Lecture

Geographic Information Systems: Introduction

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Description

This lecture introduces the use of drones equipped with cameras to monitor and protect black rhinos in Africa, showcasing how geographic information systems are used to analyze and represent geospatial data, from acquisition to storage and analysis, enabling the creation of high-quality maps and advanced 3D representations.

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Related concepts (11)

Geographic data and information

Geographic data and information is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a location relative to Earth (a geographic location or geographic position). It is also called geospatial data and information, georeferenced data and information, as well as geodata and geoinformation. Approximately 90% of government sourced data has a location component. Location information (known by the many names mentioned here) is stored in a geographic information system (GIS).

Geographic information system

A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data. Much of this often happens within a spatial database, however, this is not essential to meet the definition of a GIS. In a broader sense, one may consider such a system also to include human users and support staff, procedures and workflows, the body of knowledge of relevant concepts and methods, and institutional organizations.

Spatial analysis

Spatial analysis is any of the formal techniques which studies entities using their topological, geometric, or geographic properties. Spatial analysis includes a variety of techniques using different analytic approaches, especially spatial statistics. It may be applied in fields as diverse as astronomy, with its studies of the placement of galaxies in the cosmos, or to chip fabrication engineering, with its use of "place and route" algorithms to build complex wiring structures.

Geographic information science

Geographic information science (GIScience, GISc) or geoinformation science is a scientific discipline at the crossroads of computational science, social science, and natural science that studies geographic information, including how it represents phenomena in the real world, how it represents the way humans understand the world, and how it can be captured, organized, and analyzed. It is a sub-field of geography, specifically part of technical geography.

Bump mapping

Bump mapping is a texture mapping technique in computer graphics for simulating bumps and wrinkles on the surface of an object. This is achieved by perturbing the surface normals of the object and using the perturbed normal during lighting calculations. The result is an apparently bumpy surface rather than a smooth surface although the surface of the underlying object is not changed. Bump mapping was introduced by James Blinn in 1978. Normal mapping is the most common variation of bump mapping used.

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Bush fires in the Sahelian area MOOC: Geographical Information Systems 1

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Introduction to Geographic Information Systems

Showcases the use of drones to monitor black rhinoceros populations in Africa.

Thematic attributes and classification MOOC: Geographical Information Systems 2

Covers statistical thematic mapping, types of thematic maps, and discretization methods for representing and classifying dataset characteristics.

Case Study: Pollution of Ebrie Lagoon

Explores GIS through a case study on Ebrie Lagoon pollution and the methodology to assess and address environmental issues.

Geographic Information Systems: Introduction MOOC: Geographical Information Systems 2