GEOGRAPHIC

INFORMATION

SYSTEM
 Types of GIS Data
A geodatabase is database composed of spatial data and attribute data ( Dempsey, 2021).
Spatial data is any type of data that directly or indirectly references a specific geographical area
or location (Zola and Fontecchio, n.d.). Data quality is the degree of data excellency that
satisfies the given objective. In other words, completeness of attributes in order to achieve the
given task can be termed as Data Quality/Data quality is a pillar in any GIS implementation and
application as reliable data are indispensable to allow the user obtaining meaningful results.
Spatial Data quality can be categorized into:

• Data Completeness - It is basically the measure of totally of features. A data set with minimal
amount of missing features can be termed as Complete-Data.

• Data Precision - It is the degree of details that are displayed on a uniform space.

• Data Accuracy - It is the discrepancy between the actual attributes value and coded attribute
value.

• Date Consistency - It is the absence of conflicts in a particular database.

Attribute data is information appended in tabular format to spatial features. The spatial data is the
where and attribute data can contain information about the what, where and why. Attribute data
provides characteristics about spatial data (Dempsey,2013). The main difference between attribute
data and spatial data is that the attribute data descibes the characteristics of a geographical feature
while spatial data describes the absolute and relative location of geographic features.

Types of Spatial Data

In GIS spatial referenced data group can be further classified into two different types (Dempsey,
2021):

1. Vector data - it is composed of individual points stored as coordinate pairs that indicate a physical
location in the world. It is extremely useful for storing and representing data that has discrete
boundaries, such as borders or building footprints, streets and other transport links, and location points
(Romeijn,n.d.). There are three types of vector data, namely:

• Point data (feature) - it is commonly used to represent non adjacent features and to represent
discrete data points. Points have zero dimensions, therefore you can measure neither length or
area with this dataset. Example would be schools, points of interst, and in the example below,
bridge and culvert locations. Point features are also used to represent abstract points. For instance,
point locations could represent city locations or place names (Demsey,2021).
• Line (or arc) data (feature) - It is used to represent linear features. Common examples
would be rivers, trails, and strrets. Line features only have one dimension and therefore
can only be used to measure length. Line features have a starting and ending point.
Common examples would be road centerlines and hydrology. Symbology most
commonly used to distinguish are features from one another are line types (solid lines
vers us dashed lines) and combinations using colors and line thicknesses.

• Polygon data (feature) - It used to represent areas such as the boundary of a city (on a
large scale map), lake, or forest. Polygon features are two dimensional and therefore
can be used to measure the area and perimeter of a geographic feature. It is commonly
distinguished using either a thematic mapping symbology (color schemes), patterns or n
the case of numeric gradation, a color gradation scheme could be used.

2. Raster Data - It is also known as grid data, it represents the fourth type of feature:
surfaces. It is cellbased and this data category also includes aerial and satellite imagery. It
provides a representation of the world as a surface divided up into a regular grid array, or
cells where each of these cells has an associated value. There are two types of raster data:
• Continuous Raster Data - It has no clearly defined boundaries. Every ponit on a map made
with continuous GIS data will contain a value. Elevation, slope, temperature, and
precipitation are examples of datasets that are continuous (DeMPSEY, 2020).

• Discrete Raster Data - It is a geographic data that only occurs in specific locations. For
polygon data, discrete data has well defined boundaries. Point and line GIS data such as
tree location, rivers and streets all fall into the category of discrete datasets. Maps made with
discrete GIS data will have areas on the map that contain values from that dataset and areas
on the map where that dataset is absent(Dempsey,2020).

There are also three types of raster datasets (Dempsey,2020):

1. Thematic data - Thematic data layers are information datasets that have a common feature
or attribute placed in the same layer of spatial data. This guide is arranged by general spatial
themes. This guide is meant to be a starting point for finding spatial data that corresponds to a
specific focus of a GIS analysis or map.
2. Spectral data - these are satellite images and aeral photographs which are then often used
to derive information ( example: vegetation geologic information) by classifying the spectral
signatures of each type of feature.

