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Maps and the Geospatial Revolution: Lesson 1, Lecture 2
This document provides an overview of maps and the geospatial revolution. It discusses how places are difficult to describe and how geotagging alone is not enough. It then asks what geography is, noting that it is the science of understanding places and spaces, and that geospatial refers to the data and technologies that allow one to explore geographic problems. Finally, it discusses thematic maps which tell stories through data and reference maps which provide geographic context, and how maps project the round earth onto a flat surface which requires distortions.
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Maps and the Geospatial Revolution: Lesson 1, Lecture 2
- 1. Maps and theGeospatial Revolution Lesson 1 – Lecture 2 Anthony C. Robinson, Ph.D Lead Faculty for Online Geospatial Education JohnA. Dutton e-Education Institute Assistant Director, GeoVISTA Center Department of Geography The Pennsylvania State University This content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License
- 2. The Changing Natureof Place • Geotagging alone isn’t enough • The places that matter to us are a lot more difficult to describe • I live in HappyValley, in a neighborhood called Hunter’s Chase • An ongoing challenge in the Geospatial Revolution is in how we handle these types of locations
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- 6. OK, SoWhat isGeography? • Geography is the Science of Place and Space • Common responses to “I’m a Geographer” when I fly somewhere: – Oh cool, I have a cousin who’s a Geologist! – Haven’t all of the maps already been made? – Oh neat, I have no idea what that is! – Wow, that is so sad!
- 7. OK, SoWhat isGeography? • Geography – The science of understanding places and spaces • Geospatial – Refers to the data and technologies that allow one to explore Geographic problems
- 8. Maps toTell Stories& Provide Context • Thematic Maps – Thematic maps are used to showcase geographic data observations.Thematic maps are almost always associated with storytelling. • Reference Maps – Reference maps (also frequently called basemaps) provide the basic Geographic context required to situate other stuff.
- 13. The Earth isRound – Maps are Flat • We need a reference system to locate things on the Earth • So we impose a grid on the planet with lines of Longitude and Latitude • Transforming locations from the 3D earth to a 2D map requires a projection • Projections can preserve area, shape, distance, and other attributes, but not everything at once
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- 15. Maps and theGeospatial Revolution www.coursera.org/course/maps Twitter @MapRevolution Online Geospatial Education @ Penn State www.pennstategis.com This content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License