

67 Important GIS Applications and Uses

 BY ADMIN
 JUNE 14, 2015
 BLOG, GIS
 78

1. GIS in Mapping: Mapping is a central function of Geographic

Information System, which provides a visual interpretation of
data. GIS store data in database and then represent it visually in a mapped
format. People from different professions use map to communicate. It is not
necessary to be a skilled cartographer to create maps. Google map, Bing
map, Yahoo map are the best example for web based GIS mapping
solution.

2. Telecom and Network services: GIS can be a great planning and

decision making tool for telecom industries. GDi GISDATA enables
wireless telecommunication organizations to incorporate geographic data in
to the complex network design, planning, optimization, maintenance and
activities. This technology allows telecom to enhance a variety of
application like engineering application, customer relationship
management and location based services.
3. Accident Analysis and Hot Spot Analysis: GIS can be used as a key
tool to minimize accident hazard on roads, the existing road network has to
be optimized and also the road safety measures have to be improved. This
can be achieved by proper traffic management. By identifying the accident
locations, remedial measures can be planned by the district administrations
to minimize the accidents in different parts of the world. Rerouting design is
also very convenient using GIS.

4. Urban Planning: GIS technology is used to analyze the urban growth

and its direction of expansion, and to find suitable sites for further urban
development. In order to identify the sites suitable for the urban growth,
certain factors have to consider which is: land should have proper
accessibility, land should be more or less flat, land should be vacant or
having low usage value presently and it should have good supply of water.

5. Transportation Planning: GIS can be used in managing transportation

and logistical problems. If transport department is planning for a new
railway or a road route then this can be performed by adding environmental
and topographical data into the GIS platform. This will easily output the
best route for the transportation based on the criteria like flattest route,
least damage to habitats and least disturbance from local people. GIS can
also help in monitoring rail systems and road conditions.

6. Environmental Impact Analysis: EIA is an important policy initiative to

conserve natural resources and environment. Many human activities
produce potential adverse environmental effects which include the
construction and operation of highways, rail roads, pipelines, airports,
radioactive waste disposal and more. Environmental impact statements are
usually required to contain specific information on the magnitude and
characteristics of environmental impact. The EIA can be carried out
efficiently by the help of GIS, by integrating various GIS layers, assessment
of natural features can be performed.

7. Agricultural Applications: GIS can be used to create more effective

and efficient farming techniques. It can also analyze soil data and to
determine: what are the best crop to plant?, where they should go? how to
maintain nutrition levels to best benefit crop to plant?. It is fully integrated
and widely accepted for helping government agencies to manage programs
that support farmers and protect the environment. This could increase food
production in different parts of the world so the world food crisis could be
avoided.

8. Disaster Management and Mitigation: Today a well-developed GIS

systems are used to protect the environment. It has become an integrated,
well developed and successful tool in disaster management and mitigation.
GIS can help with risk management and analysis by displaying which areas
are likely to be prone to natural or man-made disasters. When such
disasters are identified, preventive measures can be developed.

9. Landslide Hazard Zonation using GIS: Landslide hazard zonation is

the process of ranking different parts of an area according to the degrees of
actual or potential hazard from landslides. The evaluation of landslide
hazard is a complex task. It has become possible to efficiently collect,
manipulate and integrate a variety of spatial data such as geological,
structural, surface cover and slope characteristics of an area, which can be
used for hazard zonation. The entire above said layer can well integrate
using GIS and weighted analysis is also helpful to find Landslide prone
area. By the help of GIS we can do risk assessment and can reduce the
losses of life and property.
10. Determine land use/land cover changes: Land cover means the
feature that is covering the barren surface .Land use means the area in
the surface utilized for particular use. The role of GIS technology in land
use and land cover applications is that we can determine land use/land
cover changes in the different areas. Also it can detect and estimate the
changes in the land use/ land cover pattern within time. It enables to find
out sudden changes in land use and land cover either by natural forces or
by other activities like deforestation.

