GIS
What Exactly is GIS?
GIS is a computer-based mapping technology which can help us understand our physical environment. Geospatial Information Services (GIS) is a computer system used for storing, manipulating, maintaining, analyzing, and displaying geographic/geospatial data. Geospatial Information Services is an organized collection of computer hardware, software, geographic data, personnel, and procedures designed to efficiently capture, store, hold, update, manage, manipulate, analyze, and display all forms of spatially referenced data for solving operational, management, and planning problems, and used to describe a place(s) of location in the County. In its simpler form, a GIS is an electronic map used to display data based on its location; in its more complex form, it becomes a powerful analytical tool with millions of pieces of data that are related geographically and can be displayed in a format that allows the user to make the inter-relationships between that data visually understandable.
GIS allows you to:
- Think about a place or feature...
- Ask questions about it...
- Explore patterns that appear...
- Enhance the data or modify the analysis...
- Make a map or report...
GIS is not "just mapping".
GIS is a powerful tool that can aid us in making better decisions pertaining to our world.