Running a GIS project

Conceptually break apart the problem

Identify data needs

Solve the challenge

This framework draws on

Femke Reitsma’s e-book
How to Solve GIS Challenges
which you can no longer purchase at

www.gisproblemsolving.com

image source commons.wikimedia.org
by Dirk Vorderstraße

Conceptually break apart the problem

Research the topic

Sketch the problem

Refine the question

image source commons.wikimedia.org

Research the topic

Most crucially... define terms

e.g.,

‘Accessibility’?

Do some reading

Sketch the problem

source xkcd.com

source freeimages.com

based on all that

Refine the question

Identify data needs

Find data and revisit the question

Check data and metadata

source giphy.com

Find data and revisit the question

“No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy’s main strength”

Field Marshal Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke
image source commons.wikimedia.org

put another way...


“No plan survives contact with the enemy”

source todaysdoodle.com

Check data and metadata

Don’t assume the data are useful, check them

This might involve more research, ground truthing

Metadata: data about your data

image source @Hypnoflag

Solve the challenge

Spatial breakdown of the problem

Spatial breakdown of solution(s)

Experiment and do it!

Circle back

Spatial breakdown of the problem

Think about the atomic spatial elements of the problem

points? lines? polygons? pixels?

Sketch and brainstorm again, about how to combine and relate these elements to address the problem

source commons.wikimedia.org

Spatial breakdown of solution(s)

Use what you learned in previous step to guide selection of GIS tools

Sketch out what a solution might look like

Experiment and do it!

Reitsma calls this stage ‘Connect the problem with the end result’

source todaysdoodle.com

Circle back

Make sure that what you’ve come up with makes sense in terms of the original problem statement

Possible projects

See the list on this page

Or another topic that interests you
(preferably where you have data!)