Overview of GIS Application

The geographic information system (GIS) was introduced in the 1960s to meet the needs of state management in some developed countries, such as the United States and Canada. A GIS, also known as geospatial information system, is any system being used to store and process data in reference to the Earth's surface. These data contain both thematic and geometric (spatial) information which can be represented in raster or vector form. People in the environmental management community use GIS to organize existing information and communicate that information throughout their organizations. GIS is considered enterprise if, by design, it is part of the overall information technology architecture of the organization. GIS is widely used in local and regional planning for managing, integrating and visualizing spatial datasets. However, beyond basic levels of decision support, GIS remains largely external to the decision-making process. GIS is also used for water-quality management and land use planning.