Satellite Imaging, Laser Technology, and Computer Programs
management, and development planning. Two examples of this are: GIS could allow emergency planners to easily calculate emergency response times during natural disasters; or GIS could be used to find wetlands that need protection from pollution. A Geographic Information System (GIS) is an organized collection of computer hardware, software, geographic data and personnel designed to capture, manipulate, analyze, and display all forms of geographically referenced information (Allender, 1998). A more simplified definition would he: a computer system capable of holding and using data, describing places on the earth’s surface, for the purpose of spatial analysis. It is also “intelligent graphics” to aid in the analysis and depiction of complex data sets. Components of GIS include ARC/INFO:GIS software by ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute), ARC—graphical features of points, lines/arcs, and polygons, INFO—the relational database component of tables of data of any attribute that ties to a graphical component.