GIS

The study of Geography has been important in so many ways to the people here on this planet. Even from the stoneage, you would find hunters calculation the whereabouts of their prey. Explorers, long ago, relied on their knowledge of geography so much so that it was a matter of life and death for them.

It is not so much different in today’s world. Our modern day societies still function by their understanding of location of people, places and things.

The applied science of geography can be derived from spatial information and in the more commonly known tools called “maps.” These simple tools have served in the capacity of cooperation, discovery and planning of societies and has aided in the resolution of conflicts in over 2,000 years

For most people our knowledge of geography is limited to routine tasks such as locating the nearest gas station, shopping mall or tourist destination. But the use of spatial information can and does have a much bigger impact on our day to day lives then we may have thought. Spatial information helps determine the food we eat and the extra-curricular activities that we enjoy doing. Today, maps are not only useful documents but are also considered lovely art. Many, who have no knowledge of map art, enjoy the look of them and use maps as décor or wearable art.

Since spatial information impacts our lives in so many ways, tools such as the geographic information system, better known as “GIS” had been developed. Granted, you will get the techno-geek version of the GIS system but GIS has evolved to from a sophisticated computing system that only computer geeks could understand to the user-friendly system, with no-brainer components that are in wide use, as you know it today.

It’s hard to believe that our sophisticated GIS systems that are in our cars and planes today, were once just a matter of pencil to paper and nothing more.

In the past 6 decades, many aspects of our lives have grown exponentially and it is no different when it comes to spatial data collecting and dissemination of its information. It goes without saying that this has really impacted and altered our modern day GIS hardware and software systems with all the other technological advancements. The technology for the treatment of the data and how it is obtained has accelerated exponentially in recent years.

GIS aids in the where and what of it all. With it you can track the locations of spatial objects such as mountains and lakes. From there, we can record its water quality, temperature, flow rate and of course, their size. The spatial arrangements of these attributes are usually a factor of other spatial features such as adjacent land use features such as adjacent towns and farmland. With GIS you can analyze and provide a visual map of these types of relationships.

Imagine how valuable this could be during times of natural disasters such as tornados and tsunamis. The tool has proven invaluable in those cases as well as in man-made natural disasters such as fuel, hazardous wastes and oil leaks. Without it, more, irreversible harm would inevitable come to our planet and its occupants.