All language subtitles for 06_examples-of-geospatial-data.en

So now let's talk a little bit about
the data that you can put into a GIS,

whether it's a desktop GIS or online.

Okay, so
what data can be used to map things?

How can we map things?

We can use longitude and latitude, that's
probably the first one that comes to mind

for you I would think, is that if we have
a set of coordinates for a given location,

we can reference those to
the surface of the earth and

describe pretty much anything we want.

You may also think of street addresses.

So if you type a street
address into a web browser or

a web mapping application,
that will find a location for you as well.

So that one's pretty typical.

You can also use postal
codes to map locations.

Or in the US,
the equivalent would be zip codes.

So if you've ever been asked in a grocery
store or some kind of retail location for

your postal code or zip code, you may
think, why am I being asked for this?

What are they going to do
with that information?

Well the fact is,

is that they can map your location
based on something like that.

So the post office is using that
to decide how to deliver mail, but

that data is often licensed or share, so

that other organizations can take that and
use it to map locations.

So in the Canadian system,
there is a six digit postal code.

The first three digits are known as
the forward sortation area, or FSA.

So, that's another one of our TLAs or
three letter acronyms.

And I've just shown a map here of some
of them to give you a sense of the size.

So if you're in a grocery store, or
something like that, and they ask you,

often they'll just ask for

the first three digits of a postal
code instead of the full six digits.

They'll be able to map your location where
you live, down to something this side.

So you'll notice that they vary in size
because their based on the number of

people that live there, so
the population density plays a part here.

And so
you can see that there's different sizes.

But generally speaking, you can get down
to a fairly specific neighborhood In

terms of just looking at
the forward sortation area.

One time I was in my local grocery store,

and I was getting ready to check out,
and I happened to look up,

and I saw this sign that was posted on
the side of the cash register that said,

attention, customers, we'll be conducting
a customer origin survey at the store.

Postal codes are collected to determine
how far our customers live from the store

for market research purposes.

This information will help us serve you,
the customer, better in the future.

So this was a while ago now.

But I took a photo of it and
I started talking to the cashier about it.

There was nobody behind me in line, so
I thought I'd take a minute to ask her.

Is this something that she
gets a lot of resistance from?

Do people provide that information or not?

And she said that, many people do
not provide their information.

That their kind of suspicious about
the privacy implications of this.

Even though it might actually help them,

in terms of making better products
available to their customers.

So as an example she said, one reason
they collect these is they can compare

the location of where you
live with what you bought.

So we can see like where did you
come from to get to that location?

And if people from a certain area
are all buying the same kind of thing.

Perhaps it's some kind of exotic fruit.

Then the company can stock more of
that fruit and make it more available,

not only in that store.

But if they look at patterns of people
that are similar in other locations,

they can make sure that those stores
have that exotic fruit as well.

Anyway, not to digress too much, but
sometimes there's data that's collected in

ways that you may not think of,
that you kind of may have a vague idea,

well they're probably going to
use this for something, but what?

And in this case, it's definitely
being used to map your location, and

then try to associate that
with other information.

So it could be things like census data,
to associate that with a neighborhood.

It might be income level or
languages spoken and so on,

to try and connect you as a consumer
to information about you, and

be able to use that to basically to
serve you better as a customer, and

of course to make money for the company.

If we go down to the full
six digit postal code, so

the last three digits
are the local delivery unit.

We have the first three
digits which are the FSA,

the last three digits are the LDU.

And we can see some examples of them here,

these are around the university campus and
for example we can find,

let's see, M5S3J6 would be a postal
code with the full six digits.

And so if you gave somebody,
say in a grocery store or whatever,

your full six digit postal code they
would be able to map you down to a much

smaller area within a neighborhood,
within part of the city block usually.

And again these are designed for
postal delivery, but they get used for

other things as well.

United States of course uses ZIP codes.

So this is an example of how
you'd be able to use those.

There some ones like, this is a rather
famous one from an old TV show, 90210.

And you can see that if
somebody had that zip code,

they would be able to map you to this
particular part of a neighborhood.

Which I'm guessing is a fairly wealthy
neighborhood, just from what the show was

about, not that I was a huge fan, but
there you go, so that's zip codes.

Even area codes can be
used to map locations.

Here we have an example
of a bunch of them for

different locations, some of them
are large, some of them are small.

But the idea is that,
if you tell somebody the area code for

your phone number, they would be able
to map you within that location.

So all of these are examples
of geospatial data.

Ways of being able to put
something on the map.

And so,
when we think of what a GIS can do,

it can certainly map locations so
that is the where is it.

You can also map or
store attributes which is the what is it.

And it can store spacial relationships.

So what is near by?

What is adjacent?

Are some objects contained by others?

Are some lines connected to other lines?

So these are all forms of spacial
relationships that can be stored inside

AGIS as well.

So we have the where is it,
the what is it and

how are these things
related to one another.

Here we can see how in RGS Online, we can
store and access locations and attributes.

So for example,
we can see the locations of

emergency shelters here, so
that is the where is it.

And then we can see the attributes here,
that will be the what is it.

If we select one of these
records in the attribute table,

we can zoom in and
see that location here in helo.

So we're connecting the location and
attribute where you have two different

ways of referring to that information,
either through a map or through a table.

If you click on that location, we can
access that attribute information or

summary of that or some of it at least.

Through a pop up window, and

that will tell us information that's
connected to a table as well.

So this is Hilo high school,

you can see that here,
we have the address that addresses here.

So all this is really doing is taking
the information from the attribute table,

and summarizing it in a way that someone
can interactively click on it and

get access to that attribute information.

Relationships can be detected and
stored in a lot of different ways.

A simple example would be,

if you wanted to measure
the distance to existing features.

So we have, under the analysis tab here,
we're using a tool called Create Buffers.

We're going to create them in
relation to the emergency shelters.

We're specifying a distance
here which is one mile,

and we're going to have an output here
which is the buffer of emergency shelters.

And so when we run that, we actually
create a new data set that has a buffer or

a distance of one mile from each
of those emergency shelters.

So that might be really useful to know
if one of the shelters is full, and

you want to be able to redirect people
to another one that's close by.

You often hear the statement that
80% of all business data have

a spatial component.

No one actually knows if this is true, but

you hear it all the time at least
if you're in the GIS industry.

This is something that comes up over and
over again.

I read it in articles, I see it in adds,

is that people say that 80%
of the data could be mapped.

So if no one knows if it's true,

and you hear it all the time,
why do people keep saying it?

And the point really is,
is that people want it to be true.

And what I mean by that is that, and it
probably there's some vague relationship,

who knows.

Really what it gets down to,

is that they're trying to make the point
that there's a lot of untapped potential

in the data that's being stored
in a particular organization.

So, they want to be able to tell people,
of all the data that you already have for

your business, for your company, for your
government agency, for your non-profit,

whatever it is.

Think of what you could do
if you could map that data.

And that is true, and
I think it's good intentions.

Usually is that people want
to get across the point that

look at the potential you have for
mapping things, and if you could map it

then think of all the things you could
do after that in terms of analysis, and

insight, and things you can
do to help your organization.

So I'm not trying to perpetuate
this probably apocryphal statement,

that nobody really knows
whether it's true or not.

But the fact is, is that I really
try to do a couple things,

one is that when you see that statement is
to think about it critically like who's

ever done a survey of business data and
all these different organizations and

tabulated that,
it's really probably never been done.

But secondly, why do they keep saying
it and there is some value in what

the underlying intent is I think, that
they're trying to get across this idea

that wouldn't it be great if you could
map all the data that you already have.

And what could you do with it, then?

So I think that's a fair point.