Types Of Spatial Information Is Necessary For Making Sound Decisions At The Local, Regional And Global Levels

2. Acquiring geographic information: Geographic information is information about locations, the physical and human characteristics of those locations, and the geographic activities and conditions of the people who live in those places (NGS).

This is the actual amount of data, both structured and unstructured, that is available for an organization. Data

Spatial data is a costly resource to generate and maintain, spatial data consumers have been unable to accurately and conveniently link with other spatial data users to share and discover useful and relevant data. There is problem of insufficient and inappropriate metadata available for the clearinghouse, metadata problems impact on effective spatial data use. The following are examples of issues associated with spatial metadata:

Data is information that is stored and organized by fields and records. A field which can also be known as an attribute is a single unit of information, like a surname of an IBM employee. A record or tuple is a collection of related fields. For example, an employee record contains all information fields that are relevant to a specific IBM employee. Additionally, a file (also known as a table) has multiple records that are pertaining to a specific topic. “To signify, an employee file of a hotel contains all employee records (Rob, 2010). Lastly, a database comprises all related files. A hotel database, among others, consists of employee files, room files, customer files, and payment files.”

Another relevant aspect of this phase is metadata generation and acquisition. This acquisition of the right metadata enables for a description of the recorded data and how exactly it is being measured.

The importance of location has been vital for people ever since the earliest civilisations; hunters and gatherers identified ideal locations for growing crops, later civilisations became territorial and selecting ideal settlement location based on a range of factors occurred. During the eighteenth century, European countries realised the importance of a nationwide, comprehensive mapping system of their land(Burrough et al., 2015). Alongside the advancement of technology GIS (Geographic Information Systems) has since developed. GIS is a software that can collect, store, analyse, and display geospatial data for a set purpose(Burrough et al., 2015). GIS can be used to display, understand, and visualise patterns and relationships in data(National Geographic, 2011).

Geographic information science and systems can be an extremely powerful tool when properly applied to real world situations. GIS is commonly thought of as map making because it deals with spatial analysis, but data can be managed and manipulated to create a vast array of different outputs including charts and graphs. There are several software programs capable of dealing with GIS synthesis and analysis. The focus of this paper applies to use of ArcMap 10.1 GIS software for data management and output creation. GIS can provide several key benefits: cost savings from better efficiency, better decision making, improved communication, better record keeping, and understanding changes in geographic

describes how to request the data that one is interested in. They are designed to be

Dissertation submitted in part fulfillment for the degree of Master of Science in Geographical Information Systems

Another example is a Text Document file , in this file Data gives what is the text document name?. But Metadata gives what is text document file? When it was written ? who is author of that file? How many days does taken to modify that file? How many pages?

The paper will begin with a literature review on the sources used for research including conference papers, lectures, and trade magazines. Immediately following the literature review, there will be the discussion which entails a thorough explanation of the fundamental concepts that contribute to the foundation of Geographic Information Systems. After the explanation of concepts, there will be high level summary of Roger Tomlinson’s GIS implementation plan for companies. This paper will then discuss the current trends and major industries that are utilizing GIS. In the end, there will be a conclusion that will include a future analysis on GIS.

Metadata: Data about information, portraying how and where it is being utilized, where it originated from and what changes have been made to it.

In DBMS, a repository is consists of database tables that store metadata which by default consists of 247 objects (183 tables and 64 views). It saves the mapping information and notations.

Huck, Whyatt & Coulton (2014) use GIS in unique way for site suitability, by using a Public Participation GIS (PPGIS), which allows the storage and analysis of spatial

Apart from the oil industry, the geographical information systems have also gained much use in other critical application in Saudi Arabia. For instance, the system is used in both telecom and network services. Its relevance as a planning and a decision-making tool in the telecom industry cannot be overemphasized. The so-called GDi GISDATA enables the telecommunication companies to integrate geographical data in their network planning, design and maintenance activities. The technology allows the companies to enhance their location-based services, develop engineering/ geographical applications and customer relationship. Geographic information system also enables the authorities and insurance companies do both accident and hot spot analysis. As such, the technology helps in the reduction of accidents in the roads through the optimization of road networks and facilitating the improvement of roads through proper traffic in management (Khormi, Kumar, & Elzahrany, 2011). The technology helps identify the locations and map them by their population and traffic details. In addition, the geographic information system is convenient to use in rerouting design. The system has also gained much prominence in urban planning is Saudi