Geographic Information Systems: An Introduction, 3rd Edition

1.4 Users of GIS

This chapter has reviewed some of the basic concepts of GIS and a number of the issues that arise from its use. Today, the widespread acquisition of digital computers by businesses, schools, and households has allowed technologies such as GIS to penetrate many aspects of our lives. Nevertheless, computer processing of geographical data remains problematic, and GISs are widely regarded as difficult to learn about and to use. We hope that subsequent chapters of this book will provide a conceptual and technical understanding of GIS that will allow readers to make effective use of its capabilities in one or more of the many areas of its application.

Users of GIS naturally fall into two groups. Some are professional operators of GIS, who spend much of their lives working with the technology in their jobs. They are well trained in the particular software they use and are well aware of its capabilities. In many cases they do not use the results of their work themselves, but pass them to end users. The results may be maps, designed and produced by the GIS operator, results of analysis to be used in planning harvesting of trees, or work orders for maintenance staff in a major utility company.

The second group of users spend a relatively small proportion of their lives using GIS. They may maintain a GIS capability on their personal workstation in order to produce an occasional map, to find a restaurant in an unfamiliar city, to plan a driving route for a vacation, or to ...