Comprehensive Study Notes on Digital Divide, Geographic Issues, and GIS

Digital Divide

• The digital divide is the gap between individuals, families, businesses, and geographic areas at different socioeconomic levels regarding access to information for economic and political opportunities.
• It relates to differences in access to information communication technologies (ICTs) and internet use for various activities.
• Availability of universal telecommunication access is important for narrowing the global digital divide.
• Access to TVs, computers, mobile phones, and the internet is a key indicator of the digital divide.
• ICT utilization has expanded, but access varies widely between regions and countries.
• Internet technology access is lowest in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) compared to More Developed Countries (MDCs).

Factors Intensifying the Digital Divide

• Income and financial shortages.
• Poor quality and expensive connections.
• Low education levels, including lack of digital literacy and technical know-how.
• Limited access to ICT.
• Lack of knowledge and understanding of technology.
• Absence of opportunities to learn how to use computers.

Geographic and Socioeconomic Factors

• The digital divide depends on income and education.
• Family size, age, sex, cultural and linguistic experiences, and geographic location also play important roles.

Government's Role

• Governments should narrow the divide by creating accessible e-services and ICT infrastructure.
• A cohesive, citizen-oriented approach can enhance opportunities in ICT use.

Consequences of the Digital Divide

• Damage to old businesses leads to job losses because digital jobs need more education.
• Broadens income inequality among individuals and countries.
• Exacerbates personal security risks, such as cyber terrorism, criminal networks, illegal money, hate speech, and fake news.

Advantages of Digitalization

• Travel reservations, translations, support, and customer services.
• Telemedicine and e-learning.
• Social networking.
• Affordable education and learning materials for students.
• Real-time weather and market information for farmers and fishermen.
• Training for teachers, medical diagnosis, and information for remote areas.
• Financial services for the unbanked in remote areas.

Geographic Issues and Public Concerns

Major Themes

• Population-related concerns (family size, education, income, population and economic growth rates, unemployment, and underemployment).
• Environmental degradation and desertification.
• Drought and famine.
• Deforestation.
• The worldwide digital divide.

Interrelation of Population Factors

• Family sizes, household incomes, and education influence each other.
• Family size impacts household income and children's education.
• Household income influences family nutrition and children's education.
• Family composition affects individual and household well-being.
• Low-income households often have many children and invest little in nutrition and education, common in Developing Countries (DCs).
• High population growth impacts quality of life through greater dependency ratios.

Population and Economic Growth

• Malthusian and neo-Malthusian theorists view the relationship between population and economic growth as inverse.
• Anti-Malthusian theorists like Karl Marx and Ester Boserup consider it positive.
• DCs have experienced high population growth, rapid urbanization, and emigration with limited financial resources and weak institutions.
• These conditions destabilize DCs' capacity to plan for population dynamics, seemingly justifying Malthusian theory.

Employment and Unemployment

• Employment and unemployment are basic life affairs for individuals and households.
• Unemployment negatively affects individuals, households, and communities.
• Unemployment is wider in DCs compared to MDCs.
• Youth unemployment rates are very high in DCs.
• Many youths engage in defenseless jobs.
• Solutions include sound policy, economic diversification, job creation, and fair resource distribution.

Environmental Degradation and Desertification

• Driven by population pressures on environmental resources and ecosystems.
• Competition for land resources exacerbates environmental degradation and desertification.
• Expansion of farming to marginal areas, conventional farming practices, non-responsive policies, and overuse of resources are main drivers.
• Unsustainable land-use in drylands worsens desertification and poverty, reducing capacity to invest in sustainable management.
• Coupled with climate change, these practices result in droughts and famines.
• Climate change increases incidence and harshness of droughts.
• Recurrent droughts, floods, insect infestations, epidemics, unfair resource sharing, conflicts, and wars cause and increase famine severity.

Deforestation and Digital Divide

• Deforestation involves clearing forest trees.
• The digital divide widens information gaps among individuals, countries, regions, cities, and businesses due to socioeconomic, cultural, and financial variations.
• Impact is significant, affecting opportunities and benefits.

Generalization

• Population dynamics closely link with national and world development challenges.
• Meeting the needs of growing populations while ensuring environmental sustainability is a major challenge.
• Linkages between population dynamics, inequalities, and resource degradation are major geographic issues.

Climate Classification and Regions of the World

Representing Relief Features on Topographic Maps

• Geography education explores real-world issues and develops 21st-century skills.
• Geography provides context for using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in schools.
• Uneven landforms and reliefs are represented on maps with contour lines.
• GIS provides mapping tools for drawing, processing, and analyzing data.

