A

Seminar Report
On
Geographic Information Systems

In partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of

Bachelor of Engineering
In
Information Technology

SUBMITTED BY:

Dixeet parekh (08-IT-20)

Under the Guidance of

Ms. Meenakshi

SUBMITTED TO:

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,

KALOL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & RESEARCH CENTER.
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the Seminar Report entitled ―Geographic Information

Systems‖ i s t h e b o n a f i e d w o r k o f
M r . Dixeet Parekh (08-IT-20)

Studying in Kalol Institute of Technology & Research Center, Kalol. He is assigned the
above Seminar Work by this institute during the period of July 2010 to Nov 2010, as a
part of his bachelor of engineering (IT-Semester V); curriculum set by Gujarat
Technological University & has successfully completed the Seminar work.
It indeed gives me a pleasure to highlight that he worked very hard & with deep sincerity
throughout the semester. I am sure that the experience gained during the seminar work
will enable him to take similar challenging works in future.

Date of Submission Internal Guide Head,I.T Department

(Ms. Meenakshi) (Mr. Hitesh C. Patel)
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I, Parekh Dixeet, of 5th semester I.T., extend my heartily gratitude towards the college
management of KITRC, Kalol, for their great help in completing my seminar report. I also thank
our honorable principal, Dr. Akshey Bhargava, for being our light throughout this road.

I also want to thank our head of department, Mr. Hitesh C. Patel, along with our course guide,
Ms. Meenakshi, for their guidance throughout the preparation of seminar report.

Last but not the least; I would heartily like to thank my family and friend for being my support
throughout the time of tension, while doing this work and making it all a huge success.

Regards,

Parekh Dixeet
 ABSTRACT

―Geographic Information Systems‖ (GIS) module introduces you to how GIS can be used to
help make better coastal management decisions. The module outlines the theory behind how GIS work,
and the practical benefits and problems of their use. In particular, the module seeks to provide practical
support for those considering using GIS. Topics covered in the module include decision-making, data
sourcing, data quality management, and GIS project management.

Throughout the module, there are real examples, taken from across Europe, to illustrate the
benefits and potential problems associated with the use of GIS. Web links are also embedded into the
module to other specialist GIS sites, including data providers, GIS suppliers and other members of the
GIS user community so that you can seek further information.

By the end of the module, you will be able to determine how GIS could be of use to you, what
problems you are likely to encounter using GIS, and how to proceed with the development of a GIS.

Parekh Dixeet
V IT
ID: 08-IT-20
 INDEX
Page
Sr. No. TITLE
No.
1 Introduction 1
2 History of Geographic Information Systems 2
3 Who uses GIS? 4
4 What can you do with a GIS? 5
5 GIS components 6
6 Working of Geographic Information Systems 7
7 Making Maps and Posters 13
8 Making Pin Maps 14
9 Using Regions 15
10 GIS Task 17
11 Advanced Software for Geospatial Analysis 20
12 Application 21
13 Advantages of GIS 22
14 Disadvantages of GIS 24
15 The Future of GIS 25
16 Conclusion 26
17 Bibliography 27
 Geographic Information Systems

1. INTRODUCTION

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is an evolving, catchall phrase that initially

referred to management of information with a geographic component primarily stored in vector
form with associated attributes. This definition quickly became too restrictive with advances in
software and ideas about information management. An advanced GIS system should be able to
handle any spatial data, not just data tied to the ground by geographic reference points. The
capacity to handle non-geographic spatial data was formerly the domain of systems referred to as
AM/FM (Automated Mapping and Facilities Management). Other non-geographic applications,
such as interactive medical encyclopedias that retrieve information based on the human form,
should also be manageable by a robust system.

Integration of imagery with vector data is now a necessity for a full-featured GIS system.
Imagery was once thought to be the exclusive domain of image processing systems, but is now
often required as a backdrop for vector, or other data, types.

No up-to-date GIS system is complete without surface modeling and 3D (technically 2

1/2 D) visualization with ―fly-by‖ capability. In addition to drawing a path for the simulation,
you should be able to orbit with the view directed at a specified point or have the view pan
around a stationary viewer. Vector overlay on this 3D surface should also be an integral part of
the package.

