Geography 292: Geospatial Analysis with Web GIS

My name is Hazel Jolliff I am a Junior and I took GEOG 291 before spring break so I have a bit of an idea of how ArcGIS works. I found it interesting to go through the online course and see how ArcGIS online works. I thought it was cool that you can make groups and organizations. I think that it is helpful to be able to share things . it was a good refresher about base maps and operational layers, I had almost forgotten about those.

 

My Searches:

 

#1. My search was “ GIS” and “Crop Damage”

Reference: Lou, W., Ji, Z., Sun, K., & Zhou, J. (2013). Application of remote sensing and GIS for assessing economic loss caused by frost damage to tea plantations. Precision Agriculture, 14(6), 606–620. https://doi-org.owu.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s11119-013-9318-5

 

The article titled  “Application of remote sensing and GIS for assessing economic loss caused by frost damage to tea plantations”  focused on developing  a way to determine economic loss due to spring frost in tea plantations. The map used remote sensing and GIS to form a spatial distribution of temperatures in the given production area.

 

#2. My search was “ GIS Application” and “Archaeology”

 

Reference: Ebert, D. (2004). Applications of Archaeological GIS. Canadian Journal of Archaeology, 28(2), 319–341.

 

The journal was titled “ Applications of Archaeological GIS”. This is an example of a predictive model, the dark circles represent existing sites that were used to base

 

Chapter 7:

This chapter focused on 3D web scenes and what I found interesting was the metaverse. Specifically, the book mentioned Fortnite, a game I love to play as an application of the aspects of the metaverse. As I created the first map scene it started to become illegible even though I was following the steps from the book. Since it was not looking correct I changed a few things around; For tutorial 7.2, I changed km to inches for Pop. Per sq. Mi. to visualize the population data. This may be because the data set referenced in the book may not have been the same as mine or it has been updated since the book’s publication. Tutorial 7.3 posed a bit of a challenge since I was not in the right “‘Red Hills Community Park” luckily I was able to find it once i started to realize! I ran into another problem after finding the park…For some reason the car attribute must be attached to the wrong data or I missed a sizing step when symbolizing. Even though I ran into this problem, this chapter was really fun and I enjoyed making a fun park.

 

Application:

Ohio Wesleyan could gather data of everything on campus to make a public web scene for anyone to access. This could be used by students to find certain buildings or amenities on campus. New students and visitors could use this as an easier way to orient themselves when trying to tour the campus; allowing for a better transition and positive tour experience. Our campus is pretty small but buildings like Sanborn or the soccer field are not directly on campus and with a web scene you can discover all the extra spaces on campus you might not know are there.

Chapter 7 dives into 3D web scenes, and honestly, it was one of the more exciting topics so far. I learned how 3D maps can be either photorealistic (using real textures) or cartographic (more symbolic and map-like), and both have their own strengths. What really stood out to me was how these scenes can make data way more engaging and easier to understand.

The chapter also touched on VR, AR, and XR — I didn’t realize GIS was being used in those spaces too. Indoor mapping in 3D caught my attention, especially thinking about how detailed you can get with campus maps or large buildings.

Some questions I had:

• How well do 3D maps work on mobile?

• Can indoor maps be updated easily if layouts change?

  App Idea:

  I’d like to create a 3D web scene of Ohio Wesleyan’s campus. It could show building heights, walkways, and even textured facades of main buildings. It’d be a great tool for new students or visitors to explore campus virtually and get familiar with the layout.

Chapter 7

3d web scenes! This was a super interesting chapter. I’ve already done some 3d GIS stuff both last year in 291 and also in Remote Sensing this year with Drone2Map. We also learned about the differences between digital elevation models, digital surface models, and digital terrain models in Remote Sensing. The use of feature layers to create 3d objects is a weird way of going about 3d modelling and placement but I suppose this isn’t meant to be an animation software. The different scene types are very interesting. The different use cases for integrated meshes vs point clouds etc. are very interesting.

App Idea

3d web scene of my home neighborhood in Newton MA. Nobody from around here has ever been to my home area so it could be fun to show people.

Chapter 7 introduces and expands on 3d web maps or web scenes. The book explains that 3d maps are much more interactive and intuitive regarding interpretation and analyzation. The authors state that 3d maps are more interesting for users as well, which I definitely agree with. Web scenes include different types of visual effects, such as photorealistic or cartographic. The four main types of scene elements are either surfaces, features, textures, or atmospheric effects. As a layperson who uses maps occasionally, I personally enjoy the texture features of 3d maps as they help me really understand what I am looking at. The book also introduced Lidar, which is an element that uses lasers to show point cloud layers that provide different measurements. These measurements can communicate elevation or class codes.

The book gives a nice in-depth description regarding how to create web scenes on page 238 which will come in handy when I am creating my application for part of the final assignment. The next part of the chapter discusses virtual reality (VR), XR where the X represents any type of current/future computing technologies, and the metaverse. Before reading this, I was already familiar with VR as it became popular within the last couple years and I have tried many VR games before. A metaverse is something I have experience with as well, as I play a good amount of Fortnite which I suppose is considered a metaverse! However, I don’t know much about XR but the book states that it is some sort of combination between AR, MR, and VR. I computed a quick Google search on XR and learned that different types include: retail and online shopping, entertainment and video games, and education.

After reading this chapter, I feel more prepared to complete the second part or second application that I am interested in making for my final project, as well as having a better understanding of 3d web scenes and different types of virtual realities.

