Image: Example of GIS: Google Earth image of Canberra's parliamentry zone and surrounding suburbs and edge of Lake Burley Griffin.
Image obtained from: http://www.geoeye.com/CorpSite/gallery/detail.aspx?iid=96&gid=11
Despite being a relatively new technology Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been readily adopted in the urban and regional planning field and no represent a vital analytical and conceptual tool in the planning process. GIS will sympathise overhead photographic imagery (usually from satellites but also from specialised imaging technologies attached to planes) with relative data obtained through health standard primary research. An example of this could of a satellite image such as the one above overlaid with population density data obtained from the census to give an conceptual understanding of where people are located. This could be utilised further by including overlaying the location of in demand amenities such as schools, parkland's, shops and health services to identify how far local residents may have to travel to such amenities and the transport routes they may utilise. The value of GIS to the planning professional resides in such sympathise of data in a manner that is clearly interpretable and assessable subsequently aiding the discovery and decisions making processes.
Esnard, Sappington and Ospina's 'Geographic Information Systems' (2006) makes some of the following point on the dynmaics of GIS. GIS systems are inclusive of 1) "hardware components": computer systems to drive software 2) "software": displaying, manipulates and analyses GIS images 3) "Data Sources": information that serves as overlays or the information requiring investigation 4) "Metadata": quality and information on the aforementioned data sources 5) "Data Types": Vector (Cartesian co-ordinates) and Raster Data (information stored within the images grid matrix).
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