"What is GIS?" Are you new to GIS? Check out this section and you will learn how this powerful system can influence your life ... See also:

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What is GIS?

GIS - Geographic Information Systems

GIS uses computers and software to leverage the fundamental principle of geography - that geography matters and location is important in people's lives. Linking location to information (or bringing the where to bear on the what) is a process that applies to many aspects of business and community decision-making. Choosing a site, targeting a market, planning a distribution network, zoning a neighbourhood, allocating resources, and responding to emergencies-all these problems involve questions of geography. With the vase sources of information available today, GIS is a key tool in determining what it all means. It has the power to answer questions on 'where?', 'why?', 'what?', 'when?' and 'how?' quickly and accurately, all with the location information on hand. And you can make better decisions with the knowledge that geography and spatial analysis are included.

GIS is therefore has a formal definition as follows "a system of hardware, software and procedures designed to support the capture, management, manipulation, analysis, modelling and display of spatially referenced data for solving complex planning and management problems".

Hence, it is powerful because it brings together tools for working with geographic data in many different ways. For instance, with a GIS, you can:

• Display geographic information in the form of maps, charts and tables.
• Design simple to sophisticated "what-ifs" in the form of database and map queries.
• Investigate patterns, relationships, and details about places at different scales and in different map projections.
• Perform statistical analysis and database functions.
• Add data sets of your own creation and join data from outside sources to existing geographic area.
• Create your own geographic areas for mapping and analysis
• Link photos, video, text, and graphics to specific geographic locations for multimedia presentations
• Lay out and print a map, chart, table and graphic images
• Export maps, charts, and tables for use in other software packages.

Figure 1: Flow of GIS

Components of GIS

A successful GIS primary consists of five separated important components, yet they are interrelated to make a GIS performs to satisfactory.

Figure 2: Components of GIS

Computer hardware
GIS runs on robust comptuer technology, capable of processing millions of computations per second.

Software tools
ArcGIS Desktop GIS software provides the mechanism for analyzing relationships between geographic entities, and allows the explorer to interact with dynamic maps on the computer screen. The software also permits the user to produce high-quality maps on a variety of output devices.

Geographic data
Data in a GIS comes in two parts: 1) the geographic data that represents the physical places: cities, rivers, lakes; and 2) the attribute data that describes the characteristics of the geographic features: population, length, area. Matching each unique geographic feature with its corresponding attributes is the true power behind GIS.

Thinking explorers
In order to be used effectively, the GIS needs to be placed in an appropriate organisational context. It is simply not sufficient for an organisation to make necessary investments in hardware and software, and then to expect instant success, but also in the retraining of personnel and managers to use the new technology in the proper organisation context.

Methods
The designer of a GIS should expect the user would want to ask an almost unlimited number of questions that will need to be answered by using certain combinations of data retrieval and analysis options. It is therefore an essential to organize and understand the methods and techniques used in GIS software within the context of GIS concepts and principles. In addition, the designer shall aware of why to choose a particular method or technique, and how to implement it for getting the accurate and errorless results of information.

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Find out more...

Here are a few sources to help you explore the basic principles of GIS.

• What is a GIS?: This introduction to GIS from the U.S. Geological Survey teaches you how GIS works and has been applied through history to the present day.
• GIS Basics: A quick introduction to GIS, ArcView GIS, and ArcInfo from ESRI's Schools and Libraries Program.
• GIS for Everyone: This book will help you discover the fast-growing world of GIS technology no matter who you are or what you do.
• Volusia County, Florida: General information about GIS, its components, what it can do for you, and instructions on how to do GIS at home