INTRODUCTION TO GEOGRAPHIC 4.

Capacity to integrate information from many

INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS)
sources
term “spatial data” is often used as a synonym for
5. Complex analysis / query involving geographic
“attribute data”. E.g. rainfall, temperature, population
reference data to generate new information
data.
For any application there are five generic questions
“GIS is computerized information storage,
a GIS can answer:
processing and retrieval systems that have hardware
i) Location: what exist at a particular
and software specially designed to cope with
location
geographically referenced data and corresponding
ii) Condition: identify location where
attribute information (tables, charts and statistics).”
certain condition exists
“GIS is an organized collection of computer
iii) Trends: what has changed since ?
Hardware, Software, Data and Analyst to effectively
iv) Pattern: what spatial pattern exist ?
capture, store, manipulate, analyze and retrieve all
v) Modeling: what if ……………..?
types of spatial and non-spatial information.”
1.3 History of Development of GIS:
Geo-informatics: the discipline that deals with all
 Environmental System
aspects of spatial data handling is called
Research Institute (ESRI) was the first to develop
geoinformatics. It is defined as: -
the commercial softwares for GIS applications and
“Geoinformatics is the integration of different
till date became the landmark in GIS development
disciplines dealing with spatial information”
activities and making the GIS common and easy
Frequently Used Terms in GIS:
for one dealing with spatial data.
 Spatial Information: information about a
Components of GIS
particular location called spatial data. E.g land use,
GIS comprises of four components.
soil, slope, drainage, road etc
1. The Hardware: used to store, process and display.
 Non-spatial Information: Description of
2. The Software: used to control and perform
spatial data in the form of table or statistics. E.g.
operations.
rainfall, chemical data of soil, temperature data
3. The Data: on which GIS operations are performed
etc.
(Spatial, non-spatial)
 Attribute or Spatial data: similar to non-
4. The Expertise (Live ware): the human element
spatial data
required to drive the system to meet needs.
 Coverage, Theme, Feature, Layers: all are
GIS Hardware
different names for spatial data when different GIS
Softwares: The GIS softwares to carry out the GIS
software’s are used.
operations. These are required for driving the hardware.
1.2 Objectives of GIS:
GIS Softwares are : ESRI products like Arc/Info,
1. Maximize the efficiency of planning and
Arcview, ArcGIS,
decision making
Data: includes both spatial and non-spatial data on
2. Provide efficient means for data distribution and
which GIS operations are performed to derive new
handling
information. Spatial data from various sources such as
3. Elimination of redundant data base – minimize
Remote sensing images, Aerial Photographs or Map
duplication

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Data can be integrated with corresponding non-spatial
data in GIS.
Live Ware or Analyst: equally important as the
computer hardware and software, the brain ware refers
to the purpose and objectives, and provides the reason
and justification, for using GIS.
1.5 Capabilities of GIS
A GIS is a computer-based system that provides four
sets of capabilities to handle georeferenced data.
a) Data inputs
b) Data management (data storage and retrieval)
c) Manipulation and analysis
d) Output.
a) Data Input:
The function of data input to convert data from their
existing form into one that can be used by GIS.
Georeferenced data are commonly provided as proper
maps, table of attributes and associated attribute data,
aerial photos and satellite imagery.
Digitization: The process of converting the analog
information into digital information is called
Digitization. Information on a map can be captured by
digitizing each feature. Thus the process of digitization
is which converts the spatial features on a map into
digital format. Digitizing tablet is a device in graphic
peripherals, which allows the user to select point from a
map, and automatically enters its X, Y co- ordinates in
the computer.
.b) Data Storage and Database Management:
 The data storage and management are the
functions of database management system of GIS.
Effective data management includes all related
aspect like data security, data integrity, data filling
and accessibility and data maintenance abilities.
 Data security ensures security against
modification of GIS or access of data to
unauthorized use.
 Data integrity defines the ability of the system
to protect data from accidental loss or from
contamination by extraneous data. Filling and
accessibility provides an authorized user to
organize data into categories, directories, study
area etc.
 Data maintenance provides the authorized user
with the ability to update, delete or add data to the
GIS database.
Data Processing: Data processing operations are those
performed on the data to produce information. It
includes removal of errors and updating or
matching them to other data.
c) Manipulation and Analysis:
 Data conversion is only part of the input phase
of GIS. What is next is the ability to interprete and
to analyze qualitatively and quantitatively the
information that has been collected.
 Spatial analysis tools are used to model, make
predictions and reach conclusion about the
problem of interest.
 Other techniques are creation of 3D perspective
view using elevation data and generation of slope
maps, network analysis, costing etc. Given in brief
a few illustrations of some of these techniques.
 Overlay
 Buffer Generation
 Clipping
 Proximity Search
 Modeling
d) Data Presentation /Output:
Display and conversion operations produce graphic
output and reports such as maps and color display
drawn on a graphic terminal as well as formulated
reports of tabular information, where geographic
entities are represented as a series of points, lines and
symbols.
Data Integration:
GIS facilitates integration of data from various
sources such as maps, photographs, satellite images,
socio-economic data and other tabular statements into a
format the allows data to be compared and inter related
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for extraction of information to make decisions about
the real world.