1. History of GIS Idea of map overlay began at least 150 years ago…
Irish railway commissioners
Picked up by planners and used in early part of the 20th century

2. History of GIS: the 1960’s
Roger
Tomlinson
First attempts at computer-based map overlay
Leader: Canada GIS (CGIS)
Goal: to develop land management plans for large areas of rural Canada
Factors: forest & mineral resources, wildlife habitats, water resources
Hindered by limitations of computers similar to our modern hand calculator!

3. 1960’s: Academia Harvard Laboratories – “SYMAP”
First real demonstration of computer’s ability to make maps
Aim: produce thematic maps of statistical data depicted in census tracts quickly and cheaply

4. US Government: The Census Bureau
Goal: Create a digital version of various types of maps
Functions needed:
Comprehensive set of street maps for whole country
Analyze and report data at different levels: Addresses > Blocks > Census tracts
1970 census included a digital map

5. Industry Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Intergraph
Environmental consulting firm founded in 1969
Digital mapping products needed were unavailable, so…
Intergraph
Initially: Computer-Assisted Drafting (CAD) and Computer-Assisted Manufacturing (CAM)
ESRI – now has 90-95% of world market

6. Brief History of GIS Executive Order 12906
Leads to National Spatial Data Infrastructure NSDI & Federal Geographic Data Committee (FDGC)
The Digital Earth, 1998, Al Gore:
“the hard part of taking advantage of this flood of geo-spatial information will be making sense of it - turning raw data into understandable information.”

7. Brief History of GIS 2000s Exploitation
Internet becomes major deliver vehicle
More than 1 million active users
Geospatial technology integration

8. First Internet Mapping Site

10. A Brief History of GIS GIS’s origins lie in thematic cartography
Many planners used the method of map overlay using manual techniques
Jacqueline Tyrwhitt, 1950 planning text
HcHarg used blacked out transparent overlays for site selection in Design with Nature

11. Tyrwhitt: Town & Country Planning

12. A Brief History of GIS
Computer cartography = basic GIS concepts during the late 1950s and 1960s
1960s = new forms of geographic data and mapping software

13. A Brief History of GIS Altered by PCs & workstations
1980s = better software
1990s Graphical User Interface (GUI) developments improved ease of use

14. Sources of Information on GIS
Overwhelming (information literacy)
Journals, magazines, books, professional societies, Internet, and conferences
Websites, network conference groups, professional organizations, and user groups
Most colleges and universities now offer GIS classes in geography departments

15. Major GIS-Only Journals
Cartography and Geographic Information Science
Geographic Information Systems
GeoInformatica
International Journal of Geographical Information Science
Journal of Geographical Systems
Visual Geosciences
Transactions in GIS
Journal of Geographic Information and Decision Analysis

16. Specialty Journals GIS Law GrassClippings GIS Asia/Pacific
GIS World Report/CANADA
GIS Europe
Mapping Awareness

17. Regular GIS Papers Annals of the Association of American Geographers
Cartographica
Cartography and GIS
Computers, Environment, and Urban Systems
Computers and Geosciences
IEEE Transactions on Computer Graphics and Applications
Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing

18. Occasional GIS papers Cartographic Perspectives Journal of Cartography
Geocarto International
IEEE Geosciences
International Journal of Remote Sensing
Landscape Ecology
Remote Sensing Review
Mapping Science and Remote Sensing
Infoworld

19. Popular Distribution Magazines some with free subscriptions
Geospatial Solutions
ArcNews
ArcUser
Geoplace (online)
GPS World

20. Proceedings of Conferences
AUTOCARTO International Symposium on Automated Cartography
GIS/LIS. Sponsored by AAG, ACSM, AM/FM, ASPRS, URISA. Held every year, retired in 1998.
International Advanced Study Symposium on Topological Data Structures for Geographic Information Systems
Proceedings International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling
SSD Advances in spatial databases

21. Professional Organizations
AAG
ACSM: American Congress on Surveying and Mapping
ASPRS: American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
NACIS: North American Cartographic Information Society
URISA: Urban and Regional Information Systems Association
GITA : Geospatial Information and Technology Association

22. Summary GIS is a science based on extensive technology application
Unique perspective for examining patterns and processes on the Earth’s surface
From origins in 1960s now a +$7bn industry
Widely studied in schools and universities as part of many discipline curricula

23. What do we do with this information?
Ask it questions?
Where, What, How Many?
NEXT LECTURE---GIS Analysis