An individual map contains a lot of information, which is used in different ways by different individuals and organizations. It represents the means of locating ourselves in relation to the world around us. Maps are used in diverse applications from locating telephone wires and gas mains under our streets, to displaying the extent of de-forestation in the Brazilian Amazon. The map has been in existence in much the same form for thousands of years. In the traditional form it suffers from a number of problems.
First maps are static and therefore difficult and expensive to keep up to date.
The second problem is that they are static and lose their flexibility, for example maps exist as discrete sheets and inevitably your area of interest lies on the corner of four adjacent sheets. In addition maps are often very complex and may require an expert to extract the particular data which are of interest. This provides great flexibility, allowing a paper map to be quickly produced which exactly meets the needs of the user. However, GIS goes further, because the data are stored on a computer, analysis and modelling become possible. Geosim at Virginia Tech Soest at Univ.