Only Connect

We use network analysis to find streamflow gauging stations downstream of phosphorus sampling points In his novel Howards End, E.M. Forster encouraged us to “only connect”. He was talking about connecting the prose and the passion in our lives, to the exaltation of both, but here we’ll talk about connecting sampling sites within a river […]

Nearer my Points to Thee

We use the Near tool to link streamflow gauging stations close to phosphorus sampling points. In a previous post we looked mapping some water quality sampling points using the visual hierarchy. We’ll continue looking at a few aspects of this project over the next few posts and hopefully see some interesting and fun stuff along […]

Points with Purpose

We look at different strategies of mapping global points using definition queries and the visual hierarchy. Postgrad Jordan had an interesting and relatively common mapping challenge so in this post we’ll look at some of the options we tried to get a final and effective map for his research. He’s looking at the effect of […]

The Scale’s The Thing

We look at turning layers on and off at chosen scales to make for a better map. Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: A fellow of infinite jest. With all due respect to Hamlet and Willie the Shake, this time we’ll look at an oft underappreciated side of mapping: scale dependency for layer visibility. […]

Think Globaly, Extract Locally

We use Zonal Statistics as Table to extract raster data to polygons…but not without some frustration. In our last instalment we covered extracting global data to a set of 15,831 points. I’ll show those points again below to jog our collective memories. As we saw, it’s proved a challenge in many ways that could occupy […]

The Point(s) of the Data

We extract values from a range of global datasets to points for some E. coli analysis. Ah, Paris! The beautiful Seine! As the Olympics slowly fade from memory, some may recall that our triathletes were exposed to E. coli in the Seine River and experienced some unpleasant and performance diminishing gastrointestinal distress. I, too, have […]

Lessons Learnt from Muddy Boots

Last weekend was a glorious, bluebird weekend and I was lucky enough to head out on an early season tramp with daughter number 1 (number 1 in terms of birth order; they’re both number 1 in my book). What could possibly go wrong? Only that I’m getting to be an old man and my knees […]

Never Underestimate a Nematode

We look at how some simple data exploration can help us better understand spatial problems. Postgrad Ella has a thing for nematodes, but who am I to judge? As someone once said to me, with a bit of a sigh, “People will research anything…” Actually, nematodes are quite important to understand, especially if you’re a […]

Vector Makes Its Mark

A cornucopia of vector tools help with some marking While both students and academics are celebrating the end of another semester, it may well be a bit short-lived. Poor students have exams to cope with and poor academics have scads of marking to endure. One of the GIS courses has recently done a project on […]

Model Behaviour

Using ModelBuilder to automate a repetitive task No question – GIS can certainly be frustrating. And it doesn’t get any less frustrating as you get better; the problems just morph into more complex things. Lately, I’ve been wrestling with a particularly vexing problem that on the surface should have been easy but in practice made […]