What is GIS?
GIS is an acronym for Geographic Information Systems or Science. ESRI© defines GIS as a collection of computer hardware, software, and geographic data for capturing, storing, updating, manipulating, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information. In not so many words GIS is a tool, the application of which has infinite possibilities.
ESRI’s© What is GIS Page
Who uses GIS?
GIS is now used in numerous industries around the world. Many companies, agencies and nearly every level of government use GIS to show a variety of information. A better question now would be who doesn’t utilize GIS in some capacity?
How do we use GIS?
Linn County’s base data is the foundation for all other geographic data. Data such as the seamless county-wide parcel layer, road centerlines, municipal and school boundaries are just a few of the core data layers managed with GIS. With these and numerous other data layers we are able to utilize the tools provided by GIS software in all the ways listed in ESRI’s© definition above.
