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Lakota Studies 400/600:  Special Topics:  Introduction to Geographic Information Systems and Science

Unit 6 Assignment

This week, the assignment is to do the following 3 things:

1)  Lab Exercise   - visit the link for Lab 6.  The lab includes a review of some of the functions in ArcView GIS that you explored last week, with new functions added that are designed to keep you moving forward.  The lab involves analyzing additional South Dakota data to investigate some real-world problems and issues.  

To complete the lab, highlight the whole web page with your cursor, and copy it to WordPad or your favorite word processor.  Paste the text there.  Fill in your answers, and email me the whole document when complete.  Follow this procedure with each lab.

2)  Write your third of 5 annotated bibliographies.   Be thinking about your final project, and try to start focusing the bibliographies on your field of interest.  For example, if your area of interest is wildfires, then find some articles for your bibliographies that apply GIS to wildfire management.  This might give you some ideas for your final project as well as provide you with a good overview of how others have applied GIS technology and spatial analysis to your area of interest.  See week 3 for sources for the articles.

3)  Complete Exam 1, below, and email it to me as you email the lab exercises.

Name ____________________________________

1) What is a Geographic Information System? Include a discussion of the 4 components to a GIS (8 points).

2) List and briefly describe 3 major methods of inputting data into a GIS (9 points).

3) Define and describe the two types of spatial data models (raster and vector), and name one GIS application that is appropriate for each (6 points).

4) List three different ways of georeferencing data (6 points).

5) Indicate the contents of these files (5 points).

file.shp

file.shx

file.dbf

file.tif

file.tfw

6) List two reasons why scale is an important consideration in GIS, even though the user can edit and produce spatial data at almost any scale (6 points).

7) If the data for your raster-based GIS project had a resolution of 10 meters, and the data extent was 500 pixels in both the x and y-dimensions, indicate the total land area represented by your GIS database. Include the units and show your work. (5 points).

8) Asking a question of a GIS database or map to retrieve data is called a

________________________________________. (2 points)

9) A record of data history that presents essential information about the development of data from their source to their present format is called _______________________, and is an important component of GIS data quality. (2 points)

10) Describe one area, discipline, or field where GIS is applied to solve a problem. Include in your description at least one way in which GIS benefits the application area over a non-GIS approach. (7 points)

11) Explain the implication of the terms "fitness for use" and "truth in labeling" for GIS data quality (6 points).

12) What are the five steps of geographic inquiry? (5 points)

13) Name two reasons why measurement of position on the Earth’s surface is inherently uncertain (4 points).

14) Describe three spatial data sets that you have worked with this semester. Indicate whether they were point, line, or polygon data (5 points).

15) Let’s say you are investigating population data for counties to begin a new GIS service for Native Americans. How would you make a map that indicates the counties with the most Native Americans? (8 points)

16) Let’s say you are investigating water quality on the Rosebud lands. You have data for pH in a file named wells.dbf for 352 water wells. You also have a map showing the wells called map.shp without attributes. Describe how you would create and plot a 3-class grid in ArcView with the following pH categories: Less than 5.5, 5.6-6.5, and over 6.5. (8 points)

17) Let’s say you are investigating the best place to study a certain sensitive cultural resource on the Rosebud lands. You want to study these cultural resources if they are (1) at least 1 kilometer away from streams, (2) on lands owned by the Rosebud Sioux tribe, (3) within 50 km of your research lab in Mission, South Dakota, and (4) at least 200 square meters in size. Describe how you would determine the study sites that meet these criteria with ArcView GIS. (8 points).

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Author:  Joseph J. Kerski, Geographer, USGS, jjkerski@usgs.gov, 303-202-4315