Download NR 322: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems

NR 322: Quick History of GIS
Jim Graham
Fall 2008
Where does it start?
• When was the first time someone
scratched a map in the sand?
• Carved the number of fruit trees on their
land onto a plank of wood?
Town Plan from Catal Hyük (6200 B.C.)
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.missbarbara.net/carto.gif&im
Newgrange (3300 BC)
Stonehenge (3000BC)
First World Map: 500 BCE
• Neo-Babylonian
(Persian Period)
• Copy of an original
dating to the
Sargonid Period,
circa late eighth or
seventh century BCE
Interpretation
http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/AncientWebPages/103.html
Homer’s View of the Earth
Roman fresco globe 50 A.D.
Madaba Mosaic Map: Palestine, 565 A.D.
Plan of Jerusalem, c. 1200
• Psalter-fragment
• The Hague
Pietro Vesconte's World Maps, 1321
East
Henry The Navigator
• Portuguese prince
• Born: 1394
• 1498 Vasco de
Gama sailed from
Portugal to India
Cantino world map (1502)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_world_maps
Piri Reis map (1513)
First Map of 4 Known Continents
Sebastian Munster 1544
Medieval map of the Black Sea
Polynesian Stick Maps
Buddhist Temple Complex
Position
• Sun, Moon, and Stars?
• Sun, Moon, Stars and
Stexant -> Latitude
• Sun, Moon, Stars,
Stextant, and
Chronometer -> Latitude
and Longitude
• GPS
Direction
• Sun, moon, and stars
• Compass
• GPS (as long as you are moving!)
Recent Past
• Surveying with glass
optics and “chains”
– USGS Topographic Maps
• Charts and Sextants
• Compasses
• Street Maps
Current GIS
• Computers with GIS
Software (ArcGIS)
• Aerial & Satellite
photography
• Laser surveys
• LandSat Satellite
Images
• GPS Satellite
Network
Future of GIS?
• Interconnected Earth
– Google Earth?
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Martin Behaim globe (1492)
Fra Mauro world map (1459)
World map according to
Posidonius (150-130 B.C.)