How to Get Started: Finding Data, Mapping Software, Resources

October 20, 2008

James Pick

Supported by U.S. SBA Grant No. SBAHQ-06-1-0046.

GIS = Information System• What is a Geographical Information System (GIS)?

– Geographic Location, GIS Structures and an Example– Some GIS Software Packages

• GIS Data – Data is stored in a database - processed and output as

maps and other reports. – Think of GIS as a Spatially-Enabled Database– Some Sources of Data for the Database

• Costs and benefits of GIS– GIS has Costs, but can be Beneficial when used with

other business systems such as accounting or marketing

Geographic Location

• How is geographic location determined?– Often by latitude and longitude. – It can be by more advanced coordinate

systems, such as 3-D, but lat-long will do for now.

• A map stored inside a GIS is described by coordinates.

• A sophisticated map contains a huge number of coordinates.

GIS Structures

Source: Clarke, 2003.

Features and Feature Properties Points, Lines, and Polygons

Example – Workforce for Industrial Siting - Using the Location Quotient (LQ)

Location Quotient (LQ) = Calculation Based on Ratios

Employment in a Particular Industry Sector Total Employment in a Particular Sub-Area

Divided by

Employment in a Particular Industry Sector Total Employment for the Area

More formally LQ = (Eij/Ej)/(Ei/Et) * 100

Location Quotient > 100 means specialization in the industry,

Location Quotient < 100 means sub-area not specialized in that industry. (Source: Greene and Stager, 2005)

Location Quotients for Manufacturing and Professional Employment, Los Angeles, 2000

(Source:Greene and Stager, 2005)

Comparison of Professional Employment to the corridor of Wilshire Blvd.

( Source: Greene and Pick, 2005).

Location Quotient of Professional Employment for same area

LQs for Nine Employment Sectors, LA

(Source:Greene and Stager, 2005)

Trulia Real Estate Search, Miami, FL

(Fig 5.6, Source: Trulia, 2007)

Mobile GIS -- Pedestrian Navigation Systems

• Pedestrian navigation systems are informing city dwellers about locational information. – This approach is based on a cell phone having GPS navigation,

precise to thirty feet or less; an electronic compass that orients the pedestrian; and mapping web services.

Example. a pedestrian in Tokyo can select a type of destination, for instance banks, and point the phone in a direction. The list of banks located in that direction appear on the screen along with the distances and other information. Maps can be displayed to indicate routes to get there. Source: New York Times, 2007

GIS need Data. What are the data sources?

• GIS is a type of information system– What are some GIS Packages?

• Data for a GIS are stored in a data-base. – Processed and output as maps and other related

reports. – Think of GIS as a spatially-enabled data-base

What are some sources of Data? – For GIS, there are two types of data: (1)

geographic boundaries, and (2) characteristics (numbers, categories)

• Free Public Sources:

• Commercial Sources

• Your OWN Data on Customers, Schedules, Employees, Competitors…

Some Data Sources

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Sources of GIS Data

– Company characteristics and transactions. It can have locations added to it.• Locations are often added by geocoding, which takes

addresses and finds the location.

– Free or commercial data on the web. Can be boundaries and/or characteristics. • U.S. Census (www.census.gov )• ESRI (www.esri.com)• GeoGov (www.geodata.gov) One stop portal for

government data• Claritas (www.claritas.com )• Business Analyst Online (www.esri.com/bao )

Costs and Benefits of GIS

• Any GIS project for a small business will involve investments of money.

• Because GIS is new for small business, special attention should be given ahead of time to thinking what the payoffs could be.

• Think of the GIS decision as you would investing in accounting software. – You would be wise to check with others who have used it and

find out if the benefits exceeded the costs.– You need to think of your own situation. Start with the

benefits. How do you see it helping your company? Can you put a dollar value on the payoff? How long do expect it will take before you reach break-even with your investment in GIS?

