Contents
Preface
xi
Part 1 Geospatial Data and GPS
Chapter 1
It’s a Geospatial World Out There
An Introduction to Geospatial Technology,
Geospatial Data, Geospatial Jobs, and Google
Earth 1
What Is Geospatial Technology? 1
Who Uses Geospatial Technology? 2
What Is Geospatial Data? 8
What Is Google Earth? 11
What’s All This Have to do with Geography? 13
Geospatial Lab Application 1.1
Introduction to Geospatial Concepts and
Google Earth 15
Thinking Critically with Geospatial Technology
1.1 What Happens to Privacy in a Geospatial
World? 12
Hands-on Applications
1.1 Industries Using Geospatial Technology 3
1.2 Jobs in the Geospatial Field 4
1.3 Mapping Data Layers Online 10
1.4 Examining Real Estate Values Online 10
1.5 The Google Earth Plug-In 12
Chapter 2
Where in the Geospatial World Are You?
Locations in a Digital World, Position
Measurements, Datums, Coordinate Systems,
GCS, Map Projections, UTM, and SPCS 29
What Is a Datum? 30
What Is a Geographic Coordinate System? 31
How Can Real-World Data Be Translated
onto a Two-Dimensional Surface? 36
What Is UTM? 39
What Is SPCS? 41
Geospatial Lab Application 2.1
Coordinates and Position Measurements 46
Thinking Critically with Geospatial Technology
2.1 Do You Really Need Printed Maps in a Digital
World? 36
Hands-on Applications
2.1 Great Circle Distance Calculations 33
2.2 Examining the Effects of Different Map
Projections 38
2.3 Converting from Latitude/Longitude
to UTM 42
2.4 Using the State Plane Coordinate System 44
Chapter 3
Getting Your Data to Match the Map
Reprojecting, Georeferencing, Control Points,
and Transformations 51
How Can You Align Different Geospatial
Datasets Together? 51
What Is Georeferencing? 53
How Can Data Be Georeferenced? 55
How Is Data Transformed to a Georeferenced
Format? 58
Geospatial Lab Application 3.1
Georeferencing an Image 64
Thinking Critically with Geospatial Technology
3.1 What Happens When Measurements Don’t
Match Up? 52
3.2 What Happens When the Georeferencing Is
Wrong? 61