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.