• Major CostsHardware and software

Data

Specialized staffing

Web services

Maintenance (hardware, software, data)

Training

Consulting

Licensing

Security

Outsourcing

Internet, telecomm

Physical environment

What’s Different with GIS?Coordination of spatial technologies

Visualization (multi-media design, 3-D)

Spatial, geographic training

• Major BenefitsWorkforce reduction

Better productivity

Better performance

Greater accuracy

Time saving versus manual maps

Revenue expansion

Better decision-making

What’s Different with GIS?Visualizing complex geographic

information

Improved spatial environmental scanning

Spatial analysis

Spatial business intelligence

Some GIS Packages

Commercial Freeware• Stand-alone

– Comprehensive ArcGIS GRASS

– Specialized Bus. Analyst GeoDa

*** Earth

• Web-server– Comprehensive ArcGIS Server Mapserver

– Specialized Bus. A. Online Landserf

1

Examples of Free Sources with Information on Customers

• Little sample of a Customer Profile by Zip on ESRI Site – http://www.esri.com/data/community_data/demographic/index.html

– Spatial characteristics of a community can be looked up by ZIP code

• Other Sources of Data Full Community Tapestry

http://www.esri.com/data/esri_data/community-tapestry.html

http://www.esri.com/data/resources/geographic-data.html– More detailed, extensive customer data available for purchase from various

GIS industry sources, such as ESRI, MapInfo.– Others provide data on customers that can be geocoded, such as Dun &

Bradstreet• http://www.dnbcreditreport.com/dnbi/?se=google&kw=customer_profiles• http://www.experian.com/business_services/index.html• http://geolytics.com/USCensus,Estimates-Projections,Products.asp • http://www.infousa.com/

Census Demographic Updatesavailable at www.census.gov, and some at www.esri.com

ESRI’s Business Analyst Online software provides this

• Population• Total• Household and family• Group quarters

• Race and Hispanic origin by Race

• Age• Gender• Household type• Income

• Household• Family• Aggregate and per

capita• By Age of

Householder

• Disposable Income by Age of Householder

• Net Worth by Age of Householder

• Labor Force• Civilian Employment by

Industry and Occupation• Unemployment

• Housing• Housing inventory• Occupancy• Tenure• Home value

• ….And much, much more

Some Census EntitiesMetropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) • 1 or 1+ counties w/ large population nucleus + nearby

communities that have a high degree of interactionCensus Tracts (50K)• Small geographies - generally stable boundaries• Designed to be relatively homogeneous w/ respect to population

characteristics, economic status, and living conditions.Block group (225K) = subdivisions of census tracts = combination of

census blocks• Block = well-defined rectangular piece of land bounded by 4

streets– May be irregular or bounded by rail road tracks, streams, or other features– Doesn’t cross boundaries of counties, census tracts, or block groups– May cross place boundaries

More factfinder maps

Prepared w/ American Factfiner

Issues for Small Business Owners and Managers

• How are GIS and IT related. Together? Separate? Linked?

• Access to GIS expertise. In-house? Consulting? Outsourcing? Vendor? Note: There is a shortage in skilled GIS workforce (Marble, 2006)

• Decision on technology. Desktop? Web-based? Mobile? Combination?

Issues for Small Business Owners and Managers

• How to judge the costs benefits of GIS? It might be helpful in justifying with ROI to disaggregate GIS into projects. The GIS application needs to be able to show solid arguments of tangible payoff within several years.

• How to prioritize what in GIS for your business has the most mid to long-term benefit? GIS and spatial technologies are dramatic, visual, and appealing, even “entertaining” or diverting. But how can they be focused in development, building, and operations to the practical payoff.

Summary• GIS is a Type of Information System

• There are a Variety of

–GIS Software Packages Available

–Useful Data Sources

• Some Free + Some You Already Have – at your firm!

• GIS has costs, but the benefits in better analyzing small business problems and opportunities for strategic advantage can outweigh the costs

• Bottom Line:

GIS is a technology to make more data more usable and put it to greater use for efficiencies, better performance, and profits.

Resources for Your Next Step:Doing it Yourself & Learning More

• Major GIS Software Vendors Provide Case Studies, Information on Software:– MapInfo (owned by Pitney Bowes) www.mapinfo.com– ESRI www.esri.com

• For some innovative research on GIS See Abstracts from a recent GIS in Business Conference http://www.spatialconference.org/proceedings/

• Other Sources of Data and Information:– Stats-USA, Govt Resources, SBA– Geography Nnetwork http://www.geographynetwork.com/– Census www.census.gov and http://factfinder.census.gov/

• Open Source Software (Wikipedia)– GRASS – Originally developed by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, open

source: a complete GIS http://grass.osgeo.org/

– MapServer – Web-based mapping server, developed by the University of Minnesota http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/

ARSlide Hidden

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• Handouts

• One on one sessions– General are you ready– Others that might help if want to others to do it– Tutorial

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