Maps and visual presentation

Agmasie.D (MPH in Health

Informatics)
 GIS and Maps
 A map is “a representation or abstraction of
geographic reality.
 A tool for presenting geographic information in a
way that is visual( digital and manual ).”
 Representation and abstraction refer to models of these
geographic phenomena.
 The second sentence reflects the appearance of the map.
Can we see or touch it, or is it stored in a database.
 In other words, a map is a reduced and simplified
representation of (parts of) the Earth’s surface on a
plane (two dimensional surface). 2
 GIS and Maps…
 Maps can be used as input for a GIS.
 It can be used to communicate results of GIS operations, and maps
are tools while working with GIS to execute and support spatial
analysis operations.
 As soon as a question contains a phrase like “where?” a map can be
the most suitable tool to solve the question and provide the answer.
e.g. “Where do I find Bahir dar University?”
Of course, the answer could be in non-map form like “in Amhara
Region.”
This answer could be satisfying. However, it will be clear this answer
does not give the full picture.
 A map would put the answer in a spatial perspective.
 It could show where in Amhara Region Bahir dar University is to be3
found.
Location map of University of Gondar

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• Maps can answer the “What?” question only in
relation to location
• Map can also inform about the thematic attributes
of the geographic objects located in the map.
– E.g “What is the predominant land use in Ribb-
Gumara Catchment?”
The answer could, again, just be verbal and state
“Agriculture.” However, such an answer does not
reveal patterns.
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Land use map of Ribb-Gummara- 1985

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• A third type of question that can be answered
from maps is related to “When?”
– E.g. “When did Ribb-Gumara Catchment have greatest
flood/swamp event, based on the two given land use/
land cover maps?”
– The answer is “1999,” and this will probably be
satisfactory to most people.
– However, it might be interesting to see how this
changed over the years. A set of maps could provide
the answer
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Land use map of Ribb-Gummara- 1985 Land use map of Ribb-Gummara- 1999

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 Principles of map Design in GIS
 maps in GIS can be generated both as soft-copy
products on the screen of the computer monitor and
hard copy products using a plotter or a printer
 The major concepts in map design include
1. use of color,
2. use of text,
3. symbols and symbol sets, and
4. map-to-page transformation.

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Use of Color:
 The primary function of color is to make information on a
map visually distinguishable
 Any color on a map can be described by three dimensions:
1. Hue: the dominant color, which is what we usually think
of as "color" such as red, green, or blue..
2. value (or lightness): which is the description of how light
or dark a color is when holding hue constant;
3. Saturation: which is the purity of a hue or the range of
wavelengths reflected (the narrower the range the purer 10
the saturation)
 As a general rule, changes in hue are used to
indicate qualitative or nominal differences
(e.g. land cover types and administrative
units).
 where as changes in value and saturation are
used to represent quantitative or hierarchical
differences e.g. population density and
amount of rainfall.
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 Use of Text: Descriptive text is used to give a map its title and
to explain the legends.
 Symbols and Symbol Sets: A symbol is a graphic pattern that
is used to represent a feature on map.
 According to the types of features they represent, symbols in
GIS are classified in to four categories. These include
A. marker symbols representing point and node features
B. line symbols, representing arcs, routes, and sections using
lines of different colors, types, and widths;
C. shade symbols for filling polygons and regions using solid
color or shade patters; and
D. text symbols descriptive text used to label features that can 13
be points, lines, and polygons.
 14

Fig. symbols
Map-To-Page Transformation:
 Map-to page transformation is the placement of coverage
features onto an output medium of a specific size.
 Map composition is the process by which maps in GIS are
produced.
 Map composition can be perceived as being made up of
three components:
(1) Map layout design;
(2) geographic contents; and
(3) label placement.
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Map layout Design:
 The process of map composition usually starts
with an initial layout.
 There is no single standard to a map layout
design, but all output products should include
the basic elements as shown in Figure.
• Map surround elements included in a given
map include title, legend, north arrow, scale, as
well as name of the producer of the map. 16
 Map title
Northing arrow

Map/graphic page

Scale bar
Map Legend
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Fig. Elements of Map Layout

Geographic Contents of the Map:
This particular component of cartographic design is concerned
with the selection features to be included in a particular
map.
Label Placement:
 Labels on maps describe/provide the attribute data
associated with graphical map elements.
 Label placement is an important component of cartographic
design because it directly affects the readability of the map.
 A good label placement design enables the reader to
associate labels with the map elements that they describe. In
contrast, a poor design causes difficulty and uncertainty in 18
using the map.
 Map Elements
 Concise Title
 Most map have a title that communicate their subject to causal viewer
and provide to a way to refer on the map.

