GIS(Geographic Information System)

What Is Geographic Information System (GIS)

Everything you need to know about GIS, it's basic working, its role in engineering, and its applications.

A geographic Information System?is nothing but?a computer application?that captures, stores, and displays the various physical and manmade features on the Earth.?Starting from mountains to buildings, GIS can map everything and store it in a database(DB). White House defines GIS as?“the technology, policies, standards, human resources, and related activities necessary to acquire, process, distribute, use, maintain, and preserve spatial data.”

GIS is an integrated system, which utilizes more than one feature at a time. Following is an image for understanding how GIS works.

How does it work?

GIS?being a?Database System?can store an enormous amount of data. This includes?longitude, latitude, zip code, address?for a given location. In addition to those, it can also have the name of the?place, population, landscape, types of buildings localities?etc. GIS data can be stored either as?Cartographic data?like maps or as?Spreadsheets like MS Excel or even?Photographic data. It is the job of Database engineers to fill the GIS with appropriate data.

The cartographic data are basically maps. They can be directly entered into the systems. Photographic data requires ariel surveys or ariel photo shoots to be entered carefully. Digital data can be basically more detailed on land use, population, factories etc.

Geoprocessing?is the operation known for manipulating GIS data. The input is processed by the system and presented as a useful application for everyone to use. The spatial?analysis?uses Space-Time of the location and maps it to digital data using a key.

Remote Sensing?is a science that is closely aligned with GIS. Remote sensing is the science of collecting data from various sources without any physical contact with the object. A?remote sensing satellite?is a primary way of capturing data from various locations. Remote sensing is utilised in GIS for obtaining data to be fed to the system.?INSAT?is India’s first remote sensing satellite.