A geographic information system or geographical information system (GIS) is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of spatial or geographical data. The acronym GIS is sometimes used for geographic information science (GIScience) to refer to the academic discipline that studies geographic information systems and is a large domain within the broader academic discipline of geoinformatics. What goes beyond a GIS is a spatial data infrastructure, a concept that has no such restrictive boundaries.
GIS is a broad term that can refer to a number of different technologies, processes, and methods. It is attached to many operations and has many applications related to engineering, planning, management, transport/logistics, insurance, telecommunications, and business. For that reason, GIS and location intelligence applications can be the foundation for many location-enabled services that rely on analysis and visualization.
GIS can relate unrelated information by using location as the key index variable. Locations or extents in the Earth space–time may be recorded as dates/times of occurrence, and x, y, and z coordinates representing, longitude, latitude, and elevation, respectively. All Earth-based spatial–temporal location and extent references should, ideally, be relatable to one another and ultimately to a "real" physical location or extent. This key characteristic of GIS has begun to open new avenues of scientific inquiry.
Initial use of GIS was for cartography and mapping. However, the methods of computerising cartographic procedures were coincident with the realisation that mapping could be used in analysis through overlays and calculations (Schuurman, 2004). Nowadays, the analytical technique in GIS is known as spatial analysis,
Spatial analysis involves the overlapping of different characteristics of datasets, known as map overlays. Map overlay
made up of collections of similar geographic objects, also known as features, arranged in layers. It is through the overlay technique, that the result of the analysis can be understood, for example Monroe County (2008). Every feature in a GIS map is connected to a spatial table in the overlay. The table is filled with attributes of data that could be examined as information (Ibid, 2008).
Furthermore, GIS divides the world into objects and attribute tables, both of which can be represented spatially by raster or vector datasets which are shown on the map overlay:
•Raster dataset that comes from grids, e.g. images, aerial photos.
•Vector dataset that comes from mathematical calculations and functions, e.g. points, lines, polygons.
Both types of dataset will be used to produce complete and extensive data in the Area of Study.
GIS is a broad term that can refer to a number of different technologies, processes, and methods. It is attached to many operations and has many applications related to engineering, planning, management, transport/logistics, insurance, telecommunications, and business. For that reason, GIS and location intelligence applications can be the foundation for many location-enabled services that rely on analysis and visualization.
GIS can relate unrelated information by using location as the key index variable. Locations or extents in the Earth space–time may be recorded as dates/times of occurrence, and x, y, and z coordinates representing, longitude, latitude, and elevation, respectively. All Earth-based spatial–temporal location and extent references should, ideally, be relatable to one another and ultimately to a "real" physical location or extent. This key characteristic of GIS has begun to open new avenues of scientific inquiry.
Initial use of GIS was for cartography and mapping. However, the methods of computerising cartographic procedures were coincident with the realisation that mapping could be used in analysis through overlays and calculations (Schuurman, 2004). Nowadays, the analytical technique in GIS is known as spatial analysis,
Spatial analysis involves the overlapping of different characteristics of datasets, known as map overlays. Map overlay
made up of collections of similar geographic objects, also known as features, arranged in layers. It is through the overlay technique, that the result of the analysis can be understood, for example Monroe County (2008). Every feature in a GIS map is connected to a spatial table in the overlay. The table is filled with attributes of data that could be examined as information (Ibid, 2008).
Furthermore, GIS divides the world into objects and attribute tables, both of which can be represented spatially by raster or vector datasets which are shown on the map overlay:
•Raster dataset that comes from grids, e.g. images, aerial photos.
•Vector dataset that comes from mathematical calculations and functions, e.g. points, lines, polygons.
Both types of dataset will be used to produce complete and extensive data in the Area of Study.
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