GIS Utilized in Law
There are many uses for GIS. Although they all revolve around the same system, they can be totally different. I recently discovered an unusual industry taking advantage GIS. Attorneys are using GIS to help with their law cases. With one example I found on the JurisPro Expert Witness Directory, GIS helped determine remediation in quality of groundwater. The article Hydrology Expert Witnesses & GIS gives further example of how GIS helps monitor groundwater pumping and land subsidence or intrusion in coastal areas.
An additional resource for GIS in law was a link I found on the Remote Sensing and Geospatial Data Used as Evidence in Court post through GeoData Policy. This document is a list of case law from Crowsey Inc. Some of the interesting cases documented include:
- Privacy Laws Pertaining to Aerial-Photography and Remote Sensing
- Aerial Photography to Prove Deterioration Marsh Land
- GIS in City Council Districting
- Satellite Photos Used to Determine Location of a Barge Accident
- GIS Identified a Drug-Free Buffer Zone Around Schools
All of this goes to show that no matter what industry that you may be in, GIS can be used to not only benefit a company but provide evidence in a court of law. Although these examples show pieces of evidence that are pulled from every day GIS work , it also gives and interesting career idea.
Combining GIS and Law make for an exciting career adventure. Who would have of thought?
Related Books
GIS in Law Enforcement: Implementation Issues and Case Studies
Crime Analysis and Crime Mapping
Introduction to Crime Analysis: Basic Resources for Criminal Justice Practice
Enhance Your ArcMap Legends
The cartographic design of a map is an important part to the delivery of your information. One of the key features is the legend. It defines how the map is perceived. If the legend is not presented in a helpful role, then the map is of no value. There are many elements to a legend. Understanding each area and how they work is important. Here are some excellent insights to ArcMap legends that are within this video:
- Multiple Columns
- Titles
- Frames
- Drop Shadows
- Layers Swatches
- Font Types
- Description Layouts
Check it out and take your maps to the next level!
Note: Videos are broadcast through youtube.com. Some browsers may block this content.
Related Readings
Creating a Whole Page Legend in ArcMap
Multi-Lined Legend Labels in ArcMAP
ArcGIS Tutorial: Manually Editing the Legend in ArcGIS/ArcMAP
Related Books
Making Maps: A Visual Guide to Map Design for GIS
Designing Better Maps: A Guide for GIS Users
Breakdown the GIS PhD
Most GIS professionals are no where near the PhD level. Most are content at the Bachelor’s level or maybe the Master’s level. However, have you considered the PhD option? Is there any professional value in a GIS Phd? This topic is discussed in the Directions Magazine podcast: The GIS PhD Dilemma. Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg discuss the pros and cons of this educational step.
Adena points out that the individuals that have a PhD in which she has encountered are working in the education field. And also the professors that she had while pursuing her geography degree, have received their PhD in Geography, not GIS. Additionally, she mentions two PhD in GIS programs:
University at Buffalo
PhD Degree in Geography with Specialization in GIS
http://www.geog.buffalo.edu/programs/phd/gis.shtml
The University of Texas at Dallas
Doctor of Philosophy in Geospatial Information Sciences
http://epps.utdallas.edu/gis/phd.html
Joe brought up an excellent question, do you get your degree in GIS the tool or GIS the Science? He also mentions that he hasn’t seen any job posts that require a PhD in GIS.
Is there a demand for this designation? Will you make the choice to follow this path? Listen to this podcast and make the decision for yourself.
CAD to GIS Shapefile
December 10, 2008 by Timothy
Filed under ArcGIS, ArcToolbox, Data Management, GIS Tips, Videos
CAD files are created with extreme detail, but how can you use them in GIS? These files do not work quite like GIS feature classes or shapefiles in spatial analysis. They can be converted to a usable format through a few basic steps.
- Add CAD file to ArcMap
- Select by Attribute desired layers
- Export selected features to shapefile or feature class
- Add new layer to map
You can also use ArcToolbox to convert from CAD
- ArcToolbox -> Conversion Tools -> Import From CAD
- Select Input CAD File
- Input New Geodatabase Name
- Select Coordinate System (optional)
- Click Ok
Here is a video for further demonstration.
Note: Videos are broadcast through youtube.com. Some browsers may block this content.
ESRI also has some good courses for working with CAD files in GIS on their training website.
Related Readings
KarelCAD provide inputs on CAD and Geographical Information Systems
“What is spatial design, and how can it be applied to sustainability problems?”
