Page 118 - DCAP208_Management Support Systems

Unit 7: Business Analytics and Data Visualization

7.5.2 Map-making Notes

GIS can use and combine all layers that are available for an area, in order to produce an overlay
that can be analyzed by using the same GIS. Such overlays and their analysis radically change
decision-making process that include, among others:
Site selection
Simulation of environmental effects

Example: Creating perspective views of a terrain before and after mining.

Emergency response planning

Example: Combining road network and earth science information to analyze the effects of
a potential earthquake.

7.5.3 Land Information

GIS has aided management of land information by enabling easy creation and maintenance of
data for land records, land planning and land use. GIS makes input, updates, and retrieval of data
such as tax records, land-use plan, and zoning codes much easier then during the paper-map era.
Typical uses of GIS in land information management include managing land registry for recording
titles to land holdings, preparing land-use plan and zoning maps, cadastral mapping, etc. Input
of data into a land information GIS includes: political and administrative boundaries,
transportation, and soil cover.

7.5.4 Infrastructure and Utilities

GIS technologies are also widely applied to the planning and management of public utilities.
Typical uses include management of the following services: electric, gas, water, roads,
telecommunication, storm sewers, TV/FM transmitting facilities, hazards analysis, and dispatch
and emergency services. Typical data input includes street network, topographic data,
demographic data and local government administration boundary.

7.5.5 Environmental

The environmental field has long used GIS for a variety of applications that range from simple
inventory and query, to map analysis and overlay, to complex spatial decision-making systems.
Examples include: forest modeling, air/water quality modeling and monitoring, environmentally
sensitive zone mapping, analysis of interaction between economic, meteorological, and
hydrological & geological change.
Typical data input into an environmental GIS include: elevation, forest cover, soil quality and
hydrogeology coverage.
7.5.6 Archaeology

Archaeology, as a spatial discipline, has used GIS in a variety of ways. At the simplest level, GIS
has found applications as database management for archaeological records, with the added
benefit of being able to create instant maps. It has been implemented in cultural resource
management contexts, where archaeological site locations are predicted using statistical models

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