GIS in the PLK

I just installed my ESRI ArcMap software on my personal laptop in my Plunkett dorm room. It comes loaded with some base maps of the different regions of the United States, but as for any detailed maps or data sets, it is quite bare. To combat this problem, I Googled for some data sets. I came up with a site, http://www.fws.gov/data/statdata/, which has many links to the different States' public data sets. I registered with the Georgia Data Clearinghouse at http://data.georgiaspatial.org, which has let me access many of the different maps and data sets for the State of Georgia. I am busy now playing with the ArcMap software and learning more about how it works, what style maps are pleasing to the eye, and how to manipulate the data that I place onto the map. I will report back to you when I do something exciting!

Tomorrow's just your future yesterday

Where's the Fun?

This is a blog following Cam Yearty's GIS experience at Mercer University. For those of you who are unfamiliar: A Geographic Information System (GIS), is any system that captures, stores, analyzes, manages, and presents data that is linked to location. Technically, a GIS is a system that includes mapping software and its application to remote sensing, land surveying, aerial photography, mathematics, photogrammetry, geography, and tools that can be implemented with GIS software. Still, many refer to "Geographic Information System" as "GIS" even though it doesn't cover all tools connected to topology (Thanks, Wikipedia).

In this class we will be learning the basics of GIS as well as participating in a project using the skills that we have learned. I am sure that this will be an interesting experience.