Library Guides: Digital Scholarship Research Guide: Geospatial Analysis

What is geospatial analysis?

Geospatial analysis involves examining, interpreting, and visualizing geographic data in order to make place-based decisions or tell place-based narratives pertaining to your research.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications are computer or web-based tools that allow for the analysis of geographic data through maps and visualization techniques. GIS tools allow for multiple layers of data with geospatial components to be displayed and analyzed on top of one another to reveal connections among datasets linked by their geographic locations.

Geospatial humanities is the use of mapping and geospatial technologies for social, cultural, and historical inquiry. This can involve applying geospatial data analysis techniques to historical data, using maps to tell compelling narratives about social or cultural issues, or enhancing literary or historic works with modern mapmaking techniques.

GIS at ISU

The Iowa State University GIS Support and Research Facility is an excellent resource for GIS information and assistance on campus. The ISU GIS Facility administers our campus licenses for Esri's ArcGIS online platform, freely available to all ISU students, faculty, and staff, as well as ArcGIS software which is available by request for academic research use.

ISU Extension Geospatial Technology Program also offers GIS support, courses, and documentation on ArcGIS and QGIS software.

Finding Geospatial Data

There are a vast number of resources online that compile geospatial data and make it available in a variety of formats. Many sources specialize in data about a specific part of the world, data on a specific topic, or both. Below are some recommended places to look for GIS data.

Iowa Geographic Map Server
Hosted by the ISU GIS Facility, includes data on land use, historic aerial photographs of the state, and more.
Iowa Geospatial Data Clearinghouse
GIS data published by the State of Iowa.
ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World
A collection of ready-to-use global geographic content from Esri, including imagery, basemaps, demographics and lifestyle, landscape, boundaries and places, transportation, earth observations, urban systems, oceans, and historical maps. Available with an ISU netID and password.
U.S. Census Data
The U.S. Census Bureau is the gold standard source for demographic data in the United States. Much of their data is available in geospatial formats.
USGS TopoView
The U.S. Geologic Survey's topographic maps provide detailed data about physical and cultural features of the United States.
National Historical Geographic Information System
Provides easy access to summary tables and time series of population, housing, agriculture, and economic data, along with GIS-compatible boundary files, for years from 1790 through the present and for all levels of U.S. census geography, including states, counties, tracts, and blocks.
Big Ten Academic Alliance Geoportal
Connects users to digital geospatial resources, including GIS datasets, web services, and digitized historical maps, managed by librarians and geospatial specialists at the Big Ten institutions.
Social Explorer
Explore over 500,000 data indicators and over 220 years of data for the United States from present to 1790, including all Decennial Censuses, American Community Surveys and many other datasets. Available on campus or by creating an account with an ISU email address.
City of Chicago Data Portal
Dedicated to promoting access to government data and encouraging the development of creative tools to engage and serve Chicago's diverse community.
Fraser
The Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research (FRASER) started in 2004 as a data preservation and accessibility project of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
London Data Store
Published by the Greater London Authority, the Data Store over 600 data sets related to life in London. Winner of the 2015 Open Data Institute Publisher Award.
TranStats - Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Transportation statistics from the BTS includes data on transportation by mode (e.g. airline) and subject (e.g. safety). Be sure to check the database directory for a list of the available data sets.
David Rumsey Map Collection
This collection, housed at Stanford University, provides online access to a variety of georeferenced historic maps.

Georeferencing

To incorporate a historic paper map into a geospatial analysis project, you must first georeference it. This process involves taking a scanned image of a map and aligning its features with the exact coordinates of the corresponding features on a digital map service. Below are some recommended georeferencing tools.

Map Warper
Free, open-source map and image geo-rectification service, requires sharing your rectified maps publicly on the platform.
David Rumsey Map Collection Georeferencer
In addition to serving as a repository of already georeferenced maps, this site allows you to fix the locations of your own scanned maps.
Allmaps
Tool using the IIIF standard to allow georeferencing of any scanned map hosted online by a IIIF-compliant institution. Info about finding such institutions can be found in the "Getting Started" section.

Featured Project

Campus Cornerstones: a mapped history of Iowa State University

Explores the history of the buildings of Iowa State University through historical photographs, maps, and modern GIS data.

Other projects

The Atlas of Early Printing
University of Iowa project demonstrating the spread of the printing press across Europe in the 15th century and its impact.
The Living New Deal
Digital archive of the legacy of the New Deal, including map data for public works and art projects.
Nuclear Colorado
Documenting the nuclear history of Colorado, including locations of mines and waste disposal sites, and more.
Iowa State University Museums Art on Campus Tour
Virtual tour using StoryMaps to introduce users to ISU's public art.
Theban Mapping Project
Prolific archaeological map data from Thebes, in Ancient Egypt's Valley of the Kings.
Charles Booth's London
Applies modern techniques to historic maps exploring socioeconomic status in 19th century London.
Photogrammer
Interactive maps featuring historic images documenting the Great Depression and World War II in the U.S.

Readings

Geographical Research in the Digital Humanities by Finn Dammann (Editor); Dominik Kremer (Editor)
Publication Date: Apr. 23, 2024
Springer Handbook of Geographic Information by Wolfgang Kresse; David Danko (Editor)
Publication Date: Jun. 25, 2022
Learning ArcGIS Pro 2 by Tripp Corbin
Publication Date: Jul. 24, 2020
Geographic Information Science (GIScience) and Geospatial Approaches for the Analysis of Historical Visual Sources and Cartographic Material by Zohar, Motti
Publication Date: 2022
Modelling Christianisation: a Geospatial Analysis of the Archaeological Data on the Rural Church Network of Hungary in the 11th-12th Centuries by Mária Vargha
ISBN: 9781803272801

Publication Date: Aug. 18, 2022
Geospatial Analysis with SQL by Bonny P. McClain Bonny P McClain
Publication Date: Oct. 3, 2023