Defence Engineering College

Engineering Department

Civil

Chapter 4
Geographical Information System (GIS)
Definition of GIS

GIS -Geographic Information System or a particular information system applied to

geographical data

A geographic information system is a computer based system capable of capturing,

storing and analyzing and displaying geographically referee information; that is data
identified according to location.

Information System -set of processes, executed on raw data, to produce information

useful in decision-making.

Functions of an information system: observation, measurement, description, explanation,

forecasting & decision making

Uses both geographically referenced data as well as non-spatial data

Chain of Steps

Data Collection & Processing

Spatial Analysis

Output Visualization

End-objective is Decision Making

Why is GIS Important?

By putting maps and other kind of spatial information into digital form, connections
between activities based on geographic proximity can be made. Looking at data
geographically can often suggest new insights, explanations. These connections are often

Remote Sensing and GIS CH-4

By Tariku A.

Defence Engineering College

Engineering Department

Civil

unrecognized without GIS, but can be vital to understanding and managing activities and
resources.

Remote Sensing and GIS CH-4

By Tariku A.

Defence Engineering College

Engineering Department

Civil

GIS APPLICATIONS:GIS has been important in natural resource management including land-use, planning , natural
hazard assessment, wildlife habitat analysis, riparian zone monitoring and timber management.

EXAMPLES:The U.S. Geological Survey has the National Map program that provides nationwide
geospatial data for applications in natural hazards , risk assessment, homeland security, and

many other areas.

The U.S. Census bureau maintains an on-line Mapping resource website, where Internet

users com map public geographic data of anywhere in the United States.
The U.S. Forest service used GIS and other computer technologies to map forest fires and to

model fire behavior.

The National Institute of justice uses GIS to map crime records and to analyze their spatial

patterns by location and time.

The federal Emergency Management Agency lines a flood insurance rat map data base to

physical features in a GIS database.

Location based services (LBS) technology allows mobile phone users to be located and to

receive location information.

Interactive- mapping websites let users select map layers for display and make their own

maps.
Precision farming promotes site- specific farming activities such as herbicide or fertilize
application

Area

GIS Application

Facilities Management

Locating underground pipes & cables, planning facility

maintenance, telecommunication network services
Environmental impact analysis, disaster management
and mitigation
Locating houses and streets, car navigation,
transportation planning
Urban planning, regional planning, development of
public facilities

Environmental and Natural

Resources Management
Street Network
Planning and Engineering
Land Information

Taxation, zoning of land use, land acquisition

Remote Sensing and GIS CH-4

By Tariku A.

Defence Engineering College

Engineering Department

Civil

Examples of Applied GIS

Urban Planning, Management & Policy

Zoning, subdivision planning

Land acquisition

Economic development

Code enforcement

Housing renovation programs

Emergency response

Crime analysis

Tax assessment

Environmental Sciences

Monitoring environmental risk

Modeling stormwater runoff

Management of watersheds, floodplains, wetlands, forests, aquifers

Environmental Impact Analysis

Hazardous or toxic facility siting

Groundwater modeling and contamination tracking

Political Science

Redistricting

Analysis of election results

Predictive modeling

Remote Sensing and GIS CH-4

By Tariku A.

Defence Engineering College

Engineering Department

Civil

Civil Engineering/Utility

Locating underground facilities

Designing alignment for freeways, transit

Coordination of infrastructure maintenance

Business

Demographic Analysis

Market Penetration/ Share Analysis

Site Selection

Education Administration

Attendance Area Maintenance

Enrollment Projections

School Bus Routing

Real Estate

Neighborhood land prices

Traffic Impact Analysis

Determination of Highest and Best Use

Health Care

Epidemiology

Needs Analysis

Service Inventory

Remote Sensing and GIS CH-4

By Tariku A.

Defence Engineering College

Engineering Department

Civil

The basic elements of a GIS

A GIS is a 5-part system:

People
Data
Hardware
Software
Procedures

Six Functions of a GIS

Capture data
Store data
Query data
Analyze data
Display data
Produce output

Remote Sensing and GIS CH-4

By Tariku A.

Defence Engineering College

Engineering Department

Civil

Data Sources In GIS

Analog Maps

Topographic Maps

Aerial Photographs

Satellite Images

Ground Surveys

Ground Surveys With GPS

Government of Ethiopia Primary Survey Depts.

State Government Primary Survey Depts.

City, Town, and Village level maps and Records

Reports and Publications

Reports and Publications

Series of Census of Ethiopia Publications

Statistical Abstracts

Planning commission reports

Annual Reports submitted by Central/State Govt. primary survey departments: i.e., Water
Resources, Irrigation, Agriculture, Forest, Mining, Finance, Infrastructure etc

Remote Sensing and GIS CH-4

By Tariku A.

Defence Engineering College

Engineering Department

Civil

COMPONENTS OF GIS
Geographic information systems have three important components they are.
i.
ii.
iii.

Computer hardware.
Set of application software modules.
proper Organizational context

HARDWARE COMPONENTS OF GIS;Digitizer

Disk Drive

Central
processing
UNIT

Plotter

Visual
display
unit

Tape drive

CPU:- central processing unit is lined to disk drive, which provides space for storing data and
programs.
DIGITIZER:- It is a device used to convert data from maps and documents in to digital form
(Raster to Vector).
PLOTTER:- It is used to present the results of the data processing on a paper.
TAPE DRIVE:- It is used to store data or programs on magnetic tape for communicating with
other systems.
VDO (visual Display unit):- It is used to control the computer and the other peripherals. It is
other known as terminal or work station.

