6. Module: Vector Analysis

Now that you have edited a few features, you must want to know what else one can do with them. Having features with attributes is nice, but when all is said and done, this doesn’t really tell you anything that a normal, non-GIS map can’t.

The key advantage of a GIS is this: a GIS can answer questions.

For the next three modules, we’ll endeavor to answer a research question using GIS functions. For example, you are an estate agent and you are looking for a residential property in Swellendam for clients who have the following criteria:

1. It needs to be in Swellendam.

2. It must be within reasonable driving distance of a school (say 1km).

3. It must be more than 100m squared in size.

4. Closer than 50m to a main road.

5. Closer than 500m to a restaurant.

Within the next few modules, we’ll harness the power of GIS analysis tools to locate suitable farm properties for this new residential development.

• 6.1. Lesson: Reprojecting and Transforming Data
  • 6.1.1. Follow Along: Projections
  • 6.1.2. Follow Along: “On the Fly” Reprojection
  • 6.1.3. Follow Along: Saving a Dataset to Another CRS
  • 6.1.4. Follow Along: Creating Your Own Projection
  • 6.1.5. In Conclusion
  • 6.1.6. Further Reading
  • 6.1.7. What’s Next?
• 6.2. Lesson: Vector Analysis
  • 6.2.1. The GIS Process
  • 6.2.2. The Problem
  • 6.2.3. The Data
  • 6.2.4. Follow Along: Start a Project and get the Data
  • 6.2.5. Try Yourself Convert Layers’ CRS
  • 6.2.6. Follow Along: Analyzing the Problem: Distances From Schools and Roads
  • 6.2.7. Try Yourself Distance from schools
  • 6.2.8. Follow Along: Overlapping Areas
  • 6.2.9. Follow Along: Extract the Buildings
  • 6.2.10. Try Yourself Further Filter our Buildings
  • 6.2.11. Follow Along: Select Buildings of the Right Size
  • 6.2.12. Try Yourself
  • 6.2.13. In Conclusion
  • 6.2.14. What’s Next?
• 6.3. Lesson: Network Analysis
  • 6.3.1. Follow Along: The Tools and the Data
  • 6.3.2. Calculate the shortest path (point to point)
  • 6.3.3. Try Yourself Fastest path
  • 6.3.4. Follow Along: Advanced options
  • 6.3.5. Shortest path with speed limit
  • 6.3.6. Service area (from layer)
  • 6.3.7. In Conclusion
  • 6.3.8. What’s Next?
• 6.4. Lesson: Spatial Statistics
  • 6.4.1. Follow Along: Create a Test Dataset
  • 6.4.2. Follow Along: Basic Statistics
  • 6.4.3. Follow Along: Compute statistics on distances between points
  • 6.4.4. Follow Along: Nearest Neighbor Analysis (within layer)
  • 6.4.5. Follow Along: Mean Coordinates
  • 6.4.6. Follow Along: Image Histograms
  • 6.4.7. Follow Along: Spatial Interpolation
  • 6.4.8. Try Yourself Different interpolation methods
  • 6.4.9. In Conclusion
  • 6.4.10. What’s Next?