UPDATE 29-Aug-2021 Library Media Specialist LouAnne Taylor writes that one of her volunteers found the following geocaching guide, which the library staff found very useful: www.titlemax.com/resources/guide-to-geocaching-road-trips/
UPDATE 18-May-2020 Lake Jennings Boy Scouts of America Troop 325 found some of the resources on this page useful and have suggested that I add the following link for the benefit of others. It is gratifying to learn that a web page I created for a 1998 summer workshop has been found, and found useful, over 20 years later!
www.yourlawyer.com/library/boy-scouts-navigation-skills-guide/
In case it is of interest to readers of this page, the Agenda for the 1998 Workshop may be found at demographer.com/gfeeney/sspws1998/.
UPDATE 10-Sep-2017 A group of young people working on a project at the Brenham Community Center in Texas found some of the resources on this page useful and have provided the following link for some newer material. Many thanks to them!
expressfreightfinance.com/resources/maps-mapping-gps-geocaching/
The following links provide more information on the topics covered in the GIS and mapping section of the workshop. The links are ordered by the broad topics listed in the following table of contents.
Definitions
Glossaries
World Wide Web GIS resource lists and information
Background papers and on-line books
Census mapping
Internet mapping
Digital census atlases
Cartography
GPS
Remote sensing and aerial photography
Software information
Data sources
GIS and health
| Background papers and on-line books | |
| Geographical Information Systems for Population Statistics (United Nations) | This publication will also be distributed. |
| Computerized Cartographic Work for Censuses and Surveys | An overview of the role of maps in the census process by Sam Suharto and Duy Man Vu of the United Nations Statistics Division. The paper discusses technical issues concerning mapping for census enumeration. This paper is also on the UNFPA CD/ROM. |
| ESRI’s Getting to Know Desktop GIS | On-line version of an ESRI book introducing desktop mapping with ArcView. |
| Definitons | |
| ESRI’s "What is GIS" | This is a very brief introduction of what GIS is about by the company that makes ArcView and ArcInfo software. |
| NCGIA’s "What is GIS" | A more academic introduction to GIS by Prof. Michael Goodchild at the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA), University of California, Santa Barbara. This is the first module of the new NCGIA core curriculum project. |
| USGS’s "What is GIS" | Definition and brief introduction from the United States Geological Survey, the main US mapping agency. |
| GIS as an Integrating Technology: Contexts, Concepts and Definitions | Brief introduction to GIS from the Geographer’s Craft Project at the University of Texas. Provides definitions of GIS, related terms and some of its major functions |
| GIS and mapping software information | |
| ESRI’s ArcView Product Information | The main product information page for ArcView at the ESRI web site. |
| MapInfo | Another popular Desktop Mapping/GIS package which is quite similar to ArcView |
| Maptitude | Simple mapping package. See a review in PC Magazine |
| Idrisi | Non-profit raster GIS & Image Processing Software for Windows and DOS. Provides training and educational materials, on-going research in GIS use and application. |
| UNSD's PopMap | Mapping and GIS package developed by the UN Statistics Division. Provides data management and cartographic capabilites. Free of charge to developing countries and non-profits. Good tool for spatial data distribution, e.g., digital census atlases. This site also contains extensive information about mapping for population activities (the site and the software itself is also contained on the UNFPA CD/ROM). |
| Intergraph GeoMedia | A high-end GIS that is very popular in the utilities sectors. |
| ESRI’s ArcInfo Product Information | High-end GIS. The "big brother" of ArcView. Mostly run on workstations and Windows NT, it provides advanced analysis and data management capabilities. |
| ESRI’s ArcExplorer Product Information | ArcExplorer is a free spatial data viewer. Allows simple query and mapping of ArcInfo or ArcView generated data. Good tool for spatial data distribution, e.g., digital census atlases. |
| World Wide Web GIS resource lists and information | |
| GIS Resources (with thanks to Elizabeth Bailey) | [The US Census Bureau FAQ link originally here is broken.] |
| GIS and geography WWW resource list at the University of Edinburgh | Numerous links to university departments, public and commercial sites dealing with GIS and geography. |
| GIS and geography WWW resource list at the University of Utrecht (Netherlands) | Numerous links to university departments, public and commercial sites dealing with GIS and geography. |
| ESRI’s jump station | Links to GIS applications, user groups and other sites. |
| Glossaries | |
| The Geographer’s Craft Project’s Glossary of GIS terms | A list of keywords concerning mapping and GIS. |
| USGS’s Glossary of GIS terms | Quite technical definitions of key mapping terms |
| ESRI’s Glossary of GIS terms | More general definitions of GIS terms. Somewhat ESRI product oriented but quite useful |
| GIS and health sites | |
| Atlas of United States Mortality selected causes of death | Has links to maps showing causes of death by county in the US. The cartographic design of these maps was done by the Penn State Geography Department. An excellent example of thematic mapping. The methods are explained in this PDF file (about 1 mb). |
| Just another health geography page | Contains lots of information, maps and links concerning epidemiology, public health and medicine and their relationship to GIS and mapping. |
| GIS for Health and the Environment | Proceedings of an International Workshop on GIS in epidemiology held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 5–10 September 1994. |
| Geography Helps Epidemiologists To Investigate Spread Of Disease | Magazine article on research into the spatial aspects of epidemiology. |
