Gis1145
- 1. Geographic Information Systems By Amanda Sohns & Cody Norton Bus 345 11:45( Lima team)
- 2. What is it Geographic information systems (GIS) helps us visualize information in ways that help us see patterns and relationships through digital maps and charts by integrating and manipulating location data. GIS depicts the earth surface using information points to display 2 and 3 dimensional characteristics.
- 3. History The use of maps dates back to Babylonian times 2300 years B.C. and the use of information points to find relationships dates to 1854. However the first true geographic information system was not built until 1962 in Ottawa, Ontario. This first GIS was called the Canada Geographic Information System. It integrated information from many government agencies, such as forestry and wildlife, and was used by federal and provincial resource planning and management agencies. In 1964 Howard Fisher the Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis at Harvard. This laboratory created software and codes , such as GRID, which were the building blocks of later commercial development of GIS. In 1982 a branch of the U.S. army created GRASS GIS, which the army used for land management and environmental planning. Around this same time commercial application also began with three companies leading the way, Intergraph, ESRI and CARIS. The rise of the personal computer in the late 80's and 90's lead to the growth and expansion of GIS commercial applications. Today GIS applications are part of everyday life for most Americans, helping us find directions and letting us view the world on our computer screens.
- 4. How it Works GIS systems can represent many different types of data from discrete objects such as a building or a lake, which are called features or continuous fields such as elevation or temperature, which are called surfaces. Information entered into a GIS system is broken down in to two types of data raster data which is used to describe surfaces and vector data which describes features. Vector data are shapes the represent features and there are three types are geometrical shapes used, dots, lines and polygons. Dots are used for small specific point references, such as a house or a city. Lines are used for features that are linear like rivers and roads. Polygons are used to represent large areas that have definable boundaries, such as countries, lakes or park boundaries. The shape used depends not only on what is being represented but also on the scale at which the data is being shown. A city may be a dot on a map if one is looking at entire United States, but if the scale were smaller then that same city may be represented as a polygon. Raster data are grids made up of rows and columns of cells with numeric values that represent surface data. Each cell represents an area of a surfaces and contains that areas information. Using numeric values allows for things that do not have a distinct shape, like rain fall or wind speed, to be mapped. Below is an example of a raster data grid and a vector data drawing, both show the same area.
- 5. The “Three Views” 1. The "Data Base View" is the most basic of all forms, which takes standard road maps and topographies, and digitally stores them making it easier to access maps. This is beneficial because it standardizes maps and allows people to more easily edit maps or add to them and it sets a platform for more collaborative uses of GIS. 2. The "Map View" is the next step in GIS which is more of a "Intelligent Map" allowing you to add detail to maps. The detail allows you to add geographical information like tree's, buildings, and other descriptive features of land. 3. The last view is the most beneficial part of GIS is the "Model View". The model view couples with the other two views and other data sets to analyze the issues that company's are trying to solve. This allows users to analyze issues and map out the results like a company's customer base or transportation routes based on traffic patterns, and other measurable characteristics.
- 6. Why Is It Useful? BUS 345 looks at this because it is useful to business success. Business can use this technology to analyze issues that effect the business. One example of business use to analyze decisions is the newspaper industry who try to collate things such as age and education of a community to its readers base or potential reader base. Also the Map view is commonly used in Google maps and can now be used as a GPS device using cell phones. You can use Google maps our if good at using GIS you can use it to map where things are that are specific to your interest. Say your a ski junkie and have traveled the U.S. to find the best slopes and have found that nothing goes greater than a cold beer skiing all day. You can map out the bars and color coat them to a key you make to indicate its rating. this allows you to keep track of the skiing resorts with god bars and allows you to share your opinion with others. You could also use GIS to map out frequencies of something your wishing to measure. This is used in the Military and an example could be creating a map of Iraq or Afghanistan and measure the number of insurgent attacks and it would allow the Military to analyze high risk areas based on number of attacks.