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What is a Geographic Information System?
What is a GIS?
A Geographic Information System (GIS) is
a computer system for assembling, storing, manipulating, and displaying
data which contains physical locations (geographic coordinates)
of features and information about those featues (attribute data).
An example GIS database is the location of all known active and
inactive mines in Montana and attribute data about the types of
commodities produced by the mines. An example of a type of analysis
performed using GIS capabilities is proximity analysis, examining
how one set of features relates to another. For example, the mine
database above could be analyized in conjunction with a database
of stream locations. Some questions the GIS could then answer would be:
Which copper mines are located within one mile of a stream?
or
Which stream segments have 10 or more mines within 500 meters?
Sample GIS Analyses
Analyses of Elk Park Pass Digital Elevation Model:
Analyses of Montana's highway network:
Proximity Analyses
Estimated intersection between tailings deposits & groundwater
GIS Home Page
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