| On Epidemiology and Geographic Information Systems: A Review and Discussion of Future Directions | On-line article written by a group of geographers/ epidemiologists from Hunter College |
| Census mapping information | |
| US Census Bureau’s Geographic Starting Points | Information on census mapping, the TIGER system for managing census GIS data, map gallery, and links to other resources. |
| Socioeconomic data | Lecture notes about sources and characteristics of socioeconomic data. Compiled by Brian Klinkenberg, UBC. |
| New Technologies for Census Workshop | Papers on GIS for census applications presented at a workshop in Israel in 1997. |
| Statistical links - Netherlands | Comprehensive list of links to statistical offices around the world. Not specific to census mapping, but many of NSOs show maps on their sites. |
| Digital census atlases | |
| Case Study of a National Census Atlas | Describes the development of a digital census atlas for Uganda using the PopMap package. This article is also on the UNFPA CD/ROM. |
| Madagascar Census Atlas | Another case study describing the digital census atlas for Madagascar which was also produced using the PopMap package. This article is also on the UNFPA CD/ROM. |
| County level census maps, Pennsylvania, USA | Example of static maps produced using ArcView and presented on the Internet. There is also an example of statistical maps for metropolitan areas. |
| Global Positioning Systems (GPS) | |
| GPS Lecture notes | Overview of GPS at the Geographer's Craft Project, University of Texas. |
| GPS Resources | GPS information at the web site of GPS World Magazine. |
| Trimble - All About GPS | Trimble is one of the major manufacturers of GPS receivers. The site contains a lot of general information. |
| USCG Navigation Center GPS PAGE | GPS information from the United States Coast Guard. GPS is used widely in navigation at sea. |
| Global Positioning System Primer | General GPS information provided by the Aerospace Corporation. |
| Remote sensing and aerial photography | |
| MIT + MassGIS Digital Orthophoto Project | This site provides on-line access to complete digital orthophoto for the city of Boston. Digital orthophotos are aerial photographs or photo-maps that are accurately georeferened. |
| Remote Sensing and Photo Interpretation Tutorial | Quite comprehensive tutorial on remote sensing and image interpretation. Produced by NASA, the United States national space agency. |
| Cartography | |
| Map Projections | Overview of map projections at the Geographer's Craft Project, University of Texas. |
| Cartographic Communication | Overview of cartographic concepts at the Geographer's Craft Project, University of Texas. |
| Color Use Guidelines for Mapping and Visualization | Discusses the use of colors in cartography and provides guidelines for choosing colors that are appropriate for the data that are mapped. By Cindy Brewer, Penn State University, Dept. of Geography. |
| Cartographic links | List of links to various web sites providing cartographic information, resources and products. |
| Working papers on cartographic visualization" | Links to working papers produced by members of the International Cartographic Association's Commission on Visualization. Check out the design of the on-line paper by M-J Kraak on exploratory cartography. |
| Oddens bookmarks: maps and atlases | A very comprehensive list of links to all sorts of map and atlas resources - including many online. |
| Internet mapping | |
| Demographic data viewer | Allows on-line, interactive mapping of US census data. The site is at the Consortium for International Earth Science (CIESIN) - Socioeconomic Data Applications Center. |
| Capital cities and cities of 100,000 and more inhabitants | Example of how static population-related maps can be presented in a hierarchical design. The user first chooses a region, and can then see a map of the region or a list of data for a country. |
| Links to more Internet mapping sites | List of links to sites that use ESRI's Internet mapping software to present interactive maps over the Internet. |
| US TIGER system - interactive maps of the US | Interactive mapping interface to access TIGER data for any part of the USA. (The lat/long coordinate for Honolulu is approximately 21.3, -157.8) |
| Alexandria Digital Library | A large research project at the University of California aimed at developing systems that can make large map libraries available over the Internet. |
| Data sources | |
| DCW web server | This web site will allow you to download the boundaries and layers of individual countries, in Arc/INFO export format, from ESRI's Digital Chart of the World data set. Penn State University |
| Digital Chart of the World (DCW) | A brief description of the DCW data set (at USGS/EROS Data Center) |
| UNEP/GRID | United Nations Environment Program, Global Resource Information Database. Has mostly environmental, but also some socioeconomic GIS data for downloading as well as many links to other data sources. Also has an interactive mapping page for North Korea. |
| CIESIN/SEDAC | Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network, Socioeconomic Data Applications Center. Provides downloadable GIS data for the US and several other countries. Extensive databases for China and Mexico. |
| NIMA global gazetteer | A very comprehensive list of place names and coordinates maintained by the US National Imagery and Mapping Agency (former Defense Mapping Agency). Choose a country, type in a place name and the system provides the latitude/longitude coordinate for that place. |
| Perry Castaneda Map Library | Large collection of scanned maps for all parts of the World at the University of Texas, Austin. |
| Geographic Correspondence Engine | A query tool developed by CIESIN/SEDAC and the US Census Bureau that lets the user extract lists of variables for specific geographically defined regions. No maps, but a good example of making census data available via the Internet. |
| Map Stats | Another query tool that uses a series of maps to allow the user to retrieve data for specific geographic regions (e.g., counties). |