Geography 222 The Power of Maps

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Geog 222 Exercise 4: Geographic Information on the WWW
Revised: 3/15/10

ASSIGNED in class Wednesday March 17
DUE in class Wednesday March 31 at 9:00 am

Introduction:

Recall the delightful discussion of geographic data from the Geographic Data Lectures.

In our discussion of "How do we Acquire Data" we discussed primary and secondary sources of data.

A good example of primary data collection is data collection with GPS.

Most data that we use in mapping and GIS, however, is secondary: someone else collected it (with primary methods). In the past, secondary data would be acquired directly from its creator: from private vendors, or government agencies such as the U.S. Census or the U.S. Geologic Survey. This data came in diverse forms: paper maps, tabular data and, more recently, from digital databases on CDs. Much of the data for mapping projects is now available on the WWW.

Digital geographic data (remote sensing images, digital maps, tabular data) on the WWW can be free or may be purchased. In almost all cases, the data can be viewed or downloaded from the WWW. In some cases, you need to have specialized mapping software (such as the GIS package ArcGIS) to view and use the data; in other cases you can view and use the data on the WWW using interactive WWW mapping sites. In either case, the WWW is making digital geographic data available to a much broader range of users.

Some data lies somewhere between primary and secondary data: For example, using street address data and Geocoding software (available free on the web) to create data that can be mapped out in Google Earth. In this exercise we will Geocode some address data we gather from various sources.

Exercise 4 is intended to familiarize you with the diversity of geographic data available on the WWW, and tools for converting data such as addresses into mappable data.

Please provide the following information for each part of the exercise below, except the last (BatchGeoCode) which has its own requirements:

  1. A proper citation of the site and any map you save, capture, or download according to citation methods reviewed and illustrated at the Geography 222 Library Resources Page.

  2. Follow instructions in the Digital Submissions Guide to embed all your graphics in your exercise.

  3. TIP: Some of the URLs for WWW maps are extremely long. To create a shorter link URL go to TinyURL.

  4. A paragraph describing the data available at the site. Describe the data available in general terms and provide a brief description of a few specific types of data. What form is it in? Who could use it and for what? Does it seem easy to access? You may use information found at the Geography 222 Library Resources Page. on evaluating cartographic web sites in this paragraph.

Additional tasks, beyond the title, URL, and description, are noted below.


WARNING! As usual, don't put off doing this exercise until the last minute. This exercise uses sophisticated WWW sites which may not be working all the time. Also, it is possible that my instructions below may not be perfectly clear, or a WWW site may change. Please contact me if a site is not working, or if you cannot figure out how to do what you are supposed to do with the site!


FedWorld is a clearinghouse established by the National Technical Information Service. This is the site for all on-line US Government data and information. There is much more here than geographic data: you might even find this site useful for projects in other courses. Go to the site and...


The U.S. Census Bureau supplies extensive amounts of data about the US and other countries through its WWW site. When you get to the site...


Return to the main U.S. Census Bureau page and try one more option: on the menu at the left of the page, click on Related Sites and then International Statistical Agencies.


Google Maps and Google Earth provide easy access to air photographs and satellite images, some at a very detailed resolution.

In both cases, search for your address and see what kind of imagery is available; click on the Satellite button on Google Maps. You may have to zoom out from your home address to see imagery.

Some of you may find better air or satellite images on other WWW sites. For example, more and more city and county governments are putting remotely sensed images on their WWW sites (such as Delaware County). If you find one of these sites, and the imagery is better, please save an image from that site. You may also consider searching Google's Image Search Engine.


NationMaster.com provides easy access to a diversity of international data, organized by country. The data is from sources such as the U.N., CIA, World Health Organization, and World Bank. There is also a StateMaster.com site for US data. Work with NationMaster for this exercise:

At the top of the Nation Master web page is this set of options:

Change the pop-up menus:

Hit Go and you should get a page with a graph of the data. Hit Map (in the grey bar over the data) to see a map of the statistics. Not all data sets have every country in them.

Generate five maps of five different statistics. These can be from any category. Please save each map with its legend, but don't include all the statistical data below the map.


Additional useful sites: peek a look at any two:


BatchGeoCode.com is a free web tool that converts street addresses so they can be mapped in Google Earth (or Google Maps with a bit more work). GeoCoding is the conversion of street addresses into mappable data (data that has geographic coordinates).

There are various ways to get address data. You can simply look up addresses in a phone book, or from your own address book, or gather them out in the environment (for example, the addresses of people who have carved pumpkins on their front porches for halloween).

You can also use tools that generate files of addresses: Delaware County's DALIS GIS web site will generate an excel file of addresses, if you recall, when you create a buffer. You could get all the addresses within 1000 feet of a particular address, for example.

Software packages like Reference USA (which we don't seem to have access to at OWU) will generate Excel files of addresses based on a search. You could, for example, search for all the Buffalo Wild Wings locations in the US, get a file of addresses, then geocode and map them out for handy reference.

For this exercise we will go the most basic route: typing addresses into an Excel spreadsheet. You can get the addresses anywhere, just make sure you have at least fifteen. We will use the BatchGeoCode web site to get an Excel template for our addresses, then use the site to generate and download a Google Earth KML file you can use to map the addresses in Google Earth. Since we are downloading a few files (Excel and KML) you may run into problems; some public access computers on campus don't allow downloads, or the browser may be set up to block downloads. Use the GIS lab computers and Firefox browser and you should not have any trouble.


Follow these instructions VERY carefully. Please ask me for help if you are having difficulty getting the geocoding to work.


Go to BatchGeoCode.com

Open Google Earth then File >> Open and navigate to your GeoCoded address file. Select it and it should map out in Google Earth.


E-mail: jbkrygier@owu.edu

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