Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS: A Workbook Approach to Learning GIS, 3rd Edition

Products of a Geographic Information System

Let’s shift focus from learning GIS to thinking about the desired end results. By this I mean the decisions taken by human beings to change, navigate, or protect the environment.

C. P. Snow wrote, “To be any good, in his youth, at least, a scientist has to think of one thing deeply and obsessively for a long time. An administrator has to think of a great many things, widely, in their interconnections, for a short time.”2 It is to the attention of these administrators that products of a GIS are mostly directed. You, as a producer of information, need to be mindful of limits on their time.