GEOG 3530/8535: Introduction to Cartography & GIS

Updated: October 10, 2008

Dr. Michael P. Peterson
University of Nebraska at Omaha

Syllabus

 

Readings / Online Resources (DSC 287)

Exercises (DSC 296)

1

Introduction to Cartography and GIS

  • Overview of course
  • Overview of GEOG 3540/8545 (meets TTh)
  • Delivery of maps through the Web
  • GIS opportunities
  • Google's API and Mashups

Types of Maps - static, interactive, animated

  1. What distinguishes a static from an interactive map?
  2. What introduced the potential of cartographic
    animation?
  3. What is a temporal animation?
  4. What is the most common type of temporal
    animation? Another example.
  5. What would be different about a cartographic
    zoom compared to a photographic zoom?
  6. Describe the animation that alters the
    number of classes    .
  7. Describe the animation that alters the
    classification method    .
  8. What is happening in this animation?
  9. What type of animation is this?


Distribute chapters 1-3

Aug. 27 - Before class

  1. Read chapter 3
  2. Decide on a theme for a map gallery.
  3. Using a search engine, find the addresses of 8 maps of different quality that follow the chosen theme.
  4. Type the following code into a text editor, add the address for one of your maps, save the file as gallery.htm, and open with a browser (Explorer or Firefox).

<html>
<h1> My Map Gallery </h1>
<h2> A collection of maps found on the web.</h2>
<h3> Produced by your name </h3>
<hr>
<h2> Map of ________ </h2>
<img src=”insert http address”>

During class

  1. Adding more maps
  2. How to upload files to: http://myfolder.unomaha.edu
  3. Entire HTTP address of your gallery.htm file
  4. Making an index page for assignments
  5. How to capture and crop a screen image

2

Labor Day: No class

<html>
<h1> Comparison of Online Mapping Sites </h1>
<hr>

<h2>Google Map</h2>
<img src=mapfolder/googlemap.jpg>
<br>
Google does a nice job of labeling the streets in this area. All the streets are shown relatively correctly but they are generalized. For example, Pierce street has more curves than is shown on the map.

<h2>Yahoo! Map</h2>
<img src=mapfolder/yahoomap.jpg>
<br>
This would be the comment on the map from Yahoo.

<h2>MapQuest Map</h2>
<img src=mapfolder/mapquestmap.jpg>
<br>
This would be the comment on the map from MapQuest

Repeat this for all of the maps.
</html>

Sept. 3: Chapter 1 - Maps and the Internet - DSC 285

  1. How did the Internet influence the distribution of maps?
  2. What are some advantages of paper maps?
  3. What format is used for the distribution of maps through the Internet?
  4. What file format is suitable for printing?
  5. What is the mostly commonly used interactive mapping site?
  6. What are some different uses of animation with maps?
  7. How percentage of the population is essentially map illiterate?

Chapter 2 - Mental Maps
Online Reading List

Mental maps in taxi drivers

Questions from the readings:

  1. What does the article about taxi drivers say about the formation of mental maps?
  2. How is information acquired for mental maps?
  3. How do maps affect the formation of mental maps?
  4. How are you able to identify the three errors in the map of Africa?
  5. What differences have been noted about the two sides of the brain, and how does this relate to maps?
  6. Explain how differences were found between the two sides of the brain?
  7. What happens in the cerebral cortex?
  8. What is the difference between egocentric and geocentric forms of navigation?

 
3

Monday Sept. 8: Before the Lab
Examine differences between the following online mapping sites by mapping the location of your home. Crop the map and/or satellite image from a screen capture of each web page. Save each map in a folder called "mapfolder". Create a "MapsOfHome.htm" web page. Comment on the accuracy and quality of the various online maps from these sites. Use the html code to the left to present the maps and comments.

