SandJ Information Services Limited

GIS WWW Resource List

A very comprehensive index of World Wide Web servers of interest to the GIS community developed by the University of Edinburgh, in collaboration with the Association of Geographic Information.

http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/GISwww.html#I

MapInfo file types:

.TAB    Text file containing table definition
.MAP    Map graphics
.DAT/.DBF    Attribute table
.IND    Indices
.ID    Links table – for linking maps and attributes
.MIF    MapInfo export formats
.WOR    Workspace file
.PRJ    Projection file
.MIG    Grid surface file
.QRY    SQL Select query file
.MID    textual data

Shape file types:

An ESRI shapefile consists of a main file, an index file, and a dBASE table.

The main file is a direct access, variable-record-length file in which each record describes a shape with a list of its vertices.

In the index file, each record contains the offset of the corresponding main file record from the beginning of the main file.

The dBASE table contains feature attributes with one record per feature.

The one-to-one relationship between geometry and attributes is based on record number. Attribute records in the dBASE file must be in the same order as records in the main file.

The main file, the index file, and the dBASE file have the same prefix.

.SHP    main file
.SHX   index file
.DBF    dBase table

‘.sbn’ and ‘.sbx’ - the files that store the spatial index of the features.  These two files may not exist until you perform theme on theme selection, spatial join, or create an index on a theme’s Shape field.  If you have write access to the source data directory, the index files will be persistent and remain after your ArcView session is complete.  If you do not have write access to the source data directory, they will be removed when you close the project or exit ArcView.

‘.ain’ and ‘.aih’ - the files that store the attribute index of the active fields in a table or a theme’s attribute table.  These two files may not exist until you perform Link on the tables.  If you have write access to the source data directory, the index files will be persistent and remain after your ArcView session is complete.  If you do not have write access to the source data directory, they will be removed when you close the project or exit ArcView.

Useful link: a glossary of terms relating to deeds and land ownership: http://www.britishrecordsassociation.org.uk/publication_pages/Guidelines3.htm

http://www.fairview-industries.com/standardmodule/glossary.htm

http://en.mimi.hu/gis/index_gis.html

Useful link: GPS Glossary:

http://www.navtechgps.com/glossary.asp

http://gpsinformation.net/

Useful link: GIS Links:

Property prices: http://ononemap.com

Street level views: http://maps.a9.com

Description on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geospatial

GIS dictionary: http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/agidict/welcome.html 

GIS Essay:

A document I produced for Isle of Anglesey County Council 13/07/2005

A response to feedback on my earlier document

Recommended Reference books:

From Message-ID: <43954C52.B39E2683@york.ac.uk>:

"- Paul A Longley, Michael F Goodchild, David J Maguire, David W Rhind, 2001, Geographic Information Systems and Science.  Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.  (A good overview with excellent pointrs to other resources: start here)
- Peter A Burrough and Rachael A McDonnell, 1998, Principles of Geographical Information Systems.  Oxford: OUP. (Staple textbook for all my students)
- Stephem Wise, 2002, GIS Basics.  London: Taylor & Francis. (An excellent introduction to programming the essential spatial operations: a must for student programmers)
- Jonathan Raper, 2000, Multidimensional Geographic Information Science.  London: Taylor & Francis.  (Derived from the teaching materials for a MSc in GIS; covers some of the cognitive issues as well as the fundamentals)

Do expect to have to read a great deal more, plus some journal papers for your chosen specialism."

Getting started on a GIS project (with no money):

From Message-ID: <1133797790.923382.152560@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>:

"Divide your problem into three aspects:
1.  Data
2.  Geo-database/Spatial-database or simply database
3.  Client application

1.  The "Data" problem is usualy one of the hardest to solve, especially if you don't have a money to pay for it.  Go to local government, universities, companies, use Internet and try to find if there is something you can use for free.

2.  Database - I'd use one of Open Sorce solution. Look at PostgreSQL + PostGIS or MySQL with its spatial extension

3.  Application - this will be the client of your database.  There are many possible solutions, desktop applications or web mapping software for use on the Internet or an intranet.  So, again, do some searching: http://freegis.org/ ; take a look at the Quantum GIS as a very good example of desktop GIS - http://www.qgis.org ; there is also GRASS - http://grass.itc.it
If you're looking free web mapping solution, then read about MapServer - http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu .  If web mapping is what you want to use then I recommend you to read a very nice introductory book "Web Mapping Illustrated" By Tyler Mitchell.
If you want to write your own applications, then take a look at the GDAL/OGR at http://www.gdal.org as a foundation to read/write geospatial formats + OpenGIS Simple Feature implementation as a base of your vector subsystem."