Module 2: How GIS works

Module 1 has already introduced you to the most important terms and some areas of application of GIS. After a brief outline of the historical development of GIS, this module will deal with the properties and functionality of geoinformation systems. In addition to the representation of the real world using several abstracted layers, reference should be made to the spatial reference of all displayed data, recognisable by the positional information provided by coordinates. Online map services and virtual globes, such as Google Earth, offer the possibility of displaying geographical information in a user-friendly way and also allow interactions such as zooming, information queries (e.g. location search) or measuring (distance and area). In order to understand how both general and user-specific GIS applications work, it is important to take a closer look at the organisation, structure and individual workflows behind a geoinformation system.