3. Pictures (imagery) - this includes scanned maps or drawings and building photographs.

Types of Attribute Data

Attribute data can be store as one of five different field types in a table or database
(Dempsey,2013).

1. Character - The character property (or string) is for text based values such as the name of a
street or descriptive values such as the condition of a street. Character attribute data is stored
as series of alphanumeric symbols.

2. Integer - It is a whole number (not a fractional number) that can be positive, negative, or
zero. It is divided between short and long integer values. Short integers store numeric values
without fractional values for a shorter range than long integers.
3. Floating - it attribute values store numeric values with fractional values. These are for
numeric values with decimal ponits.

4. Date - it contains date and time values.

5. BLOB - its stands for binary large object and this attribute type is used for storing
information such images, multimedia,or bits of code in a field . This field stores object linking
and embedding (OLE) which are objects created in other applications such as images and
multimedia and linked from the BLOB field.

Geographical Information System and Crime Mapping

According to Chainey and Ratcliff (200) crime mapping is a progressive blend of practical
criminal justice issues with the research field of geographical information systems and science.
GIS can be employed at different levels to support operational policing, tactical crime mapping,
detection, and wider-ranging strategic analyses ( Chainey and Ratcliff,2005). In its most basic
form, crime mapping is the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) to visualize and
organixe spatial data or more formal statistical analysis. Spatial analysis can be employed in
both anexlporatory and well as a more confirmatory manner with the primary purpose of
identifyng how certain commonly or ecological factors (such as population characteristics or the
biult environment) influence the spatial patterns of crime. Two topics of particular interest
include examining for evidence of the diffusion of crime and in evaluating the effectiveness of
geographically targeted crime reduction strategies.
Crime mapping can also be used to visualize and analyze the movement or target selection
patterns of criminals. Mappingsoftware allows practitioner to explore crime patterns, offender
mobility, and serial offenses over time and space. Within the context of local policing, crime
mapping provides the visualization of crime clusters by types of crimes, thereby validating the
street knowlegde of patrol officers. Crime mapping can be used for allocating resources (patrol,
specialized enforcement) and also to inform how the concerns of local citizens are being
addressed (Reid, S.,Tita,G., and Valsik, M.,2019)

Law Enforcement and Crime Mapping

Computerized crime mapping technology enables law enforcement agencies to analyze

and correlate data source to create a detailed snapshot of crime incidents and related fators
within a community or other external data sources (Mamalian and La Viqne,1999).
GIS does not replace a law enforcement agency’s process of collecting and storing information
in a database. Rather, it enhances the agency’s ability to use the data. It also enhances a police
officers’s time on the streets. An officer with access to GIS software and additional datasets,
such as parolee and probationer data, can run queries from a laptop in the patrol car (OVC,
2003).

Crime Analysis
Crime analysis is defined as a set of systematic analytical processes providing timely and
useful information on crime patterns and trends. Effective crime analysis affects all areas and
operations of a police department by refining and distibuting useful information (Stiles,1981). It
is used to improve the operations and administration of police department, to improve the job
satisfaction of police officers, to permit the patrol deployment system to correspond with service
demand, and to augment patrol activities in crime prevention (Karpilo,2019).

Types of Crime Analysis

1. Tactical Crime Analysis - This type of crime analysis that looks at the short-term in other to
stop what is currently taking place, it deals with immediate criminal offenses for example, a
crime spree. It is used to identity one perpetrator with many targets ot one target with many
perpetrators and provide an immediate response. It provides information to assist operational in
the identification of crime trends and in the arrest of criminal offenders.
2. Strategic Crime Analysis : This type of crime analysis looks at the long-term and on-going
issues. It is primarily concerned with operational strategies and seeks soultions to ongong
problems. Its focus if often on identifying areas with high crime rates and problem-solving ways
to decrease the overall crime rates. Its purpose is to perform police services more effectively
and efficiently by matching service delivery to demands for service.

3. Administrative Crime Analysis : This is type of crime analysis looks at the administration
and deployment of police and resources. It deals with long-range comparisons. Examples of
administrative crime analysis tasks include : providing economic, geographic and law
enforcement information to police management, City Administration, City Council and
neighborhood/citizen groups.