The expansion of GIS is Geographic Information System which consists of three words,viz.

Geographic,InformationandSystem. Heretheword‘Geographic’ deals with spatial objects or

features which can be referenced or related to a specific location on the earth surface.
Theobjectmaybephysical/naturalormaybe cultural/manmade. Likewisetheword ‘Information’
deals with the large volume of data about a particular object on the earth surface.
Thedataincludesasetofqualitativeandquantitativeaspectswhichtherealworldobjectsacquire.Theter
m ‘System’ is used to represent systems approach where the complex environment (consists of a
large number, of objects/features on the earth surface and their complex characteristics) is broken
down into their component parts for easy understanding and handling,butisconsideredtoform
anintegratedwholeformanaginganddecisionmaking. Now-a-
daysthisispossibleinaveryshortspanoftimewiththedevelopmentof
sophisticatedcomputerhardwareandsoftware.Therefore,GISisacomputerbasedinformationsystem
whichattachesavarietyofqualitiesandcharacteristics to geographicallocation (Fig.)and helps in
planning and decision making.

Fig. Layers
A broadly accepted definition is the one given by USGS (1997), “A GIS is a Computer based
System capable of capturing, storing, analyzing and displaying geographical referenced
information.”

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Componentsof GIS
Hardware: the computer on which GIS operates
Software: which provides the functions and tools needed to store, analyze, and display
geographic information.
Data: geographic data & related tabular data
People: GIS users who range from specialists to simple users
Methods: a designed plan and business rules

Data for GIS Applications

 Digitized and Scanned Maps: purchased, donated, free (Internet) or created by user
 Databases – Tables of data
 GPS – Global Positioning System for accurate locations
 Field Sampling of Attributes
 Remote Sensing &Aerial Photography

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Data types
Spatial data
Spatial data (mapable data) of geo-referenced data is commonly characterized bythe presence of
two fundamental components.
(i) The physical dimension or class i.e., the phenomena being reported. For example: Height of
the forest canopy, demographic class, rock type, vegetation type details of a city etc.
(ii) The spatial location of the phenomena. For example: Specified with reference to common
coordinate system (latitudeand longitude etc).
Attribute data
There are usually data tables that contain information about the spatialcomponentsof the GIS
theme. These can be numeric and/or character data such as timber type,timber volume, road size,
well depth etc. The attributes are related back to thespatial features by use of unique identifiers
that are stored both with the attributetables and the features in each spatial data layer. Attributes
can be eitherqualitative (low, medium, high income) or quantitative (actual measurements).The
database allows us to manipulate information in many ways: from simplelisting of attributes,
sorting features by some attributes, grouping by attributes, orselecting and singling out groups by
attributes.

Data Models
Spatial data can be further divided into
Vector data
A vector based GIS is defined by the vectorial representation of its geographic data.The most
common representation of map is using vector data that consist of point,line and polygon.
i. Point Data -- layers described by points (or "event") described byx,y (lat,long; east, north)
ii. Line/Polyline Data -- layers that are described by x,y points(nodes, events) and lines (arcs)
between points (line segmentsand polylines)
iii. Polygon Data -- layers of closed line segments enclosing areas thatare described by attributes

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Raster data
Consists of a matrix of cells (or pixels) organized into rows and columns (or a grid)where each
cell contains a value representing information, such as temperature. Rasters aredigital aerial
photographs, imagery from satellites, digital pictures, or even scanned maps.

Fig.: Raster and Vector Data

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Data Analysis
Data Input
The data to be input for GIS are typically acquired in a diverse variety of forms.Somedata come
in graphic and tabular forms. These would include maps and photographs, recordsfrom site visits
by specialists, related to non-spatial information from both printed and digitalfiles (including
descriptive information about the spatial data, such as date of compilation,and observational
criteria). Other data come in digital form. These would include digitalspatial data such as
computer records of demographic or land ownership data, magnetic tapescontaining information
about topography and remotely sensed imagery. The data to be inputfor GIS are of different
forms. These include key board entry or key coding, digitizing,scanning and digital data. The
process of data encoding and editing is often called as datastream.

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 Fig.: Data input methods
Manual Digitizing
Manual digitizing is the most common method of encoding spatial features from papermaps. It is
a process of converting the spatial features on a map into a digital format. Point,line, and area
features that form a map, are converted into (x, y) coordinates. A point isrepresented by a single
coordinate, a line by a string of coordinates, and, when one or morelines are combined with a
label point inside an outline, then an area (polygon) is identified.Thus digitizing is the process of
capturing a series of points and lines. Points are used for twodifferent purposes: to represent
point features or to identify the presence of a polygon.Manual digitizing requires a table digitizer
that is linked to a computer work station.

Automatic Digitizing

Scanning is the most commonly used method of automatic digitizing. Scanning is anappropriate
method of data encoding when raster data are required, since this is the automaticoutput format
from most scanning software. Thus scanning may be used as a backgroundraster dataset for the
over-plotting of vector infrastructure data, such as, pipelines and cables.

Attribute Data

Attribute data tells the characteristics of different objects / features on the earthsurface. These are
descriptions, measurements or classification of geographic features.Attribute data can be both
qualitative (like land use type, soil type, name of the city/river etc.)and quantitative (like

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elevation, temperature, pressure of a particular place, crop yield peracre etc.). So, the attribute
can be both numeric and textual.

Analysis

Different types of spatial data Analysis can be performed by GIS, Viz. PerformingQueries,
Proximity Analysis, Network Analysis, Overlay Operations, and Model Building etc. Since GIS
stores both spatial and non-spatial data and links them together, it can perform different types of
queries.GIS model is the integrated data model which is more closely integrated with thedatabase
management system than in the hybrid system. The integrated data model approachis also
described as the spatial data base management system approach, with the GIS servingas the
query processor sitting on top of the database itself.

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GIS applications
 Business: Site Location, Delivery systems, Marketing
 Government: Central, State,District etc.
 Economic Development:Population Studies, Incomes,Census and
DemographicStudies
 Emergency Services: Fire & Police
 Environmental: Monitoring & Modeling
 Industry: Transportation, Communication, Mining, Pipelines, Healthcare
 Public Health: Epidemiology Studies
 Urban Planning: Land Use, Historic studies, Environmental andConservation
Studies, Housing Studies, Crime Analysis
 Politics: Elections and Reappointment
 Education: Research, Teaching Tool, Administration