GIS in Your Everyday Life

 

Role of GIS in Your Everyday Life

Geographic Information System (GIS) sounds like a heavy duty word. By the name, you can gauge that there’s a lot of technology involved. And, the fact that you are hearing it for the first time makes you believe that you don’t use it. We don’t quite think so! You use the geographic information system in your everyday life in more ways than know. It is everywhere. Not only this, it has proved extremely useful in all the spheres. We’ll show you how GIS plays a crucial role in your daily activities without you really knowing about it.

What is GIS?

To state it in the simplest terms, GIS is a branch of information management. It is computerized mapping based on a geospatial referencing system. It charts the spatial relationships between places, people and things in terms of the latitudes and longitudes. Thereafter, layers of information are added to the base map and linked. The newly added information is analyzed using statistical and analytical tools. Such a spatial analysis allows one to come up with detailed, visual representations of data.

How do you use the Geographic Information System in your everyday life?

Here are some examples of the ways GIS is used in your everyday life. 

• When you are dying for that overly expensive cup of coffee, what do you do? You go straight to your smartphone and search for it, view the map of its location, then select the option to provide you directions from your current location. That’s GIS.

• I am sure many of you use GPS. When you are out on your holiday or when you want to drop in at the nearest coffee shop, you pull out your smartphone and look for directions on digital maps. This is the first use of GIS. It is GIS that enables GPS. Along with GPS integrated in smartphones, millions of independent GPS units are sold worldwide.

•  On the way home, the kids are hungry and you stop at a fast-food restaurant. The restaurant is at that particular location because GIS helped to define the right store mix for the location's potential customers. GIS is applied to computer-based station sales volume models that make them more accurate and adaptable to emerging or changing marketing conditions. Using regional variables from strategic sales volume models, GIS helps to direct site selection efforts and grade sites as suitable or unsuitable.

• You must also be familiar with Facebook’s geo-tagging feature. It allows you to click a Selfie and post it online; it does not only broadcast your photograph but also provides details on the exact location where that Selfie was taken. That’s GIS again.

•  Google Earth is also among the many GIS applications we use in our everyday lives.

•  Hopefully, you aren’t faced with any emergencies or natural disasters; however, if you are, the help that comes relies heavily on GIS.

• The roads are safer because of GIS. The community uses GIS for managing its transportation infrastructure. GIS is used to support planning, inventory, design, construction, operations, and maintenance. More than 80 percent of the information used to manage road, rail, and port facilities have a spatial component. GIS can be used to determine the location of an event or asset and its relationship or proximity to another event or asset, which may be the critical factor leading to a decision about design, construction, or maintenance.

•  Moving to the more serious, the government makes the most extensive use of Geographic Information Systems to improve facilities to its citizens. The government uses it planning, design, inventory, construction, operation and maintenance. The information thus collected is used to analyze demographics, to create voting districts and for zoning issues. It is also used for simpler functions such as regulating the street lights and traffic signals and many more.

As a matter of fact, you don’t only use the information stored on the GIS databases; you also contribute to enrich this information resource. You might ask how. For instance, when you post a review of a restaurant or a geo-tweet, you are adding that “additional layer” of information that others will use and reference.

So, this is GIS and its varied applications. It has permeated all the spheres of our life and is now regarded as indispensable. Don’t forget to capitalize on this invaluable tool.

Even if you try to avoid GIS, you can’t. Did you ever notice that the magazines in your mailbox always seem to have exactly what you are looking for and when you are looking for it? This is no coincidence. Organizations are using GIS data to learn the what, when, where, and whys of their customers based upon data they receive including your location, and they market accordingly. Yep, once again, GIS.
 So remember, GIS is all around you, whether you want it to be or not. Embrace this wonderful tool that we have at our disposal, and look for even more opportunities to benefit from GIS.

“The application of GIS is limited only by the imagination of those who use it." —Jack Dangermond,President of ESRI