Relief Definition

• Relief is the difference in elevation between the highest and lowest points in a landscape, measured in meters.
• Earth’s surface varies in shape and elevation.
• The physical shape of the Earth is referred to as a relief feature or landform.
• Major landforms (continents and oceanic features) are formed by crustal plate movement.
• Landform features are distinctive three-dimensional objects formed by erosion and deposition processes.
• Landforms include plateaus, escarpments, hills, mountains, volcanoes, peaks, structural domes, saddles, cliffs, valleys, gullies, washes, gorges, depressions, floodplains, and alluvial fans.

Topographic Maps

• Objective: Define relief in geography and topography maps and examine how contour lines represent relief features.

Basic Concepts:

• Map: A graphical representation of part of the Earth’s surface with correct positions relative to a coordinate system at an established scale.
• Map Scale: Represents the relationship between distance on the map and corresponding ground distance.
• Topographic Map: Detailed illustration of natural and man-made features (water bodies, rivers, forests, urban areas, roads, railways, contours, elevations).
• It is a two-dimensional representation of the Earth’s three-dimensional landscapes.
• Elements include colors, feature classes, lines, symbols, letters, numbers, and map scale.

Methods of Representing Relief Features:

• Hachures: Short, disconnected lines representing slopes, drawn in the direction of the ground slope or water flows.
  • Illustrate steepness of slopes: thicker and closer for steep slopes, thinner and spaced apart for gentle slopes.
  • Represent mountain ranges, peaks, plateaus, and valleys on simple sketch maps or small-scale maps.
  • Show depressions and small banks or escarpments.
  • Limitations: Do not indicate height and exact gradients; give qualitative information.
  • Laborious to draw and difficult to read; used with contour lines to illustrate escarpments, depressions, and craters.
• Contours or Isohypses: Imaginary line connecting places having equal elevation above a datum or mean sea level (m.s.l.).
  • Mean sea level: The average level of the sea, calculated from observations taken at equal intervals.
  • Universal method to illustrate relief without hiding other map features.
  • Drawn at regular intervals in brown color.
  • Commonly at 20 m interval in 1:50,000 and 100 m interval in 1:250,000 toposheets; never cross each other.
  • Index Contour: Started from zero elevation, represents every fifth heavier contour line.
  • Intermediate Contours: Finer/thinner contours between index contours.
  • Calculated by dividing the elevation difference between two index contours by five (if four intermediate contours).
  • Contour \Interval = \frac{Elevation \2 - Elevation\_1 }{5}

General Properties of Contours:

• Contours cannot merge or cross, except at vertical cliffs, waterfalls, and hanging cliffs.
• Contour lines do not branch; branching lines represent rivers, roads, and boundaries.
• Numbered in the direction towards which altitude increases.
• Evenly spaced contours: uniform slope.
• Widely spaced contours: gentle slope.
• Closely spaced contours: steep slope.
• Contour lines are generated from spot heights.
• Spot height: Specific altitude of a place at that particular point.

Major Relief Features (Landforms) and Contour Representation

• Hill: Rounded surface rising above its surroundings; shown by concentric circles.
• Closed contours at higher elevations (height < 1,000 m) indicate a hill.
• Smallest closed circle is the hilltop.
• Concave hillside: contours closely spaced at the top, widening downslope.
• Convex hillside: contours widely spaced at the top, closely spaced down the hillside.
• Mountain: Landmass projecting well above its surroundings; higher than a hill.
• Closed contours with elongated shapes and increasing values towards the center represent mountain ranges.
• Ridge: Long and narrow hillside or sloping line of high ground with two or more peaks.
• Elliptical contour lines.
• U-shaped or V-shaped contours point away from high ground.
• Valley: Stretched-out long and narrow groove; long depression formed by vertical erosion of a river.
• Bounded by higher elevation areas.
• U or V-shaped contours point upstream or toward high ground.
• Contours parallel to the stream until they cross it at the base of each V.
• Saddle: Dip or low point between two areas of higher ground.
• Low ground in two directions, high ground in the other two.
• Depression: Area of low ground surrounded by higher ground.
• Represented by closed contours with tick marks pointing towards the low ground.
• Values decrease toward the center.
• Cut Contour: Roadway or railway cuts through raised landscape.
  • Drawn with a contour line along the cut line; tick marks extend to the roadbed.
• Plateau: Elevated land represented by closed contours roughly rectangular in shape.
• Increasing values towards the center.
• Piedmont plateau: Formed in the foothills.
• Intermontane plateau: Enclosed by mountains.
• Gorge: Very steep valley at higher elevations formed by river erosion.
• Identified by closely converging contours in the river course.
• Spur: Short continuous sloping line of higher ground, jutting out from the side of a ridge.
• Ground slopes down in three directions, up in one direction.
• U or V shapes directing away from high ground.
• Cliff: Steep sloped or near-vertical exposure of a valley or coast.
• Contour lines merge into a single carrying contour.
• Tick marks point toward low ground.
• Fill: Man-made feature resulting from filling a low area to form a level bed for a road or railway.
• Drawn with a contour line along the fill line; tick marks point toward the lower ground.

