Geographic Information System
Geography SSS1 Third Term
WEEK 2
Geographic Information System
Performance Objectives
Students should be able to:
- Meaning of Geographic Information System
- Importance of Geographic Information System
- How to use GIS
Content
Geographic information system
A geographic information system (GIS) is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of spatial or geographical data.
The acronym GIS is sometimes used for geographical information science or geospatial information studies to refer to the academic discipline or career of working with geographic information systems and is a large domain within the broader academic discipline of Geoinformatics. What goes beyond a GIS is a spatial data infrastructure, a concept that has no such restrictive boundaries.
In a general sense, the term describes any information system that integrates, stores, edits, analyzes, shares, and displays geographic information. GIS applications are tools that allow users to create interactive queries (user-created searches), analyze spatial information, edit data in maps, and present the results of all these operations. Geographic information science is the science underlying geographic concepts, applications, and systems.
A Geographic Information System or GIS is a computer system that allows you to map, model, query, and analyze large quantities of data within a single database according to their location.
Importance of GIS
- It helps to create maps
- integrate information
- visualize scenarios
- present powerful ideas, and
- develop effective solutions
How to use GIS
- Acquiring and maintaining accurate locational data of regulated facilities, pollutant sources and environmental resources,
- providing appropriate access to data
- Developing customized GIS maps, tools and applications, and
- Providing technical assistance to support GIS needs