GIS Development History and Trends

After many years of development, the understanding and mastery of GIS in various industries have been increasingly improved, and the technical level and hardware and software facilities of GIS itself have been perfected day by day, and its comprehensiveness and advancement have been fully realized, which has made GIS widely used in resource environment and socio-economical fields, and played a significant role. At present, GIS application areas have included mapping, government, construction, geology, environmental protection, agriculture, urban and rural planning, disaster monitoring and other sectors.

1. History of GIS development

Reviewing the history of GIS development, it can be summarized into three stages of development: from the mid-1950s to the late 1980s, it was the period of GIS development, in which the GIS software was based on maps for stand-alone, centralized processing, with the main features of the initial design of data processing systems and management information systems; and the late 1980s to the early 1990s, it was the period of GIS development. The end of the 80s to the early 90s is the second development stage of GIS, this stage of GIS in the rapid development of computer hardware and software to support the rapid development of commercialized GIS software formally entered the traditional software market, and in various industries have been widely used. since the mid-to-late 90s, is the third important development of the GIS historical period, at this time, the GIS is generally used object-oriented software technology, greatly improving the GIS software development. At this time, GIS generally adopts object-oriented software technology, which greatly improves the secondary development capability of GIS and realizes the integrated storage of spatial data and attribute data. On this basis also gradually formed the "3S" technology integration, to a certain extent, the realization of vector data, image data integration storage, superposition and vector - raster data conversion.

In terms of geoscience application, GIS development has experienced the following stages: at the end of the 1970s, some mathematical geology experts, remote sensing geology experts, computer geoscience processing experts actively carry out the application work in this area; in the mid-to-late 80s, the geoscience application of GIS, especially mineral resources evaluation and prediction is in the experimental maturity; into the 90s, GIS is in the field of geology and other fields have been unprecedentedly widely used. In the 90s, GIS in geology and other fields have been unprecedentedly widely used; in the early 90s, the United States mineral resources evaluation and prediction of a wide range of computer information processing technology, including GIS, in the mid- to late 90s, GIS in the mineral prediction of a variety of mathematical models, such as fuzzy logic, algebraic method, neural network method, these efforts have greatly promoted and enriched the combination of geoscientific research and GIS.

2. Future Development Trends of GIS

From a system perspective, in the next few decades, GIS will move towards data standardization (Interoperable GIS), data multidimensionalization (3D/4D GIS), system integration (Component GIS), platform networking (Web GIS), and socialization of applications (Digital Earth, DE). The direction of development of Digital Earth (DE).

Interoperable GIS (Interoperable GIS) is a GIS system integration platform, which realizes mutual communication and collaboration between multiple geographic information systems or their applications in a heterogeneous environment to accomplish a specific task.

Three-dimensional or four-dimensional geographic information system ( 3D/4D GIS ) is from the previous static two-dimensional GIS model to three-dimensional, four-dimensional, or even multi-dimensional dynamic model conversion, so as to realize the use of GIS to express the world of true three-dimensional spatial data field. At present, 3DGIS has begun to be used in many industries, such as the construction of 3D GIS in mines, 3D visualization of geological tectonic models, 3D landscape production in cities, 3D visualization in solid minerals, 3D visualization in seismic interpretation, 3D GIS in geologic hazards, 3D GIS in the application of digital area surveys, and so on.

Com GIS ( Component GIS) is an object-oriented and component technology geographic information system, is the GIS function module is divided into multiple controls, each control to complete a different function, through the visualization of the software development tools integrated to form the final GIS application.

Web GIS is a product of the Internet and WWW technology applied to GIS development, and is the best way to realize GIS interoperability. From any node of the Internet, users can browse the spatial data in the Web GIS site, make thematic maps, and carry out various spatial information retrieval and spatial analysis. With the rapid development of the Internet, the development of Web GIS is even more extensive, which changes the access and transmission methods of GIS data and applications, and makes GIS really become a tool for public use.

Digital Earth (DE) is a digital reproduction and understanding of the unity of the real Earth and its related phenomena, and its core idea is to use digital means to deal with the Earth's problems in a unified way and maximize the use of information resources. Digital Earth is an extension of GIS, and the core technologies for establishing Digital Earth include GIS and database, remote sensing, telemetry, and information technology. Remote sensing, telemetry technology is used to complete the data acquisition, processing and identification, GIS and database technology is used to complete the data storage, retrieval, integration, fusion, synthesis and analysis, so as to complete the core functions of the digital earth, fiber optic cables, satellite communication technology, and computer networks and other technologies to complete the task of massive spatial data transmission.