Introduction to GIS — A Visual Companion
Contents
Glossary
PDF
Introduction to GIS — A Visual Companion
How to read this book
0
Start here
What you need
Installing ArcGIS Pro
Starting Pro the first time
Installing Waldo
Finding Waldo
Settings
The first thing to click
The course map
A project is a folder
1
What a GIS is, and the Pro workspace
The layer model
The ArcGIS Pro window
Maps, layouts and scenes
Moving around: extent and bookmarks
A feature has a row
Where data comes from: a first look
2
Data models and where data lives
The project and its data
Paths, and how links break
The vector model
The raster model
Vector or raster?
Containers: the geodatabase and the shapefile
Layers, datasets and other names
Where data comes from
Metadata
3
Spatial reference
The shape of the Earth
Datums: fitting the ellipsoid
Latitude and longitude
Map scale
Projection: from round to flat
What a projection keeps
Cylinder, cone and plane
The famous projections
Choosing a coordinate system
Web Mercator: fine for looking, wrong for measuring
Map units, on-the-fly projection and transformations
Why it matters
4
Cartographic design
Every map is generalized
Reference and thematic maps
Visual variables
Colour
Thematic map types
Counts and rates
Classification
Typography and labels
Map elements and the layout
Design principles
5
Attribute data
Tables: records and fields
Three kinds of table
What a field can hold
Making and filling fields
Looking at a column
Joins: destination, source and key
Cardinality
Tables from outside the GIS
A rate from joined data
6
Exploring spatial data
Asking questions of data
John Snow's map, 1854
Attribute queries and SQL
AND, OR, NOT and the selection types
Keeping, viewing and clearing a selection
Spatial relationships
Select By Location in Rwanda
Attribute and spatial together
Summary statistics
Charts: which one answers what
7
Vector analysis
Analysis makes new data
Buffers
Clip and erase: the cookie cutters
Union and intersect: overlays with attributes
Dissolve, merge and append
A site-selection chain
Spatial joins: attributes by location
8
Raster analysis
The raster data model
Cell size is resolution
Bands and images
Drawing a raster
Making your own copy
Terrain: hillshade, slope and aspect
Map algebra
Boolean rasters
Reclassify
Suitability: the habitat chain
9
Spatial patterns
Tobler's first law
Spatial autocorrelation
Rain on Maui
From samples to a surface
Thiessen polygons
Inverse distance weighting
Checking a surface
Kernel density
10
Creating and editing data
Where new data comes from
Vertices, segments and nodes
Design before drawing
Templates, tools and attributes
Snapping
Changing what you drew
Saving edits
Editing hygiene
11
3D scenes and your final map
Two kinds of scene
The ground is a DEM
Moving in a scene
Draping and extruding
The summit's buildings
One number or a field
Your final map
Where to make it
Glossary
Figure credits
Course data sources
Further reading