GEOG 150 FINAL EXAM QUESTIONS ANSWERED CCORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026

GEOG 150 FINAL EXAM QUESTIONS ANSWERED CCORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026 Digital Earth - Answers an organizing framework meant to visually conceptualize how we can manage and use the large volumes of data being collected by sensors in our everyday lives Geographic Information Systems (GIS) - Answers A system consisting of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data Spatial referencing system - Answers A framework used to precisely measure locations on the surface of Earth as coordinates Geocoding - Answers The process of converting addresses (like a street address) into geographic coordinates (like latitude and longitude) Interoperability - Answers The ability for geographical information generated by one kind of software to be read by another Metadata - Answers data about data. The name, location, author, source, data, format, resolution, etc of data Map - Answers A scaled representation/ generalization or model of geographic reality is portrayed using a selected set of features on a flat medium. Spatially Referenced Data - Answers The data handled by GIS. Any data that has location information (latitude, longitude, street adresses) linked to it. Location is found with a geospatial reference system Classification (Generalization type) - Answers expressing the key characteristics of a distribution Simplification (Generalization type) - Answers Determining important characteristics of feature attributes and elimination of non-important ones Exaggeration (Generalization type) - Answers Enlarging or altering the features in order to capture the real-world importance Symbolization (Generalization type) - Answers Assigning graphic marks on the maps to features from the real world Induction (Generalization type) - Answers Making inferences on relationships among features on the map Generalization types - Answers Classification, Simplification, Exaggeration, Symbolization, Induction Graticule - Answers Shows a grid of spatial coordinates for orientation Geographic Coordinate System - Answers Latitude and Longitude. Key lines are the prime meridian (vertical) and the equator (horizontal) Ellipsoid - Answers Ellipsoid shape and bulge account for the earth's rotation. It is more accurate than a sphere representation. Local best fit ellipsoid - Answers Local best fit ellipsoids are highly accurate representations of the shape of the earth for small countries or regions. Global best fit ellipsoid - Answers Global fit ellipsoids are meant to approximate the entire earth. Georeferencing Process - Answers 1. Define the correct shape of the earth 2. Project the spherical earth to a flat plane with a suitable coordinate system 3. Transform between coordinate system and datums Datum - Answers A collection of highly accurate points on the surface of the earth. The network of points determines the shape of the ellipsoid Geoid - Answers The actual shape of Earth, which is rough and oblate, or slightly squashed. Earth's diameter is longer around the equator than along the north-south meridians. Georeferencing - Answers Aligning geographic data to a known coordinate system so it can be viewed, queried, and analyzed with other geographic data. Conformal or orthomorphic projections - Answers maps that maintain shape but distort other properties (it is impossible to have a projection that is both conformal and equal area) Equal-area or equivalent projections - Answers projections that portray areas on Earth's surface in their true proportions Equidistant projections - Answers maps that maintain distance but distort other properties Horizontal datum - Answers Provides a frame of reference for measuring location on the surface of the earth Vertical datum - Answers Level surface to which heights (elevation) are referenced. gnomonic light source - Answers center of globe Stereographic light source - Answers point opposite where projection surface is tangent to globe Orthographic light source - Answers At an infinite distance. Light rays are parallel gnomonic projection - Answers map useful in plotting long-distance trips by boat or plane that is made by projecting points and lines from a globe onto a piece of paper that touches the globe at a single point. Screens for projections - Answers Plane - azimuthal projection Cylinder - cylindrical projection Cone - conic projection Raster data model - Answers A data model that uses a grid and cells to represent the spatial variation of a feature. Good for representing the natural world Vector data model - Answers a conceptualization of the world that represents spatial data as a series of vector objects (points, lines, and polygons). Good for representing the human world. Object view of the world - Answers Collection of well defined, discrete and spatially referenced objects Boundaries are well defined The entire geographic space is not occupied, only where objects exist Each object is identified and described through the attribute table Field-view of the world - Answers Events that vary continuously across geographic space Boundaries are "fuzzy" The geographic space is mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive Each space partition is represented by a category or value Data quality - Answers The overall suitability of a dataset for a specific purpose Error and Uncertainty - Answers Recognition that spatial information in a digital environment (GIS) has many associated errors and imprecision due to abstraction, simplification, and measurement issues Accuracy - Answers A description of how close a measurement is to the true value of the quantity measured. Precision - Answers a measure of how close a series of measurements are to one another Completeness - Answers All of the required data is present. Consistent - Answers Multiple datasets should undergo consistent methods of data capture, storage, manipulation and editing Applicable - Answers Data must be suitable for the analysis or project Choropleth map - Answers A thematic map that uses tones or colors to represent spatial data as average values per unit area. GIS Database - Answers data systems containing locations and a variety of attributes associated with them Global Positioning System (GPS) - Answers A constellation of earth-orbiting satellites for the purpose of defining geographic positions on and above the surface of the earth. GPS consists of 3 segments: satellites, base stations, and GPS receivers. Multipath Errors (GPS) - Answers Signals coming directly from the satellite and reflected off other objects interfere and create location errors. Multipath rejection receivers filter the signals for the strongest one Dilution of precision - Answers Sometimes the geometry of the satellites in the horizon are such that they are not equally spread out but clustered. There is no solution but to wait for a better arrangement Triangulation - Answers The method used by GPS to measure your position. Your distance from each satellite is measured, and imaginary circles are drawn around each satellite. The point of intersection is your location. Distance is calculated using the time it took for the signal to travel to the receiver Averages to Minimize Errors - Answers One way to reduce the location error is to take simple averages. This is based on the idea that over a period of time, the average of a series of location values will give the best estimate of the real location value Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) - Answers A remote sensing system that uses pulsed laser light to capture the exact location or shape of a distant object in 3 dimensions Telematics - Answers The combination of remote sensing and telecommunications with computing to gather and analyze data. Selective Availability - Answers the intentional degradation of the timing and position information transmitted by a GPS satellite Map Generalization (GPS Errors) - Answers the unavoidable approximation of real features when they are represented on a map. Resolution (GPS Errors) - Answers The size of cells in the raster data model influence extent of errors Boundary Problem (GPS Errors) - Answers We are not sure how excluded places just beyond the boundary impact our selected boundary area Discretization (GPS Errors) - Answers Representing spatially continuous features using points, lines, and polygons Spatial Database Management System (SDMS) - Answers Software tools and systems designed to achieve the following: Create both attribute and spatial data Manage the storage and retrieval of data records Provides a GUI interface to query the spatial database In ArcGIS Online, the My Content area is the SDMS tool Indicators of location and attribute errors - Answers Impossible Values: negative numbers for age Extreme values or outliers: Impossible large or small populations Database Models - Answers A set of explicit rules for representing the data objects and their relationships Relational (tabular) database Model - Answers Data is stored in tables containing records (rows) and fields (columns) and a common identifier is used to link all the related tables together. One can relate multiple tables together based on this common identifier. To extract data from the tables, the structured query language SQL is used. Spatial data interoperability - Answers The ability to import and export spatial data between multiple software tools Geographic Models - Answers A representation of a real thing. Used when the real object is too large to examine or changes over too long a time frame. Models can be physical, mathematical, or numerical GI systems - Answers a technology for collecting, managing, storing, analyzing, and visualizing geographic information