GIS stands for Geographical Information Systems, which basically means “smart maps”. When you think of maps, you think of geography, right? Geography is always around you, more so than you may even realize. Say in your typical day, you wake up and head to work. Your daily routine may consist of stopping for coffee, filling up the old gas tank or dropping off the kids. You do all of this by traveling on a road network, possibly through various cities. In a GIS persons mind you are literally going from “point A to B”! Your house, office building and coffee shop become point locations on the earth. The streets become lines and the cities are polygons. If you take a paper map and draw your daily routine, you are half way to creating GIS!

Instead of using paper, visualize drawing your map on a computer screen. This is where your map gets smart! Your computer generated points, lines, and polygons link to a database that holds information about each feature you’ve created. For example, your points (home, office, shops) could contain information such as: address, name, hours of operation, number of rooms, etc. After this data is entered in the geodatabase, the user can click on the point and view the information linked to it.

Who uses a GIS?

Everyone can use GIS in one way or another. A properly built and managed GIS can answer questions such as: Where is the nearest hospital? How many parks are within two miles of my house? Where should I open my store to minimize competition? How many acres of wetlands will be destroyed if we develop the land? What is the fastest route for a 911-distress call? Is this street private or public? Who owns this property? What’s the closest Elementary school to me? Does this property have access to water and sewer? How far is my house to the closest fire station?

As you can see, GIS is a very powerful tool that can be used by all! Our GIS website was developed with the sole purpose of making our GIS more accessible to the community and staff of St. Lucie County.