Geography 292: Geospatial Analysis with Web GIS

What I liked about this chapter is that you can see exactly where something is and how it’s moving, all on a map. This chapter talks about  how to build dashboards that show this constantly changing information. It even explains how to use special tools to handle these live updates. Plus, there’s cool stuff about time sliders, so you can see how things have changed over time. This is probably the most interesting chapter for me. A potential idea I have is to use this application for  minor incidents in urban areas where other citizens could report to and help other people.

I think that the real time aspect of WebGIS is really cool. It has the ability to update the position and location of an object as it moves spatially. This is made possible by the use of mobile phones, sensors, and the internet creating an abundance of data that is found in real time. To get more specific, the real time data is referred to as spatiotemporal data and it is found by observations of objects and events while they move or change through time. The book gives the example of when something is located and where it is located. This type of data has four main categories: moving, discrete, stationary, and change. Moving data can be considered as something that moves locations over time. This consists of objects like airplanes, buses, cars, etc. The second category of discrete data are just by chance occurrences. The book states that they are something that “just happens” and examples can be anything from criminal incidents to geotagged Instagram posts. The third kind of data is stationary. This kind of data is something that stays in one space, however, the value that it contains changes. The book gives examples of wind speed and direction and also water level gauges. The fourth data type is change. As the name suggests, these data are those that change or grow throughout time. The book gives the examples of wildfires, floods, urban sprawl, and LULC change. These categories of data are updated in two different ways: point in time or duration of time. Point in time references the one moment an event occurs and are usually put in a single attribute field. Duration of time is typically when something starts and ends. These types of recordings are usually recorded using two different attribute fields, one for starting and ending. 

For this section of the book, I would like to create a map that students would be able to use to look at reported crimes on campus. Students would be able to send in an instance, and the instance would then show up on the map and use an icon that would represent it. For example, a stolen bike would have a bike symbol, and gun shots could have a gun symbol. This would use discrete data and the time would be recorded as a point of time.

Chapter One: This was mostly an introduction to WebGIS and spent a lot of time going over exactly what it is. I think this was helpful because although I have already taken GEOG 291 and become familiar with ArcGIS, I am fairly oblivious to the information that the first chapter talked about. I found it interesting and honestly exciting that so many people could be connected through a website like this. Being able to connect and share information on a worldwide scale is something that I just knew nothing about before this. I am excited to learn how companies and individuals alike take advantage of WebGIS and how I can take advantage of it too. The tutorial one was also a very basic introduction to the software. I used my hard drive to download the zip file which took much less time than it did when I tried to do it in 291. It was way more intuitive than ArcGIS was. I enjoyed working on the app more than the map. Both were cool and I am already really excited to figure out how to make an app and what ideas I have for the final project.

Chapter Two: My biggest takeaway from this chapter was the different mapping styles. I enjoyed getting to see the different types with a little picture and sample description. I liked that a lot. I still am in awe of how exciting the online version of this is. I know I am the last person on earth to know about WebGIS but it is still so cool to me. Tutorial two was so interesting. It gave me big Apple website energy for the last few sections. I am enjoying slowly learning about the content without being thrown into it. I feel like that is a big difference from the first module. This is much easier to understand and I think it is more intuitive

This chapter was a lot easier to follow from the ones from last week, it helped a lot more that we only had to focus on one chapter this week. The chapter started on how to create a dashboard which helps for displaying information. The dashboard also is extremely helpful because the information is constantly changing and the dashboard application constantly updates with the changes. I am not entirely sure what else the dashboard would be helpful for besides updates because the book does not discuss in a lot of detail.  I did like looking at the different tools and how they can be used for collecting data. This section also showed me new parts of ArcGIS online and how you can put multiple things on a page to display. This chapter also focused on stream layers and how ArcGIS online uses them to look at data and sort it. Looking at the real time traffic cameras were very cool. I am not really sure how I would make an application based on what this chapter taught. An idea that might work would be to use a time application in something like seeing the population of wildlife through the different seasons. This application could help with migration along with just seeing what kind of presence these animals have during different times of the year in different areas.

The schedule says to skip Chapter 5 so I didn’t attempt the assignment/tutorial but I did still read it, albeit maybe not as in much detail as usual. Chapter 5 discusses the creation of a ‘self-managed’ or private Web GIS and the various reasons for doing so. Chapter 5 also discusses ArcGIS Enterprise, the version of the program made for private types of GIS programs. Also mentioned are ‘portal collaborations’, the differences between various tiles and features such as vector, raster, and feature tiles, and the different strategies for choosing any of the various layer types.

Chapter 6, as its title implies, discusses ‘spatiotemporal’ data, or data relating to space and time and details GIS systems which update data in real time. I’ve never heard the internet referred to as the ‘Internet of Things’ so that’s definitely interesting. Chapter 6 also discusses ‘stream layers’, how to use ArcGIS to look at real time data, and animate time-based data. As for the tutorial, looking at things such as real time traffic cams is interesting to see. It was nice to have everything going smoothly but I could only get as far in the chapter 6 tutorial to the end of 6.4 whereupon trying to tell the code to make a certain icon the color red, the arcade script code just decided it hates the color red or something and decided to stop working entirely, rendering the table completely useless. From what I could do though, I liked the idea of real time GIS.

