Essay 1: GIS and Me

GIS also known as Geographical Information System is a software used by town planner as a tools in mapping purposes. I am really interested in GIS when I firstly came to GIS class taught by Dr Nazri Mohd Ludin which is the dean of Built Environment Faculty. After that, I had decided to make GIS as my option subject to get more skills in this field. Besides that, when I entered practical training in private sector which is AJM Planning and Urban Design Group Sdn Bhd, the firm also emphasizing that fresh graduates that have to master in GIS skills for added values. Therefore, I am very sure that I will do my PSM or thesis related in GIS.

In the GIS option subject, I am not study on how to make a map but how to do statistical analysis using GIS Spatial Statistics. For information, GIS can also be used for statistical purposes using GIS Spatial Statistics. The output of analysis will be shown in map. Basically, Microsoft Excel or SPSS are used in making the analysis involving statistical data. The outputs are showing in tables, charts and graphs only. For me, it is very interesting when the output can be understand just by seeing the map.

For example, in my thesis, I study about “Exploration on Poverty Using GIS Spatial Statistics” for the whole State of Selangor. The main purpose is to identify distribution of poverty patterns and the factors that affected from social and environmental factors. There are a few techniques to get the best results such as Morans’ I, Geary C, Morans Scatter Plot, Standard Deviation, Local Indicator Spatial Association (LISA) and other techniques. From analysis, I found that the poverty patterns in Selangor are random and there is a spatial correlation. Besides that, I also know that poverty have spatial relationship with number of schools, distances every Mukim from Kuala Lumpur, capacity of road for every Mukim and types of land.

My supervisor is interested on my thesis topic, and offered me to do presentation paper for GIS seminar and become his research assistant. I am very happy with the offer and I accept it as my first job experience and it was my first step in GIS. I really love GIS so much.