GIS allow students, researchers, and professionals to incorporate a spatial quality to their projects.  Consider this example: a spreadsheet (like Excel files) or a relational databases (such as a Microsoft Access file) might list a number of customer addresses.  While this information is valuable, by itself it is hard to discern patterns, locational relationships and other geographic qualities (such as "how many of these addresses are in my market study area?").  However, in a GIS, the customer locations can be linked to points on a map.  After doing so, the adage "a picture is worth a thousand words" really becomes true!  Now that the customers are shown on a map, locational relationships are revealed and more in-depth analysis can take place. In short, then, a GIS links information about where things are with information about what things are like.

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(Coffee shops in San Francisco and neighborhoods. Source: Online research by Rick Kos and Mono Simeone; SFGIS - Planning Neighborhoods)

Another example: children and the elderly are more susceptible to harmful air pollutants. As a GIS user, you would most likely want to produce a map composed of individual map layers related to this topic.  Such map layers might include locations of reported respiratory problems, neighborhoods, parks, schools, roads, and Census tracts.

(Source: SFGIS - Planning Neighborhoods, Public Schools, Major Roads, Parks)

Additional information and analysis of air pollutant, traffic data, and weather patterns could provide further insight into the spatial patterns and relationships. These examples demonstrates the fourth powerful benefit of GIS - the ability understand and/or model our environment by analyzing spatial phenomenon.

The fifth powerful benefit of a GIS is the ability to produce and publish high-quality maps. GIS roots stem from spatial analysis - not making pretty maps. In the past, design applications like Illustrator or Freehand were used to publish maps. Recently, GIS has developed robust cartographic capabilities and tools to reduce the need for other applications. To learn more about cartographic design in GIS sign up for our Information Design with Maps workshop.

If you wish to learn more about GIS, please sign up for our free, introductory GIS Theory & Practice workshop.  Or, if you are interested in taking an introductory GIS workshop,  please consider our GIS Quick Start.  For more information about GIS, an excellent overview is provided at Environmental System Research Institute's (ESRI) web site: ESRI Guide to GIS.