What – There is a Better AutoCAD!?
Excel in ArcGIS Desktop
You may not realize it, but you can actually add Excel spreadsheets to ArcMap without having to convert it to a *.dbf. ESRI has made it possible in the ArcGIS 9.2 version and higher. This is a big time saver. There have been many times that I have had non-spatial data that I would like to join up to a feature class. I used to open the excel document and do a save as .dbf and then add the .dbf to my map to complete the join. Now you can add an individual sheet. I would go into details about this, but ESRI has a blog post entitled: Formatting Excel Data for Use in ArcGIS Desktop that covers it just as well as I could do.
Also note that Excel 2007 does not allow a file to be saved as a .dbf. Adding the actual excel file in this situation is the simplest way to integrate this data.
The Formatting Excel Data for Use in ArcGIS Desktop post has a main focus on formatting your excel data to be uses efficiently in ArcGIS. Towards the end of the post there are some basic instructions to adding the data to you map document.
A few things that were not mentioned that I would like to point out:
- If you add and excel sheet to ArcMap, make sure that you do not have it open. Although it will work fine and the data will update as you change it in excel, this could form issues. If you do keep it open, you must open the excel file before adding it to the map (see next item).
- If you have added an excel sheet to ArcMap then go to open the excel file, excel will say that the file is already open and only allow it to be viewed in read only format.
- Make sure the fields you use to join are formatted with the same field types as the joined feature class.
Learn how to Create Point File from XY Data that you add in from excel or a *dbf.
Related Blog Posts
ArcGIS and Excel are Worthwhile
New Attribute Data Collection Tool for ArcGIS Users
Getting to Know ArcGIS for 9.3
ESRI has just announced an updated version to one of their best selling books entitled Getting to Know ArcGIS. This information coming out on December 1st through a ESRI Press Release. The enhancement has added about 18 pages and updates the exercise data to be compatible with ArcGIS 9.3.
This book is a great resource for those who are looking to learn the ArcGIS interface. As the press release states:
The workbook introduces GIS concepts and capabilities and describes the features and functionality in ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo, the core products in the ArcGIS Desktop line. Step-by-step exercises, accompanied by richly detailed illustrations, teach basic GIS tasks such as how to conduct spatial analysis, make maps, and build and edit spatial databases.
However, if you do not have ArcGIS 9.3 then the older version would be fine. Both books contain the same quality information. There is a slight price difference in the books though.
Getting to Know ArcGIS (9.2 and earlier)
Related GIS Pathway Posts
ArcGIS Geodatabase Benefits
December 3, 2008 by Timothy
Filed under ArcGIS, Data Management, GIS Tips
I was just recently doing a spatial join between a polygon shapefile and a point feature class file. There were approximately 400 polygons and 38,000 points. There were several fields within the point file which were being summarized based upon which polygon they fell within. The entire join process took about an hour. I then took the output file, which was a geodatabase polygon feature class and joined it to a similar point file. Amazingly, that join process only took 5 minutes.
This is just one example of the efficiency of the Geodatabase. Geoprocessing is so much quicker. A savings of time is a savings of money. Here are a few other things to know about the various types of geodatabases.
Personal Geodatabase
- Single User Editing
- Stored in Access Database File
- 2 GB Max Size
File Geodatabase (ArcGIS 9.2+)
- Single User Editing
- Stored in a Folder
- Efficient Data Structure for Increased Performance
- 1 TB per Table Max Size
SDE Geodatabase
- Multiuser Editing
- Disconnected Editing
- Stored in a RDBMS
Additionally, with the geodatabase you can create:
Topologies
Geometric Networks
Feature Linked Annotation
Relationship Classes
Sub Types and Domains
A Centralized location for all the geographic data
So with these benefits of the geodatabase, try converting some of your data. Creating a geodatabase does not take long as you can find out in my 90 Second Geodatabase post. Also, ESRI has a great blog post entitled: Migrating your existing data into the Geodatabase. It goes into great detail into how to import the following file types into the geodatabase.
- Shapefiles
- Coverages
- CAD
- Tables
- Imagery
Try out the geodatabase today, you will find many benefits. If it seems a little awkward, give it time as you will get adjusted to the concept. There is nothing to loose. If you don’t like it then delete the geodatabase and go back to using your shapefiles.
Good Luck!
Related Website Pages
File Format Support in GeoCommons – Do Geodatabases Make Sense?
Five reasons why you should be using the File Geodatabase
Related Books
