A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data. Much of this often happens within a spatial database; however, this is not essential to meet the definition of a GIS. In a broader sense, one may consider such a system also to include human users and support staff, procedures and workflows, the body of knowledge of relevant concepts and methods, and institutional organizations.
A coverage is the digital representation of some spatio-temporal phenomenon. ISO 19123 provides the definition:
Geomatics is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as the "discipline concerned with the collection, distribution, storage, analysis, processing, presentation of geographic data or geographic information". Under another definition, it consists of products, services and tools involved in the collection, integration and management of geographic (geospatial) data. Surveying engineering was the widely used name for geomatic(s) engineering in the past. Geomatics was placed by the UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems under the branch of technical geography.
Geoinformatics is a scientific field primarily within the domains of Computer Science and technical geography. It focuses on the programming of applications, spatial data structures, and the analysis of objects and space-time phenomena related to the surface and underneath of Earth and other celestial bodies. The field develops software and web services to model and analyse spatial data, serving the needs of geosciences and related scientific and engineering disciplines. The term is often used interchangeably with Geomatics, although the two have distinct focuses; Geomatics emphasizes acquiring spatial knowledge and leveraging information systems, not their development. At least one publication has claimed the discipline is pure computer science outside the realm of geography.
TerraLib is an open-source geographic information system (GIS) software library. It extends object-relational database management systems (DBMS) to handle spatiotemporal data types.
A GIS software program is a computer program to support the use of a geographic information system, providing the ability to create, store, manage, query, analyze, and visualize geographic data, that is, data representing phenomena for which location is important. The GIS software industry encompasses a broad range of commercial and open-source products that provide some or all of these capabilities within various information technology architectures.
The Indian Institute of Remote Sensing is an institute for research, higher education and training in the field of remote sensing, geoinformatics and GPS technology for natural resources, environmental and disaster management. The institute was established in the year 1966 under the Indian Department of Space. It is located in the city of Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
Digital Earth is the name given to a concept by former US vice president Al Gore in 1998, describing a virtual representation of the Earth that is georeferenced and connected to the world's digital knowledge archives.
Geospatial metadata is a type of metadata applicable to geographic data and information. Such objects may be stored in a geographic information system (GIS) or may simply be documents, data-sets, images or other objects, services, or related items that exist in some other native environment but whose features may be appropriate to describe in a (geographic) metadata catalog.
The GeoNetwork opensource (GNOS) project is a free and open source (FOSS) cataloging application for spatially referenced resources. It is a catalog of location-oriented information.
Distributed GIS refers to GI Systems that do not have all of the system components in the same physical location. This could be the processing, the database, the rendering or the user interface. It represents a special case of distributed computing, with examples of distributed systems including Internet GIS, Web GIS, and Mobile GIS. Distribution of resources provides corporate and enterprise-based models for GIS. Distributed GIS permits a shared services model, including data fusion based on Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) web services. Distributed GIS technology enables modern online mapping systems, Location-based services (LBS), web-based GIS and numerous map-enabled applications. Other applications include transportation, logistics, utilities, farm / agricultural information systems, real-time environmental information systems and the analysis of the movement of people. In terms of data, the concept has been extended to include volunteered geographical information. Distributed processing allows improvements to the performance of spatial analysis through the use of techniques such as parallel processing.
The Open Geospatial Consortium Web Coverage Service Interface Standard (WCS) defines Web-based retrieval of coverages – that is, digital geospatial information representing space/time-varying phenomena.
A 3D city model is digital model of urban areas that represent terrain surfaces, sites, buildings, vegetation, infrastructure and landscape elements in three-dimensional scale as well as related objects belonging to urban areas. Their components are described and represented by corresponding two- and three-dimensional spatial data and geo-referenced data. 3D city models support presentation, exploration, analysis, and management tasks in a large number of different application domains. In particular, 3D city models allow "for visually integrating heterogeneous geoinformation within a single framework and, therefore, create and manage complex urban information spaces."
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are an increasingly important component of business, healthcare, security, government, trade, media, transportation and tourism industries and operations in China. GIS software is playing an increasing role in the way Chinese companies analyze and manage business operations.
The UNSW School of Surveying and Geospatial Engineering (SAGE), part of the UNSW Faculty of Engineering, was founded in 1970 and disestablished in 2013.
Kankar Shubra Dasgupta is an Indian scientist and academic who works in the field of image processing and satellite communications (SATCOM). He is serving as the Director of Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. Prior to joining DA-IICT, he served as the Director of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram. Dasgupta also served as the Deputy Director, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad and the Director of the Development and Educational Communication Unit of Indian Space Research Organisation.
Development and Educational Communication Unit is an arm of Indian Space Research Organisation which aims at planning and imparting training the personnel for usage of satellite based communication systems for societal needs. The main objective of the organisation is to plan and envisage satellite usage for the general population in domains such as education and medicine, as well as many others.
RESPOND is a sponsored research program of Indian Space Research Organization. ISRO started the RESPOND programme in the 1970s whose main objective is to establish strong links with Universities/Institutions in the country to carry out quality research and developmental projects which are of relevance to space and derive useful outputs of such R&D to support ISRO programmes. The programme provides opportunity to the non-ISRO scientists and engineers, who are working with the recognized institute, to contribute to the Indian space programme. The contribution is mostly in areas of design and development of orbiting satellites for scientific research and space applications, sounding rockets and satellite launch vehicles. Non-academic R & D institutions can also participate in this programme.
Technical geography is the branch of geography that involves using, studying, and creating tools to obtain, analyze, interpret, understand, and communicate spatial information.
There are several Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) facilities all over India. ISRO headquarters in Bangalore provides overall direction for the organization. There are more than twenty facilities which support ISRO.