Chapter 6

The week 6 chapter and tutorial taught me about spatiotemporal data, and with that it exposed just how horrifyingly easy it is to get live access data from things like traffic/security cameras. I knew intellectually what the “Internet of Things” is but seeing the all the ways it can be put to use with just an hour or so of work is quite frankly terrifying. GIS dashboards are insanely useful for end-user data displays and they seem like a lot of fun to make stuff with.

Application Idea:

An app that tracks your real time progress along a selected route and compares it to previously recorded times like ghost racing in Mario kart.

Chapter 7 offered a fascinating dive into the world of 3D web scenes, highlighting the growing potential of immersive mapping technologies like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), extended reality (XR), and the metaverse. These tools bring geographic data to life, offering new ways to interact with and interpret spatial information. A key distinction in this chapter was between photorealistic scenes—which use textured imagery to closely mimic the real world—and cartographic scenes, which take traditional 2D mapping approaches and elevate them into 3D environments.

One aspect that really stood out was the use of indoor GIS. It was surprising to see how detailed and precise indoor spatial representations can be, and it got me thinking—why not use this to map campus buildings in detail? A full 3D indoor-outdoor campus map could help students and faculty navigate from classroom to classroom with ease, especially in larger or more complex academic buildings.

The hands-on tutorials in the chapter walked through how to explore and construct 3D web scenes. Navigating these scenes, managing scene layers, and symbolizing data using 3D styles made it clear just how much detail can be integrated. For example, features like buildings, vehicles, and even aerial objects like helicopters can be precisely placed and edited in a 3D space. Tools that adjust time-based lighting and shadows added a dynamic element that made the scenes feel more realistic.

Performance on mobile devices did come to mind—how do we maintain detail and smooth navigation without overloading devices? That’s definitely a practical concern when thinking about real-world applications.

Application Ideas

These tools open the door to a wide range of practical uses. One idea is to create a thematic web scene showcasing population density across cities in Ohio. By visualizing density in 3D, users could quickly identify where people are most concentrated and how urban development varies across the state.

Another idea involves using zoning and parcel data from Delaware County to build a land use web scene. By extruding parcels and applying color-coded zoning categories, planners and residents alike could better understand spatial development patterns and ownership.

Additionally, building off earlier coursework in GEOG 291, a useful project could be a Crime Density and Services Map. This would plot recent crime incidents and overlay them with essential public services like police stations, hospitals, and schools. The goal would be to explore whether high-crime areas are underserved and use buffer zones or density tools to highlight spatial relationships.

Finally, for something closer to home, creating a detailed 3D web scene of the Ohio Wesleyan University campus could be both fun and functional. With realistic features—cars in parking lots, directional signs, and buildings labeled by department—it could serve as an interactive campus directory and virtual tour tool for prospective students.

Overall, Chapter 7 showed how 3D GIS isn’t just about flashy visuals; it’s about creating meaningful, data-rich environments that enhance our understanding of the world around us.

Chapter 7
Chapter 7 discusses using 3D web scenes such as VR, AR, XR, metaverse, etc. We learned that the two main groups of scenes are photorealistic and cartographic. Photorealistic recreates reality using photos to texture features, while cartographic takes 2D mapping techniques and moves them into 3D. I was surprised by the indoor 3D GIS. It made me wonder if you could create a campus map that included layouts of each building so students and professors could navigate more easily.

Application Idea
For my application idea, I think it would be interesting to create a thematic web scene that illustrates the population density of each city in Ohio. This way, you can visualize the population difference between each city and view which city has the densest population.

After reading Chapter 6, I realized it’s focused on spatiotemporal data—basically data tied to both time and location—and how it’s used in real-time GIS. I found it pretty eye-opening, especially the part about the Internet of Things (IoT). I hadn’t really thought about how devices like smart thermostats or traffic cameras are constantly feeding data into systems like ArcGIS.

One of the coolest parts was learning about ArcGIS Dashboards. They make it easy to visualize live data, kind of like an infographic that updates itself. I also liked the idea of time-enabled layers—being able to scroll through time to see how things change is super useful.

Application idea: I’d like to build a dashboard using Delaware County data to track how land development affects nearby waterways. With zoning, parcel, and hydrology layers, you could see where development might be putting wetlands or streams at risk.

Chapter 6 introduces spatiotemporal data and the Internet of Things. I enjoyed learning about the basic terms and the different groups that this data can be categorized in. Before this, I was unaware of what spatiotemporal data is, and I think that it is pretty cool that different things can be communicated on maps through these categories. Additionally, I did not know what the term “Internet of Things” meant or referred to. After reading about it, I now understand that it is any sort of object with a sensor and network connection that can communicate different types of data, as well as collect data. The part of IoT that resonated the most with me was items/devices that are found in smart homes. The book used the examples of an Amazon echo and sprinkler systems, and I believe that Ring doorbells could be part of this category as well.

The book also highlighted the newer developments of ArcGIS Velocity, which is a real-time GIS product and has the ability to perform disaster recovery and is offered as a subscription. There are many new features/items that the Velocity offers to ArcGIS, such as feed items, real-time analytic items, and big data analytic items. Another point that I found interesting was the use of ArcGIS for dashboards in cars. I really enjoy the concept of dashboards (for data) in general, just because I believe that they communicate data in a very simple and straightforward way and are similar to infographics. So when the book touched on the use of ArcGIS dashboards, I was intrigued.

Application: For this chapter, I would like to create a web map that includes real-time layers. I’d be interested in looking at population levels in Columbus, OH and seeing how the levels fluctuate in real time. The reason I would choose Columbus is because it is such a large city with many different types of populations, so I think the data could be insightful.