Introduction to Space Science

Remote Sensing
Geographic Information Science

Shahanshah Abbas
Space Science Department
shani@grel.ist.edu.pk
Outline:
• Introduction to Remote sensing
• Introduction to Geographic information science
• RS Comparison with GIS
• Examples of GIS
• GIS in Pakistan
• Representation of Spatial Data
• Coordinate system
• Grading Policy.
• Books / Materials used in this course.

GIS Learning With Python 2

 Introduction

• First Sentence that comes to your mind when

you see the word “Remote Sensing”.?

• First Sentence that comes to your mind when

you see the word “GIS(Geographic
information Science)”.?

GIS Learning With Python 3

 Introduction (RS)
• Remote sensing is the art of acquiring information about an
object or phenomenon without making physical contact with
the object.
• satellites or aircraft to capture information about the earth’s
surface
• DSLR (ground remote sensing)
 Introduction (GIS)
• GIS is a tool / system /phenomena for Capturing, Storing,
querying and analyzing and displaying geospatial data.

Data

Location Characteristics
 RS & GIS:
intuitive description
 Components of a GIS
There are five components ........
People :
People are the most important component of a GIS because people must
develop the procedures and define the task the GIS will perform
Data :
We manage manipulate and store geospatial data in GIS environment to
extract spatially explicit information from it. Availability and accuracy of
data affects the results of queries and analysis.
Hardware :
Hardware capabilities affect processing speed, ease of use and type of
available output.
Software :
Include GIS software, database, drawing, Images and other software programs.
The software include source code and the user interface. The code may be
written in C++, visual basic or python. Common user interfaces are menus,
graphical icons, command lines and scripts.
Procedures:
GIS analysis requires well-define, consistent method to produce correct
7
results
Components of geographic data
Three main components to geographic data

Geometry : (Spatial)

Geometry represent the geographic feature associate with real-

world locations
1. Point 2. line 3. polygons (areas)
Attributes: (Non Spatial)

Attributes are descriptive characteristics of the geographic feature . Name,

Length, size, colour,

Behaviour:
Behaviour means that geographic features can be made to allow certain types
of editing, display or analysis.

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 Examples of GIS
Urban Planning, Management & Policy Civil Engineering/Utility
Zoning, subdivision planning Locating underground facilities
Land acquisition Designing alignment for freeways, transit
Economic development Coordination of infrastructure maintenance
Code enforcement Business
Housing renovation programs Demographic Analysis
Emergency response Market Penetration/ Share Analysis
Crime analysis Site Selection
Tax assessment Education Administration
Environmental Sciences Attendance Area Maintenance
Monitoring environmental risk Enrollment Projections
Modeling storm water runoff School Bus Routing
Management of watersheds, floodplains, wetlands, Real Estate
forests, aquifers Neighborhood land prices
Environmental Impact Analysis Traffic Impact Analysis
Hazardous or toxic facility siting Determination of Highest and Best Use
Groundwater modeling and contamination tracking Health Care
Political Science Epidemiology
Redistricting Needs Analysis
Analysis of election results Service Inventory
Predictive modeling
 GIS in Pakistan
• Local Government / NGO
– Public works/infrastructure management (roads, water, sewer)
– Planning and environmental management
– property records and appraisal
• Real Estate and Marketing
– Retail site selection, site evaluation
• Public safety and defense
– emergency management, military/defense
• Natural resource exploration/extraction
– Petroleum, minerals, quarrying
• Transportation
– Airline route planning, transportation planning/modeling
• Public health and epidemiology
• The Geospatial Industry
– Data development, application development, programming
 Topography
• The study of features and the relationship on the surface of Earth from
satellite. (How actually the surface of earth looks like)
• Features like mountains, Plain, Rivers etc.
Representation of Spatial Data
Spatial Data

Raster Data
Vector Data
Representation of Spatial Data (Cont.)
• Point, lines and polygons can also • Elevation data , Precipitation Data
combined to give another feature
• Triangulated Integrated Network
 GIS Operation (In General) Con.t
• Data acquisition and prepressing.
• Data attribute acquisition
• Displaying data (Maps)
• Data Analysis
• Modeling of data
• Visualizing end product
 GIS Operation (In General)
• Some of GIS data is freely Available
• For Latest and Best Resolution image you have to pay
 Coordinate System
• To represent data compromising of Spatial features we need coordinate
system.
• Coordinate systems are used to define the location of the object with
some reference.
• Satellite images are not in Earths coordinates system.
Parallel Meridians
Projections

Geographic Coordinate
Satellite
system
Image Reference system
Longitude / Latitude

Earth Reference system

X,Y or X,Y,Z
 Coordinate System (Cont.)
• Longitude and latitudes are measured in Degree Minutes and
Seconds (DMS) or radians.
• 1 degree =60 minutes
• 1 minutes =60 seconds
• 1 rad covers almost 57.2958 degrees of earth
• 1 degree =1/57.2958=??
 Coordinate System (Cont.)
• Mapping of Spatial features / objects on earth surface is done
by a model to predict the size and shape of the Earth.
• Simplest model is Sphere model.
• Better approximation is sheroid (Ellipisod)
• Best approximation model of earth is geoid
 Calculation of Geographic
Coordinates
• Calculation of Geographic Coordinates is achieved through Datum.
• Datum is a mathematical model (Set of Reference Points )for calculating
Geographic Coordinates (Lat/Long).
• Almost every Country Defines its own Datum.
• NAD 1983, WGS 84, NAD 27 etc.
 Types of Map Projections
• Conformal Projections: Preserve angles and shapes.
• Equidistant Projections: Makes check on measurement
scales
• Equivalent Projections: Represents the area of spatial
object correctly in size
• Azimuthal Projections: Represents / Retain the accurate
direction
 Reading Material
• Chapter “1” and Chapter “2” of “Introduction
to Geographic information science by Chang”