Geographic Information Systems Flashcards
7 cards from real SAF 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
Which GIS network analysis function would a forester use to determine the least-cost route for a logging road through a landscape with varying terrain and sensitive areas?
Answer: Cost-distance or cost-path analysis
Cost-distance and cost-path analysis incorporate resistance surfaces (terrain, sensitive areas) to find the least-cost route across a landscape.
In the context of forest GIS, what does 'geocoding' refer to?
Answer: Translating street addresses or place names into geographic coordinates
Geocoding converts descriptive location information such as addresses into geographic coordinates that can be mapped in a GIS.
A GIS analyst notices that two forest stand layers from different agencies do not align perfectly along shared boundaries. What is the most likely cause?
Answer: Different coordinate systems or datums that have not been properly projected
Misalignment between layers most often results from differing coordinate systems or datums that were not reprojected to a common framework.
Which GIS spatial statistic is used to measure whether forest patches are clustered, dispersed, or randomly distributed across a landscape?
Answer: Nearest Neighbor Index (Average Nearest Neighbor)
The Average Nearest Neighbor Index compares observed distances between features to expected random distances to indicate clustering or dispersion.
What is the key difference between a 'raster mosaic' and a 'raster catalog' in forest GIS data management?
Answer: A mosaic merges multiple rasters into one seamless dataset; a catalog organizes them as a managed collection without merging
A raster mosaic combines multiple rasters into a single seamless dataset, while a raster catalog manages them as a referenced collection without physically merging files.
In accuracy assessment of a classified forest cover map, what does the 'producer's accuracy' measure?
Answer: The probability that a reference site of a given class was correctly classified on the map
Producer's accuracy measures the proportion of reference samples for a given class that were correctly mapped, reflecting errors of omission.
Which interpolation method is considered most statistically rigorous for estimating forest attributes (e.g., basal area) at unsampled locations because it provides uncertainty estimates?
Answer: Kriging
Kriging is a geostatistical interpolation method that models spatial autocorrelation and provides both predictions and variance (uncertainty) estimates.