Welcome to Advanced GIS, Lecture 1
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Advanced GIS
Advanced GIS
for International Crises, Development and the Environment
Syllabus
Come to class on time. If you're not going to be, email me.
Assignments will be posted in Canvas
Emailing me
If it's personal: email me directly
If it's about an assignment: use Slack instead
Slack
Please use the #help channel for questions
Please include links to data, screenshots, etc, as appropriate
Slack
There are other channels for sharing interesting data and maps you find
For the first ten weeks, expect a weekly assignment due at noon before the next class
Some weeks there will be final project checkpoints that are also due
Some weeks there will be readings you should respond to in Slack
Our online spaces
- Canvas: graded assignments
- Slack: discussions and questions
- Class page: slides and resources archive
Week 1
What is the geoweb?
Week 2
How does the web work? + Carto
Week 3
Advanced Carto and CartoCSS
Week 4
SQL and GeoJSON
Week 5
HTML
Week 6
CSS
Weeks 7 - 10
JavaScript
source
Week 11
Mapbox Studio
Week 12
OpenStreetMap
Week 13
Final project lab
Week 14 - 15
Final project presentations
Final projects
what do you want to get out of this class?
my goals for you:
- get an understanding of the world of webmaps
my goals for you:
- get an understanding of the world of webmaps
- learn some programming
my goals for you:
- get an understanding of the world of webmaps
- learn some programming
- make something that is useful for you
maps that I've made
where are you coming from?
where are you coming from?
In small groups:
- look at Google Maps in your area/neighborhood
where are you coming from?
In small groups:
- look at Google Maps in your area/neighborhood
- what is one place you're familiar with?
where are you coming from?
In small groups:
- look at Google Maps in your area/neighborhood
- what is one place you're familiar with?
- what is one place you're less familiar with?
where are you coming from?
In small groups:
- look at Google Maps in your area/neighborhood
- what is one place you're familiar with?
- what is one place you're less familiar with?
→ We'll share some findings with the rest of the class afterward.
Refreshers
GIS
Geographic Information System
GIS
"Any system for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on the Earth's surface"
source
GISs
GISs
latitude and longitude
projections
raster vs vector
raster
vector
vector
shapefile
shapefile
clipping
clipping
clipping
clipping
clipping
How do you expect an online map to be different from an offline one?
Introduction to webmaps
aka "the geoweb", "online maps"
webmaps
maps on the internet and the practices and software that facilitate their creation
"practices and software"
platforms for working with maps and data
(open) data
adding spatial data to otherwise non-spatial artifacts
(eg, geotagging of pictures on a service like flickr, adding location to tweets, etc)
"practices and software"
- platforms for working with maps and data
- (open) data
- adding spatial data to otherwise non-spatial artifacts
How did we get here?
2000 - today
- GPS
- the web changed
- more data became available
- FOSS became mainstream
1. GPS
GPS "selective availablility" turned off (2000)
2. the web has changed
"Web 2.0" (~2004)
Tim O'Reilly
- Britannica Online → Wikipedia
- Britannica Online → Wikipedia
- publishing → participation (podcasting, blogging, etc)
- Britannica Online → Wikipedia
- publishing → participation
- Britannica Online → Wikipedia
- publishing → participation
...
desktop GIS → geoweb
first web maps were static
click
...wait
entire page reloads,
map is panned east
AJAX (2005)
AJAX
(Asynchronous Javascript and XML)
AJAX
(Asynchronous Javascript and XML)
dynamically loading portions of webpages
AJAX
not really new, but newly articulated
3. data becomes more available
open data
open data
data that is:
- accessible (online, in a widely-used format)
open data
data that is:
- accessible (online, in a widely-used format)
- licensed freely
open data
data that is:
- accessible (online, in a widely-used format)
- licensed freely
- usually created by a large entity
How do we give data back?
collaborative data
OpenStreetMap
Haiti in OpenStreetMap before 2010 earthquake
source
Haiti in OpenStreetMap after 2010 earthquake
source
4. open source
Free and open source software (FOSS)
freedoms to
- use,
- study,
- modify, and
- redistribute
source code
source code
in exchange for
- attribution, and sometimes
- sharing your changes under the same license
backed by licenses
backed by licenses
2000 - today
- GPS
- the web changed
- more data became available
- FOSS became mainstream
Anatomy of a web map
1. Make or reuse base tiles
Street, water and land data
Street, water and land data →
2. Overlay some data
Your desktop GIS is still very relevant here!
You will often load data in a GIS, do some geoprocessing and analyses, then add it to a webmap
3. Mix with some html, css, and javascript for styles and interactivity
1. Make or reuse base tiles
2. Overlay data
3. Mix with some html, css,
and javascript
Sometimes software is buggy and confusing
Sometimes software is buggy and confusing—it's not always your fault
We're here for you. Use Slack when you run into issues.
You can do this!
