From the course: Foundations of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) (2021)
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Recreating the world on a map - GIS Tutorial
From the course: Foundations of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) (2021)
Recreating the world on a map
- To get a clear understanding of GIS, think about how the world can be recreated in a database. That's done by converting the parts of your world, everything on it, above it, and in it, into simple geometric shapes, points, lines, and polygons. A GIS is really just a model of the world, created by stacking together layers of points, lines, and polygons. A simple model is drawn in two dimensions, but a more sophisticated model can be drawn in three dimensions, showing the height of buildings and other structures. It's the spatial relationship between these shapes that allows you to ask questions of your GIS. Think about a GIS that a local police department uses for public safety. In it, every street would be drawn as a simple line, right down the middle of the street. This line is called a street feature. Every stoplight would be drawn as a point. How about police stations? Probably a polygon would be drawn, that…
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