GIS in Review

Conventional view of GIS:

Where has GIS come from?

1960s

mainframe computers

automated cartography beginning; remote sensing & GIS are mostly just concepts

CGIS - Roger Tomlinson

Harvard Lab for Computer Graphics And Spatial Analysis

1970s

Landsat program establishes remote sensing

GIS still being developed but overshadowed by remote sensing

MAP analysis program - Dana Tomlin & Joseph Berry

1980s

GIS comes of age: ARC/INFO, GRASS, SPANS

IBM PC begins the desktop computing revolution

Automated Cartography practitioners evolve into GIS practitioners

remote sensing seen by increasing numbers as just another GIS data source

What is the state of GIS now?

1990s

GIS dominates spatial information technologies

GISs are now being used by people who have no formal training in geography, cartography or remote sensing – on one hand, this can be seen as a measure of the success of GIS

– it should also be viewed as a warning flag that some of this development may be happening too quickly: sound principles of map design are frequently abused in GIS output

"Geomatics" term adopted by the Canadian government to encompass all the spatial information technology disciplines

GPS becomes an important tool (see Piwowar, 1988. "A GPS Primer",Cartouche, No. 27).

first-generation spatial data archives are becoming obsolete (see Piwowar, 1988. "Putting Your Data Out to Pasture", Cartouche, No. 29).

What does the future of GIS look like?

2000s

renewed interest in remote sensing as a suite of new generation of high-resolution and hyperspectral sensors are launched (see Piwowar, 1998. "Remote Sensing: The Next Generation", Cartouche, No. 28).

the emergence of seamlessly integrated "spatial information systems" which embrace the traditional sub-disciplines of cartography, remote sensing and GIS in a unified package

these new GISs will also become more integrated into our everyday lives so that, in many cases, we may not even be aware that we are using a GIS (see Piwowar, 1998. "2001: A Societal GIS Odyssey", Cartouche, No. 31 and Homes Online)

the internet (or its successors) will become the medium for spatial data distribution and communication (see Piwowar, 1998. "Interactive Web Map Publishing", Cartouche, No. 30 and The National Atlas of Canada Online).

there will be a paradigm change in the map itself - virtual maps will become a reality (see Virtual Cities Resource Centre: www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/vc/cities.htm)

Other issues not covered in this course

Cartographic Modelling

Spatial Decison Support Systems (see Daniel, 1992. "SDSS for Local Planning, or The Seat of the Pants is Out", GeoInfo Systems, December 1992).

Ethical issues (privacy, acceptable use policies, standards of conduct)

Legal issues (copyright, freedom of information, liability)

GIS Design & Implementation – project planning

– system requirements

– GIS acquisition

– implementation

– maintenance