Maa123.491 Geoinformatics in CEE

1
Maa-123.491 Geoinformatics in CEE
2
Administrative things

• Introductions
• The course
• The email list
• Optima
• moon.hut.fi

3
The course

• Meetings time and place Wednesdays 12.15
  16.00, M330 (some meetings may be arranged in a
  computer classroom)
• Language English
• Prerequisites Maa-123.310 (Theories and
  Techniques in Geoinformatics)
• Credits 2 ov
• Requirements project, exam (meetings are not
  obligatory)
• Evaluation project 60, exam 40

4
The email list

• General discussions and questions about anything
  related to the course
• Private
• Standard mailman list
• Subscribe to http//list.hut.fi/mailman/listinfo/
  gincee

5
Optima

• optima.hut.fi
• I will arrange the user accounts
• username unix username
• password service password You need to set
  this yourself!
• Exercises, materials, course structure, cases
  (project work)
• note has not been used before
• Do not use the discussion forum, use the email
  list
• The time table has to be adjusted

6
moon.hut.fi

• A linux-based (standard Fedora 4) workstation
  with off-the-web geospatial technology installed
• Proj4, netCDF, GEOS, libral, some Perl Geo
  modules, PostGIS, GDAL, QGIS
• Copies of some geodata that I currently have
  access to
• I need undersigned statements from you that you
  do not make copies of these elsewhere
• Corine (European Finnish), DigiRoad, Soils map,
  Finnish DEM, Finnish topographic map, HMA data,
  US Tiger data

7
moon.hut.fi

• Can be used remotely from within the university
• QGIS is graphical program, so use WinaXe if your
  are at a Windows machine
• from unix machine ssh X moon
• I will arrange the user accounts (this machine is
  not managed by the computing centre)

8
Course

• Overview
• Readings
• Time management
• Project

9
Overview

• From optima
• The aim of this course is to learn to recognize
  the nature of the GIS data, and the relationships
  between the processes and parameter values gained
  from the geographic information systems, and
  furthermore, to test different kinds of
  application methods in the essential models of
  civil and environmental engineering and in the
  problem solving skills that can be utilized in
  geographic information systems.
• Problem-based approach

10
Graphical overview
Theoretical world of GIScience -data
models -methods

• Practical world
• of CEE
• tasks
• problems
• data
• goals

Technical world of geospatial tools and technology
-bottom-up -development of general tools -basic
datasets
-top-down -analysis -structuring of problems
11
Readings

• For the projects handbooks
• For the exam all covered material
• the exam questions are essays and explain
  concepts -questions
• Miller, H.J., Shaw, S-L. 2001. Geographic
  information systems for transportation.
  Principles and applications. Oxford Univ. press.
• although mainly for transportation, contains also
  lots of material useful for CEE in general
• Peter A. Burrough and Rachael A. McDonnell. 1998.
  Principles of Geographical Information Systems.
  Second Edition
• cover nat.res.man. issues well

12
Time management
2 ov two weeks of work 80 h 3 p 1 day of
work within the period
13
Project

• Is mostly planning for work to be done
• The tools and data in moon.hut.fi are available
  but your results with them is expected to vary
• Use the templates in Optima and report your
  findings and plans

14
Geoinformatics in CEE
15
Civil and environmental engineering

• Civil engineering (wikipedia.org)
• In modern usage, civil engineering is a broad
  field of engineering that deals with the
  planning, construction, and maintenance of fixed
  structures, or public works, as they are related
  to earth, water, or civilization and their
  processes. Most civil engineering today deals
  with roads, structures, water supply, sewer,
  flood control and traffic. In essence civil
  engineering is the profession which makes the
  world a more habitable place to live.

16
Fields in CEE

• Structural engineering
• Geotechnical engineering
• Transportation engineering
• Environmental engineering
• Hydraulic engineering
• Hydrological engineering
• Water resource engineering
• Construction engineering
• Material science
• Surveying
• ...

17
Geoinformatics

• Geographic information science/systems/service
• Geospatial information technology/research
• Geocomputation
• Geoinformatics is a term that appears to have
  been independently coined by several groups
  around the world to describe a variety of efforts
  to promote collaboration between computer science
  and the geosciences to solve complex scientific
  questions.

18
Fields of GIScience

• Cartography
• Cognitive science
• Computer science
• Engineering
• Surveying
• Environmental sciences
• Geodetic science
• Geography
• Landscape architecture
• Law and public policy
• Remote sensing and photogrammetry
• Statistics

19
First step in the analysis, CEE

• What are the tasks in CEE?
• planning, management, decision making
• improve
• find a solution
• impact assessment
• design
• describe
• analyse

20
Bottom-up, geoinformatics

• Produce geospatial databases and datasets
• Develop computational procedures for these
• Develop software for implementing these
  procedures
• Integrate software for these tasks

21
GISystem

• Information system in an organization
• people, institutions, LAN
• Generic desktop system
• cmp Spreadsheet
• GIS application
• desktop an add-on
• New SDI
• system/application gets data directly from
  Internet
• New Web application
• user-oriented information browser

22
Characteristics of geospatial tools

• Software which can be programmed
• Components which can be integrated
• Also non-geospatial components
• Often the tool is a high level programming
  language
• Scripting languages Perl, Python, Ruby, Tcl,
• Other Java, Visual Basic
• My demonstrations will be in Perl

23
Two modes of work
collect data process data transform
data apply method 1 apply method
2 process output produce report
Linear

• work piece
• a plan
• a management policy
• description

engineer
Interactive
24
Geospatial tools

• Data storage tools
• Data access tools
• Computational tools
• Visualization tools
• Reporting tools
• Other tools