A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a system that creates, manages, analyzes, and maps all types of data. GIS connects data to a map, integrating location data (where things are) with all types of descriptive information (what things are like there). This provides a foundation for mapping and analysis that is used in science and almost every industry. GIS helps users understand patterns, relationships and geographic context.
The benefits of GIS include improved communication and efficiency as well as better management and decision making.
GIS technology applies geographic science with tools for understanding and collaboration. It helps companies reach a common goal: to gain actionable intelligence from all types of data.
Web GIS operates at all scales, from the micro to the macro. Every day, millions of GIS users worldwide compile and build geographic data layers about topics critical to their work and for their particular areas of interest. The scope of information covers almost everything—rooms in a building, parcels of land, infrastructure, neighborhoods, local communities, regions, states, nations, the planet as a whole, and beyond, into other planets in our solar system.