ARC 581/681 - Geospatial Visualization
ARC 594/694 - Geographic Information Systems in Urban Design
Tool of Statecraft
as far back as Rome
  • Divide conquered land
  • Reclaim appropriated state lands
  • State revenue (taxes)
    late 16th and 17th C
    rise of capitalist social relations
  • Survey (governance)
Estate map
late 13th or 14th C onwards
  • Profit
    Precision, permanence, governance and management of natural resources
  • Describe/plot boundaries
  • Resolve/avoid disputes
    Tenants, landlords, and between landlords
  • Legal security

Palomino, Diego (1549). Traça de la conquista del capitán Diego Palomino: [de las Relaciónes Geográficas, Provincia de Chuquimayo, Perú]
Kain, R. J. P., & Baigent, E. (1992). The Cadastral Map in the Service of the State: A History of Property Mapping. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Timothy B Norris, PhD
Christopher Mader

You can follow along at:
https://tibbben.github.io/geospatial-visualization/

ARC 581/681 - Geospatial Visualization
ARC 594/694 - Geographic Information Systems in Urban Design
Telling Stories
starting conversations
  • Problem definition
  • Consensus building
  • Environmental and social phenomena
    20th century and onward
    capitalist social relations
  • Health and other disparities
  • Urban planning
Online Mapping Platforms
21st century and onward
  • Real estate mapping
  • Navigational tools
  • Weather maps
  • Participatory GIS and data collection
  • Conservation and extraction
  • others ....

Mader, Chris (2018). Drone Survey of Las Flores, Barranquilla, Colombia.

Geospatial Visualization
  • what is a map?
  • what is GIS?
  • what is cartography?
  • what is geospatial analysis?
  • what questions can I ask with GIS?
  • what stories can I tell with GIS?
What is a Map?
  • Maps tell stories ...
    ... the story is about place and space
  • Maps are representations of reality
    Location and attributes: spatial relationships
  • Maps are performances
    ... and they have purpose
  • Maps are abstractions
    symbolization and generalization

The 6200 BC “map” of Çatalhöyük in Turkey


Is this a Map?

National Geographic made the map of the US based on translations of place names from their origins in Native American languages.

Hereford Mappa Mundi, Richard of Haldingham and Lafford, c 1300

Gerhard Mercator, 1569

Napoleon's march on Moscow March 1812, Charles Joseph Minard

When a large outbreak occurred in London in 1854, Dr. John Snow created a map that settled a debate between two schools of thought: that cholera is transmitted not through the inhalation of infected air, but through the ingestion of contaminated water or food.

map credit: infrapedia

  • What stories will you tell with maps?
  • Tension between fiction and reality, map and territory
  • The critical turn in cartography - maps and power
  • Story (imaginative) vs. grid (lack of imagination)
  • Maps as navigational tools for data as well as the world
  • Maps are more interesting than reality?
GIS and the Popular Mind
  • Web 2.0 and the geospatial turn - "easy maps"
  • Definition of GIS - 'S' for system
  • "Crowdsourcing" as a data collection method; "citizens as sensors" (Goodchild)
  • New assemblages of data, people, machines and code revisit old questions about maps
  • "Naive" geography and vernacular development
  • Public participation in GIS - P/PGIS

Sui, Daniel. 2008. "The Wikification of GIS and its Consequences or Angelina Jolie's New Tattoo and the Future of GIS." Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 32:1-5. DOI: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2007.12.001.

Defining GIS
  • Geographic Information System
    • collections of tools, data, hardware, and people
  • Geographic Information Science
    • systematic inquiry into research questions about the relationship between GIS and socio-natural systems
  • Geographic Information conStruction
    • tool building for storage, collection or analysis of geospatial data

Wright, D. J., Goodchild, M. F., & Proctor, J. D. (1997). Demystifying the Persistent Ambiguity of GIS as ‘Tool’ versus ‘Science’.
Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 87(2), 346-362. doi:10.1111/0004-5608.872057

GIS as a collection of datasets that are organized in a systematic way (as layers).

The system of organization can be digital (software) or analog (drawn on paper).

