available spatiotemporal data. I could collect publicly available data on vehicle movement at major intersections and roads from traffic sensors, and note the location/ time to track how traffic patterns change. This data would then be managed and stored in an ArcGIS Enterprise system, where it can be privately organized and efficiently accessed without the internet for analysis.

Chapter 5: 

This chapter introduces another different form that ArcGIS Web can take, called ArcGIS enterprise, which has been described to be a more private platform of ArcGIS Online. I have noticed that there are key differences between ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS enterprise, such as the database that they run on. ArcGIS online’s data is kept on an online ESRI cloud, while ArcGiS enterprise is maintained on a more user-managed structure. This type of format can be used for organizations, such as governmental programs, that require a non-public cloud or no internet connections. I find it interesting that there is also a hybrid version of GIS that is offered as well that provides personal layers while continuing access to ArcGIS online layers. Through the chapter I had also learned that ArcGIS enterprise is also an on premise tool, which makes sense when considering the lack of internet accessibility that the platform provides. Additionally, it runs on a geospatial content management system called Enterprise portal, which helps to create different types of hosted layers, host web-mapping apps, search for GIS content, and manage your organization’s utility services. There is also an ArcGIS server that helps to host different types of web services, which is quite cool. For ArcGIS online and ArcGIS enterprise alike, there is a way for organizations to collaborate by sharing content in groups. I believe that I remember reading about the hierarchical sharing system within one of the earlier chapters. The chapter had also touched upon visual data aspects, such as the vector and raster layers. 

Chapter 6:

Chapter 6 discusses the concept of real-time ArcGIS, which is intended for data that changes on a regular basis and needs to be continuously updated. It makes sense that this platform has been developed as more advancements get created in favor of electronic field data collection, as a database must be created to compensate for it. One type of data type that is housed on real-time ArcGIS is spatiotemporal data, which is data generated from sensors or simulated models, which can consistently generate more data which needs to be entered into the dataset. Spatiotemporal data seems to collect data on factors that change over time, such as transportational objects, events occurring, or environmental changes. That type of data can be further separated into two types, point in time and duration of time. The difference is that point in time observes collective events that occur and when they happen, while the duration of time looks more at the whole start to finish of a continuous event. It also delves into Iot, which is a network of objects attached to sensors that can exchange data at a regular rate. This seems to primarily refer to technological data such as planes and other automobiles. It was interesting to see how much technology tracking is integrated into different aspects of my life that I don’t usually think about. It leaves me wondering what other types of data are being collected from my daily activities. 

Applications: 

A possible idea that could be pulled from chapter 5 could be to test water quality at different locations of a body of water, which wouldn’t necessarily need on sight GIS data management, as water testing may need to occur within a lab. From within that lab, data could be analysed and entered into a GIS database, in order to visualize the areas in which different types of water quality traits differ, and their adjacence to urban areas. I found coming up with an application from chapter 6 to be quite smooth, as it is a type of data that can have such a wide variety of uses. One of the possible applications could be to collect data based on how many cars pass through areas with notably high deer populations, possibly combining another dataset containing deer sightings in order to form a more full picture. The purpose of this could be to understand which areas infrastructure designers should invest in highway fences, in order to lessen the rate at which deer-related crashes occur.

Week 5 went with no issues, a very simple chapter, but definitely a useful tool for moving data into the cloud and formatted correctly. It describes using Vector and Raster tile layers, which is which, and what use cases each are best suited for. I only wish that the tutorial didn’t require ArcGIS. Week 6 was also pretty self-explanatory, though I had issues getting the actual slider to work when playing the data. When I moved it myself, it would show a change, but it didn’t show any data on its own. Though it was interesting to work with temporal data and see how it could be mapped.

 

I had an idea to show population growth over time with different forms of transportation. There would be multiple tabs for each. Cars would be measured by the number of cars on the road, Trains would be recorded by track mileage, and planes would be measured by the number of flights.

Chapter 5

This chapter introduces ArcGIS Enterprise, its components, and its supporting platforms to build a private WebGIS. ArcGIS Enterprise and organizational subscriptions to ArcGIS Online are complementary implementations of Web GIS. They provide similar functionalities, such as a portal website. ArcGIS Enterprise on Kubernetes is a new deployment option that accompanies Windows and Linux as supported operating systems for ArcGIS Enterprise using microservices and containerization to provide a cloud-native architecture. Map image layers can be drawn dynamically by the server or by using tiles from a cache. Map image layers and feature layers are appropriate for visualizing operational layers. Feature services can generate feature tiles on demand when requested by newer ArcGIS client apps which enable web clients to display more features from the service and provide faster load time by generalizing complex geometries for display. Standards specify the interface that different vendors should use and are an important way to achieve interoperability among different vendors. You can publish web layers using ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise web pages directly or using ArcGIS Pro to visualize, analyze, compile, and share GIS data in 2D and 3D environments. 

 

Chapter 6

This chapter introduces the basic concepts of spatiotemporal data, the values and challenges of loT, and the ArcGIS products that can meet these challenges. The chapter also teaches how to use real-time layers in web maps, create dashboard apps with actions and Arcade-based formatting, create time-enabled layers, and animate time-series data. Spatiotemporal data comes from many sources ranging from manual data entry to data collected using observational sensors or generated from simulation models. Spatiotemporal data includes observations of objects and events that move or change through time such as when and where an observation took place and what activity was observed. loT is the network of physical objects embedded with sensors and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data. The science community, the US federal government, and the private sector have embraced the loT to support the creation of systems and products ranging from enterprise applications to consumer applications. An important application of the loT is the smart city which integrates loT technology to make more efficient use of physical infrastructure.

Chapters Five and Six were done rather smoothly and at this point I felt comfortable enough to work on what I hope will be a great final project to fully sum up how I am learning web GIS. I know I wanted to do a geographic profile of Jack the Ripper in my last GEOG class and here I am finally doing it. I find the web GIS to be easier to use then the software GIS and I am already on the first stages of creating an information layer.

One concern I do have is that I am having a rather hard time creating pop ups that have distinct information about these events, to the point where I fear I will have to create a different layer for each point on the map. If I could only give each point it’s own title and brief description. I felt like editing the features of points on the map was significantly easier in the software then it is here.