Using Geographic Information System software for the first time is really an eye-opening experience. I enrolled in this course because one of my friends who had graduated with an environmental engineering degree, and had worked in the green industry for two years, talked to me about her job and how she uses this software frequently in different situations. This sparked my interest, and my hands on experience with this $10,000 piece of software did not disappoint. Although the lab was merely following directions of the GIS tutorial, it really made me understand why it's called a "system," namely, there is a lot of data that is hidden behind the simple maps above, and the interaction of different data can be visualized by superimposing them on top of one another. Another fact that impressed me was the sheer amount of manipulation that is available- that both numeric and spatial data can be manipulated in a very precise and subtle way. For example, a user can choose from dozens of styles for a roadway symbol, and customize it to his or her liking.
The negative side of my experience with GIS has to do with its complicated structure, and it showed me that this software requires a lot of training before it can be used well. There are literally hundreds of options, buttons, drop-down-lists and tool-bars to choose from and it would take some time to get used to it. Even though the tutorial was clear for the most part, I had trouble figuring out how the data and the map have to be treated differently, and that ArcCatalogue was needed to copy the entire project. In summary, I think I can see how using GIS software can be a very tedious task for the user, and the time frame needed to be proficient with GIS can take months to years due to its sophistication and complexity.
GIS is a very powerful tool and it holds a lot of potential in my opinion. Facts and figures cannot be debated, and the fact that GIS is based on rigorous data that can be checked, makes it a powerful tool in negotiations and predictions. People with different opinions may collect data and be able to visualize it using GIS, and visual data is the easiest and quickest form of information to understand. Implications or theories by different groups can be modeled, and using real world data, predictions can be made that all parties can agree on. For example, a watershed system is very complex, and using traditional forms of presentation would require stacks of slides or graphs that would be disorienting. However, using GIS, that can overlay the data into one map can make visualization easy as well as maintaining the complexities of a real watershed system. This is very efficient in an information presentation standpoint, but GIS can further be used to predict what would happen, for example, if a flood were to occur in the watershed system. High risk areas of flash floods can be located and preventative actions can be taken. The potential of GIS is even higher when you consider that the example is only one of literally millions of ways to use GIS. Just to name a few, GIS is used in excavation, crime prevention, infrastructure upkeep, military and farming.
GIS is a very powerful tool, and like how the police choose to use it to predict and prevent crime, the technology can also be used in destructive ways. Terrorists could potentially use the same methods to locate high risk areas and target them. Another potential pitfall could be that a spatial boundary be superimposed on areas or ecology that don't have well defined borders, thereby creating a human construct of boundary where one did not exist before. Some animals may not perceive these boundaries and the GIS map may not represent a ecosystem in flux very well.
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