So… who is this guy? And why is he teaching GIS?

Dr. G’s personal Bio for DL students…

Since we will only ‘see’ each other over the internet, and since I am going to ask you to to tell me about yourselves, your goals and WHY you are interested in learning GIS…. Its only fair that I tell you a little about me…

(feel free to skip these pages!) ;-)

I am really a geographer, its part of who I am. I love to travel, to explore (to get ‘lost’). I have been to Europe, Africa and Asia. Although I enjoy Western North America most of all.

I have done GIS and Remote sensing professionally since leaving the ranks of high school science teachers (I only lasted 4 years). As you can see from my publication record, I feel like I can say “been there, done that”… and in most cases I have the T-shirt to show for it.

Along with being a real ‘honest to gosh’ physical geographer who actually studies landscapes for fun! am a photographer, fisherman, occasional computer geek, mechanic (when I have to be) and carpenter.

I am very fortunate to be in the position of Associate Professor at UNA…. It a good school, with really good students and outstanding colleagues.

Although, to be here, I had to leave Oregon State and Corvallis OR where we spent the last 15 years! Most of the time it’s a good trade, but I really miss the cliffs soaring above the pounding surf, the silence of the desert at night and the smell of a wind with nothing behind it but 3000 miles of ocean and 70 miles of fir clad mountains!

But this is where I could play ‘professor’ and I am loving it!

GIS Experience•1987 beta test of PC Arc/Info… first ‘hands on’ class at OSU

•1989 MS Research Project Developing a cartographic and GIS data base for Lawrence Memorial Grassland Preserve, Central Oregon PC Arc/Info/Autocad

•1989-2001Aerial Photographer/Videographer

•1990 Modeling potential crop lands in the US UNIX Arc/Info

•1990-1993 Developed and used RS and GIS tools to produce a vegetation/landcover map of the former Soviet Union (FSU). UNIX Arc/Info and GRASS

•1994-1996 Modeling land cover change and biomass in forests of tropical Africa GRID

•1994-2001 Geoscience Information Specialist (sys admin/GIS instructor) Oregon State University PC Arc/Info-Arcview

•1996-1997 GIS coordinator CRRL, Cook WA. Evaluating and modeling effect of physical factors on fish behavior. Arcview

•1999-2000 Director of OSU’s NASA Commercial Remote Sensing Program (CRSP) Affiliated Research Center (ARC)

•1999-2000 GIS Access Learning team leader. Led workshops in Houston TX, Sacramento CA. and Bend OR Arcview

•2000-2001 Spatial and Temporal patterns of emergency response to the 1999 earthquakes in Turkey. Arcview/ERDAS

•2001-2002 Agro-Climatic regions of China: using spatial modeling to expand marketing opportunities for Oregon grown grass seed. Arcview

• 2002-2004 Associate Professor; Geography Department University of North Alabama

As of this year, I can say that I have 17 years experience in ‘doing’ GISand 12 years teaching GIS

Using GIS to Model Biomass in tropical Forests

One of the maps produced using a GIS model that used climatic and soils information to predict areas suitable for commercial production of various crops.

Using GIS in biological modeling. I set the up a GIS for the Columbia River Research Lab in Cook WA. I started using the arcview based system to model the relationships between predator fish (Squaw Fish.. A BIG minnow) and Prey (juvenile Salmon).

Major PublicationsHeyman O, Gaston GG, Kimerling AJ, Campbell JT; “A Per-Segment Approach to Improving Aspen Mapping from High-Resolution Remote Sensing Imagery” June 2003 Journal of Forestry

 Jackson, P.L. and G.G. Gaston; "Potential Croplands: A GIS Approach to Modeling Potential Crop Growing Lands in the United States", 1998, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment (submitted and accepted)

 Gaston G.G., S. Brown, M. Lorenzini and K.D. Singh; "State and Change in Carbon Pools in the Forests of Tropical Africa", Global Change Biology 1998, 4, 97-114.

 Gaston, G.G., P.M. Bradley, T.S. Vinson and T.P. Kolchugina; "GVI Classification of Vegetation and Landcover Regions in the Former Soviet Union as Inputs for Forest Ecosystem Modeling", Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 1996, 63 - 1, 51-58.

 "Simulating Carbon Storage in Forests of Eastern Russia" (P. M. Bradley, G.G. Gaston, T. S. Vinson and T.P. Kolchugina), J. of Water, Air and Soil Pollution, 82, 1-2, 1995.

Publications contd. Brown S. and G. Gaston, "Use of Forest Inventories and Geographic Information Systems to Estimate Biomass Density of Tropical Forests: Application to Tropical Africa", Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 1995, 38 - 2-3, 157-168.

 Gaston, G.G. and T.P. Kolchugina; "Estimates of Phytomass and Net Primary Productivity in Terrestrial Ecosystems of the Former Soviet Union Identified by Classified Global Vegetation Index", World Resource Review 1995, 7 - 4, 525-540.

 Gaston G.G., P.L. Jackson, T.S.Vinson, and T.P. Kolchugina; "Identification of Carbon Quantifiable Regions in the Former Soviet Union Using Unsupervised Classification of AVHRR Global Vegetation Index Images", International Journal of Remote Sensing 1994, 15 - 16, 3199-3222

 Jackson, P.L. and G.G. Gaston; "Digital Enhancement as an Aid to Detecting Patterns of Vegetation Stress Using Medium-Scale Aerial Photography", International Journal of Remote Sensing 1994, 15 - 5, 1009-1018

 Gaston G.G., T.P. Kolchugina and T.S.Vinson; "Potential Effect of No-Till Management on Carbon in the Agricultural Soils of the Former Soviet Union", Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 1993, 45, 295-309

 

COURSE GOALS: For a student to understand and use spatial analysis tools; and apply these tools and techniques to real data and realistic problems.

