Assignment 2 Tier 2

Suren N Pakeri Z3334707
Assignment 2 Tier 2 Submission – Reviews

Second major source: Geographical Data

Geographical data is essential for establishing successful human settlements.
Geographical data is a collective array of data spaning from physical geography
assessments to service routes to human geography; just to mention a few.

Physical geographic assessments: Physical Geography is a sub-discipline of two
much larger fields of study - Geography and Earth Sciences. The main purpose of
Physical Geography is to explain the spatial characteristics of the various natural
phenomena associated with the Earth's hydrosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, and
lithosphere.

Service routes: Service routes are routes utilised by privet and public transportation
to arrive at a desired location.

Human geography: Human geography is one of the two major branches of
geography (versus physical geography) and is often called cultural geography.
Human geography is the study of the many cultural aspects found throughout the
world and how they relate to the spaces and places where they originate and then
travel as people continually move across various areas.

From my own experience with geographic data; geographic data is stored then
managed using programmes such as ArcGIS to present geographical data,
document geographical changes and run numerous geographical analyses to
achieve a successful human settlement.

Different Kinds (and Notions) of Geographic Databases
• Geographic information system (GIS)
• Land information system (LIS)
• Cartographic databases

Geography data comes in three basic forms:
Map data: Map data contains the location and shape of geographic features. Maps
use three basic shapes to present real-world features: points, lines, and areas
(called polygons).


Attribute data: Attribute (tabular) data is the descriptive data that GIS links to map
features. Attribute data is collected and compiled for specific areas like states,
census tracts, cities, and so on and often comes packaged with map data. When
implementing a GIS, the most common sources of attribute data are an individual’s
organization's databases combined with data sets that can be bought or acquire from
other sources to fill in gaps.

Image data: Image data ranges from satellite images and aerial photographs to
scanned maps (maps that have been converted from printed to digital format).

Data Models
Data models are the rules the GIS follows, such as "county lines do not overlap," and
are essential for defining what is in the GIS as well as supporting the use of GIS
software. All spatial data models fall into two basic categories:

Vector data model: Discrete features, such as customer locations and data
summarized by area, are usually represented using the vector model.
Raster data model: Continuous numeric values, such as elevation, and continuous
categories, such as vegetation types, are represented using the raster model.

Some Other Applications of Geographic Databases
• Automated Mapping / Facility Management (AM/FM)
- Spatial data of a specific kind (utility lines), primarily graphic-oriented.
• Environmental Monitoring
- Remote Sensing: recording reflection of various kinds of radiation from the
earth's surface; no concept of "objects"; fixed resolution (e.g., 30*30 meters).
• Census
- importance of topological information, primarily about spatial inclusion (who
lives in which district)
- clear identification of objects (buildings) and their boundaries (administrative
boundaries of parcels, towns, etc.)
- parcel based (partition of the earth's surface) additional information such as
roads, different kinds of spatial subdivisions (school districts, voting districts).


Bibliography
http://www.spatial.maine.edu/~max/EDBT1.html
http://www.physicalgeography.net/
http://www.gis.com/content/data-types-and-models
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~jeanie/AUSTRALI2.html
http://geography.about.com/od/culturalgeography/a/humangeography.htm