To be honest, I’m not quite sure how I would go about making an application based on what was learned in chapter 6. Perhaps an app showing the real time flow data in streams and rivers?

This chapter went very smoothly and I finally didn’t run into any problems using ArcGIS Online. The beginning of the chapter went through how to create a dashboard app, which is useful for displaying information that is constantly changing and the dashboard can keep it up to date, which is a very useful application. This section also introduced me to new elements on ArcGIS Online and how to put multiple elements on one page to display as much information as possible. The next section went over how to use Arcade to format certain things. This section involved adding a bit of code, but it was pretty easy and I got it to work. Next, the chapter went over how to add a time slider to show how things like population can change over time. I got more practice with symbolizing attributes and what sizes and colors to use to show up best on maps. I think it would be very interesting to use the time slider for a project idea, and this could really be used to show a wide variety of data. If there is data available, I think it could be cool to show a time slider of tree leaf fall in autumn. It would be interesting to see how leaf fall compares from state to state. 

 

Chapter 6:
I loved learning how to make the live-updating dashboard. I didn’t know that something like this was possible. It’s very cool that the data will be updated on the stop. I am curious to know the other applications for something like this. I wonder if there are any other uses besides incident updates. I also believe that this is one of the easier tutorials to follow. I didn’t encounter many issues and moved through them fairly quickly. The only part where I struggled was with Arcade. While I appreciated that this was also a chance to get to learn how to use it, it wasn’t as straightforward as the rest of the tutorial. For example, I kept receiving error messages within the code and couldn’t find a solution after troubleshooting. I had to skip over the Arcade portion completely due to all the error messages. The time-enabled feature layer was also something interesting to create. It’s another way to add more detail to what you are working on. Each tutorial shows me more possibilities.

Ideas:
After completing the tutorial I wanted to think more about other potential applications of the dashboards. I specifically was thinking about environmental applications. One that I thought of was a dashboard that tracks flooding or extreme weather. In regards to my other ideas I have had for the final project, I think I could use the dashboards to track foot traffic at certain grocery stores.

Chapter 6:

• This was a really interesting chapter. I thought that the tutorial went smoothly there were some areas that I couldn’t complete but for the most part I understood the concepts. I really liked being able to see different tools that can be used for data collection. Like in the beginning tutorials working with the dashboard and imputing data with various forms.
• 

Week 4

 

Ch. 3

This chapter was short and sweet. I feel a little more comfortable with this stuff than the things used in 291 (that’s just my opinion). The 3D maps took a little bit to load, but it worked. I was worried it wouldn’t since I haven’t got the 3D maps to work on the first try in the past section. The focus on this single topic was easy to follow and made it easier to focus.

 

Tutorial for Ch. 3

3D map worked, it just lags a little bit (blaming BishopNet, may try to do later tutorials at home on my own internet). I had a couple issues with the 2D and 3D changes for the maps, but I don’t think I missed anything major. I’ve come to understand that the software isn’t perfect, so I don’t let the discrepancies discourage me. The animations are very laggy which makes me worry about doing the tutorials like this on my laptop as it might make it crash.

 

Ch. 4

The phone application is a little weird, but I get why it’s a thing. I can see how it could be useful to certain groups of people to develop other applications based on it or how to see land maps conveniently. This could be an issue to use if the internet is bad or if you don’t have enough data on your device for everything to work properly. The use of AR is something I’m vaguely familiar with since some mobile games use it (Pokémon Go is a prime example of this, along with the fact it uses location maps to verify where you are and what roads, waterways, or landmarks are nearby). 

 

Tutorial for Ch.4

This tutorial was not as easy as the Ch.3 one. I switched to my IPad to try it, but that didn’t really fix it. Loading times were long for this one too, but it also may just be my device. I would be interested to know how more of the mobile applications work since it’s supposed to make this more accessible.

 

Delaware Data inventory:

I think I did this in 291? I remember going in and reading about what the different things are, not sure if that was the same thing. 

 

End of semester idea:

I want to try to do something relevant to chapters 3 and 4 since that seems a little easier and more accessible to me since I am a commuter. 

The reading basically  talks about how to properly use the Experience Builder within ArcGIS. It’s a guide for users, introducing them to the tool’s and different functions of it. It covers different aspects like selecting templates, choosing themes, designing layouts. Additionally, it talks about features like dynamic content, charting, filtering, triggers, and actions, providing users with a thorough understanding of how to leverage these tools effectively. I liked chapter 3 and I feel like the chapter 3 tutorial was the best one yet. It’s just really long and that can be a bit annoying  I’m not gonna lie. But it went pretty smooth and I was able to do it. The map making is complex but I can tell that knowing this information could probably go a long way over time. Can literally make a map for anything you think of.

 

My idea for the application is that we could setup a map around Delaware or anywhere in the Columbus area and it could show different locations of car accidents and whenever there’s an area with several reoccurring accidents we could highlight those areas differently than the rest. This can keep roads and neighborhoods safer if we spread the information gained.