Environmental Sustainability in Practice

Global Positioning Systems (GPS)

Global positioning systems (GPS) are typically used to collect data from specific geographic locations on the Earth’s surface. Hand-held units are often used to collect precise measurements of the location of an object, activity, or individual (e.g., human or animal) on the Earth’s surface. At a basic level, a hand-held GPS can be used to to determine our position and velocity (speed) at a specific time. It can also be used to navigate from one location to another. Geospatial technologies require a method for referring to every location on the Earth’s surface (with precision and accuracy); thus, GPS is ideally suited for this purpose.

Through the use of a GPS, locations can be identified and measured. These measurements require a reference system, so comparisons can be made between locations. Locations of points collected from a GPS can be imported into a GIS and combined with other data (e.g., elevation data) as illustrated in the diagram below. Once these data are in a GIS environment, other non-spatial data – called attribute data (e.g., soil moisture measurements) can be added to these points.  

This page references: