Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are powerful tools for spatial analysis that have transformed the way city and regional planners, environmental managers, politicians, students, and citizens interact with the natural environment. Initially created to provide Canadian officials information about the distribution of their natural resources, GIS has evolved to offer immense possibilities for efficient organization of spatial data, and rigorous analysis of complex issues. As software companies like Esri (Environmental Systems Research Institute) and others have continued to create and distribute programs to conduct rigorous geoprocessing, they have also expanded opportunity for a wider range of users to engage with spatial analysis, widening the scope and possibilities for interaction with and sharing of spatial data. By working with the power of the internet and cloud-based sharing, recent innovations such as ArcGIS online offer users the ability to work remotely and share their maps with colleagues across the globe, extending GIS to virtually any area where there is internet.
This timeline is a brief overview of the history of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and assesses the major innovations in spatial analysis that have brought us to where we are today. Major questions this timeline aims to answer are: who is credited with inventing initial forms of software that evolved into GIS, what was the intent of the initial software, and how have recent innovations in GIS technology changed what is possible in spatial analysis. There were two forms of software that I used in my creation of this timeline: the Timeline Generator from Knightlab (https://timeline.knightlab.com/#preview-embed) and Google Sheets to input data. Additionally, I used Google for research purposes, and am very thankful to the work of Geospatial World, GIS user, GIS Lounge, and Esri for their research and publications on the history of GIS and spatial analysis. Please see below for a listing of the aforementioned publications.
Spatial World, An Overview of GIS History
GIS User, ESRI, Arc/Info, ArcGIS, ArcView… 25 Years in the making – A Time Line
GIS Lounge, History of GIS
Esri, History of GIS
https://www.esri.com/en-us/what-is-gis/history-of-gis
I was interested to learn about the evolution of spatial analysis and what inspired new trends and innovations. For instance, I knew Roger Tomlinson by name, but hadn’t known that he was an Englishmen commissioned by the Canadian Government to produce maps for the purpose of natural resource management. Similarly, I was excited to learn about the Harvard Laboratory of Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis, which appears to have been a very progressive and forward-thinking institution whose members have had reverberations on the industry today. For all interested, I recommend reviewing the following publications that discuss the Harvard Lab and it’s impact on modern spatial analysis.
Patrick McHaffie (2000) Surfaces: tacit knowledge, formal language, and metaphor at the Harvard Lab for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis, International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 14:8, 755-773, DOI: 10.1080/136588100750022778 Retrieved from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/136588100750022778
Chrisman, N., & Network, G. E. O. I. D. E. (2009). History of the Harvard laboratory for computer graphics: a poster exhibit. Canada: Departtement des Sciences Geomatiques Universite Laval. Retrieved from: http://213.55.83.214:8181/Computer%20Science/collection/01662.pdf
Nicholas Chrisman (1988) The Risks of Software Innovation: a Case Study of the Harvard Lab, The American Cartographer, 15:3, 291-300, DOI: 10.1559/152304088783886892 Retrieved from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1559/152304088783886892?scroll=top&needAccess=true
While I enjoyed researching the evolution of GIS and spatial analysis for this timeline, I would be interested to continue producing timelines using the Knightlab software with other data and information that is more robust, such as political conflicts and/or collaboration, or the history of urban planning and neighborhood change. There really is so much potential with this software, and perhaps a study of something with more information would be more illuminating, particularly if there was more media content to accompany it (I struggled to find media to complement information about new software’s such as ArcView and different versions of ArcGIS). Similarly, I am eager to learn more about data cleaning and visualization softwares and techniques, to take more complex sets of data and information and make it more accessible to the public.