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Geographic Information Systems

A GIS or "Geographic Information System" is mapping software that links information about where things are with information about what things are like. Unlike with a paper map, where "what you see is what you get," a GIS map can combine many layers of information.

RS Operations has recently implemented Site Recorder 4; a new GIS system developed by 3H Consulting.

To use a paper map, all you do is unfold it. Spread out before you is a representation of cities and roads, mountains and rivers, railroads and political boundaries. The cities are represented by little dots or circles, the roads by black lines, the mountain peaks by tiny triangles, and the lakes by small blue areas.

As on the paper map, a digital map created by GIS will have dots, or points, that represent features on the map such as cities; lines that represent features such as roads; and small areas that represent features such as lakes. The difference is that this information comes from a database and is shown only if the user chooses to show it. The database stores where the point is located, how long the road is, and even how many square miles a lake occupies.

Each piece of information in the map sits on a layer, and the users turn on or off the layers according to their needs. One layer could be made up of all the roads in an area. Another could represent all the lakes in the same area. Yet another could represent all the cities.

Why is this layering so important? The power of a GIS over paper maps is your ability to select the information you need to see according to what goal you are trying to achieve.

A business person trying to map customers in a particular city will want to see very different information than a water engineer who wants to see the water pipelines for the same city. Both may start with a common map—a street and neighborhood map of the city—but the information they add to that map will differ.

When excavating a shipwreck using archaeological excavation methods, each item recovered is part of a layer within the shipwreck site. As artifacts are recovered, and their associated data is entered into the GIS, a series of layers are constructed that allow each item recovered to be associated with every other item.

GIS also provides a capability known as spatial analysis. This capability will allow relative distances between artifacts to be stored and interpolated as a means of interpreting archaeological information.

A GIS, properly implemented, coupled with sound excavation and documentation procedures provides archaeologists with an especially powerful tool for effective study and management of archaeological excavations.

To learn more about GIS, access the ESRI tutorial.

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