A GIS system should be production oriented, which may or may not mean product
oriented. Production work in GIS involves making maps (a product), but it also involves
interactive analysis (a result which may have no tangible product). This booklet starts by
looking at these two aspects of GIS systems and then describes the facets of GIS systems needed
to reach the integrated goals.

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 Geographic Information Systems

2. History of Geographic Information Systems

In 1854, John Snow depicted a cholera outbreak in London using points to represent the
locations of some individual cases, possibly the earliest use of the geographic method. His study
of the distribution of cholera led to the source of the disease, a contaminated water pump (the
Broad Street Pump, whose handle he had disconnected, thus terminating the outbreak) within the
heart of the cholera outbreak.

E. W. Gilbert's version (1958) of John Snow's 1855 map of the Soho cholera outbreak
showing the clusters of cholera cases in the London epidemic of 1854

While the basic elements of topography and theme existed previously in cartography, the
John Snow map was unique, using cartographic methods not only to depict but also to analyze
clusters of geographically dependent phenomena for the first time.

The early 20th century saw the development of photolithography, by which maps were
separated into layers. Computer hardware development spurred by nuclear weapon research led
to general-purpose computer "mapping" applications by the early 1960s.

The year 1962 saw the development of the world's first true operational GIS in Ottawa,
Ontario, Canada by the federal Department of Forestry and Rural Development. Developed by
Dr. Roger Tomlinson, it was called the "Canada Geographic Information System" (CGIS) and

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 Geographic Information Systems

was used to store, analyze, and manipulate data collected for the Canada Land Inventory (CLI) –
an effort to determine the land capability for rural Canada by mapping information about soils,
agriculture, recreation, wildlife, waterfowl, forestry, and land use at a scale of 1:50,000. A rating
classification factor was also added to permit analysis.

CGIS was the world's first such system and an improvement over "mapping" applications
as it provided capabilities for overlay, measurement, and digitizing/scanning. It supported a
national coordinate system that spanned the continent, coded lines as "arcs" having a true
embedded topology, and it stored the attribute and locational information in separate files. As a
result of this, Tomlinson has become known as the "father of GIS," particularly for his use of
overlays in promoting the spatial analysis of convergent geographic data. CGIS lasted into the
1990s and built a large digital land resource database in Canada. It was developed as a
mainframe based system in support of federal and provincial resource planning and management.
Its strength was continent-wide analysis of complex datasets. The CGIS was never available in a
commercial form.

In 1964, Howard T Fisher formed the Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial
Analysis at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (LCGSA 1965-1991), where a number of
important theoretical concepts in spatial data handling were developed, and which by the 1970s
had distributed seminal software code and systems, such as 'SYMAP', 'GRID', and 'ODYSSEY' -
- which served as literal and inspirational sources for subsequent commercial development—to
universities, research centers, and corporations worldwide.

By the early 1980s, M&S Computing (later Intergraph), Environmental Systems

Research Institute (ESRI), CARIS (Computer Aided Resource Information System) and ERDAS
emerged as commercial vendors of GIS software, successfully incorporating many of the CGIS
features, combining the first generation approach to separation of spatial and attribute
information with a second generation approach to organizing attribute data into database
structures. In parallel, the development of two public domain systems began in the late 1970s
and early 1980s. MOSS, the Map Overlay and Statistical System project started in 1977 in Fort
Collins, Colorado under the auspices of the Western Energy and Land Use Team (WELUT) and
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. GRASS GIS was begun in 1982 by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineering Research Laboratory (USA-CERL) in Champaign, Illinois, a branch of the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers to meet the need of the U.S. military for software for land management
and environmental planning. The later 1980s and 1990s industry growth were spurred on by the
growing use of GIS on Unix workstations and the personal computer. By the end of the 20th
century, the rapid growth in various systems had been consolidated and standardized on
relatively few platforms, and users were beginning to export the concept of viewing GIS data
over the Internet, requiring data format and transfer standards. More recently, a growing number
of free, open source GIS packages run on a range of operating systems and can be customized to
perform specific tasks.

