GIS / Maps

Welcome to Friends of Alta's Geographic Information System (GIS). GIS is an exciting technology in which many types of data can be viewed and analyzed from a geographic perspective. GIS has infinite applications, ranging from city planning and zoning, to public safety, to environmental studies. GIS is used by the government, sociologists, earth scientists, police, firefighters, land and resource managers, teachers, and the military just to name a few. GIS helps deepen our understandings of the relationships between features that make up our world.

We can think of GIS as two parts, geography and information system. Geography is a way of organizing earth's surface data and the matter found on it. It is the what, where, and space taken up by objects on the earth's surface. This information is displayed on a GIS as a point, line, or area.

The information system is made up of attributes or descriptive characteristics of the geographic features. This information is stored in a database and can be used according to the features being looked at. GIS is a link between the information and its location. The layers of information used give a superior understanding to relationships based on the chosen layers you've combined and according to your purpose.