Introduction to GIS/Remote Sensing in Forest Science Research Network

Written by zhangyuan January 23, 2008 11:50

Getting Started

To use the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) software in the Forest Sciences Research Network, you will first need to get an account, which can either be a Novell(PC) or a UNIX account (or both). For more information on accounts, refer to the Forestry Computing Helpdesk. If you will be creating or processing large GIS coverages or digital images, you may want a UNIX account, especially if you are familiar with the UNIX operating environment. There have been many advances made to the PC GIS and Remote Sensing computing environment and software is available for both that works on a high-end PC. Both of these computing environments operate the essential GIS and RS software, however, the process of starting the software is slightly different.


Getting going in the UNIX environment

To login to a UNIX machine in the FSRN network, simply enter your user-ID and password at the prompt, and then personalize your Common Desktop Environment. The GIS and RS software is initiated by entering specific commands. Other routines can be entered at a command prompt.

  • UNIX Basics
  • Forestry Network UNIX information

Getting going in the PC environment

To login to a PC machine, you must set the server and tree settings, then login using your user-ID.context and password. Once in the PC desktop, you will find the GIS and RS programs under Programs/GIS or under Programs/ArcGIS.

Xwin to access the UNIX environment and either manipulate your data or run GIS and RS software.

 


GIS

The primary GIS software package is ARCGIS with its many modules. ARCGIS is licensed by the Environmental Systems Research Institute in Redlands, California. We are currently running version 8.2 of ARCGIS on the PC side and version 8.01 of ARC/INFO on the UNIX side, and version 3.2 of ArcView (available on both UNIX and PC).

ARC/INFO on the UNIX machines

To start ARC/INFO on the UNIX machines, type "arc80" at a command prompt in a terminal window. That terminal then becomes your ARC/INFO interface. To run ArcView, type "av32" in a terminal window, and the ArcView screen will appear on the same workspace. If you type "av32 &", the ArcView session will run in the background and you will still be able to use that terminal for other processes.

ArcGIS on PC Machines

You have the option to run Arc/INFO workstation on the PC or run modules of ArcGIS. ARC/INFO workstation works just like the UNIX version of ARC/INFO except that you have the DOS operating system. You access this program, from Start, you click on programs>arcgis>workstation arc info. A small black rectangle will appear on your screen with an arc prompt. You then execute arc commands.

ArcGIS is a new product by ESRI that provides several user friendly modules to facilitate ease of use. Several modules are available, depending on how the install was performed on the machine: ArcCatalog, ArcMap, ArcToolbox, ArcScene, ArcReader, and ArcObjects Developer Help. The three primary modules that are used are ArcCatalog, ArcMap, and ArcToolbox.

ArcCatalog works similar to windows explorer, although you can look at GIS data, review the geography and tables, create new data layers, add items to tables, copy and paste data from one directory to another, and create, edit, view, and query metadata files.

ArcMap is where you create maps, edit data, and perform analysis within the geodatabase structure. This program works similar to ArcView, although there are some nice additional functionality. As a side note, it is important that you DO NOT EDIT COVERAGES IN ARCMAP. There are several problems with this functionality. Editing of coverages should be done in the ArcEdit module of ARC/INFO.