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 Geographic Information Systems

3.Who uses GIS?

International organizations
• UN HABITAT, The World Bank, UNEP, FAO, WHO, etc.

Private industry
• Transport, Real Estate, Insurance, etc.

Government s
• Ministries of Environment, Housing, Agriculture, etc.
• Local Authorities, Cities, Municipalities, etc.
• Provincial Agencies for Planning, Parks, Transportation, etc.

Non-profit organizations/NGO’s
• World Resources Institute, ICMA, etc.

Academic and Research Institutions

• Smithsonian Institution, CIESIN, etc.

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3. What can you do with a GIS?

• The possibilities are unlimited…

 Environmental impact assessment

 Resource management

 Land use planning

 Tax Mapping

 Water and Sanitation Mapping

 Transportation routing
and more ...

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 Geographic Information Systems

4. GIS components
The key to establishing this type of technology within an information framework for the
purposes of decision making is INTEGRATION: the linking together of technology, data and a
decision making strategy.

What GIS is all about today is the bringing together of spatial analysis techniques and
digital spatial data combined with computer technology.

But for many, GIS is much more than a computer database and a set of tools: it is also a
philosophy for information management. Often GIS can form the core of the information
management within an organisation.

There are of course other definitions too. GIS is sometimes referred to as the tool whilst
the user may be the Spatial Information Scientist! In recent times the whole subject area has also
been referred to as Geographic Information Management (GIM) or even Geomatics

Each of these components will now be examined in further details.

1. Data

2. Software & hardware tools

3. GIS data manipulation & analysis

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 Geographic Information Systems

5. Working of Geographic Information Systems

A GIS stores information about the world as a collection of thematic layers that can be
linked together by geography. This simple but extremely powerful and versatile concept has
proven invaluable for solving many real-world problems from tracking delivery vehicles,
recording details of planning applications, to modelling global atmospheric circulation. The
working of a GIS can be summarised as:

Relating information from different sources

Geographic references / locations

Data capture

Data integration

Projection and registration

Data structures

Data modelling

 Relating information from different sources

The ability of GIS to relate information from disparate sources helps in planning and
management of natural resources. A GIS can be used for converting existing digital information,
which may not be in map format, into forms, which it can recognise and use. For example,
digital satellite images can be analysed to produce a thematic layer of digital information about
vegetation. Additionally, existing tabular data such as census can be converted to map-like
format. For the data to be usable, it needs to be geo referenced to the map in some way.

 Geographic References

Geographic information contains either an explicit geographic reference, such as a latitude and
longitude or national grid co-ordinate, or an implicit reference such as an address, postal code,
census tract name, forest stand identifier, or road name. An automated process called geocoding
is used to create explicit geographic references (multiple locations) from implicit references
(descriptions such as addresses). These geographic references allow you to locate features, such
as a business or forest stand, and events, such as an earthquake, on the earth's surface for
analysis.

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 Geographic Information Systems

 Data capture

The process of getting data into a digital format recognised by the GIS is known as data capture.
Data on existing paper maps can be digitised or hand traced using a mouse in order to collect the
co-ordinates of the features. Electronic scanning devices are the other options for the data
capture. This step is the most time consuming part in creating a GIS.

 Data Integration

A GIS stores information as a collection of thematic layers, which are linked together by
geography. Underlying these layers are associated tables of spatial and descriptive attributes that
describe the geographic features.

 Projection and Registration

All the information that is obtained from various disparate sources has to be converted to
consistent spatial references before using in GIS. This process aligns all the data layers by
establishing a consistent co-ordinate system for all the data layers. Before data is analysed, in
most of the GIS projects, projection of the map is done. Projection, one of the fundamentals of
mapmaking, is the mathematical method of transferring information from the earth's three-
dimensional surface to two-dimensional medium. Map projections, however, will result in the
distortion of one or more of these properties: shape, area, distance and direction. Some of the
projections that are used are Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM), Lambert Conformal Conic,
etc.

