GE 362: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems

Lecture 03: Spatial Data Input

 GIS Data Capture

• GIS data acquisition is a process of obtaining data in a form suitable for

the development of a GIS database

• It constitutes the first stage in the development of a GIS database

• It is the most expensive and time consuming phase of GIS development
demanding (60 – 80%) of total developmental cost
• The quality of the data to be stored in the database is determined by this
phase of GIS development
• Hence the acquired data needs structuring before being subjected to
further manipulation and analyses
• Data input is usually a major bottleneck in the application of GIS
technology
• There is therefore a need to have tools to transform spatial data of various types
into digital format recognized by the software package in use
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 Modes of Data input in a GIS

• Data input into a GIS database can be achieved in variety of ways

including:
– Keyboard entry for non-spatial attributes and occasionally locational data
(coordinate values)

– Manual locating devices user directly manipulates a device whose

location is recognized by the compute. e.g. digitizing

– Automated devices that automatically extract spatial data from maps and
photography. E.g. scanning

– Conversion directly from other digital sources

– Voice input has been tried, particularly for controlling digitizer operations;
not very successful as the machine needs to be recalibrated for each
operator, after coffee breaks, etc.

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 Criteria for choosing modes of data input into a GIS

• The choice of the relevant mode of entry is dependant on the :

– Type of data source; images favor scanning while maps can be scanned or
digitized

– Database model of the GIS; scanning easier for raster, digitizing for vector

– Density of data; dense line work makes for difficult digitizing

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 Sources of Data for GIS
• Sources of both spatial and attribute data for a GIS may either be of a primary
or secondary source

• Primary Data Sources

– These data sources refer to those that captured raw data for direct input
into a GIS

– These data may require pre-processing prior to becoming compatible with a

format recognised by a GIS software

• Examples include:
– Ground based survey techniques using theodolites & EDMs, levels, total
stations, etc.
– Global Positioning Systems (GPS); Remote sensing for spatial data, and
Interviews, questionnaires and observations for non-spatial data

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 Secondary Spatial Data Sources

• These are the kind of sources that provide data which already exist in some
format but requires conversion into a format recognized by a GIS software
• Like primary data, may require some form of pre-processing prior to becoming
compatible with a format recognized by a GIS software

• Examples include: Existing analogue maps , aerial photographs,

existing digital spatial data (may involve conversion from one format into
another), and

– Conventional documents (registers and files; annual reports) and existing

digital non-spatial data from other systems

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 Sources of spatial data for GIS
1. Automated Ground Surveying
• Locations of objects determines by angle and distance measurements from
known locations
• Uses expensive field equipment and crews
• Most accurate method for large scale, small areas
• One software package capable of handling raw ground survey data for
processing in a GIS environment is the Survey Analyst, an extension to ArcGIS

Total Station
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 Sources of spatial data for GIS
2. Photogrammetric techniques
– Aerial and close range photos
– can also be used to capture data into a GIS
– Techniques may range from that of
• stereo digitizing in a 3-D stereo model
• to that of manual or on-screen digitizing of analogue or
• scanned rectified aerial photographs or orthophotos (figure 2)
3 Remote sensing imagery
– acquired by earth observation satellites provides a more
readily available digital data for input into a GIS
– acquired by earth observation satellites provides a more
– Remotely sensed data is of raster format and
therefore it is readily usable in raster based GIS
– It requires vectorisation to be used in a vector based GIS

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 Orthophotography
• Digital imagery in which distortion from the camera angle and topography have been
removed, thus equalizing the distances represented on the image

2 meters
1 meter
 Image Resolutions
• The amount of detail found in one pixel of the image.
– image with one meter resolution means that each pixel in the image
represents one square meter on the ground.

30 meters 10 meters 5 meters

 Sources of spatial data for GIS

4. Global Position System

• GPS is a tool for determining accurate
• positions on the surface of the earth

• It computes positions from signals received

• from a series of satellites orbiting the earth
–
5. Laser Scanning
• Airborne laser scanning (ALS) and Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS)
• It is a new tool for determining accurate positions on
the surface of the earth
• produces 3D coordinates – digital surface model, point clouds
• notes-2014\Laser_Scanning.pptx

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 Sources of spatial data for GIS

6. UAVs: The future is here

• Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, also known as remotely piloted aircraft or “drones” are
small aircraft that fly by remote control or autonomously.