  1. http://maps.google.com/
  2. http://maps.yahoo.com/
  3. http://www.mapblast.com/
  4. www.mapquest.com
  5. http://www.mapsonus.com/
  6. http://world.maporama.com/
  7. http://maps.live.com/

During the Lab in DSC 296 by Anike Krause with assistance from Robin Szulerski

  1. Introduction to phpDesigner
  2. Completion of MapsofHome.htm web page
  3. Distribute Chapter 7 - discussion of JavaScript

Wednesday Sept. 10: Before the Lab

  1. Read through the JavaScript section from Chapter 7 in handout. Implement 7.1 - 7.3 & 7.6 - 7.7

During the Lab by Robin Szulerski with assistance from Anike Krause

  1. Review phpDesigner
  2. Examine the remaining JavaScript examples - link
  3. Implement all remaining JavaScript examples

 

 

4

Monday Sept. 15 - Chapter 2 - History of Cartography

History in maps PowerPoint

  1. How Eratosthenes Measured the Circumference of the Earth
  2. What importance is ascribed to the South Pacific stick charts.
  3. What do cartographers and historians see in old maps?
  4. How old are the maps of Babylonia and Mesopotamia? What did they depict?
  5. Why are there no surviving maps of the Egyptian period?
  6. The greeks Poseidonius and Eratosthenes both calculated the circumference of the earth. How did they do it and what was the difference in their calculation.
  7. What were the accomplishments of Ptolemy?
  8. What is a Peutinger Table?
  9. What is a T in O map?
  10. What are Portolan and Catalan charts and what do they represent?
  11. What were the major accomplishments in cartography during the during the latter part of the renaissance, particularly the 1400s.
  12. For navigation, how was latitude and longitude ultimately determined, and when.
  13. Describe the work of Snow, an early example of thematic cartography. How is his work related to GIS?

Wednesday Sept. 17 - Before the Lab

  1. Read through the Google Maps section in the Chapter 7 hand-out.
  2. Read about the Google Maps API
  3. Look through the Google Maps API Reference
  4. Google Maps API key sign-up - You will need a Google account and you tell Google that your web directory is: http://myweb.unomaha.edu/~username/
  5. Have your Google Maps API key available in a text file on your USB drive.
  6. It is very important that you do not lose your the Google Maps API key that is assigned to you.

During the Lab

  1. Problems with links on student pages
  2. Review JavaScript. Possible changes to code.
  3. Download new folder of code
  4. Implement 7-17 to 7-20 and upload

5

Monday Sept. 22 - Map Scale
Online Resources

  1. University of Arizona guide to Map Scale
  2. USGS Map Scale
  3. An Introduction to Map Scale
  4. Guide to Map Scale
  5. Scale Calculator

Map Scale Assignment (print these pages and attach to hand-out)

 

Distribute Chapter 4

Wednesday Sept. 24 - Before the Lab

  • Read about Google markers
  • Find your own set of markers

1) Design your own marker and place on a map:

2) Lines with Google Maps. You'll need to use the interactive polyline encoder utility to get convert the latitude/longitude points to a text string.

3) Geocode your own address.

 

6

Monday Sept. 29 - Chapter 4 - Maps by Computer

  1. What is the difference between vector and raster graphics and which is usually better for printing?
  2. What is a coordinate digitizer?
  3. How are maps digitized into vectors with scanners?
  4. When did aerial photos become a major source for map makers?
  5. What is parallax?
  6. What is photogrammetry and how did benefit topographic mapping?
  7. What is a stereoplotter?
  8. What is an orthophoto?
  9. What is a spectral response pattern?
  10. When was the GPS program begun?
  11. How many satellites are used in GPS? What is their elevation and how often to they orbit?
  12. Explain the use of the pseudo-random code with GPS?
  13. What is selective availability?
  14. What is GDOP?
  15. What is differential GPS?
  16. What are different methods of providing differential data?

GPS PowerPoint Slideshow (opens with PowerPoint)

Oct. 1 - Google Maps - Geocoding Multiple Addresses

1) Data: (Last name A-L) Omaha Homicides 2000 | (Last name M-Z) Omaha Homicides 2001

2) Use http://www.batchgeocode.com/ to convert the addresses to latitude/longitude values.

3) Example marker file - data.xml

<markers>
<marker lat="41.257085" lng="-96.007312"/>
<marker lat="41.257899" lng="-96.005906"/>
<marker lat="41.258899" lng="-96.009538"/>
<marker lat="41.258534" lng="-96.012588"/>
<marker lat="41.259193" lng="-96.015652"/>
</markers>

4) Geocoding Example - Omaha Burglary (Takes a while because there are a lot of points.)

