Geographic Information Systems
What is GIS?
What is GIS? GIS is Geographic Information System.
Imagine that you have a map showing property lines from the Real Estate Office, a map showing soils fromthe U.S.G.S., a map of all the wells and septic systems in Frederick County, and a map from the Sanitation Authority that has all of the water sewer lines drawn on it.
Also, in your arsenal of paperwork, you have a computer printout of well and septic information, 38,000 stiff paper cards (one for each piece of property in the County), and a book explaining all of the soils types and their uses.
Now, your supervisor says, "We're going to create a new political boundary that defines the areas of the county that we would like to designate as a high development area due to all the infrastructure that is available there." The problem is.... how do we get all of this information working together to produce a sound plan?
Conventional methodology would be to take the paper maps and transfer their information to tracing paper or plastic film. Or, if you have CAD or computer-aided drafting, you could draw the information into the computer. Then you could place these paper/plastic or computer "layers" over top of each other, so that you could see through them, but still be able the see their relation to each other.
All of the other paper information that relates to the maps would then be typed into the computer in a "database" format. These tabular programs allow you to sort the information and print it out in an orderly form that is much more concentrated and easier to decipher.
But the problem still remains, that you have to look from your new maps to your new information or data, mentally match the two, make your calculations, make your adjustments, draw and print your new map, make adjustments, draw and print your new maps, ect., ect., ect. This process could take days, weeks, or even months depending on the scope of the project, staffing, expertise, and workload. Of course, you can produce new maps, but they do not usually reflect the masses of information behind them. They don't "think"; And new printouts of all of the related information can be printed out, even in a condensed version. But a data base is a database, and not user friendly. They're not "visual."
The world of computer and software technology sometimes advances at alarming rates. Computer mapping has also evolved in leaps and bounds and continues keep pace with the advancements in technology.
Enter GIS, stage right. Sometimes we need to create new patterns and reshape existing ones. GIS does just that. GIS is all about solving problems. It becomes a tool that allows us to view masses of related information, in condensed form, with minimum storage, and with minimum effort shows results in a much shorter amount of time.
Of course, the major factors in using a GIS are cost, "up-front" or initial data development, and then maintenance. But these factors pale in the presence of GIS capability, production, and time savings that result in financial benefits. A lot of work goes into creating, drawing, and typing new data into a Geographic Information System. However, it is now easier to maintain, takes up less space, and is more manageable.
GIS takes mapping and information another step further. The computerized or digital maps and the database information are "married" or related to form a link between the two types of data. Each space or area on each level of maps is assigned a text or number. The information that is in the databases also receives new fields that have this same information. These pieces of text or numbers match up the maps and the databases. In effect, what you have created is a "thinking visual representation" or "thinking map." You can pick a parcel or piece of soil on the map and instantly receive the information from the parcel or soils databases. Or, you can open the soils database and have it display a map with all of the 1c or Berks channery silt loam type soils.
Well, do you remember that "nice" little project the boss passed down this morning, that would have taken you a month and a half to do (or more) or a staff of two a couple of weeks to complete? And did I forget to tell you that it's Thursday and the draft needs to be ready for a meeting on Monday morning?
Hmmmm, you get it this morning and then you are able give the first draft back this afternoon or in the morning. Before, it would have meant working through the weekend, if the project could have been completed at all before the deadline.
And after the meeting, another meeting would have to be scheduled for the group to review the next round of revised maps that will be printed. Now, with GIS in tow on a laptop computer, the project can be taken to the meeting, projected on-screen with a digital projector and revisions made right on the spot. That would make a real impression wouldn't it?
