What Is GIS Mapping?

Geography is very important to many individuals everyday lives. If an emergency were to take place the individuals responding need to know the geography of where they are heading to make it there safely. If a business owner was looking to open a new store in a certain area they need to know the geography of the land to make sure it's the right place. Everyday people commute from place to place with the help of their GPS; another form of GIS mapping. All of this would not be possible if not for the Canada Geographic Information System that was developed in 1962.

The CGIS was the first GIS (Geographic Information System) ever created in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The CGIS collected data about soil, wildlife, and other aspects of the land and mapped out the relationships. From there the furthering science of GIS, and GIS mapping took place. Today GIS is mapped on a variety of forms such as maps, globes, and charts. Trends such as weather patterns are found in a certain area and recorded. This recorded information can be viewed in any of three ways. The first way to view GIS information is the database view. The database view keeps all of the important information in one central location.

This informational system is an easily accessible way to track data. The second way to view information is a map view. A map view has photos of the earths surface with points of interest plotted out. Latitude and longitude are important for this view because they help to record precise points. The last way to view GIS information is with a model view. With this view information is gathered into a text chart stating the results of what was being tracked and recorded. An example of an opportune time to use this view would be trying to map where debris would fall from a collision with an object from space.