Town of Banff

What is GIS?

A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer system capable of managing, storing, editing, analyzing, sharing and displaying geographically referenced information. Geographically referenced information is data that knows where it physically exists in space. For example, a GPS device records latitude and longitude coordinates for a given point, thereby geographically referencing that point.

With a GIS, you can link information (attributes) to location data, such as people to parcels, flow rates to fire hydrants, or speed limits to roads. You can layer that information to give you a better understanding of how it all works together. You choose what layers to display based on what questions you need to answer.

A GIS is most often associated with maps. A map, however, is only one way you can work with geographic data in a GIS, and only one type of product generated by a GIS. In addition to creating maps, GIS allows users to create interactive queries, provide problem-solving capabilities, analyze the spatial information and edit the data.