1.3 Preface

Why I Wrote Introduction to Geospatial Technologies

When people ask me what I teach, I say “geospatial technology.” The usual response to this statement is a blank stare, a baffled “What?” or a variation on “I’ve never heard of that.” However, if I say I teach “technologies like GPS, taking images from satellites, and using online tools like Google Earth or MapQuest,” the response generally improves to: “GPS is great” or “Google Earth is so cool,” or even “Why do I get the wrong directions from that thing in my car?” Although geospatial technologies are everywhere these days—from software to Websites to cell phones—it seems that the phrase “geospatial technology” hasn’t really permeated into common parlance.

I hope that Introduction to Geospatial Technologies will help remedy this situation. As its title implies, the goal of this book is to introduce several aspects of geospatial technologies—not only what they are and how they operate, but also how they are used in hands-on applications. In other words, the book covers a little bit of everything, from theory to application.

In a sense, the book’s goal is to offer students an overview of several different fields and techniques and to provide a solid foundation on which further knowledge in more specialized classes can be built, such as those delving further into geographic information systems (GIS) or remote sensing. Whether the book is used for a basic introductory course, a class for non-majors, or as an introduction to widely used geospatial software packages, this book is aimed at beginners who are just starting out. At Youngstown State University (YSU), I teach an introductory class titled “Geospatial Foundations,” but I’ve seen similar classes at other universities with names like “The Digital Earth,” “Introduction to Geospatial Analysis,” “Survey of Geospatial Technologies,” “Introduction to GIS,” or “Computer Applications in Geography.” All of these courses seem aimed at the audience for which Introduction to Geospatial Technologies was written.

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Organization of the Book

This book is divided into four main parts.

Part 1 focuses on geospatial technology as it relates to spatial measurements and data.

Part 2 focuses on Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Part 3 examines issues related to remote sensing.

Part 4 focuses on individual topics in geospatial technology that combine GIS and remote sensing themes and applications.

Geospatial Lab Applications

Each chapter of Introduction to Geospatial Technologies covers one aspect of geospatial technology with an accompanying Geospatial Lab Application. The goal of these lab applications is not to teach software but to help students work directly with the chapter’s concepts. Each lab application uses freely available software that can be downloaded from the Internet. These software packages include:

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The four chapters in Part 2 (Geographic Information Systems) offer two versions of the lab application. Instructors can choose to use either the free QGIS or the desktop version of either ArcGIS 10.1 or 10.2. The labs provide hands-on application of the concepts and theories covered in each chapter. Clearly, it’s one thing to read about how 3D structures can be created and placed into Google Earth, but it’s another thing entirely to use SketchUp and Google Earth to do exactly that. Each lab application has integrated questions that students must answer while working through the lab. These questions are designed both to explore the various topics presented in the lab and also to keep students moving through the lab application. Note that words or phrases highlighted in blue text in the labs indicate menu items or icons that are clicked on, or specific items that are typed in during the lab.

Some labs use sample data that comes with the software when it’s installed, while others require students to download sample data for use in the lab. Each lab provides links to a Website from which you can download the software. (That same Website will also provide information regarding the necessary hardware or system requirements. Not all computers or lab facilities work the same, so be sure to check the software’s Internet resources for help on installing the software.) The Instructors section of this book’s companion Website also offers a “tech tips” section with some additional information related to installing or utilizing some of the software.

The lab applications for each chapter are set up as follows:

Additional Features

In addition to the lab applications, each chapter contains several Hands-on Applications that utilize free Internet resources to help students further explore the world of geospatial technologies and get directly involved with some of the chapter concepts. There’s a lot of material out there on the Internet, ranging from interactive mapmaking to real-time satellite tracking, and these Hands-on Applications introduce students to it. With the second edition, each Hands-on Application has a set of Expansion Questions for students to answer while working with that Application’s Web resources.

Each chapter also has one or more boxes titled Thinking Critically with Geospatial Technology. These boxes present questions to consider regarding potential societal, privacy, design, or ethical issues posed by geospatial technologies and their applications. The questions presented in these boxes are open-ended and are intended to stimulate discussion about geospatial technologies and how they affect (or could affect) human beings. For instance, how much privacy do you really have if anyone, anywhere, can obtain a clear image of your house or neighborhood (and directions of how to drive there) with just a few clicks of a mouse?

Lastly, each chapter ends with an Apps, Blogs, and Social Media box. This feature presents some representative apps related to the chapter’s content that you may wish to investigate further. Similarly, this section will highlight some representative blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and YouTube videos (if available) that are relevant to the chapter’s topics as well. (Note that these are just some examples, not recommended products.)

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Ancillary Materials and Student Website

http://www.whfreeman.com/shellito2e

The companion Website offers a set of valuable resources for both students and instructors.

For students, the Website offers a multiple-choice self-test for each chapter, as well as an extensive set of references, categorized by topic, to provide further information on a particular topic. The Website also provides a set of links to the free software packages needed to complete the lab activities, as well as the datasets required for specific lab applications. A set of world links is also provided.

For instructors, the Website offers an instructor’s manual, which provides (for each chapter) teaching tips on presenting the book’s material, a set of “tech tips” related to software installation and usage, a set of key references for the chapter materials, and an answer key for all the lab activities. A test bank of questions is also provided.

Acknowledgments and Thanks

Books like this don’t just spring out of thin air—I owe a great deal to the many people who have provided inspiration, help, and support for what would eventually become this book.