Catchment Representation on Contour Map

• Drainage Basin/Catchment Area: Geographical space drained by a major river and its tributaries.
• Drainage System: System of all river basins flowing in the same direction.
• Main river, tributaries, confluence, source, and mouth.

Steps to identify a drainage basin:

• Identify the main river and outlet point.
• Highlight tributaries and their flow direction.
• Locate ridge lines and high points.
• Visualize surface flow direction.
• Trace outline of the watershed.

Drainage Pattern Representation on Contour Map

• Dendritic Patterns: Tree-like shape with branches; formed in homogeneous rock.
• Trellis Drainage Patterns: Develop where harder and softer rocks alternate; affected by tectonic forces.
• Radial Drainage Pattern: Rivers flow in all directions away from a raised feature.
• Centripetal Drainage Patterns: Rivers flow from surrounding high ground towards a central basin.

Basic Concepts of Geographical Information System (GIS)

Definition and Importance of GIS

• GIS: Computer-based system for capturing, preparing, storing, checking, retrieving, manipulating, analyzing, and displaying geographically referenced data (geospatial data).

• Integrates hardware, software, and geospatial data to analyze relationships, patterns, and trends via maps and charts to support decision-making for land use, natural resources, environment, transportation, urban facilities, and administrative records.

• Applicable in environmental and social sciences: population, public health, crime study, and market planning.

• Benefits: Integrates complex and diverse information into simple maps;

• merges diverse data sources; manages critical data; informs decision-making; provides platform for project planning, monitoring, reporting, data sharing, and visualizing information.

• Importance: Addresses climate change, food production, natural resources, and natural disasters. Addresses local geographical issues, such as siting of facilities, emergency services management, and resource conservation.

• Used to integrate information, propose solutions, and visualize scenarios.

• Applied for mapping and analysis of network services, urban development, transport management, suitable agriculture, disaster management, planning and community development, irrigation management, and wildlife management.

• Examines spatial relationships, destruction rates, and high-risk areas.

Components of GIS

• Key components: Hardware, software, data, people, and methods.
• Hardware: Technical equipment needed to run GIS tasks; includes input (computer, GPS, mobile phones, scanners, digitizers) and output (printer, plotter, hard disc).
• GIS software: Provides functions and tools to input, store, manage, analyze, and display geographic information.
• ArcGIS (ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcScene, ArcGlobe) and QGIS software examples.
• Database management systems (DBMS): Tools for input, manipulation, query, analysis, and visualization of geographic information.
• Data: Most important component; geographic (spatial) data and related tabular data.
• Two main methods to store data: raster images and vectors.
• Rasters: Store aerial photographs and imagery in grid cells. Used to represent continuous layers: elevation, slope, soil, vegetation, temperature, rainfall.
• Vectors: Represent discrete data; geographical features expressed by geometry (points, lines, polygons).
• Points: Represent wells, airports, cities, schools, health posts.
• Lines/Polylines: Represent rivers, roads, railroads, trails.
• Polygons: Represent lakes, national parks, administration boundaries, buildings, land uses.
• Spatial data: Shape, size, location, and orientation of geographical features.
• Non-spatial data: Attributes; independent of geometric considerations; e.g., lake depth, water quality, pollution level.
• People: GIS users (browse geographic databases, perform services, make decisions) and GIS specialists (collect, manage, analyze data, provide support).
• Methods: Well-designed plans and rules that allow the GIS to operate. Models and operating practices unique to each organization.

ArcMap and Main Tools

Objective

• Master opening, saving and closing ArcMap documents; describe functions of tools; add and display data; map geographical issues and distributions.

ArcMap Basics

• ArcMap: Program for adding data, making maps, performing analysis, editing data, accessing catalog and toolbox, and using tools for GPS data.
• Map Exchange Documents (MXD): ArcMap document files specifying GIS data used, display information, and other elements.
• ArcMap does not store data directly, but refers to data sources.

Opening ArcMap Documents:

• Click on the ArcMap Icon in your start menu to open the software.
• Double-click an ArcMap document (.mxd file) on desktop short cut to start ArcMap with the desired map.
• By default, ArcMap begins with a new, empty map document.

Saving Map Documents:

• Maps are saved as a document stored on your hard disk.
• ArcMap automatically adds the '.mxd' extention to your map document name.

Closing Saved Map Documents:

• Click the file menu and click close to close a currently opened map document.

