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Unit 7: Business Analytics and Data Visualization

7.3.1 History of GIS Notes

Spatial analysis has been around as long as maps have been used for navigation. Traditional GIS
has included paper maps, and manual tools that were utilized before the computer age. There
are many theories on how and where the original GIS began and took hold in the information-
based world we live in today. There is little doubt that the Harvard Laboratory for Computer
Graphics, later renamed by adding “and Spatial Analysis” to its title, was a key institution in the
birth and early development of GIS in the United States. A large number of the founders of GIS
in the academic and commercial sectors spent time at the Harvard Lab in the 1960s and 1970s, as
staff, students, or visitors, exchanging ideas that would shape the field.

Most would acknowledge that the two dominant commercial GIS producers in the United States
are Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) and Intergraph. Estimates usually indicate
that together they produce at least half of the GIS software in the country.

7.3.2 Components of GIS

The infrastructure to any GIS is made up of four components whose interrelation is shown on
the illustration below. These components can be listed in order of importance as follows:

Methods and People: The most important part of a GIS infrastructure. Although GIS is a
powerful tool, it will not work without some well-adapted methods and trained people.
Data: The needed raw material to be processed by the system. The focus and attention
should be on data. In fact, most work will be devoted to data input and management. Data
(information) is the foundation of GIS applications.

Software: The computer programs needed to run GIS. There are many GIS programs
available, from low-cost and low-performance packages to expensive and very powerful
ones. This also includes support programs, such as statistical, word processing, graphing,
and others.
Hardware: The machinery on which GIS operates – computers, printers, plotters, digitizers,
and other types of equipment.
Figure 7.5: Components of a GIS

Software

Hardware Data

GIS

People Methods

Source: http://igre.emich.edu/wsatraining/TManual/Chapter1/Chap1.pdf

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