Village of Wellington GIS

What You Can Do With GIS

Perform geographic queries
The ability of GIS to search databases and perform geographic queries has saved many companies literally millions of dollars. GISs have helped

• Decrease the time taken to answer customer requests.
• Find land suitable for development.
• Search for relationships among crops, and soils.
• Locate the position of breaks in electrical circuits.
• Realtors find houses that have tiled roofs, five bedrooms, cost less than $100 per square foot, and are within a half mile of a school.

Improve organizational integration
Many organizations that have implemented GIS have found that one of the main benefits is improved management of their own organization and resources. Because GISs have the ability to link data sets together by geography, they facilitate interdepartmental information sharing and communication. By creating a shared database one department can benefit from the work of another--data can be collected once and used many times.

As communication increases among individuals and departments, redundancy is reduced, productivity is enhanced, and overall organizational efficiency is improved. Thus, in a utility application, the customer and the infrastructure databases can be integrated so that when there is planned maintenance, affected customers can be sent a computer-generated standard letter.

Make better decisions with GIS
The old adage "better information leads to better decisions" is as true for GIS as it is for other information systems. A GIS, however, is not an automated decision making system, but is a tool to query, analyze, and map data in support of the decision making process. GIS technology has been used to assist in tasks such as presenting information at planning inquiries, helping resolve territorial disputes, and sitting pylons in such a way as to minimize visual intrusion. GIS can be used to help reach a decision about the location of a new housing addition that has minimal environmental impact, is located in a low risk area, and is close to a population center. The information can be presented succinctly and clearly in the form of a map and accompanying report, allowing decision makers to focus on the real issues rather than trying to understand the data. Because GIS products can be produced quickly, multiple scenarios can be evaluated efficiently and effectively.

Making maps with GIS
Maps have a special place in GIS. The process of making maps with GIS is much more flexible than traditional manual or automated cartography approaches. It begins with database creation. Existing paper maps can be digitized and computer-compatible information can be translated into the GIS. The GIS-based cartographic database can be both continuous and scale free. Map products can then be created centered on any location, at any scale, and showing selected information symbolized effectively to highlight specific characteristics.