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What Does ‘GIS’ Mean?
Author(s) -
Chrisman Nicholas R.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
transactions in gis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.721
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1467-9671
pISSN - 1361-1682
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9671.00014
Subject(s) - variety (cybernetics) , key (lock) , geographic information system , data science , geography , computer science , gis applications , information retrieval , cartography , artificial intelligence , computer security
Many definitions of ‘GIS’ have been proposed, but they are rarely discussed in the peer‐reviewed literature. Most definitions in active use have serious limitations. Recent literature includes a variety of proposals to redefine GIS by changing the third word. This paper proposes an extended definition accompanied by a condensed form that contains the key concepts: ‘Geographic Information System (GIS) – Organized activity by which people measure and represent geographic phenomena then transform these representations into other forms while interacting with social structures.’