Gis Provider in the Philippines

A GIS is composed of five components namely, People, Data, Hardware, Software, and Procedures. The vital component of GIS is the people for they are the ones who actually perform the task of operating the computers to make the GIS work. They are the ones responsible for maintaining the geographic databases and provide technical support. They need to be educated for them to be able to analyze and make credible decisions. The People are further categorized into viewers, general users, and GIS specialists. The viewers are the public whose intention of browsing a geographic database is for referential material. General Users are people in the business field who perform professional services and decision making. The GIS specialists on the other hand are the ones responsible for the maintenance of the geographic database. They provide technical support for the viewers and general users.

A procedure of GIS includes retrieving and input of data into the system, storing, managing, transformation, analysis and presenting the final output of the study.

The hardware consists of technical equipment to run a GIS including the use of a computer system with enough power to run the software. Enough memory is needed to be able to store large amounts of data, and input and output devices such as scanners, digitizers, GPS data loggers, media disks, and printers.

Software packages on the other hand must be capable of data input, storage, management, transformation, analysis, and output. It may vary on appearance, methods, resources and ease of use depending on the various systems used. Software packages of today are now capable of allowing both graphical and descriptive data to be stored in a single database, known as the object- relational model.

The most time consuming and costly aspect of maintaining a GIS is generation of a database. Several things are need to be considered before acquiring a geographic data. It is crucial to verify the quality of the data before acquiring it. Data set errors can add many unpleasant and expensive hours in implementing a GIS and the results and conclusions of the GIS analysis most likely will be wrong.

III. Uses of GIS

Geographic Information System technology can be used for scientific investigations, resource management, asset management, archeology, environmental impact assessment, urban planning, cartography, criminology, geographic history, marketing, logistics, prospectivity mapping, and other purposes. It may allow planners to easily calculate emergency response time in the event of natural disasters. Also, it may be used to find wetlands that need protection from pollution to take advantage of a previously under- served market.

Common practical use of GIS includes mapping out environmental layers to describe a site and make predictions on its potential. GIS helps in routing of roads, transmission lines, pipelines, sewer, and network

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