Geographic Information System acts as a powerful decision-making tool for any business or industry since it allows to analyse environmental, statistical and topographic data. Data from GIS applications help companies and various industries, and consumers, make better decisions. Not only for bigger companies and scientific purposes but GIS can also be used by common people to solve their community-level problems. GIS-generated datasheets or maps are easy to read and highly efficient, even for a non-familiar person. For example, GIS can be used to generate accident prone zone map of any selected area or simply to know the crops grown in an area. These maps are easy to read and analyse.
Let us have a look at some scenarios where GIS can be helpful and convenient.
1. Urban planning- GIS can help select sites for new developments and analyse the growth in urbanization. It can be useful for construction
sites and the laying of new paths.
2. Environmental Impact Analysis- GIS can be beneficial for the preservation of natural resources and the creation of new eco-sensitive areas. It
can also help to understand the impact of human activities on the
environment.
3. Agriculture- More appropriate techniques can be used if GIS analysis has
been done over an agricultural area. Production of crops, their
maintenance and harvesting can also be managed and known through
GIS.
4. Disaster management- GIS can be a source of information for disaster-prone areas. Being reliable and quick in updates, can help with rescue
operations and relocating the people to the nearest safe zones.
5. Surveying- Data collected through surveys can be easily transferred to
GIS software to generate maps and reports that are easier to understand.
These can be useful to develop action plans if needed.
Apart from the mentioned, GIS is also a tool for navigation, transportation,
resource management, garbage management, water facilities and much more.
Using GIS for solving the problems that we see around, not only helps to
provide a solution but also does it in an effective way. This, in turn, would make things easily manageable and systematic. All we need to do is find the
cause of the problem and GIS helps to provide a solution!
-Apoorva Pimprikar
Intern,
Geosensitive, 2022.
