Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Perhaps the geospatial technology that most people are familiar with is a geographic information system (GIS). A GIS is defined as “a system designed to capture, store, edit, manipulate, analyze, display, and export data related to geographic features, and includes not only the hardware and software necessary to accomplish these tasks, but also the databases acquired or developed, and the people performing the tasks” (Wing and Bettinger, 2008, p. 255). The origins of the first GIS date to the early 1950s when various government agencies and other institutions (such as Harvard University) were using computers to produce maps. The term GIS was first used in reference to CGIS (Canadian Geographic Information System) which was designed to store geospatial data for the Canada Land Inventory. The CGIS provided information pertaining to land-use planning and resource monitoring and management (Shellito, 2016).
Over the past few decades, GIS has become increasingly used to solve environmental sustainability issues as explained in this short video.
Today, there are many environmental sustainability questions that can be answered using a GIS. These include:
- Where are certain features (e.g., coastal wetlands, forested land, urban areas, waste disposal sites) found in an environment?
- What geographical patterns exist across a landscape? (e.g., are certain types of plant species clustered or dispersed?)
- Where have changes (e.g., in land-use/land-cover type) occurred over a given period?
- Where do certain conditions apply? (e.g., water quality measurement locations that exceed provincial standards)
- Modelling 'What if' scenarios? (e.g., What would a flood scenario “look like” if an additional 40 mm of rain fell on an area?)
Read about the various GIS applications and how GIS is changing the world.
The following short video provides a short summary of GIS.
