Sessions
Geocoding Lecture & Lab
Transforming addresses into spatial coordinates and practical applications.
The Future: Agentic GIS
Live demo: Using AI agents to automate the entire spatial data pipeline from CSV to Leaflet map.
📚 Required Readings
Visual hierarchy, symbology, and effective map communication.
📖 GIS eBook - Chapter 5Converting addresses to coordinates and location-based services.
📖 GIS eBook - Chapter 6📝 Key Concepts for the Exam
- IMS (Internet Mapping Services): The technology that "streams" base maps and layers from GIS servers to your client. Living Atlas, AGOL, and OSM are modern examples.
- WMS vs. WFS:
• WMS (Web Map Service): Delivers an image of the map. Fast, but you cannot edit the data. (Look, don't touch).
• WFS (Web Feature Service): Delivers the actual vector data. Allows for analysis and editing in QGIS/AGOL. (Touch and do). - Geocoding: Converting text (Excel/CSV/Addresses) into coordinates. A Geolocator acts like a "phone book operator" for spatial data.
- CSV over Excel: In GIS, always prioritize CSV. It is the "universal language" for data interchange and pipeline automation.
- Ground Truthing: Never trust a geolocator blindly. Always verify points against high-resolution imagery (e.g., Living Atlas Satellite) to ensure spatial accuracy.
- Linear Geocoding: Estimates a point's position by interpolating between known start and end address ranges along a street centerline.
- Area (Areal) Geocoding: Uses building footprint polygons tagged with addresses. More accurate but more data-intensive.
- Interpolation: The mathematical process of estimating values between two known points, used extensively in linear geocoding.
Maps are not objective mirrors. They are constructed stories with a specific point of view.
- Cartographic Silences (J.B. Harley): What a map leaves out is as powerful as what it shows.
- The "God Trick" (Donna Haraway): The myth of a perfectly objective, view-from-nowhere perspective.
- The London Underground Map: A distance cartogram that prioritizes usability over geographic accuracy, proving maps are persuasive tools.
We are moving away from manual, multi-step software platforms toward automated AI-driven pipelines.
Manual data cleaning in Excel, breaking batches into 250 records for free tiers.
Proprietary software (AGOL/QGIS) with plugins, manual CSV uploads to web maps.
Natural language prompts to AI agents who write code to execute the entire pipeline instantly.
"Software is dead — frames of reference are the new value."
🎓 Module 3 Knowledge Check
1. Which geocoding method is generally more accurate for finding the exact center of a building?
3. What does IMS stand for in the context of web mapping?
4. In the "Agentic GIS" era, what is the primary role of a GIS analyst?