2022 QUARTER 01

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W
FC-24 - Conceptual Models of Error and Uncertainty

Uncertainty and error are integral parts of science and technology, including GIS&T, as they are of most human endeavors. They are important characteristics of knowledge, which is very seldom perfect. Error and uncertainty both affect our understanding of the present and the past, and our expectations from the future. ‘Uncertainty’ is sometimes used as the umbrella term for a number of related concepts, of which ‘error’ is the most important in GIS and in most other data-intensive fields. Very often, uncertainty is the result of error (or suspected error).  As concepts, both uncertainty and error are complex, each having several different versions, interpretations, and kinds of impacts on the quality of GIS products, and on the uses and decisions that users may make on their basis. This section provides an overview of the kinds of uncertainty and common sources of error in GIS&T, the role of a number of additional related concepts in refining our understanding of different forms of imperfect knowledge, the problems of uncertainty and error in the context of decision-making, especially regarding actions with important future consequences, and some standard as well as more exploratory approaches to handling uncertainties about the future. While uncertainty and error are in general undesirable, they may also point to unsuspected aspects of an issue and thus help generate new insights.

DM-58 - Content standards
  • Differentiate between a controlled vocabulary and an ontology
  • Describe a domain ontology or vocabulary (i.e., land use classification systems, surveyor codes, data dictionaries, place names, or benthic habitat classification system)
  • Describe how a domain ontology or vocabulary facilitates data sharing
  • Define “thesaurus” as it pertains to geospatial metadata
  • Describe the primary focus of the following content standards: FGDC, Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, and ISO 19115
  • Differentiate between a content standard and a profile
  • Describe some of the profiles created for the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM)
GS-02 - Contract law
  • Differentiate “contracts for service” from “contracts of service”
  • Discuss potential legal problems associated with licensing geospatial information
  • Identify the liability implications associated with contracts
DM-88 - Coordinate transformations
  • Cite appropriate applications of several coordinate transformation techniques (e.g., affine, similarity, Molodenski, Helmert)
  • Describe the impact of map projection transformation on raster and vector data
  • Differentiate between polynomial coordinate transformations (including linear) and rubbersheeting
GS-18 - Cultural influences
  • Collaborate effectively with colleagues of differing social backgrounds in developing balanced GIS applications
  • Describe the ways in which the elements of culture (e.g., language, religion, education, traditions) may influence the understanding and use of geographic information
  • Recognize the impact of one’s social background on one’s own geographic worldview and perceptions and how it influences one’s use of GIS
CP-13 - Cyberinfrastructure

Cyberinfrastructure (sometimes referred to as e-infrastructure and e-science) integrates cutting-edge digital environments to support collaborative research and education for computation- and/or data-intensive problem solving and decision making (Wang 2010).

AM-57 - Data conversion
  • Identify the conceptual and practical difficulties associated with data model and format conversion
  • Convert a data set from the native format of one GIS product to another
  • Discuss the role of metadata in facilitating conversation of data models and data structures between systems
  • Describe a workflow for converting and implementing a data model in a GIS involving an Entity-Relationship (E-R) diagram and the Universal Modeling Language (UML)
DM-02 - Data retrieval strategies
  • Analyze the relative performance of data retrieval strategies
  • Implement algorithms that retrieve geospatial data from a range of data structures
  • Describe the particular advantages of Morton addressing relative to geographic data representation
  • Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different data structures (e.g., arrays, linked lists, binary trees, hash tables, indexes) for retrieving geospatial data
  • Compare and contrast direct and indirect access search and retrieval methods
KE-18 - Data sharing among public and private agencies, organizations, and individuals
  • Describe formal and informal arrangements that promote geospatial data sharing (e.g., FGDC, ESDI, memoranda of agreements, informal access arrangements, targeted funding support)
  • Describe a situation in which politics interferes with data sharing and exchange
DM-59 - Data warehouses
  • Differentiate between a data warehouse and a database
  • Describe the functions that gazetteers support
  • Differentiate the retrieval mechanisms of data warehouses and databases
  • Discuss the appropriate use of a data warehouse versus a database

Pages