ABSTRACT
A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer system that captures, stores, manipulates, queries, analyzes, and displays geographically referenced data. Among the diverse set of tasks a GIS can do, mapping remains the primary function. The first objective of this chapter is to demonstrate how GIS is used as a computerized mapping tool. The key skill involved in this task is the management of spatial and aspatial (attribute) data and the linkage between them. However, GIS goes beyond mapping and has been increasingly used in various spatial analysis tasks as GIS software has become more capable and also user-friendly for these tasks. The second objective of this chapter is to introduce some basic tools for spatial analysis in GIS.