 Data structures

Geographic information systems work with two fundamentally different types of geographic
models, the "vector" model and the "raster" model.

This system is capable of integrating, storing, editing, analyzing, and displaying

geographically-referenced information. In a more generic sense, GIS is a "smart map" tool that
allows users to create interactive queries (user created searches), analyze the spatial information,
and edit data. For those who might be unfamiliar with GIS, the following graphic demonstrates
how different elements within a GIS can be separated or ‗layered‘ in order to combine features,
and enable analysis of data.

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 Geographic Information Systems

Raster organises spatial features in a regularly spaced grid of cells or pixels, while the
vector data structure organises spatial features by a set of vectors, which are specified by starting
point co-ordinates (i.e. the information about points, lines, and polygons is encoded and stored
as a collection of x, y co-ordinates). The location of a point feature, such as a location of
borehole, can be described by a single x, y co-ordinates. Point features are represented as vectors
without length or direction. Linear features, such as roads and rivers, can be stored as a
collection of point co-ordinates.

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 Geographic Information Systems

Polygonal features, such as land parcels and river catchments, can be stored as a closed
loop of co-ordinates. Compared to a line designated in a raster format, a vector line is one-
dimensional and has no width associated with it. The vector model is extremely useful for
describing discrete features, but less useful for describing continuously varying features such as
soil type.

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 Geographic Information Systems

 Vector data model

ADVANTAGE of the vector data format: allows precise representation of points, boundaries,
and linear features.

– useful for analysis tasks that require accurate positioning,

– for defining spatial relationship (ie the connectivity and adjacency) between
coverage features (topology), important for such purposes as network analysis
(for example to find an optimal path between two nodes in a complex transport
network)

Main DISADVANTAGE of vector data is that the boundaries of the resulting map polygons are
discrete (enclosed by well-defined boundary lines), whereas in reality the map polygons may
represent continuous gradation or gradual change, as in soil maps.

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 Geographic Information Systems

 Raster data model

Good for representing indistinct boundaries

– thematic information on soil types, soil moisture, vegetation, ground

temperatures

As reconnaissance satellites and aerial surveys use raster-based scanners, the information (ie
scanned images) can be directly incorporated into GIS .

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 Geographic Information Systems

6. Making Maps and Posters

GIS map making should transcend
traditional car-tography—roads, streams,
and political boundaries along with map
grids, scale bars, and legends may be
sufficient for some maps but are not an
adequate reflection of a fully featured GIS
system. You should be able to incorporate
a satellite or airphoto image as the
background for line and polygon data with
transparent polygon filling to reveal the
background through vector or CAD
overlays. You should be able to
incorporate enlarged insets and elements
that tie the components at both map scales
together.

To make map making easy, a GIS

system should include a variety of
standard map components that can be
readily added to a layout. These include
map grids, scale bars, legends, annotation
text, and a means of mixing georeferenced
and ungeoreferenced groups (north arrows,
company logos) to complete the map.
Each of these map com-ponents should be
easily customizable; for example, with
map grids you should be able to control
the size and color of the text and lines, the
grid spacing, the components of the grid,
and so on.

A map Is built from many pieces.

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 Geographic Information Systems

7. Making Pin Maps

A pin map directly visualizes database

information if each record has coordinates for the
location of the observation or report. You could plot
telemetry data for a variety of animals, the location
of cities, or the position of trucks on the road. Direct
display from database offers some advantages over
vector format for point data. New points are added
simply by adding records to the database and the
location of points can be updated by changing
coordinates.

In TNTmips databases used for pin map

display can be in internal format, linked to a
supported format (such as dBASE IV, INFO, or FoxPro), or com-medicated with using ODBC
(Open Database Connectivity to Oracle, for example). With direct linking or ODBC, the
database can be maintained by external software and viewed with all updates available the next
time you redraw the pin map.

