GIS technology sometimes allows users to access further information about specific areas on a map. A person can point to a spot on a digital map to find other information stored in the GIS about that location.
For example, a user might click on a school to find how many students are enrolled, how many students there are per teacher, or what sports facilities the school has. GIS systems are often used to produce three-dimensional images. This is useful, for example, to geologists studying earthquake faults. GIS technology makes updating maps much easier than updating maps created manually. Updated data can simply be added to the existing GIS program. A new map can then be printed or displayed on screen.
This skips the traditional process of drawing a map, which can be time-consuming and expensive. People working in many different fields use GIS technology. GIS technology can be used for scientific investigations, resource management , and development planning.
Many retail businesses use GIS to help them determine where to locate a new store. Marketing companies use GIS to decide to whom to market stores and restaurants, and where that marketing should be. Scientists use GIS to compare population statistics to resources such as drinking water. Biologists use GIS to track animal- migration patterns. City, state, or federal officials use GIS to help plan their response in the case of a natural disaster such as an earthquake or hurricane.
GIS maps can show these officials what neighborhoods are most in danger, where to locate emergency shelters, and what routes people should take to reach safety. Engineers use GIS technology to support the design, implementation, and management of communication networks for the phones we use, as well as the infrastructure necessary for internet connectivity.
Other engineers may use GIS to develop road networks and transportation infrastructure. Illustration courtesy U. Government Accountability Office. Staff from the US Geological Survey USGS answer questions about aerial photographs, maps, satellite imagery, computer programs, data formats, data standards, and digital cartographic data.
Hurricanes are the same thing as typhoons, but usually located in the Atlantic Ocean region. In GIS, a closed shape on a map defined by a connected sequence of x, y coordinate pairs. Also called an electrical grid. Also called a transmission line. Also called natural resource management. Storm drains flow into local creeks, rivers, or seas.
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You cannot download interactives. Search through these resources to discover more about unique landforms and landscapes around the world. Landforms are natural and distinctive features. Explore how they show up in various landscapes. These resources can be used to teach middle schoolers more about the natural world, its distinctive features, and landscapes. They help us understand Earth and how its physical processes and features can shape human activity and vice versa.
When data is organized by its locations, we can see geographic patterns that allow us to develop a better understanding of how systems work and interact with one another. Use this collection to provide learners with a deeper understanding of the nature and importance of maps, which have been illustrating places and people for thousands of years.
One of the oldest tenets of geography is the concept of place. The first GIS was created by Dr. Roger Tomlinson and then introduced in the early s in Canada. Prior to this, mapping by the use of computers was being used for such cases but this is a method that had numerous limitations associated to it. By the end of the 80s period, the use of GIS had already become popular in other related fields which is why it led to a spur in the growth of the industrial sector.
Recently, designers came up with open source software for GIS so that the brilliant technology can be enhanced in a much simpler manner while being made available to all. The next step in understanding GIS is to look at each area and how they work together. These components are:. Hardware comprises the equipment needed to support the many activities needed for geospatial analysis ranging from data collection to data analysis. For desktop GIS, the central piece of equipment is the workstation, which runs the GIS software and is the attachment point for ancillary equipment.
With the advent of web mapping, web servers have also become an important piece of equipment. Different types of software are important. Central to this is the GIS application package. Such software is essential for creating, editing and analyzing spatial and attribute data, therefore these packages contain a myriad of geospatial functions inherent to them.
Component GIS software is the opposite of application software. Component GIS seeks to build software applications that meet a specific purpose and thus are limited in their spatial analysis capabilities.
Utilities are stand-alone programs that perform a specific function. For example, a file format utility that converts from on type of GIS file to another. There is also web GIS software that helps serve data and interactive maps through Internet browsers. Geospatial data is the core of any GIS. There are two primary types of data that are used in GIS: vector and raster data.
A geodatabase is a database that is in some way referenced to locations on the earth. Geodatabases are grouped into two different types: vector and raster.
Vector data is spatial data represented as points, lines and polygons. Raster data is cell-based data such as aerial imagery and digital elevation models. Coupled with this data is usually data known as attribute data. Attribute data generally defined as additional information about each spatial feature housed in tabular format.
Sometimes attribute data is stored separately in a spreadsheet file such as Excel or Google Sheets. Attribute data is linked back to geospatial data by relating unique values found in the same populated column in the GIS dataset and the attribute data.
Documentation of GIS datasets is known as metadata. Metadata contains such information as the coordinate system, when the data was created, when it was last updated, who created it and how to contact them and definitions for any of the code attribute data. There are many different ways that GIS data can be collected. There are three factors to the people component: education, career path, and networking. The right education is key; taking the right combination of classes. Selecting the right type of GIS job is important.
Finally, continuous networking with other GIS professionals is essential for the exchange of ideas as well as a support community. Article last updated: March 16, Article first written: November 12, Well structured paper which wets appetite for for more reading and study. I am doing Masters by research on application of Gis in Fire distaster management in my province K vhembe: South Africa. May you please send me relevant source textbooks.
I must say your website has given me the heads up I need to understand this exciting field. I have read your notes on GIS keenly. Overview Geospatial data is created, shared, and stored in many different formats.
The two primary data types are raster and vector. Vector data is represented as either points, lines, or polygons. Discrete or thematic data is best represented as vector. Data that has an exact location, or hard boundaries are typically shown as vector data.
Examples are county boundaries, the location of roads and railroads using lines, or point data indicating the location of fire hydrants. By contrast, raster data is best suited for continuous data, or information that does not have hard boundaries or locations. As rasters, the data are viewed as a series of grid cells where each cell has a value representing the feature being observed.
Think of raster data as appropriate for modeling surfaces like elevation, temperature, precipitation, or soil Ph. These phenomena are measured at intervals think weather stations , and values in between are interpolated to create a continuous surface. Raster data also includes remote sensing imagery, like aerial photography and satellite imagery. Vector Formats:. To have a complete shapefile, you must have at least 3 files with the same prefix name and with the following extensions:. Additionally, you may have a.
All these files must be saved in the same workspace. GDB: Geodatabase The file geodatabase is a collection of geographic datasets of various types, with the most basic types being vector, raster, and tabular data.
There are three types of geodatabases: file, personal, and ArcSDE. It has largely been replaced by the geodatabase format. Coverages do not have an individual file extension. Instead it is composed of two folders within a "workspace" which each contain multiple files. One of the two folders carries the name of the coverage, and contains a number of various. The other folder is an "info" folder, which typically contains.
E Arc Export or Interchange Format. Raster Formats:.
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