Remote Sensing and GIS CH-4

By Tariku A.

Defence Engineering College

Engineering Department

Civil

SOFTWARE COMPONENTS OF A GIS:The soft ware components of a GIS Consist of the five basic modules.
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.

Data input and verification.

Data storage & data base management.
Data output& Presentation.
Data transformation.
Interaction with the user.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT
Organizational aspect or context is nothing but the way the information flow and the way in
which the analysis is done. The organizational context involves three sub components.
A. Data:- it is nothing but information being used for the analysis.
B. People;- The people involved in the analysis and the creation of the information system.
It also involves the users.
C. Methods!- The methods is nothing but the steps, procedures which are used for the
analysis and in the making of the information system.

MANAGEMENT

Information for
Management

Aims & Queries from

Management

GIS

Data Gathering

Organizational aspects of GIS.

Remote Sensing and GIS CH-4

By Tariku A.

Defence Engineering College

Engineering Department

Civil

CAD vs GIS
Function

CAD

Geometric design

Dimensioning

GIS

Spatial operations

Entity data operations

Entity symbolizations

Drawing / Map Layouts

Programing

3-D Environment

Contributing Disciplines and Technologies

GIS is a convergence of technological fields and traditional disciplines

GIS has been called an "enabling technology" because of the potential it offers for the
wide variety of disciplines which must deal with spatial data

each related field provides some of the techniques which make up GIS

many of these related fields emphasize data collection -GIS brings them together through
integration, modeling and analysis

as the integrating field, GIS often claims to be the science of spatial information

Remote Sensing and GIS CH-4

By Tariku A.

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Defence Engineering College

Engineering Department

Civil

List of Disciplines

Heritage

Geography

Data Collection

Remote Sensing

Photogrammetry

Surveying

Geodesy

GPS

Data Analysis

Statistics

Operations Research

Computer Science

Mathematics

Data Reporting

Cartography

Computer graphics

Geography (Heritage)

broadly concerned with understanding the world

long tradition in spatial analysis

Remote Sensing and GIS CH-4

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Defence Engineering College

Engineering Department

Civil

provides techniques for conducting spatial analysis

Geodesy

source of high accuracy positional control for GIS, GPS, remote sensing and surveying

concentrates on placing objects accurately in a global context

Remote Sensing

images from space and the air are major source of geographical data

remote sensing includes techniques for data acquisition and processing anywhere on the
globe at low cost and consistent update potential

many image analysis systems contain sophisticated analytical functions

interpreted data from a remote sensing system can be merged with other data layers in a
GIS

Surveying

provides high quality data on positions of land boundaries, buildings, etc

data is usually based on ground surveys with theodolites and/or global positioning
systems (GPS)

Statistics

many statistical techniques are used for analysis

statistics is important in understanding issues of error and uncertainty in GIS data

many models built using GIS are also statistical in nature

Operations Research

many applications of GIS require use of optimizing techniques for decision-making

Remote Sensing and GIS CH-4

By Tariku A.

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Defence Engineering College

Engineering Department

Civil

Mathematics

several branches of mathematics, especially geometry, algebra, and graph theory, are used
in GIS system design and analysis of spatial data

Photogrammetric

photogrammetric is the source of most data on topography (ground surface elevations)

used for input to GIS

uses analytic techniques for making accurate measurements from aerial/space

photographs and imageries,

Computer Science

computer-aided design (CAD) provides software, techniques for data input, display and
visualization, representation, particularly in 3 dimensions

advances in computer graphicsprovide hardware, software for handling and displaying

graphic objects, techniques of visualization

database management systems (DBMS) contribute methods for representing data in

digital form, procedures for handling large volumes of data, particularly retrieval and
updation

artificial intelligence aspects of computer systems are increasingly being used for data
mining and many other functions such as designing maps, generalizing map features

Cartography

concerned with the display of spatial information

currently the main source of input data for GIS is maps

provides long tradition in the design of maps which is an important form of output from
GIS

Remote Sensing and GIS CH-4

By Tariku A.

13

Defence Engineering College

Engineering Department

Civil

computer cartography (also called "digital cartography or "automated cartography")

provides methods for digital representation and manipulation of cartographic features and
methods of visualization

Major Areas of Application

Land (parcels) (LIS)

Facilities Management (FIS)

Natural Resource & Environment

Infrastructure Networking

Land Information Systems LIS

zoning, subdivision plan review

land acquisition

environmental impact statements

water quality management

maintenance of ownership

Facilities Information Systems FIS

FIS is aimed at integration of a Geographic Information System (GIS), Facilities Management
System(FMS), and Maintenance Management System (MMS)
Examples:

Remote Sensing and GIS CH-4

By Tariku A.

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Defence Engineering College

Engineering Department

Civil

locating and maintaining underground pipes, cables

balancing loads in electrical networks

facility management and maintenance

Natural Resource & Environmental

management of rivers, floodplains, wetlands, agricultural lands, aquifers, forests, wildlife

environmental impact assessment (EIA)

geologic hazard studies

view shed analysis

hazardous or toxic facility sitting

groundwater modeling and contamination tracking

wildlife habitat analysis, migration routes planning

Infrastructure Networks

address matching -finding locations given street addresses

sewer routing

water system routing

electrical system routing

vehicle routing and scheduling

location analysis, site selection

development of evacuation plans

Remote Sensing and GIS CH-4

By Tariku A.

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Defence Engineering College

Engineering Department

Civil

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