of an airplane. When collecting data in this area, you could record the area’s street address, census block, or neighborhood. These are examples of spatial information. On the right are tabular data associated with one surveyed household, as recorded on a survey form. Used together, spatial and tabular information would be useful in doing GIS-based analysis. Figure by Steven Steinberg, color infrared imagery, USGS National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP), Charleston, SC, acquired February 6, 2007.
Although no single definition of GIS exists, GIS professionals do agree on some general principles. First, GIS requires a combination of computer hardware and software tools. Second, GIS requires data, and these data must possess a spatial or location component. Third, GIS requires knowledgeable individuals to develop the database and carry out the data processing. Although GIS software has become much easier to use since the introduction of graphical user interfaces, GIS programs, and much of the underlying geographic theory, require people to have a basic understanding of maps and map analysis. Anyone with a little basic computer knowledge, which we discuss in this book, can accomplish most GIS tasks. However, for more complex data and analysis, it is often helpful to work with a GIS analyst with in-depth knowledge of GIS and data.
Last, and perhaps most important, GIS is a system for analysis; that is, GIS is useful for examining, displaying, and outputting information gleaned from the data that are stored and maintained in the system. This book explains the necessary mapping concepts and spatial analysis you need to do GIS-based research.
Understanding geographic information systems
To best understand a GIS, you need to understand GIS terminology and how GIS apply to various analysis situations. In particular, how can your area of interest and the associated data be placed into a GIS context? How can GIS technology enhance your analysis and understanding of data? You can use GIS to study issues with real data as well as conceptual data. The concept of space exists in different dimensions: the actual and the perceived. Space is defined as distance and time between locations and is often used to determine position. For example, an interview script asking individuals about their homes, communities, relationships, or other interactions inevitably will include phrases such as “in our neighborhood,” “around the corner,” or “over in the next valley.” While investigating social relationships, you might come across examples of conceptual geography. For example, the strengths of social ties between individuals might be represented in statements such as “I’m very close to my younger brother” or, conversely, “We found ourselves drifting further apart with each passing year.” These statements, although not tied to physical locations, nonetheless may be mapped and analyzed using many of the same techniques that one might apply in traditional GIS analysis.
A new approach to research methods
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.
The spatial advantage for research
When you use GIS to locate, analyze, and assess information and, ultimately, make better decisions, you gain a spatial advantage. Why would you want to incorporate GIS into your research methods? Because using GIS facilitates better, more comprehensive, and effective research. GIS integrates different types of data and presents a more realistic picture of the situation. It is perfect for multiple methods research. Locations can be explored at multiple scales ranging from the most micro level, such as the inner workings of a biologic cell, to the local-level relationships of artifacts within a homesite or at an archeological dig. Or they may be explored