 Concise Title contain topic, place and time

 Legend

 A legend tells the map reader the meaning of the symbol used
to represent feature on the map
 The legend consist example of symbols with label containing
explanatory text
 Map Elements

Scale
 Scale bar provide visual
indication of the size of features
and distance between feature on
the map
1:500

E, g 1:24,000 this means one unit

on the map is equal to 24,000 of
the same unit on the ground.
 North arrow/Direction Indicator
 Indicate the orientations of the map
 North arrow - only for unusual orientations on large-scale
maps
 Overview of Map Types
There are two different types of maps developed by geographers
and within a GIS system. Reference Maps and Thematic Maps
1. Reference Maps: are for general use. For example, the
United States Geological Survey (USGS) has developed
topographic map for the nation at fractional scales from
1:24,000 to 1:250,000.
 emphasis on location
 These reference maps show general features such as
roads; hydrography; & political boundaries; etc.
 Examples of reference map:
– Topographic map
– Street map
Examples of topographic(A) and street(B) map

A B
2. Thematic Maps: conversely display specific geographic data like demographic information
and population density.
 All thematic maps are based on the concept of data aggregation
 These maps are custom made for specific purposes.
 special purpose, single topic, statistical maps. There are several types of thematic maps:
A. Choropleth Maps - depict numerical and qualitative information within areas or
polygons.
For example, let's imagine that you want to map population density in the United States.
-data aggregation allows you to organize your data based on class.
Therefore, to map US population you could make a map by state with seven categories of
population as indicated below. For each size class you can designate a different color; as
is shown in Figure
 0

Fig. Choropleth map of US population aggregated based on state population. Darker

red indicates greater populations.
B. Dot Density Maps - depict numerical information with dots
within a polygon that represent a count of a feature.
Generally, the dots are randomly distributed within the
polygon

Fig. dot density map of US population. Each dot represents 100,000 people
C. Isopleth Maps - use lines to represent a specific value of an
attribute such as temperature, precipitation, or elevation

Fig isopleth map that shows surface temperature in oF across North America
 D. Graduated Circle Maps - use a point symbol but the symbols have
different sizes in proportion to some quantity that occurs at that point.

Fig. graduated circle map that shows population by country on the African continent
 More concepts..
Introduction
 Spatial statistics deals with ways of analyzing all varieties of
data in a spatial context.
 Geospatial analysis, or just spatial analysis, is an approach to
applying statistical analysis and other analytic techniques to
data which has a geographical or spatial aspect
 Spatial analysis is involved when the data are spatially located
and explicit consideration is given to possible importance of
their spatial agreement or in the interpretation of results.
 Spatial analysis is the process by which we turn raw data into
useful information,
• The main purpose of the analysis is:
 To increase our basic understanding of the
process/ pattern
 To assess the evidence in favor of various
hypotheses concerning it
 To predict values in areas where observations
have not been made
 Some of the examples of the kind of questions spatial analysis
can answer is listed as:
 Does the distribution of cases of a disease form a pattern in space?
 Is there some association with possible sources of environmental
pollution?(soln: use spatial regression analysis which is important
to show the association between dependent and independent
variable)
 How much forest is in a city boundary or study area?
(soln: Run a clip tool on land cover classification. Sum the area of
forest grid cells.)
 How many endangered species are within a 1 mile proximity of a
proposed area?
(soln: Run a buffer. Calculate the number of species in the buffer.)
 Examples of spatial analysis
Buffer analysis
• Builds a new object or objects by identifying all
areas that are within a certain specified distance
of the original objects
• Buffering is a spatial retrieval around points, lines,
or areas based on distance.
• When do we need buffer analysis?
– To identify risky peoples for the given case(how much
people is affected due to contaminated water)
– To identify peoples those are under risk of earth
quick
– To know how much people is served in nearby
health facility according to standards
For this exercise you have to select hospitals from
ethio health facility data
Steps.
Go to arctool boxanalysis toolproximitybuffer
The input feature should be features used for
buffer(ethio_hospital),
- Use “all” dissolve type to remove overlap
feature
Spatial interpolation:
 methods estimate the variables at unobserved locations in
geographic space based on the values at observed locations.
 Interpolation is a procedure to predict values in places where
sample point is lack
 Basic methods include
• inverse distance weighting/IDW: used when the set of points
is dense enough to capture the extent of local surface variation
used for analysis .
• Kriging is a more sophisticated method that interpolates across
space according to a spatial lag relationship that has both
systematic and random components.
 Spatial interpolation.. cont
note, for this exercise you have to extract rainfall value for
each health facility for “rainfall” raster data
Steps:
Go to arctool boxspatial analysis
toolinterpolationIDW/kringinginput point
feature(with interpolated z-value)
 envtprocess extentuse your polygon
– Note: if your new interplated map doesn’t fit with your
polygon go to spatial analysis toolextractionextract by
mask or from environment under IDW/kringing find raster
analysismask select your polygon
 o u !
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