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GCN Home > 04/16/07 issue

Geospatial and the elite

Old-school geographic information systems still dig deep on mapping and analyses

By Patrick Marshall, GCN Staff

Yes, Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth have sizzle and pop. With this software, you simulate flying around the globe and zoom down to street level in virtually any major city in the world. You can pirouette around your old high school or look to see whose car is parked out in front of your ex-wife’s house. (Though it’s not in real time and neither product can yet let you read the license plate.)

But despite all the 3-D sparkle of these Web map tools, if your agency wants to do serious geographic analysis, you’re going to need a tool with more muscle. “It’s a cool display, but that’s what it is — a display,” Doug Gordon, managing director
Image:
HEALTH TRACK: Health agencies can use programs such as ESRI ArcView to keep track of vaccine points of distribution, such as this example from several counties in Georgia.
of MapInfo’s product management division, said of Google and Microsoft’s offerings.

“All you really can do [with those products] is create points and stick them on the globe. You can’t offer large quantities of information about land parcels, natural resources or the census. You can’t do high-quality cartography,” agreed David Maquire, director of products at ESRI.

To do more in-depth geospatial analysis, you’re going to need a full-fledged geographic information system, or GIS.

More than a pretty face
GIS solutions offer more than just map displays. They combine the analytical power of databases with the geographic capabilities of maps. As a result, they can produce reports that show at a glance anything from demographic trends to the most appropriate site for a new hospital.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, found that GIS software could reveal trends that might be hard to spot by looking at the numbers alone.

More news on related topics: Communications / Networks, Geospatial, Software Applications, Web Strategies



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