We can display all locations in the same style or use other attributes to determine how a
―pin‖ is dis-played. For example, you can use production to determine the size of
symbols for oil wells or, in the case of telemetry data; you can represent observations for
different animals with different symbols. We can even incorporate multiple attributes into
a pie chart or bar graph.
Pin mapping should provide a means to distinguish
multiple pins with the same coordinates, such as the
pins shown below for the same sites in three
different years. Symbol scale can also vary with
field values.
We should also be able to include values for
multiple fields from the same record. The TNT
products let we choose between bar graphs or pie
charts with the option of including multiple line
labels

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 Geographic Information Systems

8. Using Regions
Regions are areas of interest used primarily for selection— selection for viewing at-
tributes, for extracting, or for other processing. In some cases, such as flood zone or watershed
regions, the region itself is the desired product.

Regions can be interactively and iteratively created. You choose the cells or elements of
interest, then the desired region creation process, adjust region parameters, generate a region,
alter parameters as necessary and generate another region until you are satisfied with the results
and choose to keep that region. Regions can be temporary, available only for the cur-rent display
session, or you can choose to save a region to be used at a later time or in other processes.

Region generation methods available in TNTmips and not mentioned elsewhere on this
page include selected polygons, buffer zones, viewshed, Voronoi regions, raster texture growth,
and cell values.

Use the line drawing tool or a selected line to evaluate a potential dam site
The region can delimit either the potential lake area be-hind a dam of specified height
(above) or the area that would flood if the dam broke (right).

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 Geographic Information Systems

Hold the left

or right mouse
button to get
DataTips.

Internal.ElemNum <= 54 or Internal.ElemNum >= 144

K Means cluster regions with all (left) or query selected points (middle) and the region
Formed by Polygon Fitting (Tessellation, right) with the same query selected elements.

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9. GIS Task
General-purpose geographic information systems essentially perform six processes or tasks:

Input

Manipulation

Management

Query and Analysis

Visualisation

 Input
Before geographic data can be used in a GIS, the data must be converted into a suitable digital
format. The process of converting data from paper maps into computer files is called digitising.
Modern GIS technology can automate this process fully for large projects using scanning
technology; smaller jobs may require some manual digitising (using a digitising table). Today
many types of geographic data already exist in GIS-compatible formats. These data can be
obtained from data suppliers and loaded directly into a GIS.

 Manipulation
It is likely that data types required for a particular GIS project will need to be transformed or
manipulated in some way to make them compatible with user's system. For example, geographic
information is available at different scales (detailed street centreline files; less detailed census
boundaries; and postal codes at a regional level). Before this information can be integrated, it
must be transformed to the same scale (degree of detail or accuracy). This could be a temporary
transformation for display purposes or a permanent one required for analysis. GIS technology
offers many tools for manipulating spatial data and for weeding out unnecessary data.

 Management

For small GIS projects, it may be sufficient to store geographic information as simple files.
However, when data volumes become large and the number of data users becomes more than a
few, it is often best to use a database management system (DBMS) to help store, organise, and
manage data. DBMS is nothing more than computer software for managing a database.

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 Geographic Information Systems

There are many different designs of DBMS‘s, but in GIS the relational design has been the most
useful. In the relational design, data are stored conceptually as a collection of tables. Common
fields in different tables are linked together. This surprisingly simple design has been so widely
used primarily because of its flexibility, with very wide deployment in applications both within
and without GIS.

 Query and Analysis

Once the geographic information/data is entered in to GIS, simple queries such as ownership of
the land parcel, distance between two places, zoning for industrial use, and analytical questions
such as, location of sites suitable for building new houses, dominant vegetation and soil types in
western ghats, traffic control by ring roads, flyover and sub urban transit system, can be done
and results obtained quickly.

GIS provides both simple point-and-click query capabilities and sophisticated analysis tools to
provide timely information to managers and analysts alike. GIS technology really comes into its
own when used to analyse geographic data to look for patterns and trends and to undertake "what
if" scenarios.

 Proximity Analysis
This can be done to find out various elements within a desired distance from any object. The
queries may be:

Number of plants / trees within 100 m of water source.

Total number of users within 10 km of a water source.

 Overlay Analysis
The integration of different data layers involves a process called overlay. At its simplest, this
could be a visual operation, but analytical operations require one or more data layers to be joined
physically. This overlay, or spatial join, can integrate data on soils, slope, and vegetation.

