What is a GIS Software?
Geographic Information System software or GIS Software are computer-based tools for mapping and analysing things that exist and events that occur on earth surface. It is capable of capturing, storing, analysing and displaying geographically referenced information.
Which GIS Software to choose?
Various GIS software are available in industry. Every GIS Software maker claims their software to be better than others which makes it difficult to choose the needed GIS software. The table below gives the name of software, its utility & its company. You can then decide which software will work best for you depending on your need.
List of GIS Software
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Most widely used GIS Software
At present there are many software available in market. Some of the major companies in this field are: ESRI (For mapping & analyzing), Autodesk (with GIS capabilities), ERDAS
Imagine (for Image Processing), Intergraph – Geomedia Professional, Map Info -MapInfo Professional, Small World (Public Utility), OPSIS SYSTEM-TNTmips Pro (Mapping & Image
Processing) etc. The most widely used software is from ESRI which is considered among most reputed brand with large number of clients. ESRI has its GIS software with name ArcGIS.
Who uses GIS – Organisations and Departments
GIS software is being used widely in almost all fields. GIS softwares are used by individual people, communities, research institutions, environmental scientists, health organisations, land use planners, businesses, and government agencies at all levels. Uses range from information storage; spatial pattern identification; visual presentation of spatial relationships; remote sensing – all sometimes made available through internet web interfaces, involving large numbers of users, data collectors, specialists and/or community participants. Many government agencies use GIS software to help in planning and organizing their geographic data. Many police departments, fire departments and other emergency services have begun to use GIS to help in their daily operations. GIS software can help officials track crime, find the shortest route to emergencies and more.
GIS has gained such a large use because of the flexibility provided by it and the number of platforms on which it can run.
Top Five Benefits of GIS software
GIS benefits organizations of all sizes and in almost every industry. There is a growing awareness of the economic and strategic value of GIS. The benefits of GIS generally fall into five basic categories:
- Cost Savings and Increased Efficiency
- Better Decision Making
- Improved Communication
- Better Recordkeeping
- Managing Geographically
Some of the users of GIS are mentioned below
- Urban Planning, Management & Policy
- Zoning, subdivision planning
- Land acquisition
- Economic development
- Code enforcement
- Housing renovation programs
- Emergency response
- Crime analysis
- Tax assessment
- Environmental Sciences
- Monitoring environmental risk
- Modeling stormwater runoff
- Management of watersheds, floodplains, wetlands, forests, aquifers
- Environmental Impact Analysis
- Hazardous or toxic facility siting
- Groundwater modeling and contamination tracking
- Political Science
- Redistricting
- Analysis of election results
- Predictive modeling
- Civil Engineering/Utility
- Locating underground facilities
- Designing alignment for freeways, transit
- Coordination of infrastructure maintenance
- Business
- Demographic Analysis
- Market Penetration/ Share Analysis
- Site Selection
- Education Administration
- Attendance Area Maintenance
- Enrollment Projections
- School Bus Routing
- Real Estate
- Neighborhood land prices
- Traffic Impact Analysis
- Determination of Highest and Best Use
- Health Care
- Epidemiology
- Needs Analysis
- Service Inventory
Get detailed info about industries using GIS on ESRI weiste by clicking here
Read about: GIS Softwares, Remote Sensing, Use of GIS application, Bhuvan
Geospatial & GIS: What’s the difference
“Geo” is a prefix that comes from a Greek word meaning earth. “Spatial” means relating to space. “Geospatial” is a recently coined terms which is often confused and mixed with GIS (Geographic Information Systems). Both the terms Geospatial & GIS are quite popular, and their use is increasing at a significant rate. People often use Geospatial & GIS similarly. There are many other terms which are popular in the industry which include remote sensing, LIDAR, Geospatial Data, Elevation Maps, Contour Lines, Digital Elevation Model etc. The difference in Geospatial & GIS is explained below to bring more clarity on this topic.
What is Geospatial?
Geospatial, as mentioned is relatively new term. The increasing interest in this term is because of rise in similar other associated terms. The increasing importance and use of Geospatial data is driving the search for term “Geospatial” too. Any data attributed to a geographic location is commonly referred as Geospatial. The rise in use of this terms is significant from 1990s as viable through Google Ngram Viewer
What is GIS?
GIS is a system to store geographical information in different layers by means of various specialises GIS softwares. These softwares allows to create, store, manipulate, analyse and visualise the stored geospatial data. The peculiar feature and need of having GIS is making use of geospatial information which is gaining much importance now.
What is Geospatial Data?
Geospatial data is any data which is related to geographical location. It can be any data which is linked to a specific location. In GIS, this data is attributed in form of a table thus storing the geospatial information along with other spatial data. This attributed data is usually in form of table and contains various data such as Pincodes, Area, Size, Address or coordinates.
What is Geospatial Technology?
Geospatial technology is making use of hardware and softwares or a combination of two, this enables us to generate, collect, analyse and use the spatial data.
Geospatial technology refers to equipment used to measure and analyze Earth’s land and features. Systems such as Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) are used in geospatial work. Today, GPS and GIS are used for many different things. GPS can be used to for navigation purposes such as for Aircrafts, Ships & cars.
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