Geographical Information Systems (GIS ):

1. Geographical Information Systems (GIS): An Essential Tool for Research, Planning, and Archival of Data for Most Governmental Agencies Mohammad A. Rob University of Houston-Clear Lake

2. Contents • Introduction • Understanding GIS • Applications of GIS: Examples • Use and Applications of GIS in Bangladesh • Conclusion

3. Introduction • Geographic Information System (GIS) can be used to make strategic decisions whenever data have spatial (geographical) distribution • Government agencies use it for assessment and planning in areas such as housing, healthcare, land use, transportation, and environmental monitoring • Businesses use it to locate optimum retail location and delivery route • And of course, we use it everyday in Yahoo! and Google Maps

4. Geographical Information System (GIS) • What is GIS? • GIS is a computerized system for input, storage, management, display, and analysis of data that can be precisely linked to a geographical location (longitude and latitude) • GIS datasets come as layers: • a layer for roads • a layer for rivers • a layer for zip code boundary • all within a particular geographical boundary

5. A Layer: Major Roads and highways of Texas

6. Another Layer: County Boundaries of Texas

7. Superimposed Roads & County Boundaries: A Map

8. GIS Data Types • A GIS layer data comes in two types: • Raster or Vector • Rasterdata types are digital images stored in pixels with reference to earth’s coordinates • U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) regularly maps the whole World using satellites

9. GIS Data Types • Vector data types are defined by points, lines and polygons (boundary): • Points: hospitals and fire hydrants • Lines: Roads, highways, and rivers • Polygons: Zip code, county, state, and country • A layer can have more than one features • Vector data are used in address coding

10. Two Views of a Layer • Each GIS layer has two views: • map and data Zip Code Additional statistical data

11. GIS Software and Data • Most commonly used GIS tool is ArcViewfrom ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) • It uses a geodatabase to store all features • Can be used as a desktop or multi-user database • Many federal, state, and local government agencies publish GIS data in the ArcView’sshapefileformat • These files can be downloaded from the Web

12. ESRI GIS Software: ArcGIS, ArcView, ArcCatalog GIS Database

13. The Power of GIS • In addition to Raster and Vector data for mapping, a shapefile may contain location-based important data such as population, income, voting record, etc. • The data view can be used to: • to create a smaller dataset or map • to combine with user data to create a new layer (as long as there is a common attribute between the GIS data and the user data)

14. Asthma Study: An Example • Asthma is a public health concern, especially among children in the U.S. • About 17.3 million Americans have asthma • More than 5000 people die from asthma per year • African Americans suffer more than Caucasians • Females suffer more than males • These statistics do not show any geographical distribution of asthmatic people

15. Asthma Study in the New York City Area • Most of the asthma data comes from hospitalization records or surveying a population • These data do not contain any spatial coordinate, but has zip code information • They can be joined with a spatial dataset such as a zip code layer - to create an asthma layer • Zip code from the two datasets can be used as a join parameter

16. Dataset of an Asthma Survey in NY City Important GIS Parameter

17. The New York City Zip Code Layer The Asthma data is joined with this zip code data

18. The Resultant Asthma Dataset: Two views There are missing Asthma data for some Zip codes

19. Overlaying of Asthma and NY City Layers High Low Missing Data

20. Comparison of NY City Asthma and Poverty Poverty Asthma

21. Another Example 2008 mid-term Democratic primary results

22. GIS on the Web • In addition to querying addresses in the web, GIS has multiple governmental applications • In Houston, it is used to display real-time traffic and air pollution data on the web Air pollution monitoring stations in the Harris county area - surrounding the City of Houston

23. GIS in Bangladesh

24. Prospect of GIS Applications in Bangladesh • GIS can be used for mapping, data storage, querying, analyzing, and planning for many government and non-government projects: • Recording much-disputed lands • Controlling population, poverty & disease • Mapping election zones and natural resources • Assessing river erosion; flood and cyclone damage • Distribution of food, gas, power, and water • Improvement of roads, highways and urban areas • Optimization of education, healthcare, & sanitary • Optimization of fisheries, dairies, cultivation, forestry, and tourism • Law enforcement, public safety, environment, etc.

25. GIS Status in Bangladesh • Since1970s various government agencies of have been using Raster/image data provided by LANDSAT & other program of U.S. • Atomic Energy Commission • Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB) • Petrobangla • Most activities have been focused on mapping geological and geophysical resources (topography, minerals, petroleum, gas, etc.) • Since 1990s, UNDP has been trying to educate and train GIS personnel in some governmental agencies, especially for the engineering & planning activities in Dhaka & Chittagong cities; however, the progress is slow

26. Progress of GIS Activities in Bangladesh • Currently, the vector data to display layers for roads, highways, rivers, lakes, forests, and land boundaries in Bangladesh are not available or incomplete • Main data that are available are digitized versions of existing maps of various districts and sub-districts, and they are used by many organizations • There are GIS programs in Geography and Geology departments in few educational institutions; however, true output is yet to be seen • There are some software companies, at least in name, available as well

27. Solutions to GIS Development in Bangladesh • A central location such as cartography department of GSB should be responsible to develop vector data and make them available to all governmental agencies • Almost all government agencies should have a GIS department with appropriate analysts and technicians • Need to provide appropriate Software, train personnel, have long-term plans and coordination between various agencies

28. Conclusion • GIS uses various data/map layers to create a map • A layer has two views: data and map, and the user-defined data can be combined with map data to understand and query spatial distribution of data • In developed countries, most data layers are available through various government agencies • GIS can be used in almost all government programs in Bangladesh; however basic vector data needs to developed and people need to be trained

29. References • US Geological Survey: http://ww.usgs.gov/ • ESRI: http://www.esri.com/index.html • Houston-Galveston Area Council GIS: http://www.h-gac.com/rds/gis/clearinghouse/default.aspx • Texas Commission on Environmental Quality GIS: http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/gis/datalink.html • UT-Austin Map Library: http://txdot.lib.utexas.edu/ • Bangladesh Government Maps: http://www.bangladesh.gov.bd/maps/index.htm • Technical Assistance to the People’s Republic of Bangladesh for Preparing the Dhaka Water Supply Project: ADB Report 2005 • GIS Implementation in Developing Countries-A United Nations Perspective: http://www.gisqatar.org.qa/conf97/links/m3.html