Geographic Information Systems

Geography 1050

What is a GIS?
A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a system of computer software, hardware and data, and personnel to help manipulate, analyze and present information that is tied to a spatial location. Spatial location: usually a geographic location System: linking software, hardware, and data Personnel: a thinking explorer who is key to the power of a GIS

What is a GIS?
A method to visualize, manipulate, analyze, and display spatial data Smart Maps linking a database to a map

Data for GIS Application

Digitized and scanned maps Databases - table of data Field sampling Remote sensing and aerial photographs

A database - not easy to interpret

Population density in the US

Visual analysis of data

Picture is worth a thousand words

Population density in the US

Different data layers combine

Maps and databases are Interactive

GIS User: asks questions sorts and combines data looks for patterns and connection

Two ways to display spatial data

Raster - Grid
pixels a location and value satellite images and aerial photographs are in this format

Vector - Linear
points, lines, and polygons (shapes) feature (house, road, lake, etc.) and attributes (size, type, length, etc.)

Some ways Geographic Information Systems are used:

Emergency Services - Fire and Police Environmental - monitoring and modeling Business - site location, delivery systems Industry - transportation, communications, mining, pipelines Government - local, provincial, federal, military Education - research, teaching tool, administration

CASE STUDY- GIS and Aquaculture Soft-Shell Clam Site Assessment, Burgeo, NL
evaluation of the viability of the soft-shell clam resource GIS technology was applied to collected data to map and analyze:
physical site characteristics and landuse water quality the soft-shell clam resource.

CASE STUDY- GIS and Aquaculture

study area divided in a series of 100 m x 100 m grid cells. Field survey data included:
clam biology (length and width and weight) hydrographic data (water depth, current speed and direction, bottom substrate, tidal data, rainfall), water quality data (fecal coliform, salinity, temperature) land use data (cottage locations).

CASE STUDY- GIS and Aquaculture

Study area, survey grid and water monitoring locations

CASE STUDY- GIS and Aquaculture Water Quality

Contamination by fecal coliform a concern becaue

of nearby cottages If density exceeds 13.99MPN/100ml harvesting in the area is not permitted During the majority of the sampling period the densities were at 1.9 MPN/100ml Following extended rainfall event the fecal coliform densities ranged from 17 to 920 MPN/100ml

CASE STUDY- GIS and Aquaculture Water Quality: Time Series maps of fecal coliform

CASE STUDY- GIS and Aquaculture Water Quality

Clams need salinities of at least 5 parts per thousand

(ppt) to survive Salinity in study area fell below 5ppt during rainfall event Fecal coliform densities and salinities returned to normal more quickly in Big Barasway than in Indian Hole and Little Barasway Big Barasway flushes faster and therefore this area could be seeded with clams from Indian Hole and Little Barasway

CASE STUDY- GIS and Aquaculture Soft-Shell Clam Database and Aquaculture Management
Clam densities of different size classes for

each grid cell were calculated and mapped

Recruit class (clams with a length between 50 and 63.5mm) represents the market clam population
A grid cell is economically viable only if the recruit clam density is $10/m sq.

CASE STUDY- GIS and Aquaculture Soft-Shell Clam Database

CASE STUDY- GIS and Aquaculture

Aquaculture Management Mature clam densities of 161 to 269/m sq. are acceptable for good growth Densities higher than 269/m sq. can impede growth because of competition for food and space When the density of mature clams exceeds 269/m sq. the area should be culled

CASE STUDY- GIS and Aquaculture

Harvesting Plan
GIS is able to identify areas of no harvesting, harvesting only, culling only, and combined harvesting and culling. Criteria for harvesting: density of recruit clams > 10/m sq. Criteria for culling: density of mature clams > 269/m sq.

CASE STUDY- GIS and Aquaculture

Harvesting Plan