Geographical information systems and location science
Since the 1970s the field of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) has evolved into a mature research and application area involving a number of academic fields including Geography, Civil Engineering, Computer Science, Land Use Planning, and Environmental Science. GIS can support a wide range of spatial queries that can be used to support location studies. GIS will play a significant role in future location model development and application. We review existing work that forms the interface between GIS and Location Science and discuss some of the potential research areas involving both GIS and Location Science. During the past 30 years there have been many developments in spatial data analysis, spatial data storage and retrieval, and mapping. Many of these developments have occurred in the field of Geographical Information Science. Geographical Information Systems software now supports many elementary and advanced spatial analytic approaches including the production of high quality maps. GIS will have a major impact on the field of Location Science in terms of model application and model development. The purpose of this paper is to explore the interface between the field of Location Science and GIS.
geographical information systems (gis) geographical information science facility location site selection