 Visualisation

For many types of geographic operation the end result is best visualised as a map or graph. Maps
are very efficient at storing and communicating geographic information. While cartographers
have created maps for millennia, GIS provides new and exciting tools to extend the art and
science of cartography. Map displays can be integrated with reports, three-dimensional views,
photographic images, and other output such as multimedia.

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 Data for GIS

The data to be acquired depends on how one wants to use map data and get output. Many project
needs are met with the following common map data types.

Base maps: Include streets and highways; boundaries for census, postal, and political areas;
rivers and lakes; parks and landmarks; place names; and USGS raster maps.

Business maps and data: Include data related to census/demography, consumer products,
financial services, health care, real estate, telecommunications, emergency preparedness, crime,
advertising, business establishments and transportation.

Environmental maps and data: Include data related to the environment, weather, environmental
risk, satellite imagery, topography and natural resources.

General reference maps: World and country maps and data that can be a foundation for a
database.

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10. Advanced Software for Geospatial Analysis

MicroImages, Inc. publishes a complete line of professional software for advanced geospatial
data visualization, analysis, and publishing. Contact us or visit our web site for detailed product
information.

TNTmips TNTmips is a professional system for fully integrated GIS, image analysis, CAD,
TIN, desktop cartography, and geospatial database management.

TNTedit TNTedit provides interactive tools to create, georeference, and edit vector, image,
CAD, TIN, and relational database project materials in a wide variety of formats.

TNTview TNTview has the same powerful display features as TNTmips and is perfect for those
who do not need the technical processing and preparation features of TNTmips.

TNTatlas TNTatlas lets you publish and distribute your spatial project materials on CD-ROM at
low cost. TNTatlas CDs can be used on any popular computing platform.

TNTserver TNTserver lets you publish TNTatlases on the Internet or on your intranet. Navigate
through geodata atlases with your web browser and the TNTclient Java applet.

TNTlite TNTlite is a free version of TNTmips for students and professionals with small projects.
You can download TNTlite from MicroImages‘ web site, or you can order TNTlite on CD-ROM
with the current set of Getting Started booklets.

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11. Application

GIS technology can be used for: earth surface based scientific investigations; resource
management, reference, and projections of a geospatial nature—both manmade and natural; asset
management and location planning; archaeology; environmental impact study; infrastructure
assessment and development; urban planning; cartography, for a thematic and/or time based
purpose; criminology; GIS data development geographic history; marketing; logistics;
population and demographic studies; prospectively mapping; location attributes applied
statistical analysis; warfare assessments; and other purposes.

Examples of use are: GIS may allow emergency planners to easily calculate emergency
response times and the movement of response resources (for logistics) in the case of a natural
disaster; GIS might be used to find wetlands that need protection strategies regarding pollution;
or GIS can be used by a company to site a new business location to take advantage of GIS data
identified trends to respond to a previously under-served market. Most city and transportation
systems planning offices have GIS sections.

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12. Advantages of GIS

The advantages of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are:

Perform Geographic Queries and Analysis

The ability of GIS is to search databases and perform geographic queries through better analysis.

Improve Organizational Integration

GIS has the ability to link data sets together by geography, facilitating interdepartmental
information sharing and communication. By creating a shared database, one department can
benefit from the work of another - data can be collected once and used many times. GIS
implemented organizations have achieved improved management of resources and improvement
in organizational set-up. With this, communication increases among individuals and
departments. This has led to reduction in redundancy, enhanced productivity, and overall
improvement in organizational efficiency.

Decision making

GIS technology has been used to assist in tasks such as presenting information at planning
inquiries, helping resolve territorial disputes, and sitting pylons in such a way as to minimize
visual intrusion. A GIS, however, is not an automated decision making system but a tool to
query, analyse, and map data in support of the decision making process. For example, GIS can be
used to help reach a decision about the location of a new housing development that has minimal
environmental impact, is located in a low-risk area, and is close to a population centre. The
information can be presented succinctly and clearly in the form of a map and accompanying
report, allowing decision makers to focus on the real issues rather than trying to understand the
data. Because GIS products can be produced quickly, multiple scenarios can be evaluated
efficiently and effectively.

