Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are all around us! They are information systems where data is captured, stored, managed, presented and referenced on a map. IN OTHER WORDS, It’s how: Your ordered take away finds your right address, The closest ambulance finds the quickest route to an accident, A road worker knows where to dig so that they get to the right pipe and don’t damage the wrong one! An engineering company might find the best location for a wind farm by combining factors such as wind speed and direction on a map, Police use data to find out the areas that have a particular type of crime problem, A planner and architect designed your village, town or city.

GIS is not a new, computer-only development. For many years, people have been plotting information on a map to look for patterns. For example… In 1845 London, the houses containing cholera victims were located on a map to help identify which water pump was providing the contaminated water. Sea-farers would navigate their ship safely using annotated charts showing deep water, currents, owned waters… Computers help us to store, handle and manipulate a huge quantity of data and map information in a variety of ways. In other words, we can use GIS much faster now!

Anyone can use GIS if they have a map of the area they are studying and some data to plot on it. Plotting rainfall, temperature, hours of sunlight on a map of your school grounds to find the best site for a vegetable patch… Finding and plotting a number of litter ‘black spots’ in your local area to see if the council has put bins in the right place. Identifying where pupil ‘traffic’ builds up around the school using a building plan to see if alternative routes can be promoted to reduce problems in corridors. Ordnance Survey GIS Zone