goodchildgeoinformatics2009--TheChangingFaceofGIS.ppt

4. Scale Level of detail the inevitability of generalization Extent generalizability of results Methods of upscaling, downscaling Fractal concepts Scale is always important many properties cannot be defined independently of scale length of a coastline slope of a topographic surface land use class “the flattest spot in the US” Summary Working with spatial data is not always simple and intuitive but it can yield great insights if handled appropriately There is a substantial body of knowledge that needs to be acquired by anyone working with spatial data you would never think of doing a t test without taking a course in statistics why would you consider using a GIS without taking a course in spatial thinking? Conclusions Web 2.0 is creating novel sources of geospatial information that can complement traditional sources that can play a key role in time-critical situations It is possible to enumerate the fundamental concepts of a spatial approach four broadly defined concepts 27 in De Smith, Goodchild, and Longley (2006) Geospatial Analysis 177 in ontology Conclusions (2) Critical spatial thinking is more than GIS an enveloping conceptual framework for many new technologies and disciplines phenomena embedded in space and time many drivers One of a minimal set of intelligences part of everyone’s education Why bother to analyze it?... So, why semantic service discovery have a look on this map that appeared in the Economist in May 2003 is to illustrate the threat caused by North Korean Missiles with different ranges (1300 – 15000 km) there‘s a mistake in this map - can anybody spot it? Show you the correct result, which differs significantly reason is that you always have to use a projection to display the earth‘s surface on a flat piece of paper and in projections one cannot simply draw circles to create buffers, especially when dealing with big distances The Changing Face of GIS Michael F. Goodchild University of California Santa Barbara * Two topics New data sources