Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

What is GIS?

A geographic information system has been described in several ways during its development and emergence as a technology. These include:

• A computer-based system for capture, storage, retrieval, analysis and display of spatial (locationally defined) data. (The National Science Foundation)
• GIS are computer-based systems that are used to store and manipulate geographic information. (Aronoff, Geographic Information Systems: A Management Perspective)
• An organized collection of computer hardware, software, geographic data, and personnel designed to efficiently capture, store, update, manipulate, analyze, and display all forms of geographically referenced information. (Unknown source)
• A computer system capable of holding and using data describing places on the earth's surface. (Unknown source)
• A computer system capable of capturing, storing, analyzing, and displaying geographically referenced information; that is, data identified according to location. Practitioners also define a GIS as including the procedures, operating personnel, and spatial data that go into the system. (USGS)

GIS SIMPLY PUT, a GIS combines layers of information about a place to give you a better understanding of that place. What layers of information you combine depends on your purpose—finding the best location for a new store, analyzing environmental damage, viewing similar crimes in a city to detect a pattern, and so on. (ESRI)

What is GIS? (ESRI's PDF slide show). Go to www.adobe.com for a free download of the latest version software.