Why does GIS Matter? •  Events have a location. Almost everything that happens, happens somewhere. Keeping track of activities is important and knowing WHEN and WHERE they occur can be the most convenient basis for tracking.

•  Location is an issue of many problems society must solve

•  These Problems are referred to as Geographic problems e.g. determining the best location for a new rainfall station, tracking localised storms and warning communities in their path.

GIS FUNCTIONS CAPTURE STORE QUERY

ANALYZE DISPLAY OUTPUT

ANALYSIS

•  Proximity

•  Overlay

•  Network

How many stations are within a 10km radius of Old Harbour?

Examines how linear features are connected and how easily resources can flow through them

What is the relationship between rainguage sites, hydrological basins and the stream network?

DISPLAY

REPORTS

GRAPHS

MAPS

OUTPUT INTERNETPAPER MAP

GIS DATA

DOCUMENT

E.g. Jamaica_Rainfall.mxdE.g. Jam_IKONOS.jpg

THE GEODATABASE CONCEPT

•  The core geographic information model used to organize GIS data

into thematic layers and spatial representations. (i.e. a container

of GIS data with tools for accessing them)

•  Contains application logic and tools for accessing and managing

GIS data.

•  Accessible in client applications (e.g. ArcGIS Desktop), server

configurations (e.g. ArcGIS Server), and logic embedded custom

applications (e.g. ArcGIS Engine).

CONCEPT (cont’d)

•  A GIS and DBMS standards based physical data store and is

implemented on a number of multi-user and personal DBMSs

(e.g. Oracle, SQL Server) and in XML (web language).

•  Can therefore be seen as the information system for geography.

•  A GIS is therefore a structured database that describes the

world in geographic terms.

RELATIONSHIP CLASS

Associates objects from a feature class or table to objects in another feature class or table. Relationship classes can optionally have user- defined fields.

FEATURE CLASS

A table with a shape field containing point, line or polygon gometries for geographic features. Each row is a feature

RULES AND BEHAVIOUR- TOPOLOGY

Integrity rules that define the behaviour of geographically integrated features

GEOMETRIC NETWORKS

Rules for managing connectivity amoung features in a set of feature classes

TABLES

RASTER DATASET

Contains rasters that represent continuous geographic phenomena

METADATA DOCUMENT

An XML document that can be associated with every dataset. Commonly used in Arc IMS and other Server applications

A collection of rows, each containing the same fields. Feature classes and tables with shape fields

FEATURE DATASETContains spatially related feature classes with the topology and network objects that bind them. Feature classes in a feature dataset have spatial reference

ENTERPRISE GEODATABASE

OracleSQL Server

IBM DB2Informix

ArcSDE

GEOPROCESSING TOOLS

A collection of data flow and work flowprocesses for performing data management, analysis and modelling

STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS OF A GEODATABASE

.

DATA ACCQUISITION

· Station Siting & QueryLocational Factors

· Mobile GIS?? In the field updating of attribute data

· Anomlaies

DATA PROCESSING

Graphical Output· Charts, Graphs,

Prediction Surfaces

Management of Resources

Better Quality Output

Research & Analysis

· Why? What? Where?

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

DBASE Management and Manipulation

ArcServer/SQL§ DBASE Query

· Integrated GIS Platform

RADARMapping of Weather Systems

· OverlaysResearch

Calibration and Ground Truthing

APPLIED METEOROLOGY

Research and Analysis· Trends from

observed data

· Best Case Scenarios

Correct Observations

GIS

NMC, UAS, SMC

· Removing redundant stations

· Ensure Efficient Network

· Consultancy Services

· $$$??

· Better Quality Forecasting

Findings From Research

· A more Analytical look at Severe Weather Events

Mapping of Upper Air Soundings· Make use of data in

Research

THE GOAL: A COMPREHENSIVE GIS PLATFORM

Compilation and editing

workstations

Analysis and Mapping

workstations

Specialized applications

Lightweight viewers Web browsers

Web ApplicationsDesktop Applications

DBMS

Geodatabase services

Geoinformation services

Services

Data