Abstract:
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is an evolving, catchall phrase that
initially referred to management of information with a geographic component
primarily stored in vector form with associated attributes. This definition quickly
became too restrictive with advances in software and ideas about information
management. An advanced GIS system should be able to handle any spatial data, not just data tied to the ground by geographic reference points. About 15,500 years ago, on the walls of caves near Lascaux, France, Cro- Magnon hunters drew pictures of the animals they hunted. Associated with the
animal drawings are track lines and tallies thought to depict migration routes. While simplistic in comparison to modern technologies, these early records mimic
the two-element structure of modern GIS, an image associated
with attribute information. The earliest maps were drawn almost exclusively to facilitate commercial
sea voyages. On them, coasts were meticulously detailed and harbors were
plumbed, while interiors remained unknown, apart from details of important trade
and caravan routes. One of the oldest known maps belonged to Babylonian
civilization as shown below;
Fig.1 One of the oldest known maps in the world, a Babylonian cuneiform
tablet dating from about 1400 b.c. The Arabs were the leading cartographers of the middle Ages. European
cartographer degenerated as the Roman Empire fell. But in the fifteenth century, old skills were revived and Claudius Ptolemaeus’s Geographia was translated
into Latin to become the then existent view of the world. Although cartography
was neglected, in many countries property registry thrived.
