INTRODUCTION OF DATA RESOURCES TO BE USED IN THE ESTABLISHMENT 
OF A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) 
M. Özbalmumcu 
General Command of Mapping, Photogrammetry Department, 06100 Dikimevi, Ankara, Turkey 
mozbalmumcu@hgk.mil.tr 
Commission II, WG II/IV *Automated Geo-spatial Data Production and Updating" 
KEY WORDS: GIS, Mapping, Photography, Resources, Method. 
ABSTRACT: 
Today, like in many other scientific fields, it is well known that the great efforts have being spent on the establishment of the 
Geographic Information System in mapping field which includes spatial (graphic) data and attribute (non-graphic) information. 
Lately, thanks to the important progresses occurred in the computer technology, Digital Geographic Databases (DGB) and 
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have being started to be established by using spatial/geographic data and attributes 
belonging to the topographic features on the ground in many disciplines and mapping field. 
Geographic Information System helps to the solution of planning, management and analysis problems by means of combining of the 
geographic data collected from different resources. The most important components of a GIS are the geographic data. This data can 
be collected from many data resources like terrestrial and aerial photographs, satellite images, terrestrial, geodetic and tacheometric 
observations, maps and plans, reports, records etc. In establishing a GIS, the process step which is the most expensive and requires 
personnel, time and money is the data collection. | 
In this article, different data resources that can be used in the data collection step for establishing of a GIS data base which includes 
graphic data and attribute information about the topographic land cover and earth surface have been searched and, various 
explanatory information and offers related to the determination of the most suitable data resources which can be used for many 
purposes, for example in the digital mapping and creation of GIS data bases have been given. Additionally, the data resources for the 
creation of a GIS given in the paper have been explained in detail with their advantages, disadvantages and other properties. 
1. INTRODUCTION 2. MAIN DATA RESOURCES TO BE USED IN 
SETTING UP A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION 
Geographic Information System is a technology which includes SYSTEM 
the basic components of personnel, graphic data, non-graphic 
information, computer hardware and software. A GIS data base 2.1 Aerial Photographs 
is usually established in order to increase the capabilities of 
making a decision of the managers in the planning and Aerial photographs are generally offered to the users by 
management activities and to provide time, money, cost and producing as photographic cards or transparent diapositives in 
personnel savings. analog format. Recently, they have being started to produce 
directly in digital form by using digital cameras. Mono or stereo 
aerial photographs taken with different scales have been using 
successfully in various topographic applications and data 
collection activities for many years. Aerial photographs are the 
most accurate, reliable and appropriate data resources which can 
be used in the production of analogue or digital maps, the 
creation of a Geographic Data Base (GDB) and Geographic 
As it is seen in the definition given above, geographic Information System (GIS) (Krauss, 1993). 
information system is related to the graphic and non-graphic 
information of the objects, details and features (natural and 
artificial features) existing in the earth surface. There are lots of 
data resources for the creation of any GIS data base related to 
the mapping or any other discipline. The data collection, the fist 
step of establishing a GIS, contains approximately 80 % of all 
GIS processing steps in view of time, cost, man power, job 
intensity and other consumptions. Regarding this, this article 
has been prepared to give useful information about this Up-to-date aerial photographs are used for the creation of both a 
important subject to the users. vector GIS and a raster GIS. All topographical graphic vector 
data which can be seen on the photographs can be captured from 
the aerial photographs, but, it is not possible to extract attribute 
information from them easily. 
The basic steps of establishing a geographic information system 
are the collection of graphic (spatial) data and non-graphic 
(attribute) information related to the geography and physical 
earth surface by using different data resources; storing. 
processing, analyzing and presenting of the collected digital 
data. 
According to the results obtained from several investigations 
and experiences gained in many years, it has been understood 
that the use of the aerial photograph scales given in Table-1 
would be appropriate and reasonable for the production of the 
vector and orthophoto maps in different scales. The photograph 
scales given in Table-1 reflect the opinions of the writer. An 
example of colour aerial photographs is shown in Figure-1. 
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