11. Navigation (routing and scheduling): Web-based navigation maps

encourage safe navigation in waterway. Ferry paths and shipping routes
are identified for the better routing. ArcGIS supports safe navigation system
and provides accurate topographic and hydrographic data. Recently DNR,
s Coastal Resources Division began the task of locating, documenting, and
cataloging these no historic wrecks with GIS. This division is providing
public information that make citizens awareness of these vessel locations
through web map. The web map will be regularly updated to keep the
boating public informed of these coastal hazards to minimize risk of
collision and injury.

12. Flood damage estimation: GIS helps to document the need for
federal disaster relief funds, when appropriate and can be utilized by
insurance agencies to assist in assessing monetary value of property loss.
A local government need to map flooding risk areas for evaluate the flood
potential level in the surrounding area. The damage can be well estimate
and can be shown using digital maps .

13. Natural Resources Management: By the help of GIS technology the

agricultural, water and forest resources can be well maintain and manage.
Foresters can easily monitor forest condition. Agricultural land includes
managing crop yield, monitoring crop rotation, and more. Water is one of
the most essential constituents of the environment. GIS is used to analyze
geographic distribution of water resources. They are interrelated, i.e. forest
cover reduces the storm water runoff and tree canopy stores approximately
215,000 tons carbon. GIS is also used in afforestation.

14. GIS Solutions in Banking Sector: Today rapid development occurs in

the banking sector. So it has become more market driven and market
responsive. The success of this sector largely depends on the ability of a
bank to provide customer and market driven services. GIS plays an
important role providing planning, organizing and decision making.

15. Soil Mapping : Soil mapping provides resource information about an

area. It helps in understanding soil suitability for various land use activities.
It is essential for preventing environmental deterioration associated with
misuse of land. GIS Helps to identify soil types in an area and to delineate
soil boundaries. It is used for the identification and classification of soil. Soil
map is widely used by the farmers in developed countries to retain soil
nutrients and earn maximum yield.

16. GIS based Digital Taxation: In Local Governments, GIS is used to

solve taxation problems. It is used to maximize the government income.
For example, for engineering, building permits, city development and other
municipal needs, GIS is used. Often the data collected and used by one
agency or department can be used by another. Example Orhitec ltd can
supply you with a system to manage property tax on a geographic basis
that can work interactively with the municipal tax collection department.
Using GIS we can develop a digital taxation system.

17. Land Information System: GIS based land acquisition management

system will provide complete information about the land. Land acquisition
managements is being used for the past 3 or 4 years only. It would help in
assessment, payments for private land with owner details, tracking of land
allotments and possessions identification and timely resolution of land
acquisition related issues.

18. Surveying: Surveying is the measurement of location of objects on the

earth’s surfaces. Land survey is measuring the distance and angles
between different points on the earth surface. An increasing number of
national and governments and regional organizations are using GNSS
measurements. GNSS is used for topographic surveys where a centimeter
level accuracy is provided. These data can be incorporated in the GIS
system. GIS tools can be used to estimate area and also, digital maps can
prepared.

19. Wetland Mapping: Wetlands contribute to a healthy environment and

retain water during dry periods, thus keeping the water table high and
relatively stable. During the flooding they act to reduce flood levels and to
trap suspended solids and attached nutrients. GIS provide options for
wetland mapping and design projects for wetland conservation quickly with
the help of GIS. Integration with Remote Sensing data helps to complete
wetland mapping on various scale. We can create a wetland digital data
bank with spices information using GIS.

20. GIS Applications in Geology: Geologists use GIS in a various

applications. The GIS is used to study geologic features, analyze soils and
strata, assess seismic information, and or create three dimensional (3D)
displays of geographic features. GIS can be also used to analyze rock
information characteristics and identifying the best dam site location.

21. Detection of Coal Mine Fires: GIS technology is applied in the area of
safe production of coal mine. Coal mine have developed an information
management system, the administrators can monitor the safe production of
coal mine and at the same time improve the abilities to make decisions.
Fire happens frequently in coal mines. So it can assessed spontaneous
combustion risk using GIS tools.(Kun Fang, GIS Network Analysis in
Rescue of Coal Mine)

22. Assets Management and Maintenance: GIS helps organizations to

gain efficiency even in the face of finite resources and the need to hold
down the cost. Knowing the population at risk enables planners to
determine where to allocate and locate resources more effectively.
Operations and maintenance staff can deploy enterprise and mobile
workforce. GIS build mobile applications that provide timely information in
the field faster and more accurate work order processing.

