RS/GIS Quick Start Guides

The GIF is collaborating with the Biodiversity Informatics Facility at the American Museum of Natural History's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation to develop and maintain a freely available series of short practical guides to help Remote Sensing and GIS users perform basic functions with common software applications. These guides are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License, see below for details.

Guides are available in the following subjects:

GIS

	Introduction to Quantum GIS (QGIS) This tutorial introduces some basic concepts to get started using QGIS, an open source GIS application that is freely available and can be installed on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers. Download and install the QGIS application from qgis.org Download data for this exercise: Intro_QGIS.zip (3.8MB)
	Creating a new shapefile and digitizing basics in ArcMap This short tutorial goes over the basic steps necessary in creating a new shapefile in ArcMap, as well how to use the editor to digitize new features.
	GIS Data Formats This guide introduces the basic differences between vector and raster GIS data formats.
	Projections and Datum This guide introduces basic projection and datum information, including common California projections.
	Scale in GIS This guide introduces considerations of scale when working in a GIS.

GPS

	Handheld GPS Buyers Guide This guide reviews some of the options to consider when selecting a GPS receiver.
	GPS Field Protocol This guide introduces considerations in using a GPS receiver for field work.

Remote Sensing

	Landsat Band Information This guide introduces the individual landsat bands including information on features that they are best suited to identify, as well as five examples of commonly used band combinations in creating color composite images.
	Creating a multi-band GeoTIFF from individual files using ArcGIS This short tutorial goes over the process of taking individual image bands and creating a multi-band image that can be viewed in color, using ArcMap.
	Creating a multi-band GeoTIFF from individual files using Erdas Imagine This short tutorial goes over the process of taking individual image bands and creating a multi-band image that can be viewed in color, using Erdas Imagine.
	Loading and enhancing Landsat images in common geospatial software This short tutorial goes over the process of loading and viewing a satellite image in ArcGIS, Erdas Imagine, and ENVI.

Species Distribution Modeling

	Find and Format Species Data from GBIF This short tutorial goes over the basic steps necessary in downloading species data, and formatting for use in Maxent.
	Using the ArcMap model builder to format environmental layers This tutorial walks through building a simple model to batch process environmental data layers for use in Maxent.
	Creating a raster Mask from a vector layer in ArcMap This tutorial details the necessary steps in creating a raster mask file from a vector shapefile in ArcMap.
	Displaying model results in ArcMap This tutorial provides the basic steps necessary in displaying model output results in ArcMap.

Other guides available at the BIF

Several other guides are available via the Biodiversity Informatics Facility, topics include:

Locating and loading imagery
Locating imagery on the Internet and loading it into popular software packages. Some information about 3-D visualization is also provided.

Classification and Multi-Date Comparison
Information about performing automated and manual classification using popular geospatial software.

Classification Validation
Methods to facilitate validating classified image products.

Licensing

These guides are freely available for use and modification through a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
License details: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/