Introduction to Geographic Information Systems

Geographic Information System (GIS) uses computer technology to integrate, manipulate and display a wide range of information to create a picture of an area’s geography, environment and socio-economic characteristics. This present book “Introduction to Geographic Information System” is intended to provide an introduction to GIS, which is very much important for the teachers / instructors, students and the users to supplement any course lecture material with hands on practical exercises using some forms of GIS. The text is purposely designed to be software independent, trusting that course instructors will use whatever software and hardware are most applicable to the course mission and available to them. The content of this book includes some sources of software, spatial and non-spatial data, raster and vector models, data input, editing and storage and basic spatial data analysis which will prove useful in either a classroom or a self-learning situation. The challenge is to provide a conceptual level of understanding of spatial analysis through the implementation of modern GIS software while presenting useful material for technical training. This book would be helpful for the faculty, researchers, students and the person having interest in this field.