Professional Documents
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Suite, SuperObjects, SuperGIS, and SuperWebGIS are registered trademarks of SuperGeo Technologies Inc.. Other
companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark
owners.
Figure 1. The map shows the roads in Taipei City. The area shaded in blue is Keelung River, whereas
highways are shown in lines. A few camera icons are displayed on top of the roads, which represent the
surveillance cameras that are along the roadsides.
Figure 2. GIS uses maps to display and query results, which is relatively similar to other designing
software. We often use GIS and designing software together. Basic maps are exported from GIS and
then detailed visualization designs are then added using designing software.
During GIS manipulation, the map scale is changed automatically when the user zooms in or
out. This saves the time for calculating the scale and the number of editors needed when maps
are made. GIS can produce maps of different scales on the screen and can also have these
maps exported as plane maps. When editing, the editor can change the symbol according to
the map theme. Under the environment of computer information, the same map data can be
produced as infinitely many map products by changing its scale, visibility or symbol.
The cartographic capabilities of GIS also are reminders for us of the difference between GIS
geographic information and other pure text data tables shape information. When we see
different points or lines on maps, we are using our right brain to visually process and
comprehend information; however, with the text or numeric data provided by the databases,
we are using our left brain to logically cognize information. The right brain is mainly used for
processing direct and graphic information. In collaboration with the GIS database, querying
results displayed directly as maps, the visual effect will mean much more than words.
Figure 3. GIS uses maps to display thematic information. Topology will usually be displayed as 3D or the
so-called 2.5D for more realistic surficial representations.
Spatial query (find texts by map): select targets on the map and find the data for these
targets.
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Attribute query (find map by texts): set filter conditions and let GIS find targets that
match these conditions. Location can be shown by a change of display color.
Figure 4. GIS can precisely calculate the restricted area coverage of an airport within seconds. All you
need is the center and radius and the area can be calculated, helping managers to estimate the cost and
come up with monitoring plans.
household income, and so forth. Hygiene units use GIS to keep control of hospitals and clinics
and analyze the statistics of medical qualities, such as the acceptable medical quality provided
for each unit population. On maps, these data requires the support of social-economical
database and also statistic data from different hospitals and clinics to understand what areas
are medically insufficient or overabundant.
Figure 5. Use GIS to illustrate the spatial distribution of contagious diseases. 2005 Taipei City Syphilis
and HIV statistical graph, Center for Disease Control of Taipei City.
Standardization is a very important part of data pre-processing when comparing data. The
area of a land mass can directly influence the display of density data. Census statistics cannot
directly show the density differences between different areas. Since GIS data uses
coordinates as foundations, no matter politic boundaries or green land layer, the area
population and green land allotted per unit can be obtained after area calculation. Computer
displays various colors to inform the users of the numeric highs and lows; therefore, without
much thought, most people will direct their eye focus to areas shaded in darker or
eye-catching colors, then to other lighter colors. A problem is recognized or solved during this
visual capture.
Figure 7. Map shows the schools and roads within different distances of the nuclear power plant. When
the wind affects the flow of radioactive dusts, management and control actions will be taken according to
the schools in different wind directions.
Figure 8. Route planning is an application of GIS that solves distance problems. Different stops can be
appointed, and according to the sequence of each stop, the best route can be found to reduce traveling
cost.
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Figure 9. The map shows the path of the typhoon across the western Pacific Ocean. The counties with
yellow boundaries represent the area affected by this particular typhoon.
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These questions have to be as detailed as possible, especially the portion that describes
space. This can help you to decide an analysis method to obtain the final result.
Figure 10. The figure shows areas along a flight path that are affected by aircraft noise. Deep blue are
the areas of greatest effect. Through a figure like this, we can easily tell which villages are affected the
most.
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what kind of data you can use. Some analysis requires high precision data, such as aerial
photographs with precision of centimeters or 5 m digital elevation models.
Figure 11.The above figure illustrates the analytic result of cash truck routes. The utilized data includes
location of banks, metro system, highways and express-ways, main roads, and rivers.
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Figure 12. The figure uses GIS to display the individual robberies within a city, which can be used to
estimate the entire city. Red represents areas of high criminal density whereas blue represents the
opposite.
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Figure 13. The figure is a travel map of Kenting National Park in Taiwan. The figure shows scenic spots,
roads and gas stations. The decision of displayed contents will depend on the final map user and
purpose.
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GIS is the software that can process basic data and display them, and is also the
professional software that can perform more complicated environmental protection
management and research analysis.
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Since the beginning of the development of GIS industry, each year has been a steady
growth. In the recent years, GIS applications have not only broadened but also in the same
time, the spatial information industry, biochemical technology and nano technology has
become the three most important newly-evolved industries, as listed by the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics. The following will list the global GIS software development trend and will take
SuperGIS as an example.
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When the existing database system is going to be integrated with GIS system or giving GIS
display and query functions to the existing system, developing components will be needed for
development.
For instance, SuperObjects can combine the GIS vector and raster database displaying
functions and allow the GIS database to achieve the purpose of displaying and querying data.
Under the developing environment, the original exterior database system can also be
integrated to develop a system with specific functions.
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If the extent of the geographic data you are processing is as small as a town or village, the
distortion of the geographic surface can often be disregarded. However, as the extent of your
geographic data grows (e.g. Asia or South America), the distortions caused by the projection
method you choose will be very obvious.
Figure 16. World map shown in Mercator projection. Notice how large Antarctica looks in this projection.
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Nominal
Ordinal
Count
Ratio
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Figure 17. This map shows the condition of water pollution in Northern Taiwan. Blue, yellow and red
represents areas of low, medium and heavy pollution, respectively.
GIS can use the rank or class to classify data. For instance, the land-use potential of an area
can be classified accordingly for users to see the map and understand which areas are of high
land-use potential.
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Figure 18. The above figure illustrates the population density of Taipei City and Taipei County. The
darker the red means the denser the population. In areas of dense population, there are usually more
villages and such villages usually have smaller sizes compared to the villages in areas of lower
population density.
Keywords
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Figure 19. GIS showing city and topology data on actual surface
Figure 20. Combined query in GIS, integrating graphs, tables and pictures
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Other than the data formats, there are two main data models in GIS.
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Figure 21. This map shows the 3D simulation of a vector layer (road) overlaid on top of raster data
(satellite image).
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Figure 22. Topology map and GIS vector data integrated in one coordinate system.
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background reference, then it will only need recent images without cloud-cover.
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