Demonstrates with case studies that the value of Geographic Information Systems is not limited to Geographers. Presented by Tom Armitage at GIS Update in Edinburgh on 17 June 2016.

1. Teaching GIS to Non-
Geographers
Tom Armitage
EDINA, Geoservices Support
@EDINA_Digimap @MapNav_Tom

2. Who am I
• Historians
• Genealogists
• Architects
• Civil Engineers
• Human Resources
@EDINA_Digimap @MapNav_Tom

3. Geoservices Support
• Social scientists
• Archaeologists
• Biologists
• Epidemiologists
• Anthropologists
• Agriculturalists
• Horticulturalists
• Arboriculturalists
• Psychologists
• Criminologists
• Physicists
• Classicists@EDINA_Digimap @MapNav_Tom

4. Digimap Users by Subject
8%
24%
7%
4%
7%
25%
7%
3%
5%
3%
Agriculture, food, and forestry
Architecture and planning
Biological sciences
Business and management studies
Communication and media studies
Creative and performing arts
Education and research methods
Engineering
Geography and environment
Humanities
Law
Mathematics and computer science
Medicine including dentistry
Modern languages and area studies
Nursing, midwifery and allied health
Physical sciences
Psychology
Social sciences
Veterinary medicine
Other
Source: Digimap OS Collection User Satisfaction Survey 2013: http://edina.ac.uk/impact/html/osdigimap2013.html
@EDINA_Digimap @MapNav_Tom

5. What are they doing?
• Location Maps
• Thematic Maps
• Site Plans
• Web Maps
@EDINA_Digimap @MapNav_Tom

6. Teaching GIS
Getting the
software
Adding
Data to it
Make data
into a Map
Basic Data
Processing
Printing a
map out
@EDINA_Digimap @MapNav_Tom

7. Best Practice
•Cartography
•Copyright
•Normalisation
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8. Best Practice: Cartography
•Categories
•Colour Vision Deficiency
•Photocopying
@EDINA_Digimap @MapNav_Tom

9. Best Practice: Copyright
©Crown
Copyright
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10. Best Practice: Normalisation
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11. Precautions
•Currency
•Projection
•Conversion
•Generalisation and scale
@EDINA_Digimap @MapNav_Tom

12. Precautions: Currency
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13. Precautions: Projection
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14. Precautions: Conversion
•OSTN02
•Petroleum
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15. Precautions: Generalisation & Scale
Check your:
•Scale
•Source
for compatibility
@EDINA_Digimap @MapNav_Tom

16. Specialist Training: Business Studies
• Demographic Data
• Travel Times
• Basemaps
• Simple Tools
@EDINA_Digimap @MapNav_Tom

17. Specialist Training: Geology
@EDINA_Digimap @MapNav_Tom

18. • Unlock
• http://edina.ac.uk/unlock/texts/
• CLAVIN
• https://clavin.bericotechnologies.com/
• Edinburgh LTG
• https://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/software/geoparser/
Specialist Training: GeoParsing
@EDINA_Digimap @MapNav_Tom

19. Specialist Training: Informatics
@EDINA_Digimap @MapNav_Tom

20. Specialist Training: English Literature
@EDINA_Digimap @MapNav_Tom

21. Specialist Training: Social Science
@EDINA_Digimap @MapNav_Tom

22. • Non-Geographers do some interesting stuff
• We try not to overload them
• Are we teaching them enough?
• Should we just make the maps for them?
Conclusions
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23. Conclusions
Useful Tool to help themselves?
…Or…
Powerful Tool in the wrong hands?
@EDINA_Digimap @MapNav_Tom