GIS, 2nd Edition

1 Making Sense of Geotechnology

DOI: 10.1201/9781003307181-1

1.1 Coming to GIS

Imagine a world where spatial relationships between people and their physical and human environments, economies, and cultures are made clear in ways that have never before been possible. This is the promise of Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Over the past century, scientific and technical advancements have completely changed the ways in which we map: first, through the incorporation of aerial photography and photogrammetry taking mapping out of the field and moving it into the factory, and then through a series of developments in the materials, machines, and methods used to make representations of the world mapmaking became more standardized and thus more ...