23. GIS for Planning and Community Development: GIS helps us to

better understand our world so we can meet global challenges. Today GIS
technology is advancing rapidly, providing many new capabilities and
innovations in planning. By applying known part of science and GIS to
solve unknown part, that helps to enhance the quality of life and achieve a
better future. Creating and applying GIS tools and knowledge allow us
integrating geographic intelligence into how we think and behave.

24. GIS in Dairy Industry: Geographic Information System is used in a

various application in the dairy industry, such as distribution of products,
production rate, location of shops and their selling rate. These can be
monitored by using GIS system. It can be also possible to understand the
demand of milk and milk products in different region. GIS can prove to be
effective tool for planning and decision making for any dairy industry. These
advantages has added new vistas in the field of dairy farm and
management.
25. Tourism Information System: GIS provides a valuable toolbox of
techniques and technologies of wide applicability to the achievement of
sustainable tourism development. This provide an ideal platform tools
required to generate a better understanding, and can serve the needs of
tourists. They will get all the information on click, measure distance, find
hotels, restaurant and even navigate to their respective links. Information
plays a vital role to tourists in planning their travel from one place to
another, and success of tourism industry. This can bring many advantages
for both tourist and tourism department.

26. Irrigation water management: Water availability for irrigation

purposes for any area is vital for crop production in that region. It needs to
be properly and efficiently managed for the proper utilization of water. To
evaluate the irrigation performance, integrated use of satellite remote
sensing and GIS assisted by ground information has been found to be
efficient technique in spatial and time domain for identification of major
crops and their conditions, and determination of their areal extent and yield.
Irrigation requirements of crop were determined by considering the factors
such as evapotranspiration, Net Irrigation Requirement, Field irrigation
Requirement, Gross Irrigation Requirement, and month total volume of
water required, by organizing them in GIS environment. (A. M. Chandra, S.
K. Ghosh, Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System)

27. Fire equipment response distance analysis: GIS can be used to

evaluate how far (as measured as via the street network) each portion of
the street network is from a firehouse. This can be useful in evaluating the
best location for a new firehouse or in determining how well the fire
services cover particular areas for insurance ratings.(Himachal Pradesh,
Development Report)

28. Worldwide Earthquake Information System: One of the most

frightening and destructive phenomena of nature is the occurrence of an
earthquake. There is a need to have knowledge regarding the trends in
earthquake occurrence worldwide. A GIS based user interface system for
querying on earthquake catalogue will be of great help to the earthquake
engineers and seismologists in understanding the behavior pattern of
earthquake in spatial and temporal domain. (A. M. Chandra, S. K. Ghosh
Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System)

29. Volcanic Hazard Identification: Volcanic hazard to human life and

environment include hot avalanches, hot particles gas clouds, lava flows
and flooding. Potential volcanic hazard zone can be recognized by the
characteristic historical records of volcanic activities, it can incorporate
with GIS. Thus an impact assessment study on volcanic hazards deals with
economic loss and loss of lives and property in densely populated areas.
The GIS based platforms enables us to find out the damage and rapid
response against volcanic activities may helps to reduce the effect in terms
of wealth and health of people.

30. Energy Use Tracking and Planning: GIS is a valuable tool that helps
in the planning organizing and subsequent growth in the energy and utilities
industries. The effective management of energy systems is a complex
challenge. GIS has enormous potential for planning, design and
maintenance of facility. Also it provide improved services and that too cost
effectively.

31. GIS for Fisheries and Ocean Industries: GIS tools add value and the
capability to ocean data. ArcGis is used to determine the spatial data for a
fisheries assessment and management system. It is extensively used in the
ocean industry area and we get accurate information regarding various
commercial activities. To enhance minimizing cost for the fishing industry.
Also it can determine the location of illegal fishing operations.
32. Monitor Rangeland Resources: GIS is a valuable tool used to monitor
the changes of rangeland resource and for evaluating its impact on
environment, livestock and wild life. Accurate observation and
measurements are to be made to find out the changes in the rangeland
conditions. GIS is also used to monitoring ecological and seasonal
rangeland conditions .

