Longley Chs. 1-2
February 8, 2008
Ch. 1
Why does GIS matter?
Location
Health care managers in deciding where to locate new clinics and hospitals
Delivery routes
New highway routes
Retail sites
Land use
Tourism
Data, information, evidence, knowledge, wisdom
Manage what we know
Organize
Store
Access
Manipulate and synthesize
Solve problems
Information- devoid of meaning, synonymous with data. Anything that can be digitized.
Knowledge- information to which value has been added by interpretation based on a particular context, experience, and purpose.
Evidence- multiplicity of information from different sources, related to specific problems and with a consistency that has been validated.
Wisdom- individualized. The top level pf a hierarchy of decision-making infrastructure.
Science of Problem Solving
Knowledge about how the world works is more valuable than knowledge about how it looks.
How it looks or forms.
How it works or its dynamic processes.
Ideographic geography- focuses on the description of form and emphasizes the unique characteristics of places.
Nomothetic geography- seeks to discover general processes.
Technology of Problem Solving
GIS is a computerized tool for solving geographic problems.
The Business of GIS
The software industry
The data industry
The GIService industry
GIS education
GISystems, GIScience, and GIStudies
Systematic study constitutes a science in its own right. Information science studies the fundamental issues arising from geographic information, as a well-defined class of information in general.
GIS and Geography
GIS technology offers a solution to the problems inadequate computation and limited data handling.
Many geographers remain suspicious of the use of GIS in geography.
Ch. 2
A Gallery of Applications
GIS is used to improve many of our day-to-day working and living arrangements.
Science, Geography, and Applications
Understanding and resolving problems entails a number of general data handling operations.
GIS is fundamentally about solving real-world problems.
Representative Application Areas and Their Foundations
Mapping
Measurement
Monitoring
Modeling
Management
Used mostly in government and public service, business and service planning, logistics and transportation, and environment.
