GISP - Geographic Information Systems Professional Data Acquisition Methods Questions and Answers

Question 1

Which of the following best describes the fundamental difference between active and passive remote sensing data acquisition methods?

Accepted Answer

Passive sensors measure emitted or reflected energy from an external source, whereas active sensors provide their own energy source to illuminate the target.

Answer

Active sensors operate only during the day, while passive sensors can operate day and night.

Answer

Active sensors, like aerial photography, produce image data, while passive sensors, like LiDAR, produce point cloud data.

Answer

Passive sensors are only used on satellite platforms, while active sensors are used on both satellite and aerial platforms.

Question 2

A field technician is collecting high-precision coordinates for ground control points using a GNSS receiver. They notice significant, fluctuating positional errors despite having a clear view of the sky. The errors seem most pronounced during the early afternoon. Which of the following is the most likely source of this signal propagation error?

Accepted Answer

Ionospheric and tropospheric delay

Answer

Multipath error from nearby buildings

Answer

Poor satellite geometry (high PDOP)

Answer

Intentional signal degradation from Selective Availability

Question 3

In photogrammetry, what is the name of the process that uses tie points and ground control points across multiple overlapping aerial images to precisely determine the position and orientation of the camera at the moment of exposure for each image?

Accepted Answer

Aerotriangulation

Answer

Orthorectification

Answer

Mosaicking

Answer

Georeferencing

Question 4

A GIS analyst receives a raw, unprocessed LiDAR point cloud dataset in LAS format. For each individual point, which set of attributes is most likely to be included as a standard part of the initial data collection?

Accepted Answer

X, Y, Z coordinates, intensity, and return number

Answer

X, Y coordinates, feature classification, and RGB color values

Answer

Z value (elevation), land cover classification, and scan angle

Answer

RGB color values, intensity, and a unique feature ID

Question 5

A planning department needs to convert a highly detailed, legally authoritative paper map of historical property boundaries into a digital vector format for a cadastre project. Precision and geometric fidelity to the source map are the highest priorities. Which data acquisition method is most suitable for this task?

Accepted Answer

Heads-down digitizing using a high-precision digitizing tablet and puck

Answer

Automated raster-to-vector conversion after scanning

Answer

Geotagging photos of the map and extracting features

Answer

Scanning the map and using it as a simple basemap image

Question 6

A GIS team is tasked with acquiring data from multiple external agencies, each providing data in different formats (e.g., spreadsheets, CAD files, various database types). The data must be cleaned, restructured, projected, and loaded into a centralized enterprise geodatabase. Which industry-standard acronym best describes this overall data acquisition and integration workflow?

Accepted Answer

ETL (Extract, Transform, Load)

Answer

SQL (Structured Query Language)

Answer

API (Application Programming Interface)

Answer

GIS (Geographic Information System)