"A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data."
Geographic Information Systems. A computer program that stores, visualizes, and analyzes spatial data.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS): Understanding what GIS is, its capabilities, limitations, and components such as hardware, software, and data.
Spatial Data: Understanding different forms of spatial data, such as vector and raster, and their properties, including resolution, accuracy, scale, and projection.
Data Sources: Getting an overview of various data sources, including open and proprietary data sources, spatial data formats, and services, and how to acquire such data.
Data Collection: Learning about various data collection methods, including GPS, remote sensing, crowdsourcing, and surveying.
Spatial Analysis: Learning the basic concepts of spatial analysis, including vector overlay, buffer analysis, density analysis, network analysis, and interpolation.
Web Mapping: Understanding web mapping technologies, such as tiles, WMS, WFS, and web maps, and learning how to create and publish web maps.
Spatial Statistics: Understanding the statistical methods for spatial analysis, including spatial autocorrelation, clustering, and regression.
Cartography: Learning the principles of effective cartography, including symbology, labeling, generalization, and visual hierarchy.
Geospatial Databases: Understanding the basics of geospatial databases, including data models, data structures, and database management systems.
Spatial Programming: Learning how to automate GIS tasks using scripting languages, such as Python, and GIS APIs, such as ArcGIS API for Python and Leaflet.
Spatial Data Visualization: Understanding how to create effective visualizations of spatial data, including choropleth maps, heatmaps, and 3D maps.
Spatial Decision Making: Learning about the use of GIS in decision-making processes, including site selection, transportation planning, and natural resource management.
Remote Sensing: Understanding remote sensing technologies and their applications in GIS, including image classification, change detection, and object-based image analysis.
Mobile GIS: Learning how to use mobile devices for data collection, navigation, and field mapping.
Open Source GIS: Understanding open-source GIS software, including QGIS, GRASS, and PostGIS, and their capabilities and limitations relative to proprietary software.
GIS Applications: Exploring the use of GIS in various application domains, including health, environment, agriculture, and emergency management.
Spatial Ethics and Privacy: Learning about ethical and legal issues related to spatial data, including privacy, ownership, and data integrity.
Spatial Thinking: Developing a spatially-oriented mindset, including the ability to think critically, analytically, and creatively about geospatial data and its applications.
Cartography: The science of map-making that uses specialized software to create and design maps.
Geographic Information Science (GIScience): The theoretical foundation for GIS, which includes the study of spatial concepts, modeling, and analysis.
Remote Sensing: The process of collecting data from satellite or airborne sensors to analyze the earth's surface and environment.
Geovisualization: The process of visualizing data in a geographic context to explore patterns, trends, and relationships.
Geostatistics: The study of the mathematical techniques used to analyze spatial data and extract meaningful statistical summaries.
Spatial Analysis: A broad term used to describe the process of analyzing and interpreting spatial data using GIS tools and techniques.
Geodesy: The science of measuring the earth's shape, size, and orientation.
Spatial Database Management: The process of collecting, storing, and managing spatial data in a database.
Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS): The use of GIS tools and techniques to support decision-making in diverse fields, such as environmental management, urban planning, and public safety.
"[A GIS] consists of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data."
"Much of this often happens within a spatial database, however, this is not essential to meet the definition of a GIS."
"One may consider such a system also to include human users and support staff, procedures and workflows, the body of knowledge of relevant concepts and methods, and institutional organizations."
"The uncounted plural, geographic information systems, also abbreviated GIS, is the most common term for the industry and profession concerned with these systems."
"The academic discipline that studies these systems and their underlying geographic principles, may also be abbreviated as GIS, but the unambiguous GIScience is more common."
"They are attached to various operations and numerous applications, that relate to: engineering, planning, management, transport/logistics, insurance, telecommunications, and business."
"GIS and location intelligence applications are at the foundation of location-enabled services, which rely on geographic analysis and visualization."
"GIS provides the capability to relate previously unrelated information, through the use of location as the 'key index variable'."
"Locations and extents that are found in the Earth's spacetime are able to be recorded through the date and time of occurrence, along with x, y, and z coordinates."
"[x, y, and z coordinates representing] longitude (x), latitude (y), and elevation (z)."
"All Earth-based, spatial-temporal, location and extent references should be relatable to one another, and ultimately, to a 'real' physical location or extent."
"This key characteristic of GIS has begun to open new avenues of scientific inquiry and studies." Note: Since not all 20 questions can be answered directly by quotes from the paragraph, I have provided answers for the available quotes.