The actual process of organization is done with a purpose by human beings.
adapted from: https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_essentials-of-geographic-information-systems/index.html
Geospatial Abstractions
  • Physical Data Model
    (files on disk)
  • Logical Data Model
    (data structures - vector and raster)
  • Conceptual Data Model
    (discrete or continuous)
  • Reality
    (the world out there)
Note on Physical Data Model (files on disk)
Common geospatial questions
this here / here this
  • where?
  • what (who)?
  • how much?
  • extent or area?
  • [ when? ]
Common geospatial questions
analysis
  • distance between (travel time)?
  • path of least resistance (route)?
  • overlap of areas (jurisdictions)?
  • areal statistics (demographics)
  • land use / land cover change
  • clusters (spatial statistics)
  • interpolation
  • [ why? ]
Common geospatial questions
models
  • watersheds (flows)
  • traffic patterns
  • pollution
  • viewsheds
  • geo-fencing (buffers)
Common geospatial questions
before you start remember
  • scope of question (is it doable)
  • scale and type of output (design question)
  • visualization (print, online, etc)
  • how will you get the data!!!
Key elements of GIS Assemblages
  • Tool set
    • collection of software programs
    • in some cases referred to as a stack
  • Data model
    • Relational databases (tables)
    • Extensible/hierarchical data models (trees)
    • Raster data (grids and images)
  • Scripting languages
Common Desktop GIS Assemblages
Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI)
  • Tool set
    • ArcGIS Desktop
    • ArcGIS Pro *NEW*
  • Relational data model
    • shapefiles (.shp)
    • geodatabases (.gdb)
    • geotiffs (.tif)
    • database servers (SQLServer, postgreSQL)
  • Scripting languages
    • python
Common GIS Assemblages
Quantum GIS - QGIS (FOSS)
  • Tool set
  • Relational data model
    • shapefiles (.shp), raw text (.csv)
    • geojson (.json)
    • geotiffs (.tif)
    • database servers (postgreSQL, oracle)
  • Scripting languages
    • python
Common GIS Assemblages
R (FOSS)
  • Tool set
  • Physical and logical data models
    • raw text, csv (tables)
    • raw text, json (trees)
    • raw text, grids (raster)
    • relational databases (sql)
  • Scripting languages
    • R
Common Desktop GIS Assemblages
Common Web Based GIS Assemblages
Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI)
  • Tool set
  • Relational data model
    • feature services (ArcGIS Online)
    • database servers (SQLServer, posgreSQL)
  • Scripting languages
    • not really any
Common Web Based GIS Assemblages
MapServer (FOSS) - for serving data and images
  • Tool set
    • MapServer - http://mapserver.org/
    • base: Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL)
    • base: Open GIS Reference (OGR)
  • Relational data model
    • shapefiles (.shp)
    • geotiffs (.tif)
  • Scripting/programming languages
    • c++ family
    • python, ruby, php
Common Web Based GIS Assemblages
Google Earth
Common Web Based GIS Assemblages
Leaflet - creating "mashups"
  • Tool set
  • tree and raster only
    • json, kml (trees)
    • jpg, png, etc (raster)
  • Scripting/programming languages
    • javascript (front end)
    • anything (backend)
Relevant Tools and Examples
Less Common GIS Assemblage
High Performance Computing (HPC)
  • Tool set
    • No standard toolset ...
    • ... Jupyter notebooks or R Studio
  • relational data model
    • NetCDF grids and vectors) (.nc)
    • Raster (.geotiff, .jpg, .png, etc)
    • raw text (.csv, .json, etc)
  • Scripting/programming languages
    • python
    • R
    • sql
  • Available at the University of Miami
Data Organization
Think about time and space
  • Directory Structure
  • File Naming Convention
Save time and space
this will get personal





So ....
  • Take a moment, think about your file naming for your articles that you save
    • Are you consistent?
    • Is it easy to find what you want several months later?
  • Now think about your file structure for your downloaded articles
    • Where are the actual files on the computer?
    • How many folders are you using?
    • Are they logically organized?





http://phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1531
http://phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1531
The Bottom Line: File Naming Conventions
[ best practices ]
DO
  • useCamelCasing.docx
  • use_underscores.txt
  • 2015_put_The_Date_First.csv
  • 20150214_useTwoDidgitDateNumbers.xls
  • startASeriesWithLeadingZeros_001.doc
  • 20150214_UM_date-place.shp
  • useFileExtensions.jpg




Mac: Finder: Finder -> Preferences ... : "Advanced" tab, check box next to "Show all filename extensions"
Win 8 and above: File Explorer: "view" tab, check the box next to: "File name extensions"
DON'T
  • Leave spaces in the file name.xls
  • Use the default save name from MS word that is simply the long first sentence in your file.doc
  • January 5 2015 Samples with the month first.xls
  • Label as final version.doc
  • "special characters: & , * % # ; * ( ) ! @$ ^ ~ ' { } [ ] ? < > - + /"
  • No more than about 25 characters





http://assets.amuniversal.com/42ec27b03718012ea5cb00163e41dd5b
The Bottom Line: File Naming Conventions
[ best practices ]
DO
  • useCamelCasing.docx
  • use_underscores.txt
  • 2015_put_The_Date_First.csv
  • 20150214_useTwoDidgitDateNumbers.xls
  • startASeriesWithLeadingZeros_001.doc
  • 20150214_UM_date-place.shp
  • useFileExtensions.jpg




DON'T
  • Leave spaces in the file name.xls
  • Use the default save name from MS word that is simply the long first sentence in your file.doc
  • January 5 2015 Samples with the month first.xls
  • Label as final version.doc
  • special characters: & , * % # ; * ( ) ! @$ ^ ~ ' { } [ ] ? < > - + /
  • No more than about 25 characters





http://assets.amuniversal.com/42ec27b03718012ea5cb00163e41dd5b
Mac: Finder: Finder -> Preferences ... : "Advanced" tab, check box next to "Show all filename extensions"
Win 8 and above: File Explorer: "view" tab, check the box next to: "File name extensions"
Be Consistent
Two Suggestions for File System Organization
One Project Folder
  • If all project files can reasonable fit in one folder ...
  • Good for sharing projects
    • Bad if projects re-use datasets
One Data Folder
  • If you have lots of data that gets shared across projects ...
  • Bad for sharing projects
  • Good for data re-use across projects