Читать книгу GIS Research Methods - Steven J. Steinberg - Страница 31

The value of spatial relationships, patterns, and connections represented with maps has a long history in many disciplines across the natural and social sciences. However, it is only more recently that we can take this information and put it all into a computer analysis environment using GIS, which can account for and analyze space in meaningful ways.

Everyone thinks spatially on a daily basis. At the beginning of the day, when we navigate our way to work, school, or the grocery store, we think about our destination and how best to reach it. This spatial thinking occurs in our minds, based on our knowledge of the surrounding environment (figures 1.4 and 1.5). We may choose a route to a particular destination based on what is most familiar or what we have found to be the most effective path in the past.

Figure 1.4 A map of essential landmarks from the perspective of our son at age seven. This map features locations he found important at the time, including our home, his school, parks, and other significant locations. Geography is not accurately represented for either distance or direction from home. However, features closer to home (to which he has personal experience walking or riding his bike) are more accurately represented than those that must be reached as a passenger in a car. Map courtesy of Joshua Steinberg, 2011.

Figure 1.5 A view of the same region represented in figure 1.4 as a map built with ArcGIS software with USGS basemap data. The landmarks highlighted in our son’s map actually stretch across a region in excess of 300 square kilometers. Map courtesy of Steven Steinberg. Data from USGS.

When you are in a new place or city and do not know where you are, how do you find your way to where you want to go? You could rely on digital technologies, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) (figure 1.6) or web-based mapping tools, to assist you in finding your way to a specific location. You could get there by following a paper map (figure 1.7), although not many people do that anymore. You could find your way by asking local people for directions. Asking for directions will most likely produce a variety of answers, depending on whom you ask and that person’s own experience with travel and mobility in the city.

Figure 1.6 An in-vehicle GPS receiver can help you navigate to your desired destination with customized GIS data, including locations of streets and various landmarks of interest to travelers. Rafal Olechowski/Shutterstock.com.

This book will help you integrate the spatial thinking you do every day into your research process. This approach incorporates GIS analysis tools, which make spatial thinking much easier than it has been in the past. Spatial thinking used to require hand-drawn maps to accomplish what can be achieved today quite easily with the use of GIS technology. In the chapters that follow, you will learn how to use GIS to conceptualize, create, and apply a unique, space-based approach to research methods. Examining and analyzing information about the environment of your study provides you with a wealth of contextual knowledge. Using GIS, you can integrate, overlay, view, and apply different information layers simultaneously, leading to an accurate and realistic understanding of situations. Applying a spatial perspective using GIS can facilitate more efficient and effective decision making.

Figure 1.7 Paper maps, such as this urbanized area map of the National Highway System (NHS) near Springfield, Massachusetts, can help you find your way around an unfamiliar place. Courtesy of US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration.