Introduction to GIS
For Slavic Humanists, Social Scientists and Librarians
2005 Slavic Digital Text WorkshopEileen Llona, University of Washington
Using GIS for query and knowledge discovery
• Combining layers:– Trade routes + architectural types + linguistic
characteristics– Topography + population + agriculture– Population + literacy rates + unemployment
rates– Historic boundaries + linguistic regions +
topography
Using GIS for query and knowledge discovery
– Mapping Arabia (http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/ces/MiscHTML/mappingArabia.html)
– ECAI Silk Road Atlas (http://ecai.org/silkroad/)
– Central Asia in World History (http://sacarcims.sac.accd.edu/website/eurasia2/viewer.htm)
– Central Eurasian Interactive Atlas (http://green.lib.washington.edu/website/ceir)
Using the IS in GIS
• Database technology can be exploited
• Link existing, “unplaced” data to georeferenced data
• How do you link attribute data to your maps?
• How do you turn the word “Moskva” into something the computer can “place”?
Creating new maps
• Manually create a shapefile, adding attributes
• Create a new layer, add attributes automagically (using database linking)
• Run queries 2 or more map layers, create new map from result
Creating new maps with db technology
• Need to have ‘implicit’ references between 2 or more data sources– Codes for places
Creating new maps with db technology
• Need to have ‘implicit’ references between 2 or more data sources– Placenames
Gazetteers
• Tool for locating places on a map
• Often gives generalized locations (i.e. points for large areas)
• Can be used to help add spatial information to your database (which can then be added to a GIS)
Gazetteers
• Geonames
• Alexandria Digital Library Gazetteer
• CEIA Gazetteer
Historical places
• Some gazetteers handle
• Usually have to make your own references
• Look at historical documents, try to correlate to current places to get coordinates
• Boundaries may be different
• Vision of Britain
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