Geographic Information System

The first known use of the term "geographic information system" was by Roger Tomlinson in the year 1968 in his paper "A Geographic Information System for Regional Planning".[5] Tomlinson is also acknowledged as the "father of GIS".[6]


E. W. Gilbert's version (1958) of John Snow's 1855 map of the Soho cholera outbreak showing the clusters of cholera cases in the London epidemic of 1854
Previously, one of the first applications of spatial analysis in epidemiology is the 1832 "Rapport sur la marche et les effets du choléra dans Paris et le département de la Seine".[7] The French geographer Charles Picquet represented the 48 districts of the city of Paris by halftone color gradient according to the percentage of deaths by cholera per 1,000 inhabitants. In 1854 John Snow depicted a cholera outbreak in London using points to represent the locations of some individual cases, an early successful use of a geographic methodology in epidemiology. While the basic elements of topography and theme existed previously in cartography, the John Snow map was unique, using cartographic methods not only to depict but also to analyze clusters of geographically dependent phenomena.

The early 20th century saw the development of photozincography, which allowed maps to be split into layers, for example one layer for vegetation and another for water. This was particularly used for printing contours – drawing these was a labour-intensive task but having them on a separate layer meant they could be worked on without the other layers to confuse the draughtsman. This work was originally drawn on glass plates but later plastic film was introduced, with the advantages of being lighter, using less storage space and being less brittle, among others. When all the layers were finished, they were combined into one image using a large process camera. Once color printing came in, the layers idea was also used for creating separate printing plates for each color. While the use of layers much...