33. Reservoir Site Selection: GIS is used to find a suitable site for the
dam. GIS tries to find best location that respect to natural hazards like
earthquake and volcanic eruption. For the finding of dam site selection the
factors include economic factors, social considerations, engineering factors
and environmental problems. This all information are layered in the GIS.

34. Forest Fire Hazard Zone Mapping: Forest is one of the important
element of the nature. It plays an important role in the local climate. Forest
fires caused extensive damage to our communities and environmental
resource base. GIS can effectively use for the forest fire hazard zone
mapping and also for the loss estimation. GIS also help to capture real time
monitoring of fire prone areas. This is achieved by the help of GNSS and
satellite Remote Sensing.

35. Pest Control and Management: Pest control helps in the agricultural
production. Increasing in the rate of pest and weeds can lead to decrease
in the crop production. Therefore GIS plays an important role to map out
infested areas. This leads in the development of weed and pest
management plan.

36. Traffic Density Studies: GIS can effectively use for the management
of traffic problems. Today’s population along with the road traffic is
increasing exponentially. The advantage of GIS make it an attractive option
to be used to face the emerging traffic problems. By creating an extensive
database that has all the traffic information such as speed data, road
geometry, traffic flow and other spatial data and processing this information
will provide us the graphical bigger picture for the traffic management.

37. Deforestation: Nowadays forest area is decreasing every year, due to

different activities. GIS is used to indicate the degree of deforestation and
vital causes for the deforestation process. GIS is used to monitor
deforestation.

38. Space Utilization: GIS helps managers to organize and spatially

visualize space and how it can best be used. Operational costs can be
decreased by more efficiently using space including managing the moves
of personal and assets as well as the storage materials. The 3D
visualization in GIS platforms helps planers to create a feeling of
experience like virtual walk inside the building and rooms before
construction.

39. Desertification: Desertification is the land degradation due to climatic

variations or human activities. GIS can provide the information of degraded
land which can be managed by governmental agencies or by the
communities themselves. GIS plays a vital role to reduce the
desertification, the local governments are now widely depends on GIS for
reducing desertification. With location based GIS analysis we can find
where or which area is suitable for planting new vegetation and which area
for the pipeline construction.

40. Disaster and Business Continuity Planning: Viewing building and

locations assets along with emergency information such as weather
patterns, and disaster zones, can provide organizations the required
information to make better decision. GIS provide holistic understanding of
facility status and performance, and brings together department, business
systems, and data source for a comprehensive view into and throughout
the organization. (Faisal I. Al-Shukri, GIS Utilization in Facility
Management)

41. GIS for Business: GIS is also used for managing business information
based on its location. GIS can keep a track of where the customers are
located, site business, target marketing campaigns, and optimize sales
territories and model retail spending patterns. Such an added advantage is
provided by the GIS to enhance in making companies more competitive
and successful. (Sita Mishra, GIS in Indian Retail Industry-A Strategic Tool)

42. Utilities: The GIS is used for different type of utilities like electricity,
telecom and cooking gas on a daily basis and utilities to help them in
mapping, in inventory systems, track maintenance, monitor regulatory
compliance or model distribution analysis, transformer analysis and load
analysis.( Gulzara Mamazhakypova)

43. Lease Property and Management: Revenue can be increased,

operations and maintenance cost can be reduced when GIS is used to help
manage space. Real estate and property managers can see and make
queries about space including its availability, size and special constraints
for the most cost effective use.

