What is GIS?

Getting Started

1. View these two short videos.

ESRI Ireland (2:50)

What is GIS? (2:23)

2. Read over these very brief introductions to GIS

3. View two videos

Shasta College (10:56)

A promo for a college program that gives some idea of careers and applications of GIS

Introduction to GeoSpatial Intelligence (7:50)

Initially from military/national security perspective but also covers USHAHIDI Haiti project

4. Two quick videos on mapping and cities

Walkability (2:31)

Honolulu (1:26)

5. Meet Quantum GIS

  • Visit the website http://qgis.org
  • Read the first few sections of the QGIS User manual: "Introduction to GIS," "Why is this all so new?", "Raster Data," and "Vector Data."

Intro to QGIS (7:52)

Short Video from Smith College GIS Program

Raster and Vector Data from SmithGIS on Vimeo

What is GIS pt. 6 Raster and Vector  (9:07)

6. Review

You just encountered a number of terms and concepts that will come up throughout the semester. Look over this list and look back over the readings and offer your best definition at this point.

geospatial data
geographic coordinate
latitude
longitude
geographic features		 distance
area
vector data
raster data
map projections
map layer		 points
lines
polygons
digital satellite imagery
map legend
_tutorialqgis