Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
The Development of GIS- Timeline - Coggle Diagram
The Development of GIS- Timeline
After GIS (1963-Present Day)
The Digital Transformation
Dynamic scaling:
Users zoom seamlessly from a global view down to a specific street corner on a single screen.
Living maps:
Digital maps update automatically in real time using satellite feeds, GPS data, and sensor networks.
Instant layered analysis:
Computers stack hundreds of data layers instantly. This replaced the physical limit of 4 or 5 plastic sheets on a light table
Unified databases:
Visual shapes connect directly to rich text data. Clicking a building polygon instantly reveals its owner, value, and tax history.
Real-World Impact Across Industries
Precision agriculture:
Tractors use spatial data to apply fertilizer only where soil sensors indicate nutrient deficiencies.
Urban planning:
Cities simulate the shadow impact of a new skyscraper or model flood zones before breaking ground.
Supply chains:
Delivery companies optimize thousands of drop-off routes simultaneously to save fuel and time.
Emergency response:
Dispatchers track ambulances via GPS and map the fastest routes dynamically to bypass traffic accidents.
Everyday Consumer Life
Location services:
Smartphones recommend nearby restaurants, check the local weather forecast, and provide turn-by-turn driving directions.
Real estate:
Homebuyers filter map views to see property lines, nearby school ratings, and local crime statistics simultaneously.
Real estate:
Homebuyers filter map views to see property lines, nearby school ratings, and local crime statistics simultaneously.
Before GIS (Until 1963)
The "Overlay" Method (Pre-Digital Analysis)
To analyze multiple layers of data (e.g., finding where a forest, a specific soil type, and a river intersected), professionals used a physical technique called the McHarg overlay method
Limit of layers:
Stacking more than 4 or 5 sheets made the pile too dark and thick to see through.
Clear sheets
: Data was drawn onto clear plastic sheets called Mylar or acetate.
Visual inspection:
They peered through the stacked plastic to manually find overlapping zones.
Light tables
: Scientists stacked these transparent sheets on top of a lit table.
The Physical Reality of Mapping
Hand-drawn maps
: Cartographers drew maps by hand using drafting pens, ink, and rulers on physical paper, linen, or plastic film.
Massive storage
: Map libraries held thousands of physical, oversized paper sheets rolled up in tubes or filed away in giant drawers.
No zooming
: To look closer at an area, you had to find a completely different map drawn at a larger scale.
Manual updates
: When a road was built or a border changed, the entire map had to be physically scraped away, re-inked, or completely redrawn.
Impact on the Real World
Slow calculations:
Measuring the area of a parcel or the length of a river required manual tools, like a planimeter or rolling a small wheel across the paper.
High error rates:
If a paper map stretched due to humidity, all measurements and scales became inaccurate.
Disconnected data:
Census numbers, property ownership records, and environmental data were kept in completely separate paper text ledgers, entirely disconnected from the visual maps.