• With the growing need for orthophotography and Digital Terrain Models (DTM)
comes a rise in the number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), requiring for
mapping with aerial images.

• The broad definition covers balloons, kites, gliders, airships, rotary and fixed wing
UAVs with the capability for photogrammetric data acquisition in manual, semi-
automated and automated flight mode

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Sources of spatial data for GIS
Overview of UAV Systems

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 Sources of spatial data for GIS
6. UAVs: The future is here

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 Sources of spatial data for GIS

Sweet Home, Cape Town, South Africa

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 Sources of spatial data for GIS
7. Digital mapping and visualization : The future is here
• Field data collection using ArcPad software
• ArcPad is mobile field mapping and data collection software designed for
GIS professionals.
• It provides field-based personnel with the ability to capture, analyze, and
display geographic information in near real time.
• Field data collection with ArcPad is efficient and accurate and can integrate
input from GPS receivers, rangefinders, and digital cameras.
•

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 Sources of spatial data for GIS

8. Data conversion from other digital data sources

• Data acquisition by converting from other digital sources
involves the transfer of data from one system to another by
means of a conversion program

• A substantial amount of data may be available in digital form

elsewhere in systems with formats incompatible to that of the
recipient system. These may include:

– data from CAD/CAM systems (AutoCAD, DXF)

– data from other GIS

– digital elevation models (DEMs)

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 Sources of spatial data for GIS

Data in raster or vector format may need to be converted to vector or raster

respectively depending on the needs and the available software. These kind of
conversions are another form of digital data conversion referred to as
– Vectorisation and
– Rasterisation respectively

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Sources of spatial data for GIS

Digitizer

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 Sources of spatial data for GIS
9 Digitizing and Scanning of Analogue maps
• Analogue maps constitute one of the major sources of data for a GIS

• The input of data from analogue maps required the conversion of the features into
coordinate values
– Digitising is the transformation of information from analog format, such as a
paper map, to digital format, so that it can be stored and displayed with a
computer

– Digitising can be:

• Manual
• Semi-automated (automatically recorded while manually following a line)
• Fully automated (line following)

– Manual digitising involves

• an operator using a digitising table (or tablet) (known as heads-down digitising)
• or with the operator using a computer screen (heads-up digitising)

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 Digitizing and Scanning of Analogue maps

Digitizing Analogue Maps

Tablet On-screen
Scanning
Digitizing Digitizing

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 Issues to consider before digitising commences

• For what purpose will the data be used?

• What coordinate system will be used for the project

• What is the accuracy of the layers to be associated? If it is significantly different,

the layers may not match.

• What is the accuracy of the map being used?

• For more consistency, only one person should work on a given digitising project.

• If the source consists of multiple maps, select common reference points that
coincide on all connecting sheets. Failure to do this could result in digitised data
from different data sheets not matching.

• If possible, include attributes while digitising, as this will save time later.

• Will it be merged with a larger database?

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 Tablet Digitizing

– Tablet digitising is a process of capturing data from existing maps

by tracing through the features depicted on the map

– Tablet digitizing means that:

• someone must sit down with the map at a large, flat, digitizing table,

• using a small cursor pad

• follow the thousands of lines that make up the map,

• carefully keeping the cursor (cross hairs) on the lines

• ensuring that lines are not double digitized or left out

• and that intersections are accurately closed and no gaps are left in lines

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Tablet Digitizing
 Tablet Digitizer Working principle

• The digitising table has a fine grid of wires embedded in it that acts as a
Cartesian coordinate system

• The coordinate may be in plane or geographic coordinates

• The procedure involves tracing map features in the form of points, lines or
polygons with a mouse (puck) which relays the coordinate of each sample point
to be stored in the computer

• The tablet and puck acting together with the computer can locate the puck s
position relative to reference information provided by the operator

• The cursor is similar to a computer mouse, but has a lens with cross-hairs for
high accurate positioning

• It has buttons whose functions can be defined through the software application

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 Tablet Digitizer Working principle

– The main input device for manual digitizing is a manual digitizer

which can either be in form of a tablet or table

Manual Digitizer (A0)

Manual Digitizer (A4)

hand held cursor

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 Some makes of digitizer table/tablet

• Some makes of digitizer table/tablet

– Some of the common makes include:

• Altek
• CalComp
• Summagraphics
• Hewlett-Packard (HP)
• Aristo
• Hitachi

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 On-screen Digitizing

• On-screen digitising is an interactive process in which a map is

created using previously digitised of scanned information.
• This method of geocoding is commonly called "heads-up" digitising
because the attention of the user is focused up on the screen, and
not on a digitising tablet.
• This technique may be used to trace features from a scanned map or
image to create new layers or themes.
• On-screen digitising may also be employed in an editing session
where there is enough information on the screen to accurately add
new features without a reference image or map.
• The process of on-screen digitising is similar to conventional
digitising.

