Geographical Information System(Gis)

GIS; GPS; and the marvelous gizmos, gadgets, software, hardware, and Internet sites virtually
make the earth come alive. We have been exposed to this wonderful new technology and the
software that allows us to explore our environments. Now we can't get it out of our systems.
If it is a location we are talking about, usually our fi rst inclination is to check it out on a map.
We have become spatially conscious, spatially aware, and geographically sensitized. We are
thinking geographically. Our world is much fuller for these experiences. We better understand
the land, streets, paths, streams, patterns, networks, hills, and slopes. They are ours. We
meet a colleague or fellow worker and immediately launch into a discussion of how we can do
something on the computer that will bring us even more understanding. This is done without
skipping a beat. No need to start with fi rst principles. One spatial thinker is interacting with
another spatial thinker.
GIS and all of its related techniques and methods have helped open our geographic door. Now
we "see everything," manipulate it, overlay it, add to it, and make great prints of what we have
created. One of the wonders of these discoveries and activities is that many of us earn our keep
being professional spatialists. I use the word spatialists purposefully, because it is by virtually
manipulating earth space that we have tweaked our natural tendency to develop our spatial
cognitive abilities. "Spatial" has meaning to the extent that it is spatial concepts that hold us
together and allow us to skip all the preliminaries and get right to our interactions with the earth,
with maps, and with colleagues.
It is easy to say that we are in the same geographic boat, but it is a challenge to try to
deconstruct that boat and fi nd what keeps it fl oating. What elements of spatial structure let it
sail unimpeded? I am going to give it a try, attempting to put into words why we are all in this
together.
The fi rst...