الأحد، فبراير 18، 2007

Many Software Systems Support GIS Decision Marking.

. These days, dozens of software systems offer GIS decision-making capabilities. The range and number available sometimes make it difficult to discern the differences among systems and the strengths and limitations of each. The important point to remember is that there are as many different types of GIS software systems as there are decision-making processes. Particular GIS software systems are often specialized to fit certain types of decision making. That is, they are customized to meet needs specific to demographic forecasting, transportation planning, environmental resource analysis, urban planning, and so on. These systems may respond well to individual problems, but they are also limiting. Special- purpose GIS designed for airport planning and maintenance, for instance, will not be well suited to demographic modeling.
Other software systems are not so specialized. The Intergraph Corporation's MGE/MGA system or ArcGIS (produced by the Environmental Systems Research Institute) have become well-known because they can be used in a wide number of applications. These general purpose systems also offer features that can be customized to meet various individual needs.
Other systems such as MapInfo attempt to provide functions that will be of value in one or more of the broad application domains, for instance in demographic analysis or marketing research. Yet quite apart from these more general systems, there are dozens of very specialized software systems that are best suited to one task, one application, or even to just one part of a broader decision- making process, for example for storing maintenance records of a highway system or for planning the expansion of an electric distribution network.

Application Areas>>>>

. GIS are now used extensively in government, business, and research for a wide range of applications including environmental resource analysis, landuse planning, locational analysis, tax appraisal, utility and infrastructure planning, real estate analysis, marketing and demographic analysis, habitat studies, and archaeological analysis.
One of the first major areas of application was in natural resources management, including management of
wildlife habitat,
wild and scenic rivers,
recreation resources,
floodplains,
wetlands,
agricultural lands,
aquifers,
forests.
One of the largest areas of application has been in facilities management. Uses for GIS in this area have included
locating underground pipes and cables,
balancing loads in electrical networks,
planning facility maintenance,
tracking energy use.
Local, state, and federal governments have found GIS particularly useful in land management. GIS has been commonly applied in areas like
zoning and subdivision planning,
land acquisition,
environmental impact policy,
water quality management,
maintenance of ownership.
More recent and innovative uses of GIS have used information based on street-networks. GIS has been found to be particularly useful in
address matching,
location analysis or site selection,
development of evacuation plans.