WHAT IS A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM?
A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer-based tool for mapping and analyzing spatial data. GIS technology integrates common database operations such as query and statistical analysis with the unique visualization and geographic analysis benefits offered by maps.
These abilities distinguish GIS from other information systems and make it valuable to a wide range of public and private enterprises for explaining events, predicting outcomes, and planning strategies. GIS is considered to be one of the most important new technologies, with the potential to revolutionize many aspects of society through increased ability to make decisions and solve problems.
The major challenges that we face in the world today — overpopulation, pollution, deforestation, natural disasters – all have a critical geographic dimension.
Local problems also have a geographic component that can be visualized using GIS technology, whether finding the best soil for growing crops, determining the home range for an endangered species, or discovering the best way to dispose of hazardous waste. Careful analysis of spatial data using GIS can give insight into these problems and suggest ways in which they can be addressed.
Map making and geographic analysis are not new, but a GIS performs these tasks better and faster than do the old manual methods. And, before GIS technology, only a few people had the skills necessary to use geographic information to help with decision making and problem solving.
Today, GIS is a multi-billion-dollar industry employing hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. GIS is taught in high schools, colleges, and universities throughout the world. Professionals in every field are increasingly aware of the advantages of thinking and working geographically.
GIS aims to address and answer the following questions:
· Is this school’s catchment areas optimised? Is it overstretched or could we increase the catchment area?
· How do we allocate civil resources to where they are most needed?
· Is this hospital overstretched while this one is barely used? Why is that?
· Where are recorded cases of a certain disease? Are we applying medical resources in the right places to combat it?
· Are our roads in the right place? Should we build more? And where?
· Is our public transport network optimised? What is the contingency if one route is cut off? (the national rail authority in the UK faced a harsh reality in January 2014 when the only rail link to West Devon and beyond was destroyed by storms, something they had prepared for three years previously (7))
· Is aid going to the people who need it most in this disaster zone?
· Is it sensible to build houses here? (is it a floodplain and if so, what would we need to do and how much money would we need to invest in not making it an insurance nightmare)
· Can we legally build houses here? (Is the area an AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) or SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) or a conservation area?
· Can we predict where new oil pockets might exist based on data of past oil pockets and existing survey data?
· How has a particular landscape eroded over the last X number of years? Will this erosion be a danger to existing settlements any time soon?
· Which newspapers and magazines sell best in which towns and cities, and even in cities, which districts sell the most copies? Are we providing adequate distribution?
· Where is best to place our new restaurant? A fast food outlet and an exclusive restaurant will both looking for the best site but both may look at different data sets and parameters.
· Which countries, cities and areas are the biggest polluters? What can we do about it? How do we plan our city to minimise pollution of residential areas?
These questions are vital to our everyday lives but there are other uses, perhaps not useful to the wider population, but certainly to researchers in certain fields. Questions such as:
· What is the geographic distribution of certain endangered plants or animal life? What can we learn from this new distribution?
· How did this surname spread and in which part of the country is it most prevalent?
· Can we find as-yet undiscovered buried features by plotting local finds? (for example Roman pottery in high density of one area may lead to a villa that we’ve not yet found)
· How can we plot the spread of migrating peoples during a particular era using specified data types? (for example, looking at and plotting known dates of burial can demonstrate
The potential of GIS is limitless (1) in many of the cases above, particularly for those concerned with resource planning, complex formulas are calculated to ensure the most efficient delivery. Whether you know it or not, your daily life relies heavily on GIS.