All Google code

 

7

Oct. 6 - Exam 1 (in DSC 285)

Oct. 8 - Introduction to ArcGIS
Omaha Census
Filename:  omahamap.pdf

8

Oct. 13 - Chapter 4 - Structuring and Manipulating the Digital Map & GIS

  1. What is the main objective of finding better ways of structuring the digital map?
  2. In addition to the duplication of points between polygons, what other problems would arise with the polygon encoding method?
  3. In the formula for scaling the digital map, why are xmin and ymin added to the scaled values? What is the addition of these constants called?
  4. In the code to rotate coordinates, what is the purpose of the tempx variable?
  5. In inverse distance squared interpolation, what is the purpose of squaring the distances?
  6. What effect would cubing the distances have? Calculate the resultant value. Is it even closer to the 451 value?
  7. What are some advantages of object-oriented graphics for the production of maps?
  8. In the x,y coordinate representation of the mid-western states, which state has the most coordinates and why? How many coordinates does the least state have?
  9. What is the fundamental difference in data structure between the examples presented in sections 4.6 and 4.7?
  10. There are seven pixels that meet the criteria of single family housing and a 100-year flood. How many commercial land-use and 100-year flood pixels can you find?

Distribute Chapter 5

Oct. 15 - GPS Exercise

Note how the GPS units initially depict a map showing the position of the satellites that are currently in view. This is based on the "almanac" in each unit that calculates the current position of the satellites. It will take a few minutes for each unit to get the necessary readings from these satellites. If the signals from at least 4 satellites is strong enough, the unit can determine its position. Accuracy is usually less than 3 meters but this depends on a number of factors, including how the satellites are distributed in the sky.

Mapping GPS Points

Mapping GPS Points with Google Maps

The GPS points will be entered into a marker file called "data.xml" and mapped with Google maps. Output the map as a PDF file and add to your folder as GPS.pdf.

Mapping GPS Points with ArcGIS

The GPS points collected on campus will be entered into Microsoft Access. This data file will be imported into ArcGIS and mapped. Label each point.

9

Oct. 20 - No class - Fall Break

 

Oct. 22 - Data Classification

  1. Classification Assignment
  2. Classif.htm (Fill-out this form and include a link on your web page. Also, include a link to your Excel file to show your work.

Distribute Chapter 5

10

Oct. 27 - Chapter 5 - The Online Map

  1. What is the distinction between server/client and P2P?
  2. Given the way Google Maps downloads maps, why is it now impossible to count the number of maps distributed through the Internet?
  3. What is the distinction between a thin and thick client, and how is a client made "thicker."
  4. What plug-ins are most useful for the distribution of maps?
  5. Which graphic file format is most commonly used for the distribution of maps?
  6. How many colors can be represented with 24 bits?
  7. Describe some characteristics of the following vector formats: PDF, SVG, Flash.
  8. Why would a 20" by 30" map that is scanned at 10,000 dots/inch produce a file of 180 GB?
  9. What is InkScape?
  10. Why are animated maps or story maps not more common on the web?
  11. What does "accessibility" mean for web pages and online maps?
  12. What is the primary benefit of XML?
  13. What is the difference between GML and SVG?

Oct. 29 - Entering class breaks into ArcGIS

For this assignment, we will use ArcMap to map the four classifications that were calculated. Combine four maps onto a single display.

Download: Omaha Census

ArcMap uses the same equal interval and quantile classifications. Compare your equal interval and quantile breaks to those calculated by ArcMap. Make a side-by-side comparison your classification and ArcMaps.

Product - 3 PDF files:

1) Your four classifications on a single display.

2) Equal interval classification comparison with two maps.

3) Quantile classification comparison with two maps.

11

Nov. 3 - Coordinate Systems and Map Projections

Map projetion from USGS

Wikipedia map projections

UTM

State Plane

USPLS

Nov. 5 - Final Exam

Make sure that all of your links work properly from your index.html page.