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 On-screen Digitizing

– On-screen digitising

Scanned image

Cursor

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 On-screen Digitizing

• Rather than using a digitiser and a cursor, the user creates the map
layer up on the screen with the mouse and typically with referenced
information as a background.
• Input devices
– The main devices include

– a scanner

– an interactive graphic screen and

– screen virtual cursor

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 Scanning

• Scanning is a process of capturing data from existing maps by

taking a digital image of the map
• Scanning is performed automatically with very little intervention
from the operator other than making the appropriate settings
• The main input device for scanning is a scanner
– Scanners include video scanners and
– electromechanical scanners

• Video scanners are essentially television cameras, with

appropriate interface electronics to create a computer-readable
dataset
• Electromechanical Scanners may be of the flat or drum type

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 Scanning

It Consists of a light source and a sensor

– A light source illuminates a location on the source document while a sensor
measures the intensity of the reflected or transmitted light at the illuminated
location
– The light source and sensor (scan head) traverses the document automatically
on a flatbed scanner

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 Scanning
– On a drum scanner it remains fixed while the paper moves in one direction at constant
speed
– In either case the resultant image is a resolution of document into a matrix of pixels

Functional specifications
– Resolution: recorded pixel size expressed in dots per inch or dots per
millimeter
– Surface size: at least A4 format
– absolute accuracy: less than 0.1mm
– scanning speed: A0 format in matter of minutes
– colour capability: 0 – 255 scale

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 scanning

• Some makes of scanners

– Scanners, like digitizers are also developed by various manufacturers

– Some of the known makes include

• Scitex,
• Kongsberg,
• LaserScan,
• Hewlett-Packard,
• Agfa,
• Microtek

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 Types of Manual Digitizing Errors
• Dangles or Dangling Nodes
• Dangles or dangling nodes are lines that are not connected but
should be. With dangling nodes, gaps occur in the line work where
the two lines should be connected.
• Dangling nodes also occur when a digitized polygon doesn’t connect
back to itself, leaving a gap where the two end nodes should have
connected, creating what is called an open polygon.
• An open polygon caused by the endpoints not snapping together.

An open polygon caused by the

endpoints not snapping together.

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 Types of Manual Digitizing Errors

• Switchbacks, Knots, and Loops

• These types of errors are introduced when the digitizer has an
unsteady hand and moves the cursor or puck in such a way that the
line being digitized ends up with extra vertices and/or nodes.
• In the case of switchbacks, extra vertices are introduced and the line
ends up with a bend in it.
• With knots and loops, the line folds back onto itself, creating small
polygon like geometry known as weird polygons.

Example of a weird polygon

where the line folds back on
itself.

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 Types of Manual Digitizing Errors
• Overshoots and Undershoots
• Similar to dangles, overshoots and undershoots happen when the
line digitized doesn’t connect properly with the neighboring line it
should intersect with. During digitization a snap tolerance is set by
the digitizer. The snap tolerance or snap distance is the
measurement of the diameter extending from the point of the
cursor.
• Any nodes of neighboring lines that fall within the circle of the snap
tolerance will result in the end points of the line being digitized
automatically snapping to the nearest node. Undershoots and
overshoots occur when the snap distance is either not set or is set
too low for the scale being digitized. Conversely, if the snap distance
is set too high and the line endpoint snaps to the wrong node.

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 Types of Manual Digitizing Errors
• Slivers
• Slivers are gaps in a digitized polygon layer where the adjoining
polygons have gaps between them. Again, setting the proper
parameters for snap tolerance is critical for ensuring that the edges
of adjoining polygons snap together to eliminate those gaps. Where
the two adjacent polygons overlap in error, the area where the two
polygons overlap is called a sliver.

• Gap and Sliver Errors in Digitized Polygons

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 Types of Manual Digitizing Errors

• Summary Visualization of the Main Types of Digitizing Errors

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