44. Development of Public Infrastructure Facilities: GIS has many uses

and advantages in the field of facility management. GIS can be used by
facility managers for space management, visualization and planning,
emergency and disaster planning and response. It can be used throughout
the life cycle of a facility from deciding where to build to space planning.
Also it provides facilitate better planning and analysis.(Gulzara
Mamazhakypova)

45. GIS for Drainage Problems in Tea Plantation Areas:Drainage

problem in tea plantation differ widely because of its varied nature of
physical conditions. Tea crop requires moisture at adequate levels all times
of its growth. Any variation either excess or lack has a direct impact on the
tea yield. This become greatly influenced the productivity of tea. Required
some hydraulic design to solve this problem such as design of drains,
checking the adequacy of the river and classification of water logged areas
etc. GIS helps to reduce the water logging by establishing well developed
plans.

46. Collection of Information about Geographic Features: GIS is not

simply a computer system used for making maps. A map is simply the most
common way of reporting information from a GIS database. So these
systems are not only for creating maps but also most importantly the
collection of information about the geographic features such as building,
roads, pipes, streams, ponds and many more that are located in your
community.

47. GIS for Public Health: GIS provides the cost effective tool for
evaluating interventions and policies potentially affecting health outcomes.
GIS analysis, environmental health data is also helpful in explaining
disease patterns of relationships with social, institutional, technological and
natural environment. It can be understand the complex spatial temporal
relationship between environmental pollution and disease, and identifying
exposures to environmental hazards. GIS can significantly add value to
environmental and public health data.(The application of GIS in
environmental health sciences: opportunities and limitations.)
48. Location Identification: This technique is used to find a location for a
new retail outlet. It helps to find out what exists at a particular location. A
location can be described in many ways, using, for instance, name of
place, post code, or geographic reference such as longitude or latitude or
X/Y.

49. Knowledge Based System for Defense Purpose: Regular analysis of

terrain is essential for today’s fast paced battlefield. Conventional method
of studying paper topographical maps is being replaced by use of maps in
digital form to get terrain information. It is increasingly being used to derive
terrain information from digital images. Which help to the selection of
suitable sites for various military uses more accurate and faster. The uses
of GIS provide information regarding the terrain features which can be
useful for planning today’s war strategies.

50. Pipeline Route Selection: Pipeline route planning and selection is

usually a complex task. GIS technology is faster, better and more efficient
in this complex task. Accurate pipeline route selection brings about risk and
cost reduction as well as better decision making process. GIS least cost
path analysis have been effectively used to determine suitable oil and gas
pipeline routes. An optimal route will minimize reduce economic loss and
negative socio-environmental impacts.

51. Producing Mailing Labels for abutter Notification: Zoning board of

appeals hearings or proposed action by a town or city require notifying
abutting property owners. A GIS application for producing abutter mailing
labels enables you to identify abutting property owners are in different
ways. Once the properties are identified this kind of GIS applications can
produce mailing labels and be integrated with a word processing “mail
merge “capabilities.(http://www.mass.gov/)
52. Site Suitability for Waste Treatment Plant: There is an increasing
amount of waste due to the over population growth. This has negative
impact on the environment. With the help of GIS we can integrate various
aspect layers in GIS and can identify which place is suitable for waste
treatment plant. This process will reduce the time and it is cost effective.
Also it enhances the accuracy. It provides a GIS analyst to identify a list of
suitable dumping sites for further investigations. It also provides a digital
bank for future monitoring program of the site.

53. Geologic Mapping: GIS is an effective tool in geological mapping. It

becomes easy for surveyors to create 3D maps of any area with precise
and desired scaling. The results provide accurate measurements, which
helps in several field where geological map is required. This is cost
effective and offers more accurate data, there by easing the scaling
process when studying geologic mapping.

54. Environment: The GIS is used every day to help protect the
environment. The environmental professional uses GIS to produce maps,
inventory species, measure environmental impact, or trace pollutants. The
environmental applications for GIS are almost endless. It can be used to
monitor the environment and analyze changes.(by S Farog Mostafa)

55. Infrastructure Development: Advancement and availability of

technology has set a new mark for professionals in the infrastructure
development area. Now more and more professionals are seeking help of
these technologically smart and improved information systems like GIS for
infrastructure development. Each and every phase of infrastructure life
cycle is greatly affected and enhanced by the enrollment of GIS.
56. Coastal Development and Management: The coastal zone
represents varied and highly productive ecosystem such as mangrove,
coral reefs, see grasses and sand dunes. GIS could be generating data
required for macro and micro level planning of coastal zone management.
GIS could be used in creating baseline inventory of mapping and
monitoring coastal resources, selecting sites for brackish water
aquaculture, studying coastal land forms.

