David Briddock treks from maps to graphical information systems
A marriage between cartography and computers appeared quite logical, yet it was a journey that took decades to complete.
Pioneers
Back in the 1950s, the well-known geographer and analyst William Garrison was already considering how computers could perform statistical analysis on geospatial problems. And by 1959, researcher Waldo Tobler demonstrated his Map In - Map Out (MIMO) model for computerised cartography, which outlined many features found in modern GIS software.
A few years later, Howard Fisher started the Harvard Lab of Computer Graphics. It was here that GIS pioneers develop software solutions for handling geospatial data. Their efforts resulted in a number of important GIS applications such as Synagraphic mapping, George Farnsworth's Dual Independent Map Encoding (adopted by the US Bureau of Census) and the CIA's Auto Mapping system.
Things gathered pace in 1969 when GIS went commercial. Jack Dangermond created the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), Jim Medlock established the Integraph Corporation, and three academics from the UK's Cambridge Cavendish labs founded Laser-Scan.
Canada
The worlds first operational computerised GIS system appeared in Canada. It came about as part of a government drive to analyse Canada's national inventory.
Founded by Roger Tomlinson, a native of Cambridge in the UK, the Canada Geographic information system (CGIS) used maps and aerial photographs to capture the agriculture, forestry, wildlife and recreational areas across each Canadian province.
Tomlinson later became chairman of the Graphical Union GIS Commission and president of the Canadian Association for Geographers, while also running his own consulting company Tomlinson Associates Limited.
Satellites
Aerial photography, while fine for small areas, was much too slow and expensive when it came to wide area coverage. Unfortunately, weather satellites weren't able to obtain the type of data required for GIS analysis.
But as space technology advanced more specialised satellites came to the rescue.
In 1972, Nasa launched Landsat 1 an Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS) specifically designed to capture to terrain data in the red, green and infrared bands.
The Landsat program involved around 300 analysts and international scientists. In the ERTS Survey document 'A Window on Our Planet' it stated, "The ERTS spacecraft represents the first step in merging space and remote-sensing technologies into a system for inventorying and managing Earth's resources."
The latest Landsat 8 spacecraft, complete with an advanced set of instrumentation, is managed by the US geological survey (USGS) from the Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Centre.
Free And Open
Up until the turn of the century, GIS software was typically expensive, complex and restricted in geographic coverage. Yet within a few short years, this picture would radically change.
In 2004, Google acquired Keyhole Incorporated. Previously funded by the CIA, Keyhole had an application called Earth Viewer 3D. Just a year later Google Earth appeared as a free download for anyone with a PC and internet connection.
Contained within a Keyhole Markup Language (KML) file, the 3D data comes from the Nasa's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and includes terrain elevation, buildings and other man-made structures.
More recently, Google Earth has been enhanced with billions of photos to create Street View, and Google has used Nasa's astronomical data to create Google Sky, Google Mars and Google Moon.