GIS at CIPEC

by: Tom Evans, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Indiana University

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are one of the core tools used by CIPEC researchers. GIS enable spatially referenced data from disparate sources to be integrated in a modeling environment.

How CIPEC is applying GIS techniques:

• Land cover change analysis - mapping landcover over time, relating to socio-economic and biophysical factors.
• Spatial metrics - Linking spatial pattern and composition of landcover to social and biophysical data
• Topographic analysis - Evaluating the relationship between topography, landcover and land use
• Integration of remote sensing and GIS - Linking remotely sensed data with socio-economic data and various biophysical datasets

Basic introduction to GIS and various GIS resources:

What is GIS?

GIS is a loosely used term. In general, it involves the use of spatially referenced data in a computing environment. This includes:

• data collection
• data storage
• data retrieval
• data transformation
• data display
• data analysis

One of the ways GIS techniques are used at CIPEC is to integrate data from disparate sources. For example, a GIS can be used to integrate spatially referenced migration data with landcover change data to understand the affect of in-migration on deforestation.

CIPEC uses GIS as a means of integrating various social and biophysical data. These include (but are not limited to) landcover, transportation networks, social survey data, forest inventory data, soils, and climate data. GIS allows a common spatial unit to be defined to link data from these sources.

The integration of GIS and Remote Sensing is a particularly powerful tool. Remotely sensed imagery can be used in a GIS environment to link landcover data with social data and various biophysical datasets, such as soils, topography, or hydrography.
For more information about GIS follow these links:

NCGIA - National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis

USGS - United States Geological Survey - Introductory GIS page, links to data and other information.


Were Can I Find GIS Data?

Database construction is often the most time consuming segment of a GIS project. Acquiring secondary data can substantially reduce database construction time. As always, the user is encouraged to take careful consideration when judging the accuracy and appropriateness of secondary data.

The following sources provide various GIS related data:

GeoData - United States elevation data (DEM), transportation (DLG), Landcover (DLG)

Data for Water Resources - USGS site with Hydrologic/Hydrographic data

Global Land Information System - (GLIS) Source for ordering wide variety of GIS and RS data products

Natural Resources Conservation Service - Soils, Water Quality, Wetlands...

GIS Resources

Several research centers associated with CIPEC have GIS software and hardware used for GIS applications:

CIPEC Lab - NT, Arc/INFO, ArcView, Imagine
ACT Lab - UNIX and NT platforms, Arc/INFO, ArcView, Imagine
SPEA Lab - UNIX platform, Arc/INFO, ArcView, Imagine


In addition, Indiana University has several open cluster labs which have GIS software in both UNIX and NT environments:

SHIPS Cluster - 20 SGI Indy UNIX workstations (Arc/INFO, ArcView, Imagine)
Nations Cluster - 20 Sun Ultra UNIX workstations (Arc/INFO)
Student Building NT Lab - 30 NT machines with ArcView


GIS related classes taught at IU:

G438 - Geography - Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
G439 - Geography - Advanced Geographic Information Systems

408 North Indiana Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47408-3799
Phone: (812) 855-2230
TDD: (812) 855-7654
Fax: (812) 855-2634

Last Updated: May 11, 2005
Comments: cipec@indiana.edu 
Copyright 2005, The Trustees of Indiana University.