57. Crime Analysis: GIS is a necessary tool for crime mapping in law
enforcement agencies worldwide. Crime mapping is a key component of
crime analysis. Satellite images can display important information about
criminal activities. The efficiency and the speed of the GIS analysis
will increase the capabilities of crime fighting.

58. River Crossing Site Selection for Bridges: The important

geotechnical consideration is the stability of slope leading down to and up
from the water crossing. It is advisable to collect historical data on erosion
and sedimentation. On the basis of these information asses the amount of
river channel contraction, degree of curvature of river bend, nature of bed
and bank materials including the flood flow and the flow depth, all these
can be done in GIS within estimated time and accurately. This information
has been often used for river crossing site selection for bridges.

59. Land Use Changes Associated with Open Cast Strip

Mining: Mining is the back bone of the developing economy of any country.
Mapping, monitoring and controlling the impact caused by the mining
activities is necessary so as to understand the character and magnitude of
these hazardous events in an area. The data required to understand the
impact of mining from the environment is coming from different discipline,
which need integration in order to arrive hazard map zonation.
60. Economic Development: GIS technology is a valuable tool used for
the economic development. It helps in site selection, suitability analysis,
and for finding the right sites to locate new business and grow existing
ones. Within economic development, GIS is used to support the emerging
trend of economic gardening, a new way to foster local and regional
economic growth by existing small business in the community.( By Ahmed
Abukhater,GIS for Planning and Community Development: Solving Global
Challenges)

61. School Student Walking Distance Analysis: If your community buses

students to school, but only if they lived beyond a certain distance from
their school, this can be used to determine what addresses are eligible for
busing.

62. Locating Underground Pipes and Cables: Pipe line and cable
location is essential for leak detection. It can be used to understand your
water network, conducting repairs and adjustments, locating leaks known
distance for correlating etc. Pipelines are continually monitored, check for
leak detection and avoid the problem of geo hazards.

63. Coastal Vegetation Mapping and Conservation: Coastal vegetation

like Mangroves are the protectors of coast from natural hazards like
tsunami , so that the conservation of these vegetation are highly important.
GIS enable us to map which are having higher density of vegetation and
which area need more vegetated? Integration of these details to coastal
zone mapping helps to identify the area prone to coastal erosion and we
can plant more vegetation to reduce coastal erosion.

64. Regional Planning: Every day, planners use Geographic Information

System (GIS) technology to research, develop, implement, and monitor the
progress of their plans. GIS provides planners, surveyors, and engineers
with the tools they need to design and map their neighborhoods and cities.
Planners have the technical expertise, political savvy, and fiscal
understanding to transform a vision of tomorrow into a strategic action plan
for today, and they use GIS to facilitate the decision-making process.
(ESRI, GIS Solutions for Urban and Regional Planning)

65. GIS for Land Administration: In a number of countries, the separate

functions of land administration are being drawn together through the
creation of digital cadastral databases, with these database they can reuse
land for suitable needs ,digital taxation and even utilities are also easily
handle using these database.

66. Snow Cover Mapping and Runoff Prediction: Systematic, periodical

and precise snow cover mapping supported by GIS technology, and the
organization of the results in a snow cover information system forms the
basis for a wide range of applications. On the practical side, these
applications are related to the monitoring of seasonal and yearly alterations
of the snow cover under the presently existing climatic conditions, to
simulate and forecast runoff, to map the regional distribution of the water
equivalent, and to document the recession process of the snow cover
during the melting period in its relation to geological features.

67. GIS for Wildlife Management: Man made destruction such as habitat
loss, pollution, invasive species introduction, and climate change, are all
threats to wildlife health and biodiversity. GIS technology is an effective tool
for managing, analyzing, and visualizing wildlife data to target areas where
international management practices are needed and to monitor their
effectiveness. GIS helps wildlife management professionals examine and
envision.