18-Geom-A7 Geospatial Information Systems · May 2017
Nivaar worked solution (AI-drafted; not reviewed by a licensed engineer)
National Exams — May 2017 — 04-Geom-A7 Geospatial Information Systems. Closed-book; any non-communicating calculator permitted. Format: fifteen questions of varied value totalling 100 marks; fifteen questions constitute a complete paper and all fifteen are solved in full below. Most answers are required in essay form. Datum and coordinate conventions follow the Canadian spatial reference framework — NAD83(CSRS) horizontally and CGVD2013 vertically.
Reference texts: P. A. Longley, M. F. Goodchild, D. J. Maguire & D. W. Rhind, Geographic Information Systems and Science (4th ed., Wiley, 2015); P. Bolstad, GIS Fundamentals: A First Text on Geographic Information Systems (6th ed., XanEdu, 2019); P. A. Burrough, R. A. McDonnell & C. D. Lloyd, Principles of Geographical Information Systems (3rd ed., Oxford, 2015); M. Worboys & M. Duckham, GIS: A Computing Perspective (2nd ed., CRC, 2004); H. Samet, The Design and Analysis of Spatial Data Structures (Addison-Wesley, 1990); ISO 19115 Geographic information — Metadata.
Question text not reproduced: the examination questions are © Engineers and Geoscientists BC. Open the official past paper (linked at the top of this page) to read the question, then follow the worked solution below.
The distinction is where the processing and data reside. In a thin-client design the browser is little more than a display: nearly all work — data storage, querying, geoprocessing and often map rendering — is done on the server, which returns finished images or small data fragments (e.g., pre-rendered map tiles). Advantages: a lightweight client that runs on any device with minimal requirements, easy central maintenance and updates, secure data that never leaves the server, and consistent behaviour. Limitations: heavy server load and bandwidth per request, greater latency, and limited interactivity or offline capability. A thick-client (fat-client) design pushes data and functionality to the client — vector data, styling and analysis run in the browser or app (modern JavaScript map libraries, WebGL) — so the server mainly supplies raw data. Advantages: rich, responsive interactivity, client-side analysis and rendering, reduced per-interaction server load, and possible offline use. Limitations: larger downloads and higher client hardware demands, harder deployment and version control across many devices, and greater exposure of data on the client. In practice most modern web-mapping apps are a hybrid: tiled/served base data (thin) with client-side rendering and interaction (thick), balancing responsiveness against server cost and security.
