| Title Page | Introduction | Background | Potential Benefits | Further Required Research | Conclusion | Reference Page |
Background
There are many definitions for GIS, as people of different specialties have various ideas of what GIS means to them. On the official website of ESRI, the world leader for creating and developing GIS software, Geographic Information Systems is defined as “…the integration of hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information” (Environmental Systems Research Institute [ESRI], 2008). This definition explicitly unifies geography and information systems into a single discipline, and while the geographical component may be hard to underestimate, it is the presence of informational systems that has made it possible for many industries to see the use of geography in their fields and the influence of GIS to keep growing.
The potential for GIS was illustrated for the first time when in 1855 London physician John Snow plotted the cases of cholera deaths on the city map. The results shown on the map helped him realize that specific public water pumps were the source of the disease. He pursued government officials to eliminate these water pumps, which helped to end the deadly infection (Bjerklie, 1989). This case illustrated that geography can be incorporated into other disciplines, and when correctly produced it can become a very powerful instrument. The map that John Snow created made it possible to see the obvious reason and subsequent solution for the spread of cholera. As seen later in history, geographical applications soon became influential components in the social and physical sciences. But the rules of cartography have to be considered in order to produce a geographically correct map and to successfully combine data and spatial components. In the opposite fashion, GIS makes it possible for people with minimum cartographical knowledge to use geographical software and be able to see their data in a spatial reference.