Map making

The process of making maps with GIS is much more flexible than traditional manual or
automated cartography approaches. It begins with database creation. Existing paper maps can be
digitized and computer-compatible information can be translated into the GIS. The GIS-based
cartographic database can be both continuous and scale free. Map products can then be created

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centered on any location, at any scale, showing selected information symbolized effectively to
highlight specific characteristics.

The characteristics of atlas and map series can be encoded in computer programs and compared
with the database at final production time. Digital products for use in other GISs can also be
derived by simply copying data from the database. In a large organization, topographic databases
can be used as reference frameworks by other departments. In India, maps are prepared by the
Survey of India (SOI). The conventions followed in map preparation by various agencies are
explained below.

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13. Disadvantages of GIS

• The biggest disadvantage of a GIS is that is requires an enormous amount of data inputs to be
practical for some tasks and the more data that is put in, the more likely that there will be errors
either in the meta data or in the location of the data points. Since it takes many maps to gather
different types of data there is often discrepancies from one map to another.

• Another limitation to GIS is that the earth is round and geographic error is increased as you get
into a larger scale.

• The system is quiet expensive, especially the GIS software. But, nowadays there's development
of open source GIS like GRASS GIS and Mapserver that able to overcome this problem.

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14. The Future of GIS

Much of the future of GIS rests with the development of culture, heritage and resource
management databases, as this is where the majority of the funding lies. Monument records and
heritage management present the largest future potential for GIS within the archaeological
community as the analytical aspect is not as pressing here. The much needed improvements with
regard to data handling and representation are not as substantial in the management sector. the
data standards issue however, is just as important here (if not more) as it is in any other
archaeological situation.

The development of a specific Archaeological Information System (AIS) may solve some
of the discipline specific problems encountered. There have been attempts to produce such and
AIS, such as the ArchaeDATA project, where the emphasis is on "structuring a European
archaeological information system"(Arroyo-Bishop and Lantada Zarzosa 1995).

Moving away from the purely scientific approach, there has been a call to advance the
use of GIS in theoretical models at a more humanistic level (Lock and Stancic 1995). Such an
approach has faced the accusation that this is particularly European attempt to incorporate GIS
technology and social theory, similar advances, have also emerged in north America recently.
(Lock and Stancic 1995).

There are numerous more arguments concerning the advantages, disadvantages and
future of GIS technology within archaeology, unfortunately this tends to go beyond the scope of
this study. What does emerge as a pressing issue that has not been resolved since most of the
influential papers were written in the mid 1990‘s, is that of data standards and the lack of ability
to cope with the mapping of temporal aspects within archaeology. Without the resolutions to
such pressing issues in the use of GIS, there will remain to be the standstill that has occurred
since the initial development and adoption of such a technology.

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15. Conclusion
The Internet and GIS

The integration of GIS with the Internet is an inevitable, rapidly growing trend into the
future. It is important for the GIS community to monitor and define the course of this
development. In addition, the Internet‘s ability to reach a wider audience will have important
impacts on GIS users, developers, and institutions. For users, Internet GIS also provides an
efficient pool to conduct GIS analysis (i.e. buffering) over the web. For developers, Internet GIS
provides a new challenge and opportunity to broaden their market share (i.e. ESRI‘s ArcIMS
software over its competitors). For institutions (i.e. SFU), Internet GIS will facilitate integration
and coordination of different departments and functions within an organization as well as among
organizations (BMCC) because spatial data in different departments are now easily accessible
and sharable.

Interactive mapping is only the first step in the development of Internet GIS. Future
developments will inevitably focus on interactive GIS analysis. Internet GIS also provides an
opportunity to extend GIS technology and geospatial-information to a much broader user group -
the general public

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16. Bibliography

1. http://www.biodiversity.ru

2. http://www.oocities.com

3. http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/energy/monograph1

4. http://www.gisdevelopment.net

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