ArcMap Menus and Tools

• New Project – Opens a new (blank) ArcMap Document. (This creates a new .mxd file)
• Open Project – Opens an existing document.
• Save project – Saves the current ArcMap document. Please note the mxd does not contain any data directly, rather it only links to the data being used. This may be important when sharing your .mxd file with others who may need internet access for base data.
• Print –Print the map view.
• Add layers – This tool allows a user to add GIS data to the document. This data may be stored locally, accessed through a network or provided as a service over the internet.
• Edit function
• ArcCatalog is used for GIS Data management tasks such as creating new shapefiles, copy shapefiles, delete shapefiles and others.
• ArcToolbox
• Zoom in – allows a user to zoom into an area either by clicking on the desired location or by holding the right mouse button and drawing a rectangular box over the desired area of interest.
• Zoom out - allows a user to zoom out of an area either by clicking on the desired location or by holding the right mouse button and drawing a rectangular box over the desired area of interest.
• Fixed zoom out -to indicate how much to zoom out to the feature.
• Fixed zoom in- to indicate how much to zoom in to the feature.
• Pan - Select the hand and pan the map view in the desired direction
• Full extent allows a user to expand the map view to the full geographical extent of the data located within the project.
• Select element allows a user to choose a selection shape (circle, rectangle, line or polygon) to select features of an active data theme
• Identify Select the identify button, and then select a data theme by clicking on that theme and making it active. Use the identify tool to query the active data theme.
• Find tool allows a user to perform a string query on any data theme located within the map view.
• Add XY- allows a user to drop a point and generate the X, Y coordinate for a specific location in a map.
• The measure tool measures distance in specified units from one location to another.
• Please note that the figures describing these sections weren't included in the source transcript to build the notes.

ArcToolbox

• ArcToolbox: integrated application by ESRI. User interface facilitating access and organization of geoprocessing tools, models, and scripts.
• Toolboxes are containers for toolsets (logical containers of tools) and tools.

Common toolboxes:

• Analysis Toolbox: Geoprocessing operations for overlays, buffers, statistics, and proximity analysis of vector data.
• Cartography Toolbox: Data production and map support for specific cartographic standards.
• Conversion Toolbox: Converts data between various formats.
• Coverage Toolbox: Operations using coverage as input/output.
• Data management Toolbox: Collection of tools to develop, manage, and maintain features classes, datasets, layers; and raster data structures.
• Geocoding Toolbox: Geocoding tasks (creation, maintenance, and deletion of address locators, geocoding of addresses).
• Linear Referencing Toolbox: For creating, calibrating, and displaying data for linear referencing.
• Spatial Analyst Toolbox: For creating, querying, analyzing cell-based raster data; performing raster/vector analysis; deriving new information.

ArcCatalog

• Primarily used as a file manager.
• Develops metadata for GIS data, like the data set name, the data projection, how it was created.

Adding and Removing Data

• Adding Data: This data could be local data that you have previously created, or have been provided with; these formats could include shapefile, geodatabase, tabular data, or others. In addition, data can be sourced from the internet through data providers or streamed through online data services.

• Use the ArcCatalog Window, browse your data, and drag and drop the file into your project or select the "Add Data" button.

• To add data, use the additional data pull-down menu which has three commands. Add Data opens the add data dialog box, where you can add local data, or connect to a known data server or service. Add Basemap opens the base map dialog box, where you can select from a variety of pre-made base maps published by ESRI and other groups. Add Data from ArcGIS Online opens the ArcGIS Online portal, allowing you to browse through numerous base maps and data services provided by any number of groups.

• The order of features that were added to the ArcMap is organized in the Table of Contents by geometry Type.

• The format which it is organized in is as follows. (Point features are on top of line features. Line features are on top of polygon features. Polygon features would be on top of raster data sets).

• Removing Data: The instruction to remove data is given as follow. First locate the file you wish to remove in the Table of Contents in ArcMap. The Table of Contents is the list of data layers that appears on the left side of the ArcMap window. Secondly, make right-click on the file name for the layer that you wish to remove and a context menu will appear. Choose Remove from the menu.

Displaying Data

• Maps can be displayed in data view and layout view.
• Data view: Geographic window for exploring, displaying, and querying data; uses real-world coordinates.
• Layout view: Working with map layout elements (titles, arrows, scale bars) arranged on a page.

Comprehensive Summary of GIS Concepts and Tools

GIS Definitions

• Define Relief: Height difference between different landform features in a given geographical area.
• Topographic Maps: Use hachure and contour lines to represent uneven landforms with different heights.
• Hachures: Small lines along maximum slope direction, used with contour lines to illustrate escarpments, depressions, and craters.
• Contours: Lines connecting places with equal elevation, showing mountains, valleys, and landforms.
• GIS: Computer-based system for capturing, preparing, manipulating, analyzing, and displaying geospatial data.
• ArcMap: Application of the ArcGIS desktop environment for adding data, making maps, and performing analysis.