Are you a social scientist, a scholar in the humanities, or perhaps working in the fine arts? Have you heard someone mention GIS, GPS, remote sensing, or perhaps independently thought about how adding a spatial component to your research might help further your analysis? For those without a background in geography, understanding how to begin integrate spatial questions can be as daunting as the software itself can seem.
One of my great academic passions is helping fellow scholars to start thinking about their research in a spatial way. Through this page, I offer the opportunity to provide basic feedback on approaching the process of devising spatial questions and understanding the process of obtaining the necessary spatial skill sets.
If you interested in receiving some advice along these lines, please leave a question (with a few lines about the basics of your research) in the comments. I, and any others who have ideas, will post a response, beginning a conversation intended to further the depth of your research.
One of my great academic passions is helping fellow scholars to start thinking about their research in a spatial way. Through this page, I offer the opportunity to provide basic feedback on approaching the process of devising spatial questions and understanding the process of obtaining the necessary spatial skill sets.
If you interested in receiving some advice along these lines, please leave a question (with a few lines about the basics of your research) in the comments. I, and any others who have ideas, will post a response, beginning a conversation intended to further the depth of your research.
I am glad this website is up and running and interested in seeing what comes of it. To make a long story short, I have taken some GPS coordinates of various tabla making shops in Varanasi and thought it would be interesting to plot them on a map. Unfortunately I haven't consistently taken coordinates because I am using borrowed technology; and I have noted that sometimes the coordinates seem to be very far from the actual location calling into question any of the coordinates I have taken where I was less sure of the location. I might be better off just scrolling through a google map and dropping points where I think things are. It might be more accurate.
ReplyDeleteBut even then, I haven't really started thinking about what it is I would like to get out of a map like that - or what possibilities might be available.
Hi Alan, Congrats for being the first poster! And for being in the endzone of your fieldwork. It's great you were able to get some GPS coordinates while in the field.
ReplyDeleteA first question is how far off do the points seem? Like 10 meters, or a kilometer?
A few thoughts: the coordinates of your GPS might "seem" off depending on the "coordinate system" that the GPS is set up with. Is coordinate system completely Greek to you? If so check out this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinate_system or
http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/coordsys/coordsys_f.html
Depending on what the coordinate system was set to, the data (GPS points) can be "transformed" to put them into a coordinate system that is appropriate for your specific sight. That might help to get things to align.
One other thought on why they might not be lining up: consumer-grade GPS devices are the not super accurate, usually 2-10 meters, but this depends on a variety of factors.
But a bigger question in what do you want to try to say with these points? Because if we're talking about their relative position across the city of Varanasi, 10 m doesn't make too much of a difference. That level of precision is probably fine.
Frequently, one can use Google Earth, Google Maps, Wikimaps or some other similar online map service to plot the correct points, and export those coordinates, however, knowing a little about Varanasi if you're work is deep inside some gullies it might be difficult. At the same time, you could use the position of some of the ghats to help orient you to the point you can identify the actual shop location.
Again, returning to that larger question: "what it is I would like to get out of a map like that - or what possibilities might be available". That's really the starting point before worrying too much about getting the points correctly lined up. In starting to think about this I think a great starting point is spelling out what variables you're looking at. Whether you're using terms like independent/dependent or not doesn't matter....in essence, what is it that you're looking at? I.e. the relationship between tabla players and X, or perhaps, certain types of tablas?
A few random thoughts not knowing too much about what the above variables are: you could look at the distribution of tabla makers within the city, perhaps having some sort of attribute (think column of data in an excel table, against the rows of makers) of years working with tablas, another column of religion, another on caste, another on whether they are the first in their family or X number of a lineage of tabla makers, another of whether they get materials from Y provider, perhaps one as to whether or not they sell internationally or domestically.
Those are just a flurry of ideas off the cuff, but the point is that, basically anything you have data on, and could make those data numeric, you can spatially represent by changing the data's symbology. What this means is that imagine a binary variable, for example whether a tabla maker ships internationally: i.e. yes or no; yes becomes 1, no becomes 2, no data is 0; with these data in a table you could spatially examine whether those who produce explicitly for an international market are localized within a certain area...
A later step might be to see whether those who ship internationally from a certain area are all Hindu, or of a specific caste....
Just some thoughts. Post another comment with some more info about your research, and any questions, once you've had a chance to ruminate, Best,
David
I definitely will post more again later. The main problem with the GPS was that it couldn't pick up many satellites. I don't think there is all that much coverage in India yet. So sometimes I would have to walk 20 30 meters before I could even get a signal - and some of my coordinates put me on the edge of the river - easily 700 or 800 meters away from where I was trying to locate. Technical difficulties aside, I will ruminate on the larger questions and get back to you....
ReplyDeleteSounds good; look forward to your further ruminations. The issue with the GPS was most likely that the narrow gullies/urban infrastructure made it difficult to pickup a signal. This frequently happens in the forest. Additionally, there are certain times of day (dependent on location) that are best for catching satellite signal, add also weather constraints. All of which is to say it invariably takes patience!
ReplyDeleteHi, I'm Martin(moescobidojr@addu.edu.ph) from the Philippines. I am interested in using GIS/Spatial Analysis in Public Administration. In particular, I would like to solicit your expert advise on possible literature related to GIS applications in Public Administration(i.e. governance and elections). Thank you very much for your time. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
ReplyDeleteThank you