GIS is now used extensively in government, military, medical, industry, business, and academic/research for a wide range of applications including environmental resource analysis, land use planning, locational analysis, tax appraisal, utility and infrastructure planning, real estate analysis, marketing and demographic analysis, habitat studies, and archaeological analysis.
One of the first major areas of application was in natural resources management, including the management of
- wildlife habitat,
- wild and scenic rivers,
- recreation resources,
- floodplains,
- wetlands,
- agricultural lands,
- aquifers,
- forests
One of the largest areas of application has been in facilities management. Uses for GIS in this area have included
- locating underground pipes and cables,
- balancing loads in electrical networks,
- planning facility maintenance,
- tracking energy
Local, state, and federal governments have found GIS particularly useful in land management. GIS has been commonly applied in areas like
- zoning and subdivision planning,
- land acquisition,
- environmental impact policy,
- water quality management,
- Maintenance of
More recent and innovative uses of GIS have used information based on street networks. GIS has been found to be particularly useful in:
- address matching,
- location analysis or site selection,
- development of evacuation