Geographic Information Systems Flashcards
7 cards from real CEP practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Geographic Information Systems flashcards as text
What is the primary advantage of using Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards in GIS applications?
Answer: They enable interoperability between different GIS software and data systems
OGC standards such as WMS, WFS, and WCS define common interfaces that allow different GIS platforms and web services to exchange and display spatial data interoperably.
An environmental planner needs to identify which land parcels are within a floodplain AND within a half-mile of a wetland. Which GIS operation produces this result?
Answer: Intersect of floodplain and wetland buffer layers
The Intersect operation returns only the areas common to all input datasets, producing parcels that simultaneously meet both environmental constraints.
Which coordinate system is recommended by the National Spatial Reference System for high-accuracy local survey and GIS work in the United States?
Answer: State Plane Coordinate System
The State Plane Coordinate System divides the U.S. into zones designed to minimize distortion for local and statewide projects, providing high accuracy for infrastructure and parcel mapping.
What does the concept of 'scale dependency' mean in the context of GIS data?
Answer: Features and relationships visible at one scale may not be apparent or appropriate at another scale
Scale dependency means that GIS data and analyses are only appropriate within a certain range of scales, and using data outside its intended scale range introduces errors and misrepresentations.
Which GIS technique is used to convert census data reported for tracts into estimated values for irregularly-shaped analysis zones?
Answer: Dasymetric mapping
Dasymetric mapping redistributes population or other data from reporting units to analysis zones using ancillary data such as land use to make proportional estimates.
In environmental GIS, what is the primary use of a Digital Elevation Model (DEM)?
Answer: Modeling terrain for watershed delineation, slope analysis, and visibility studies
DEMs store continuous elevation values across a landscape, enabling derivation of slope, aspect, flow direction, watershed boundaries, and viewshed calculations.
Which principle of environmental justice GIS analysis ensures that the geographic distribution of environmental burdens is assessed relative to sociodemographic characteristics?
Answer: Cumulative impact screening
Cumulative impact screening combines multiple environmental hazard layers with demographic data to identify communities bearing disproportionate environmental burdens, as used in tools like CalEnviroScreen.