22
… and so what is a
GIS?
From Chrisman; 2003
The organized activity by which people:
1.Measure aspects of geographic phenomena
and processes;
2.Represent these measurements, usually
in the form of a computer database, to emphasize spatial themes, entities and relationships;
3.Operate upon these representations to
produce more measurements and to discover new relationships by interpreting disparate sources;
and
4.Transform these representations to
conform to other frameworks of entities and relationship.
These activities reflect the larger context (institutions
and cultures) in which these
people carry out their work.