MINING DATA ON THE INTERNET
(AKA Building a database
without digitizing, scanning or paying for it!)
Lisa Keys-Mathews
lmathews@unanov.una.edu
Department of Geography
University of North Alabama
GOALS
To learn more about the serving data on the internet (who does, why do they do it, and
how good is their data)
To practice data conversion (downloading, converting file types, etc.)
To develop a comprehensive database, of interest to you, that you will use later for a
GIS analysis project
REQUIREMENTS
- Find a database on-line and download it
- You probably will download many datasets before you find the right one - just remember
to delete the others!
- Don't forget that you must use this database later, so make sure it is complete and
"in working condition"
- It cannot be a dataset we already have (Bankhead, Yellowstone, etc.)
- Ensure that you have a wide variety of layers and at least eight of them
- Get data from disparate sources (for example, USGS, Census Bureau, ESRI web site,
Georgia Clearinghouse, etc.) - you must do this to practice integrating disparate datasets
- Import (if necessary) the dataset into ArcView
- Organize the data and ensure that it all overlays correctly
- Display the data and perform example GIS analyses
- Create a succinct paper that provides an overview, data dictionary, metadata (as
available or you must create it) and possible uses of the data
- Present your findings to the class using either PowerPoint or HTML code
Suggestion: Try not to be so competitive - work
together on this one! It will help all of you!