Geographic information systems (GIS) are integrated frameworks for acquiring, storing, managing, analyzing, and visualizing data referenced to locations on Earth’s surface. They combine spatial (vector and raster) and attribute data within coordinate reference systems, enabling spatial analysis operations such as overlay, buffering, network analysis, interpolation, and spatial statistics. GIS supports modeling of spatial processes, multi-criteria decision analysis, and integration with remote sensing and global navigation satellite system data. In research, GIS underpins spatial epidemiology, environmental assessment, urban and regional planning, resource management, and geospatial data infrastructure, facilitating reproducible, quantitative analyses of spatial patterns, relationships, and temporal dynamics.
A Purdue University digital forestry team has created a computational tool to obtain and analyze urban tree inventories on public and private lands with record-breaking speed at an unprecedented scale. The team accomplished ...
Ecology
Feb 18, 2026
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24
If you told me a decade ago that I'd become an expert in mapping cemeteries, I would've laughed and been very confused about the dramatic turn my professional life must've taken at some point.
Environment
Feb 15, 2026
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16
Geographic information system (GIS) maps help researchers, policymakers, and community members see how environmental risks are spread throughout a given region. These types of interactive, layered maps can be used for storytelling, ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 11, 2026
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13
Cities are increasingly becoming the epicenter of climate-related risks, with research showing that impervious surfaces (e.g., roofs, streets, sidewalks, parking lots) are a major driver of urban climate impacts because they ...
Environment
Feb 5, 2026
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17
Far from simply a source of unstructured online content, disaster management in the digital age can be supported by careful analysis of online social-media data, suggests a paper published in Natural Hazards and Earth System ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 30, 2026
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11
A new Simon Fraser University study has found that Canada's cycling network is growing, but not everyone is benefiting. Between 2022 and 2024, nearly 3,600 kilometers of high-quality cycling infrastructure was added across ...
Environment
Jan 27, 2026
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13
A research team led by Prof. Liu Liangyun from the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (AIRCAS) has produced the first comprehensive, high-resolution map of global city and town boundaries, ...
Environment
Dec 30, 2025
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61
With the GlobalBuildingAtlas, a research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has created the first high-resolution 3D map of all buildings worldwide. The open data provides a crucial basis for climate research ...
Environment
Dec 2, 2025
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115
Over the past 50 years, geographers have embraced each new technological shift in geographic information systems (GIS)—the technology that turns location data into maps and insights about how places and people interact—first ...
Earth Sciences
Nov 6, 2025
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83
A new study introduces an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven remote sensing framework designed to map the potential for forage cultivation across northern China's drylands, with a particular focus on the middle reaches of ...
Ecology
Nov 4, 2025
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23
