Introduction
How did we get here?
Geospatial isn’t only about geographic sciences. But also, about data and information technologies. Especially ever since the introduction of the global navigation satellite system (GNSS). However, both the geospatial and informational were either limited or separated for a long time. GPS technologies accelerated quickly over the past few decades. But it wasn’t an easy pursuit. It dates back to when, in order to satisfy their argument with the English about the shape of the Earth, the French sent out two expeditions to make spatial measurements.
The French Cassini’s postulated that the Earth was elongated. While Isaac Newton deduced that it was flattened. In 1735 La Condamine and Bouguer went to what was then called Peru -in modern day Ecuador- to perform a measurement on a piece of a meridian. They spent nine years there. Then, in 1736, De Maupertuis spent a year and half in what which was then called Lapland in modern day Finland to do a similar land survey measurement.
Contrary to what was originally anticipated. The French survey measurements affirmed that the Earth was indeed flattened -as Newton originally anticipated with mathematic and without ever leaving his desk. Those were the early expeditions that initiated Earth measurement sciences as we have them today.
In 1807 President Thomas Jefferson, who was a surveyor himself, created the Survey of the Coast. Which included geodetic and astronomical survey tools to measure the Earth. Most of these tools were imported from Europe until the 1890s. The Coast Survey conducted monumental work across the U.S. collecting millions of data points on the ground in order to build complex mathematical models of the Earth. This later became the mapping system for the United States. Much of the work that these brave surveyors did over the past few decades laid out the groundwork for the evolution of GPS. In 1960 the U.S. Cost Survey figured out a way to use the Echo 1 satellite for global measurements of the earth. This initiated the development of the global satellite navigation network between 1964-1973. In 1970 the Coast Survey became the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) under NOAA.
The high costs associated with satellites and mapping systems limited their access to government and military for a long time. But technological and industrial revolutions that have flattened the way over the past few decades lowered their barriers to entry. Anyone today can make geospatial measurements and conduct complex statistical and mathematical methods of the entire world without leaving his or her desk. Just like I'm about to demonstrate for my case study.
I copied all of the above information about the history of geodesy and surveying from video lectures by Dave Doyle, NGS, Chief Geodetic Surveyor (Retired). I included all the links to his awesome video lectures at the end if this page you're interested to learn a ton more.
SeaWorld San Diego Geodatabase
Geodatabase Project
The objective of my assignment was to build a geodatabase and provide a useful application/service. I decided to find an open area near where I live to conduct a survey. So, I went to SeaWorld San Diego. What a great place to be. I created a geodatabase and visualized a map that can help both visitors and park management.
I was able to collect seven feature layers. Then I used an imagery web map from Esri with a WGS84 Web Mercator datum and PCS for my base map. Especially since the my map is dependant on GPS. For the geodatabase creation and web maps I used ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online.
I contributed concepts of spatial and temporal aspects of GIS; cartography and symbology; geodatabase design and creation; network data; data collection; and data science and AI applications.
Please note that all of the data included in my project was either publicly collected or fictional for the purposes of demonstration only.
Walkways Network
It took me about 2 hours to walk the whole park and collect longitude and latitude coordinates for my feature classes. I also used Field Maps from Esri briefly to help draw features in the field.
Furthermore, I spent a few hours on my base map to manually re-draw a walkway network and nodes. Neither horizontal nor vertical accuracy were important for my case study. I probably was able to attain 12-17 feet in general.
For my walkways network, I ended up with 72 individual walkways -which were designed to look like the maze of an amusement park.
Nodes
For my walkway network to perform properly if I wanted to create a direction app, I'd need to setup my roads based on the number of junctions in the network.
There's a tool in ArcGIS Pro that will create the network dataset for you. It includes a separate junction dataset by default. The junctions help with analyzing directions or finding best routes in a network. I created this nodes feature class manually just for visual purposes for now.
I ended up with 55 junctions and dead ends. So, in short: my network has 72 walkways and 47 turns. Inside the area of approximately a square quarter mile.
Points Of Interest (POI)
One of the first things visitors need to know in order to orient themselves are POI.
Spatio-Temporal Example
Vehicle Pass Form
I created a smart survey for my geodatabase using Survey123 from Esri. This survey tracks both the agent device location and parking/destination location.
Additional Spatio-Temporal Case Study Example
Data Science & Machine Learning
(Continue adding the rest of your StoryMap text here — kept verbatim.)