Using GIS desire lines to visualise and analyse food miles
I can use GIS desire lines to visualise and analyse food miles.
Using GIS desire lines to visualise and analyse food miles
I can use GIS desire lines to visualise and analyse food miles.
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Lesson details
Key learning points
- GIS desire lines can be created using GIS to visualise food miles.
- GIS desire lines are straight lines which follow great circles.
- GIS desire lines can be configured with pop-ups to improve visualisation.
- GIS desire lines can be used to analyse food miles for ingredients or source countries.
Keywords
Food miles - the distance food items travel from their point of production to the point of consumption (not necessarily measured in miles)
Desire lines - a graphical technique using lines on a map to show the simple direction of movement from one place to another
Great circles - straight line routes which appear curved on 2D maps because they account for the curvature of Earth
Pop-up - in GIS, a read-only display of attribute information (e.g. text, images, charts) often linked to a location
Common misconception
When configuring GIS desire lines, by default, the field titles are very long and can be easily confused with each other. This is because they are automatically prefixed with the title of the layer.
Extra care is needed in reading the field names before selection and checking the result in case of errors.
To help you plan your year 11 geography lesson on: Using GIS desire lines to visualise and analyse food miles, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 11 geography lesson on: Using GIS desire lines to visualise and analyse food miles, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
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Explore more key stage 4 geography lessons from the Global pattern of food resources unit, dive into the full secondary geography curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is a natural resource?
Q2.Which of the following is an example of a renewable resource?
Q3.Which of these is an example of a non-renewable resource?
Q4.Why are resources unevenly distributed around the world?
Q5.Which of these countries is most likely to rely on imported energy?
Q6.What is the main problem caused by uneven distribution of resources?
Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1.Match the keywords to the definition.
The distance food travels from where it is grown to where it is eaten
Straight lines showing direction of movement from one place to another
Routes that appear curved but represent the shortest surface path
A small display window in GIS showing information linked to a location