The US Government says…
“.. a system of computer software and procedures designed to support the capture, management, manipulation, analysis, and display of spatially referenced data for solving complex planning and management problems.”
Antenucci, 1991, p. 7
See what the US Geological Survey says….
How does a GIS move us toward understanding?
- Supports the brain’s visual ability (our brain is an expert pattern recognition machine, and maps produce easily recognzied patterns)
- Optimizes spatial information (driving directions)
- Models the connection between datasets
GIS software is open-source and commercial. We will hopefully use two or three: ESRI ArcGIS Pro, ArcMap 10.8, QGIS 3.26 (open source), R GIS, PyGIS, Matlab Mapping toolbox, and Google EarthEngine.
In this course, we will focus mostly on QGIS, with some exercises and labs showing how ArcPro and programming
Edited by NDB January 12, 2025