What is GIS? Flashcards
What is ESRI’s definition of GIS?
A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer-based tool for mapping and analyzing things that exist and events that happen on earth. 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.
The major challenges we face in the world today--overpopulation, pollution, deforestation, natural disasters--have a critical geographic dimension. Mapmaking 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.
A Geographic Information System is a set of interrelated functions that achieve the: ______________
ENTRY STORAGE PROCESSING RETRIEVAL, and GENERATION of new spatial data
The key to the definition is the generation of _______ from existing data through the power to compute key spatial relationships. GIS allows you to explore spatial data in a friendly atmosphere, to ask, and to answer questions based on the fact that, for many research and decision making arenas, _________.
NEW SPATIAL DATA
Geography matters!
What is hardware?
Hardware is the computer on which a GIS operates
What is software?
GIS software provides the functions and tools needed to store, analyze, and display geographic information. Key software components are
Tools for the input and manipulation of geographic information
A database management system (DBMS)
Tools that support geographic query, analysis, and visualization
A graphical user interface (GUI) for easy access to tools
What is data?
Possibly the most important component of a GIS is the data. Geographic data and related tabular data can be collected in-house or purchased from a commercial data provider. A GIS will integrate spatial data with other data resources and can even use a DBMS, used by most organizations to organize and maintain their data, to manage spatial data.
What are people?
GIS technology is of limited value without the people who manage the system and develop plans for applying it to real-world problems. GIS users range from technical specialists who design and maintain the system to those who use it to help them perform their everyday work.
How does GIS organize data?
A GIS stores information about the world as a collection of thematic layers that are linked together by geography – i.e. spatial location. This simple but extremely powerful concept has proven invaluable for solving many real-world problems and models the perspective that geographers have used to view and analyze the world for centuries.
This revolution in data organization concepts is not new, but its widespread adoption has led to amazing services like Google Earth, vehicle navigation, etc.
What can GIS be used for (19 examples)?
- Banking - tracks credit cards/ compute likelihood of purchases
- Insurance
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) - detailed flood mapping
- Real estate dependent on location
- Retail locations - desire high traffic so they locate i places with large highways and more passing traffic
- House prices/ rents - are widely variable for the same house and quality depending on location
- Geospatial intelligence
- Civil engineering
- Storm water systems
- Urban and regional planning
- Zoning
- Elections and redistricting
- Gerrymandering - redistricting strictly for political ends
- Public health
- Cartography
- Forestry (i.e. Virginia Wildfire Risk Assessment)
- Climate change
- Elevation data and coastline changes with sea level rises
- Water resources
- Emergency management - service times for emergency services
- Transportation - flight paths, navigation
What’s the bottom line?
GIS is a very popular tool in many industries and in many academic disciplines.
GIS is a great career path for those who are adept at spatial thinking and spatial approaches to analysis
Location is great way to organize data for all of the fields in which GIS is popular.
Next is to learn how we deal with space and location so we can take advantage of all of this!
What are the six types of human thinking?
Oral/Verbal Logical/Deductive Metaphorical/Comparison Hypothetical Mathematical Spatial
What can we use the six types of human thinking for?
We use all of these in our lives and rely on some more than others. Some of us are great at mathematical thinking and numerical symbolism and communicate in that manner (engineers/mathematicians/statisticians). Others are great at linguistic symbols and language for communication (writers/debaters). Still others are great at spatial thinking.
What do we use spatial thinking for in geography?
To examine and interpret patterns. GIS helps us by illustrating and measuring patterns to help us make decisions
A priori knowledge is a big part of interpretation of imagery and maps so Geographers learn a lot about how the world usually looks/works/is organized.
