EARTHLAB, McMillan Hall

What Is GIS?

Social Sciences Data Services & Government Documents,
Rockefeller Library

The Geographic Information System (GIS) is a collection of computer hardware and software used for analyzing spatial (geographic) information and creating maps of these analyses. It is a sophisticated way to develop and maintain databases that also have geographic coordinates. The software allows a user to create and produce visual maps of geographic features (for example wetlands, census tracts, political boundaries), and more importantly, to generate complex geographic questions based on the informational component of a spatial database.
Examples of such questions might be:

For disaster planning: Which schools fall within a 3 mile radius of a Superfund site?
For health care: Where is the greatest concentration of children exhibiting lead poisoning and which other spatial factors are correlated?
For research: Of all my water quality monitoring stations, which had the lowest dissolved oxygen content?
For business growth: Where are all my existing branch offices and, based on a target population, where would be a good place to locate a new office?

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