GIS and Remote Sensing

18. GIS Software

Geographic Information System software is designed to store, retrieve, manage, display, and analyse all types of geographical and spatial data. GIS software lets you produce maps and other graphic displays of geographic information for analysis and presentation. With these capabilities a GIS is a valuable tool to visualize spatial data or to build decision support systems for use in multiple organizations. GIS stores data on geographical features and their characteristics. The features are typically classified as points, lines, or areas, or as raster images. On a map city data could be stored as points, road data could be stored as lines, and boundaries could be stored as areas, while aerial photos or scanned maps could be stored as raster images. GIS stores information using spatial indices that make it possible to identify the features located in any arbitrary region of a map.