Abstract
Gaining from Errors, Omissions and Uncertainties of ArcGIS Online Data.
Track: Teaching with GIS in Higher Education
Author
Users of the vast and growing archive of ArcGIS Online data can take advantage of the many errors and limitations that exist in currently available data to gain important insights into the quality of geospatial data and the potential for erroneous data to compromise decision making or result in creation of poor quality maps. Issues such as erroneous attribute data, generalization, limited precision, lack of spatial accuracy, irrelevance and incompleteness of geospatial data and missing or inadequate metadata can all be discovered and graphically illustrated. The growing and dizzying profusion of data becoming available, some from dubious sources, some altered by subsequent analysis and selection increases the potential for erroneous or corrupted data to become available to students, scholars and other users of the ArcGIS Online resources. By building an awareness of these issues, future geospatial professionals be informed users of, and contributors to, this tremendously valuable resource.
Mark Leipnik
Sam Houston State University
Dept of Geography
1900 Ave I
Huntsville, Texas 77341
United States
Phone: (936) 294 3698
Fax: (936) 294 3940
E-mail: geo_mrl@shsu.edu