Introduction
Do you plan to purchase a geographic information system (GIS) in the near future? Are you curious about what it can do for you and how you can get the most out of it? Do you need to use the software, or do you need to supervise others who use it? Do you have concerns about how GIS might change the way your organization functions?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, GIS For Dummies is the right book for you. GIS is some of the most exciting software to come along in ages, and I want to get you as excited about the possibilities GIS offers as I am. This book can help you start thinking about how you can use maps and harness the awesome power of this new technology.
About This Book
Unlike many books on GIS, this one isn’t meant to keep you spellbound for days or weeks. Instead, you can use this book when you need to answer basic questions or figure out what questions to ask your GIS-specialist friends. Think of this book as a reference you can use to find what you need when you need it.
The book gives you a big picture look at GIS — everything from the parts that make up the systems (see Chapter 1) to the spatial information products (see Chapter 20) that the systems produce. So wherever your interests in GIS point you, find those topics in the Table of Contents or Index and jump right in.
Conventions Used in This Book
GIS terminology can get a bit confusing, especially with computer terms. I use the term raster to represent both a GIS data structure (composed ...
