Lecture 8
Data sources for modern maps
Steven HS Zhang, PhD
zhanghs@hku.hk
Department of Geography
The University of Hong Kong
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Various sources for modern maps
v Surveying
v Remote Sensing
v Global Positioning System (GPS)
v Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI)
v Existing Spatial Data Sources
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Surveying
v Surveying is the science of accurate measurement of natural
and manmade features on the Earth.
v Data collected by surveyors are then used to create highly
precise maps. Surveyors calculate the precise position of
points, distances and angles through geometry.
• 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
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Remote sensing
v Remote sensing is the use of satellites
orbiting the Earth to capture information
of the surface and atmosphere.
v Satellites vary in spatial and spectral
resolution. These signals are then
transmitted to receiving stations on Earth
where they can be transformed and
distributed as digital images to be
analyzed.
v Remote sensing can be used to sense
changes in ground cover, locate the
presence of surficial minerals and
identify the location of different types of
vegetation.
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Remote sensor resolution
10 m • Spatial resolution - the size of a pixel, e.g.10 x 10 m.
10 m
• Spectral resolution - the number and size of spectral
B G R NIR regions the sensor records data in, e.g. blue, green,
red, near-infrared thermal infrared, microwave
(radar).
• Temporal resolution - how often the sensor acquires
Jan Feb data, e.g. every 30 days.
15 15
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Optical remote sensing
Some optical remote sensing satellites (in operation)
Landsat 8 (NASA) Sentinel-2 (ESA) SPOT (France) Gaofen (China)
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Thermal remote sensing
Thermal remote sensing is a branch of remote sensing that deals with the
acquisition, processing and interpretation of data acquired primarily in the
thermal infrared (TIR) region of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum.
Various thermal remote sensors
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Global Positioning System (GPS)
vA global positioning system (GPS) is a satellite
network that communicates with GPS receivers
accessed by mobile users.
vThe GPS receiver needs to connect with four or more
satellites orbiting the Earth, as reference to calculate
the precise location of the user within a few metres.
Location photos video audio text
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Errors of positioning
Cell towers
+/- 500 m
Wi-Fi
+/- 30 m
GPS
+/- 10 m
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Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI)
v Volunteered geographic information (VGI) is
information collected by users roving the surface
of the Earth.
v VGI is the contribution of content regarding local
activities in various geographic locations around
the world that may traditionally go unnoticed by
the rest of the world’s media.
v People now have the ability to share qualitative
or quantitative information with an Internet-
enabled audience about their experience in a
specific place in the world.
v VGI is typically collected and shared through the
use of smartphones.
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Existing Spatial Data Sources
v Several government and other organizations often make
spatial data publicly available in a variety of formats that
are relatively easy for the general public to use through
the creation of mash-ups.
v Mash-ups are web pages that take data from two different
sources or sets and put them together.
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Existing Spatial Data Sources
vRaster data (images)
§ Scanning of maps, aerial photographs, documents, etc.
§ Important scanning parameters are spatial and spectral
resolution
vVector data (objects)
§ Digitizing from maps, photographs, plans, etc.
§ Heads-up and vectorization
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Scanning
v Places a map on a glass plate, and passes a light beam over it
v Measures the reflected light intensity
v Result is a grid of pixels
v Image size and resolution are important
v Features can “drop out”
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Digitizing
Manual Digitizing Process from hardcopy map
1. Fix map to digitizer table
2. Digitize control points (tics, reference points, etc.) of known location
3. Digitize feature boundaries in stream or point mode.
4. Proof, edit linework
5. Transform or register to known system (may also be done at start)
6. Re-edit, as necessary
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Point and stream mode digitizing (Heywood, Cornelius & Carver)
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Manual Map Digitization, Pros and Cons
v Advantages
§ Low cost
§ Dose not need particularly high map quality
§ Requires little training
§ Ease in frequent quality testing
§ Device ubiquity
v Disadvantages
§ Quality of results is highly dependent on the operator
experience
§ Labor intensive, time consuming and tedious
§ Poor quality maps need much editing and improvement
§ Unsuitable for continuous data
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Geocoding
v Geocoding is the process of finding associated geographic
coordinates (often expressed as Latitude/Longitude) from
other geographic data.
v Address matching is the most common form of geocoding.
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The Role of Error
v Map and attribute data errors are the data producer's
responsibility?
§ GIS user must understand error.
v Accuracy and precision of map and attribute data in a GIS
affect all other operations, especially when maps are
compared across scales.
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Accuracy
v Closeness to TRUE values
§ results, computations, or estimates
v Compromise on “infinite complexity”
§ generalization of the real world
§ difficult to identify a TRUE value
v Example: accuracy of a contour
§ Does not exist in real world
§ Compare to other sources
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Precision
v Not the same as accuracy!
v Repeatability vs. “truth”
v Not the closeness of results, but the number of decimal places
or significant digits in a measurement
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Several open geo-spatial datasets
v Covers natural, demographic, economic and social aspects
for researchers in performing related analysis.
v Provide data for users and providers within all levels of
government, the commercial sector, the non-profit sector,
academia and by citizens in general.
v Online sources
v Datasets (Global, National, Regional)
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HONG KONG GEODATA STORE
The Common Spatial Data Infrastructure (CSDI) Portal (alpha version)
https://geodata.gov.hk/gs/
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data.gov.hk
https://data.gov.hk/en/
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Open Geo-Spatial Data in HK
http://opendata.esrichina.hk/
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United States Geological Survey
https://www.usgs.gov/
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www.themegallery.com
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