Geographic information systems: a tool for territorial management

An object or event located in space, together with its attribute data, constitutes geographic information. The aim of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is to manage this type of information. GIS must therefore be able to handle not only the graphical aspect of the object, but also its semantic content, bringing it closer to Information Systems (IS).

The scope of this geographic information is vast. It includes both objects that can be located by nature (rivers, roads, municipal boundaries, etc.) and others (the most numerous) that can be located by association. It is thus possible to link the flow of a river to a measuring station, or customers to a region. As a result, the fields of application for GIS are equally vast, covering everything from land-use planning to geomarketing.

The representation of this geographic information is cartography, one of the first tasks that can be carried out with a GIS. However, it is vital to note that GIS can go beyond this level of analysis, enabling the study of spatial relationships between objects within the same thematic area (e.g. understanding the structure of hydrographic networks), as well as between objects within different thematic areas (e.g. the relationship between the distribution of the population and that of hospitals). These analyses can be used to produce models and/or simulations, leading to the production of information for decision-makers. It is this level of analysis that makes GIS a territorial decision-making tool.

The aim of this article is to provide an introduction to GIS, starting with a review of the concepts behind this tool, followed by a detailed description of its components (hardware, software, methods, data and personnel). In order to understand the uses to which GIS can be put, the functionalities of GIS software are developed and the fields of application are presented, with a case study devoted to crisis management teaching. The book concludes with a look at the future of GIS and geomatics (the discipline that deals with GIS in particular).

A glossary of terms is provided at the end of the article.