Maps and the Geospatial Revolution

Lesson 1 – Lecture 2

Anthony C. Robinson, Ph.D Lead Faculty for Online Geospatial Education John A. Dutton e-Education Institute Assistant Director, GeoVISTA Center Department of Geography The Pennsylvania State University

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The Changing Nature of Place

• Geotagging alone isn’t enough

• The places that matter to us are a lot more difficult to describe

• I live in Happy Valley, in a neighborhood called Hunter’s Chase

• An ongoing challenge in the Geospatial Revolution is in how we handle these types of locations

Example from: Bostonography.com

Example from: Bostonography.com

OK, So What is Geography?

• Geography is the Science of Place and Space

• Common responses to “I’m a Geographer” when I fly somewhere:

– Oh cool, I have a cousin who’s a Geologist! – Haven’t all of the maps already been made? – Oh neat, I have no idea what that is! – Wow, that is so sad!

OK, So What is Geography?

• Geography

– The science of understanding places and spaces

• Geospatial

– Refers to the data and technologies that allow

one to explore Geographic problems

Maps to Tell Stories & Provide Context

• Thematic Maps

– Thematic maps are used to showcase geographic data observations. Thematic maps are almost always associated with storytelling.

• Reference Maps

– Reference maps (also frequently called basemaps)

provide the basic Geographic context required to situate other stuff.

The Earth is Round – Maps are Flat

• We need a reference system to locate things on the Earth

• So we impose a grid on the planet with lines of Longitude and Latitude

• Transforming locations from the 3D earth to a 2D map requires a projection

• Projections can preserve area, shape, distance, and other attributes, but not everything at once

http://transpographics.blogspot.com/2012/05/theres-projection-that-looks-like.html

Maps and the Geospatial Revolution www.coursera.org/course/maps Twitter @MapRevolution Online Geospatial Education @ Penn State www.pennstategis.com

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