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Overview of GIS
Patterns What spatial patterns exists…………..?
This question is more sophisticated. One might ask this question to determine whether landslides are mostly occurring near streams. It might be just as important to know how many anomalies there are that do not fit the pattern and where they are located.
Modelling What if……………..?
"What if…" questions are posed to determine what happens, for example, if a new road is added to a network or if a toxic substance seeps into the local ground water supply. Answering this type of question requires both geographic and other information (as well as specific models). GIS permits spatial operation.
Aspatial Questions
"What's the average number of people working with GIS in each location?" is an aspatial question - the answer to which does not require the stored value of latitude and longitude; nor does it describe where the places are in relation with each other.
Spatial Questions
" How many people work with GIS in the major centres of Delhi" OR " Which centres lie within 10 Kms. of each other? ", OR " What is the shortest route passing through all these centres". These are spatial questions that can only be answered using latitude and longitude data and other information such as the radius of earth. Geographic Information Systems can answer such questions.
Need of GIS?
Many professionals, such as foresters, urban planners, and geologists, have recognized the importance of spatial dimensions in organising & analysing information. Whether a discipline is concerned with the very practical aspects of business, or is concerned with purely academic research, geographic information system can introduce a perspective, which can provide valuable insights as
- 70% of the information has geographic location as it's denominator making spatial analysis an essential tool.
- Ability to assimilate divergent sources of data both spatial and non-spatial (attribute data).
- Visualization Impact
- Analytical Capability
- Sharing of Information
Factors Aiding the rise of GIS.
- Revolution in Information Technology.
- Computer Technology.
- Remote Sensing.
- Global Positioning System.
- Communication Technology.
- Rapidly declining cost of Computer Hardware, and at the same time, exponential growth of operational speed of computers.
- Enhanced functionality of software and their user-friendliness.
- Visualizing impact of GIS corroborating the Chinese proverb "a picture is worth a thousand words."
- Geographical feature and data describing it are part of our everyday lives & most of our everyday decisions are influenced by some facet of Geography.
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