Steven Rigolosi of W. H. Freeman and Company, publisher extraordinaire, has offered invaluable help, advice, patience, and guidance throughout this entire project. I would also very much like to thank Enrico Bruno, Jennifer Bossert, Stephanie Ellis, and Sheena Goldstein at W. H. Freeman for their extensive “behind the curtain” work that shaped this book into a finished product. Thanks also go to the copy editor, Andrew Seear, proofreader Deborah Heimann, and indexer Robert Swanson.

Neil Salkind and Stacey Czarnowski gave great representation and advice. The students who contributed to the development of the YSU 3D Campus Model (Rob Carter, Ginger Cartright, Paul Crabtree, Jason Delisio, Sherif El Seuofi, Nicole Eve, Paul Gromen, Wook Rak Jung, Colin LaForme, Sam Mancino, Jeremy Mickler, Eric Ondrasik, Craig Strahler, Jaime Webber, Sean Welton, and Nate Wood) deserve my sincere thanks. Many of the 3D examples presented in Chapter 14 wouldn’t have existed without them. Others who supported this book in various ways include: Jack Daugherty, for tech support, assistance with the labs, and help with the GeoWall applications. Lisa Curll, for assistance with the design and formatting of the lab applications. Grant Wilson, for his insightful technical reviews of the ArcGIS lab applications. Margaret Pearce, for using an earlier draft of the manuscript with her students at the University of Kansas and for her extremely useful comments and feedback. Hal Withrow, for invaluable computer tech assistance. Mark Guizlo for assistance with data sources. Sean Young for his very helpful comments and feedback on the first edition and for his close reading and review of the labs in this second edition.

I offer very special thanks to all of my professors, instructors, colleagues, and mentors, past and present (who are too numerous to list), from Youngstown State University, the Ohio State University, Michigan State University, Old Dominion University, OhioView, and everywhere else, for the help, knowledge, notes, information, skills, and tools they’ve given me over the years. I am also deeply indebted to the work of Tom Allen, John Jensen, Mandy Munro-Stasiuk, and the members of SATELLITES for some methods used in some of the chapters and labs.

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Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to the colleagues who reviewed the original proposal and various stages of the manuscript for both the first and second editions. Thank you for your insightful and constructive comments, which have helped to shape the final product:

Robbyn Abbitt, Miami University

Amy Ballard, Central New Mexico Community College

Chris Baynard, University of North Florida

Robert Benson, Adams State College

Edward Bevilacqua, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Julie Cidell, University of Illinois

W. B. Clapham Jr., Cleveland State University

Russell G. Congalton, University of New Hampshire

Jamison Conley, West Virginia University

Kevin Czajkowski, University of Toledo

Adrienne Domas, Michigan State University

Christine Drennon, Trinity University

Jennifer Fu, Florida International University

Nandhini Gulasingam, DePaul University

Victor Gutzler, Tarrant County College Southeast

Jessica K. Kelly, Millersville University

Sara Beth Keough, Saginaw Valley State University

James Kernan, SUNY Geneseo

Kimberley Britt Klinker, University of Richmond

James Lein, Ohio University

James Leonard, Marshall University

Chris Lukinbeal, Arizona State University

John McGee, Virginia Tech

George M. McLeod, Old Dominion University

Bradley Miller, Michigan State University

Trent Morrell, Laramie County Community College

Margaret Pearce, University of Kansas

Hugh Semple, Eastern Michigan University

Thomas Sigler, University of Queensland

Brian Tomaszewski, The Rochester Institute of Technology

Shuang-Ye Wu, University of Dayton

Sean Young, University of Arkansas

Donald Zeigler, Old Dominion University

Arthur Zygielbaum, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

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A Rapidly Changing Field

As Chapter 15 points out, geospatial technology has become so widespread and prevalent that no book can cover every concept, program, or online mapping or visualization tool (as much as I’d like this one to). I hope that the students who use this book will view the concepts and applications presented herein as an introduction to the subject—and that this will motivate them to take more advanced courses on the various aspects of geospatial technology.

One thing to keep in mind: In such a rapidly advancing field as geospatial technology, things can change pretty quickly. New satellites are being launched and old ones are ending their mission lives. Websites get updated and new updates for software and tools are released on a regular basis. As of the writing of this book, all of the Web data, software, and satellites were current, but if something’s name has changed, or if a Website works differently, or if a satellite isn’t producing any more data, there’s probably something newer and shinier to take its place.

I’d very much like to hear from you regarding any thoughts or suggestions you might have for the book. You can reach me via email at bashellito@ysu.edu.

Bradley Shellito
Youngstown State University

Accessing Data Sets for Geospatial Lab Applications

Some of the Geospatial Lab Applications in this book use data that comes with the software, sample data that gets installed on your computer when you install the software itself, or data that you’ll create during the course of the lab. However, the lab applications for Chapters 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 require you to download a set of data that you’ll use with those labs.

The lab applications will direct you to copy the dataset before beginning the lab. Each dataset is stored in its own folder online at

http://www.whfreeman.com/shellito2e

Under “Student Resources,” click on “Lab Data Sets,” then choose the relevant chapter.

This book was not prepared, approved, or endorsed by the owners or creators of any of the software products discussed herein. The graphical user interfaces, emblems, trademarks and associated materials discussed in this book remain the intellectual property of their respective owners.

ArcGIS 10.1 (Esri), ArcGIS Explorer Desktop (Build 2500) (Esri), Google Earth 7.1 (Google), SketchUp Make (Trimble), MapCruncher 3.2 (Microsoft), MICRODEM 17, MultiSpec 3.3, Quantum GIS (QGIS) 1.8.0, Trimble Planning Software 2.9