 •Task/Skill: •Think Geographically, look at a problem in terms of spatial analysisUnderstand the components of GIS and how it is used in a variety of environmentsLearn to ASK good questions!Learn to locate, process and evaluate data necessary to answer geographic questions.Write reports that incorporate GIS mapping and analysisManage files, data and programsApply basic file management skills to the GISManaging Arcview ‘projects’… ‘PROJECTS’ are NOT DATA!!!! Set working directoriesRecognize the vast number of additional tools available and have experience in loading and activating extensions •Acquiring spatial dataSuccessfully search for spatial dataRecognize and understand types of files availableUse compression and import utilitiesUnderstand the importance of meta-data and how to evaluate spatial dataUse CAD and Image files, Shape files, Coverages, DEM’s, etc in Arcview•Creating DataUse on screen digitizing to create new shape filesCreate ‘event themes’ from point data in a spreadsheet (e.g. GPS points)Copy/paste tabular data: Import spreadsheet data, join tablesGeocodingUse ‘queries’ to identify subsets of data and create new data files (e.g. Oregon counties from a map of US counties)

COURSE GOALS: contd

•Deal with projectionsKnow how to use ‘Projector!’ and/or ‘Projection Utility Wizard’Understand the concepts of projection/datum and spheroid etc.•Spatial Analysis ToolsExploring data using the legend editorBuild spatial/data queriesJoin tablesTheme on theme selectionsEdit tables/create new attribute data in a table/create summary tablesClipBuffer (Xtools and geo-processing wizard extensions)Erase•Graphic CommunicationsCreating ‘layouts’ maps/charts/tables

So What is a “GIS”?

• “GISs are simultaneously the telescope, the microscope, the computer, and the

Xerox machine of regional analysis and synthesis of spatial data.”

-- Ron Abler, executive director of the Association of American Geographers, 1988

• “A geographic information system is a special case of information systems where the database consists of observations on spatially distributed

features, activities or events, which are definable in space as points, lines, or areas. A geographic

information system manipulates data about these points, lines, and areas to retrieve data for ad hoc

queries and analyses” (Duecker, 1979, p 106)

A GIS is a toolbox

“a powerful set of tools for storing and retrieving at will, transforming and displaying spatial data from the real world for a particular set of purposes” (Burrough, 1986, p. 6).

The Sandwich Model of the world…..

WHAT IS “HERE”?

WHERE ARE “THESE”?

WHERE DO “THIS” AND “THAT” OCCUR TOGETHER?

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CHANGES OCCUR?

A GIS is an ANLYSIS tool

• For every piece of data it specifies

What it is

Where it is

How it relates to other pieces of data• What things are in common• See spatial relationships or create NEW

relationships.

All GIS definitions recognize that spatial data are unique because they

are linked to maps.

Geographically-referenced data Latitude and longitudeStreet addressx and y coordinates (UTM for example)Township and Range

Major Questions for a GIS?

• WHAT exists at a certain location?• WHERE are certain conditions satisfied?• WHAT has changed in a place over time?• WHAT spatial patterns exist?• WHAT IF this condition occurred at this

place? (modeling/hypothesis testing)

MAJOR QUESTIONS FOR YOU…

• WHAT ARE MY QUESTIONS?*• What data do I need?• What data can I get? What

substitutes/compromises am I going to make?• How can I combine my data to answer my

questions?

*(#1 most critical question that you MUST know the answer to, EVERY time, on EVERY project!)

GISciGeographic information science

??

• A New Discipline?

GIScience is to GIS as:

Statistics are to the statistical packages?

Computer Science or Computer Engineering are to “Windows XP” (etc)?

The science behind the systems (?)

What makes a ‘science’? Does it really matter?

• Major GIS Journals• International Journal of Geographical Information Science• Cartography and Geographic Information Science• Geographical Systems• Transactions in GIS• Geo Info Systems• GEOWorld (formerly GISWorld)• Professional Organizations• AAG: The Association of American Geographers.• GITA: Geospatial Information & Technology Assoc. (formerly AM/FM)• URISA: Urban and Regional Information Systems Association. • ACSM: American Congress on Surveying and Mapping.• ASPRS: American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.• NACIS: North American Cartographic Information Society.• Conference Proceedings• ESRI User Conference. Every year in San Diego.

GIS is a multi-million dollar business.

• ESRI’s 1996 sales were over $200 million, in a GIS software market of ~$591 million (2/3+ of that Arcview)

• Ranks 34th among world’s top 50 software companies

• “The growth of GIS has been a marketing phenomenon of amazing breadth and depth and will remain so for many years to come. Clearly, GIS will integrate its way into our everyday life to such an extent that it will soon be impossible to imagine how we functioned before”

The GIS Process in a nutshell….“The parking lot”

Goals:• To see the relationships between field

observations and GIS data sets• To create map and GIS data sets from field

data • To perform simple spatial analysis and

present the results graphic form• To really get in and ‘play with’ the GIS

Methods:

• Teams of 2 people• Choose a parking lot around one of the buildings

on campus

Select a block of parking spaces (8-10)

Record data about the vehicles parked in these spaces. (record both spatial and attribute data)

Collect data sufficient to ’query’ these data and analyze some spatial patterns

Methods contd.:

• Create a map and data set in Arcview• Populate the data table with your attribute data• Perform at least 2 spatial queries• Create a layout of your results… make sure the

text of your query and your names are part of the layout.

• “hokey-pokey is okey-dokey”