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9b - How GIS Works

GIS combines data from different sources into maps to help decision makers. It uses location data like addresses and GPS coordinates. GIS maps can show relationships between different types of data like pollution sites and environmentally sensitive areas. This allows analysis of issues and selection of solutions. GIS also enables sharing of geographic data between organizations for additional analysis through maps, tables, and graphs.

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Gesler Pilvan Sain
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98 views2 pages

9b - How GIS Works

GIS combines data from different sources into maps to help decision makers. It uses location data like addresses and GPS coordinates. GIS maps can show relationships between different types of data like pollution sites and environmentally sensitive areas. This allows analysis of issues and selection of solutions. GIS also enables sharing of geographic data between organizations for additional analysis through maps, tables, and graphs.

Uploaded by

Gesler Pilvan Sain
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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9b - How GIS works

HOW DOES GIS WORK

To summarize the important points in the preceding topic and provide and introduction to this topic and
the succeeding one, watch this presentation.

GIS technology applies geographic science with tools for understanding and collaboration. It helps people
reach a common goal: to gain 'actionable intelligence' from all types of data. Actionable
intelligence  simply means information gleaned from sources that enables decision makers (either
political leaders or police/military commanders) to take appropriate and timely action when faced with a
security threat like an imminent terrorist attack.

It is estimated that approximately 80% of all information has a spatial or geographic component. In other
words, most information is tied to a place. When making decisions about finding alternative routes in a
traffic system, directing emergency response vehicles, creating hiking trails, siting new facilities,
protecting wetlands, or designating historic neighborhoods, geography plays a significant role.

This is where GIS comes in. Take note that GIS technology is a computer-based data collection, storage,
and analysis tool that combines previously unrelated information into easily understood maps. But GIS is
much more than maps. A GIS can perform complicated analytical functions and then present the results
visually as maps, tables or graphs, allowing decision-makers to virtually see the issues before them and
then select the best course of action.

Add the Internet, and GIS offers a consistent and cost-effective means for the sharing and analysis of
geographic data among government agencies, private industry, non-profit organizations, and the general
public.

As already mentioned earlier, GIS can use any data that includes location. The location can be expressed
in many different ways, such as latitude and longitude, address, or ZIP code.

Many different types of information can be compared and contrasted using GIS. The system can include
data about people, such as population, income, or education level. It can include information about the
landscape, such as the location of streams, different kinds of vegetation, and different kinds of soil. It can
include information about the sites of factories, farms, and schools, or storm drains, roads, and electric
power lines.

With GIS technology, people can compare the locations of different things in order to discover how they
relate to each other. Using GIS, a single map could include sites that produce pollution, such as factories,
and sites that are sensitive to pollution, such as wetlands and rivers. Such a map would help people
determine where water supplies are most at risk.

What does a GIS do?

GIS can do a lot of things, but the short answer to this question is:  GIS allows you to visualize your data
as a map.

What’s more, GIS systems aren’t static. They allow us to ask complex questions—or “queries” as they are
called in GIS speak—anytime we like. A GIS system can answer these questions instantly by modifying
colors, shapes or highlighting locations on the map.

We’re visual creatures that possess an innate ability to visualize patterns. Patterns that might take us
hours to identify in a spreadsheet can often be identified in an instant when displayed in a more visually
engaging format like a graph, chart, or in this case a map.
There are many innovative ways that your data can be displayed on a map. It could be plotting markers,
color coding locations based on an a data value or using heat maps to identify clusters and patterns in
your data, the possibilities and potential insights are literally endless.

What’s more, GIS systems aren’t static. They allow us to ask complex questions—or “queries” as they are
called in GIS speak—anytime we like. A GIS system can answer these questions instantly by modifying
colors, shapes or highlighting locations on the map.

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