This set of GIS Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “GIS Basics”.
1. GIS is a potentially cheap and effective source of:
a) Mining Observations
b) Sun Observations
c) Earth Observations
d) Aquatic Life Observations
View Answer
Explanation: GIS has its roots in the stimulus provided by the development of remote sensing, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as a potentially cheap and effective source of earth observations.
2. Geographical Information is information tied to some specific set of locations on the Earth’s surface including the zones of atmosphere. True or false?
a) True
b) False
View Answer
Explanation: Geographical Information is information about geography, that is, information tied to some specific set of locations on the Earth’s surface including the zones of atmosphere.
3. The methods of raster (grid cell data) processing and storage used in remote sensing systems are almost conceptually identical to those used by the systems that have implemented:
a) Canadian National Geospatial Infrastructure
b) McHarg’s multi-layer view of the World
c) Dual Independent Map Encoding (DIME)
d) UK National Geospatial Data Framework
View Answer
Explanation: The representation of topology invented for the Dual Independent Map Encoding (DIME) system at the US Bureau of the Census, is almost identical.to that incorporated in CGIS and in Australian work. The methods of raster (grid cell data) processing and storage used in remote sensing systems are almost conceptually identical to those used by the systems that have implemented McHarg’s multi-layer view of the World.
4. What is the term used to refer to the process of making maps using a computer?
a) GIS
b) Digital Mapping
c) Digital Scanning
d) Mapping using a Computer
View Answer
Explanation: Today, the term GIS tends to be applied whenever geographical information in digital form is manipulated, whatever be the purpose of that manipulation. Thus using a computer to make a map is referred to as ‘GIS’.
5. What is the generic term denoting the use of computers to create and depict digital representations of the Earth’s surface?
a) Contouring
b) Mapping
c) Remote Sensing
d) GIS
View Answer
Explanation: The art, science, engineering and technology required to answer the geographical questions constitute called Geographical Information System (GIS).
6. The same computer is used to analyse geographical information and to make future forecasts using complex models of geographical processes. True or false?
a) True
b) False
View Answer
Explanation: GIS offers the possibility of storing large number of layers of information on temporal changes to handle an image within a relational database environment.
7. Who is the father of Canada GIS?
a) McHarg
b) David Bickmore
c) Roger Tomlin
d) Ray Boyle
View Answer
Explanation: Roger Tomlin the father of Canada GIS is credited with visualising the need for computers to perform certain simple but labour-intensive tasks associated with Canada Land Inventory.
8. Tomlin’s _____ showed that computerisation would be cost effective, despite the enormous costs involved and the primitive nature of the computers of the time.
a) Cost-Benefit Analysis
b) Study on Computers
c) Cost Analysis
d) Mapping Analysis
View Answer
Explanation: Tomlin (1990) saw that if a map could be represented in digital form, then it would be easy to make measurements of its basic elements, specifically the areas assigned and the tedious hand-measurement of area by conducting dots on transparent overlays of known dot density. Tomlin’s cost-benefit analysis showed that computerisation would be cost effective, despite the enormous costs involved and the primitive nature of the computers of the time.
9. Who invented the “free pencil” digitiser?
a) McHarg
b) David Bickmore
c) Roger Tomlin
d) Ray Boyle
View Answer
Explanation: Once information of any kind is in digital form, it is much easier to manipulate, copy, edit, and transmit. Ray Boyle invented the “free pencil” digitiser, and by 1964 Bickmore and Boyle set up the Oxford system for high quality digital cartography (Rhind 1988).
10. Although the initial idea was strictly manual, the computerisation of these ideas in a layer-based raster GIS was a simple step, and many systems owe their origins to:
a) Dual Independent Map Encoding (DIME)
b) McHarg’s simple model
c) Canadian National Geospatial Infrastructure
d) UK National Geospatial Data Framework
View Answer
Explanation: McHarg (1996) was the foremost proponent of this view, and his group at the University of Pennsylvania applied it in a long series of exemplary studies. Although the initial idea was strictly manual, the computerisation of these ideas in a layer-based raster GIS was a simple step and many systems owe their origins to McHarg’s simple model (Tomlin 1990).
Sanfoundry Global Education & Learning Series – GIS.
To practice all areas of GIS, here is complete set of Multiple Choice Questions and Answers.
If you find a mistake in question / option / answer, kindly take a screenshot and email to [email protected]
