Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Proverbs
Chapter 1
Introduction
Interest in mapping is on the rise, as witnessed by services such as
Google Earth, Virtual Earth, MapQuest, and any number of other web
mapping mashups. These are all exciting developments, yet there is
another realm you should consider—the world of desktop mapping with
open source GIS (OSGIS). You may be thinking “Why do I need OSGIS?
I have all the web mapping sites and tools I could ever need.”
To answer that question, let's consider our friend Harrison. He's coming
from the same place as many of us, having played around with the web
mapping tools and is now ready to start adding his own data. Harrison
quickly discovers he can't add the GPS tracks from his last hike to any
of the “conventional” web maps—all he can do is view the data they
provide. Next he fires up Google Earth
1
to see whether that will do the
trick. He soon finds that with a little digging around on the Internet, he
is able to get the tracks off his GPS and import them into Google Earth.
2
With a bit of work, Harrison is now able to display his GPS tracks.
Fresh from his victory in Google Earth, Harrison now embarks on his
next project, which is the real reason he is interested in mapping. It
turns out that Harrison is an avid bird watcher. Not only did he record
his trek, but he also logged waypoints at each bird sighting. With each
waypoint, he made a few notes about the species of bird, the number of
birds observed, and the weather conditions. Harrison has just moved
from simply displaying where he walked to wanting to display his bird
sightings and “analyze” his observations. In doing so, he has hit upon
the basis of a Geographic Information System (GIS)—linking geographic
locations to information.
