Desktop, Mobile

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Desktop, Mobile Web Based GIS/ Collaborative GIS

• Lecture 4

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Desktop GIS

• Create, edit, and analyze geographic data on your
  desktop computer.
• See your data on a map.
• Analyze your data to reveal patterns,
  relationships, and trends that are not readily
  apparent in tabular format.
• Create publication quality, professional maps.

3
ArcGIS Desktop
ArcGIS Desktop is software that allows you to
discover patterns, relationships, and trends in
your data that are not readily apparent in
databases, spreadsheets, or statistical packages.
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Desktop GIS

• Advantages
• You have all the data and processing at your
  station

• Disadvantages
• You must invest in the processor and storage
  space
• Data and maps are not easily shared

5
Mobil GIS

• Mobile GIS is the expansion of a geographic
  information system (GIS) from the office into the
  field.
• A mobile GIS enables field based personnel to
  capture, store, update, manipulate, analyze, and
  display geographic information.

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Mobile GIS integrates one or more of the
following technologies

• Mobile devices
• ArcGIS Mobile
• ArcPad
• StreetMap Mobile Software Developer Kit
• Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
• Wireless communications for Internet GIS access

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Mobile GIS

• Advantage
• Portable
• Allows for some map processing

• Disadvantages
• Minimal storage space
• Need a desktop for most processing

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Web Based GIS

• Access 2D maps, 3D globes, reference layers, and
  functional tasks via the Web to support your GIS
  work.
• Contribute your own data for publishing through
  ArcGIS Online and make it broadly available to
  other users.
• Purchase the data you see in ArcGIS Online and
  publish it on your own server.

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Web Based GIS

• Advantages
• Minimal processor and storage space needed
• Many data sets available
• The processor on the web server is likely to be
  more powerful than your desktop unit

• Disadvantages
• Must have a fast network connection
• Data resides off site
• Dependent on resources off site, not under your
  control

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Collaborative GIS

• Web Based GIS where multiple users can add data
  to a single map.

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Collaborative GIS

• Advantages
• Allows for input from
• Multiple Users
• Multiple Data Sets
• Multiple Perspectives

• Disadvantages
• Lack of control over input to the map and
  revisions

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Raster vs. Vector

• Lecture 5

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Raster and Vector Reality 

• One of the sharpest distinctions among GIS is the
  way that location is represented in a database,
  as either a raster or vector position.  

These materials were developed by Kenneth E.
Foote and Donald J. Huebner, Department of
Geography, University of Texas at Austin, 1996.
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Raster vs. Vector

• "Raster is vaster, Vector is more correcter"

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The Raster View of the World

• A raster based system displays, locates, and
  stores graphical data by using a matrix or grid
  of cells.
• Each cell has an (x,y) location and a (z) value
  which stores attribute data about that location.

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The Vector View of the World
A vector based system displays graphical data as
points, lines or curves, or areas with attributes.
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Advantages and Disadvantages
These materials were developed by Kenneth E.
Foote and Donald J. Huebner, Department of
Geography, University of Texas at Austin, 1996.
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Raster data can be converted to Vector and vice
versa
Note Converting from one system to the other can
introduce error.
These materials were developed by Kenneth E.
Foote and Donald J. Huebner, Department of
Geography, University of Texas at Austin, 1996.