History of GIS

History of GIS:

• Unknown: The first maps were created hundreds or thousands of years ago (History of GIS, n.d.).

• Second century BC: Ptolemy, an astronomer and geographer, created one of the earliest known atlases: a collection of world, regional, and local maps; he also gave advice on how to draw them which remained essentially unknown to Europeans until the 15th century (Price, 2023).

Mid-1500s:

• 1569: Gerhard Mercator published his famous world map: The Mercator world map (Price, 2023).

Mid-1600s:

• 1669: Jean Picard developed the measurement of a degree by longitude (Price, 2023).

  • Jean Picard also made the discovery that the earth flattens toward the poles, and the adoption of the Prime Meridian that passes through Greenwich, England (Price, 2023).

Mid-1800s:

• 1854: Dr. John Snow mapped cholera deaths in central London in September 1854 and was able to locate the source of the outbreak (Price, 2023).

• 1859: Gaspard Felix Tournachon, a French photographer and balloonist founded the art of remote sensing by carrying large-format cameras into the sky (Price, 2023).

Mid-1900s:

• 1950: Jacqueline Tyrwhitt made the first explicit reference to map overlay techniques in an English textbook on town and country planning (Price, 2023).

• 1960s: IBM led the way for significant computer advancements, such as technology, speed, and design (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 1963: Dr. Roger Tomlinson founded the first GIS (History of GIS, n.d.).

  • Dr. Roger Tomlinson: commonly referred to as the “Father of GIS” for his promotion of the idea of using computers for mapping and for his efforts in developing the Canada Geographic Information System (CGIS) in the mid-1960s (Price, 2023).

• 1965: Howard Fisher founded the Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis (History of GIS, n.d.).

  • Howard Fisher: he and his colleagues developed SYMAP, CALFORM, SYMVU, GRID, POLYVRT, and ODYSSEY (Price, 2023).

• 1969: Ian McHarg introduced the “layer cake” method of stacking information which later becomes fundamental to modern map overlays in GIS (History of GIS, n.d.).

  • Ian McHarg: one of the early implementors of Jacqueline Tyrwhitt’s technique for highway planning (Price, 2023) and had an environmentally conscious approach to landscape architecture and urban planning (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 1969: Laura and Jack Dangermond founded the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), which could link spatial representation of features with attributes tables. (Price, 2023).

  • Laura and Jack Dangermond: helped land use planners make better decisions with an emphasis on protecting the environment (History of GIS, n.d.).

Late-1900s:

• 1970: US Census Bureau produced its first geocoded census and developed the early DIME data format based on the CGIS and POLYVRT data representations; DIME files were largely distributed (Price, 2023).

• 1972: US government launched the first of many Landsat satellites for Earth observation which become a major input for GIS and began the era of remote sensing (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 1978: US government launched the first GPS satellite (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 1981: First ESRI user conference attended by 16 people, representing 11 organizations across the US (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 1982: Laura and Jack Dangermond released ARC/Info. Arc/Info builds on early GIS tools and provides a standardized methodology for implementing GIS broadly (History of GIS, n.d.). Arc/Info’s descendants have captured about 90% of today’s GIS market (Price, 2023).

  • Scott Morehouse: worked in the Harvard lab on ODYSSEY and moved to Esri in 1981, playing a key role in the development of ARC/Info (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 1984: Army Corps of Engineers' Construction Engineering Research Laboratory released Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS) (GRASS GIS, n.d.). Grass is open-source GIS software and broadens access to GIS (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 1986: Etak developed the first in-car navigation concepts (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 1988: National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) was formed for research in geographic information and related technologies (History of GIS, n.d.).

  • Michael Goodchild directed the NCGIA project and emerged as a thought leader in GIS (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 1990: US Census Bureau completed the Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER) spatial database. TIGER laid the groundwork for countless business operations (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 1991: GIS went mainstream (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 1994: US government achieved full global coverage with GPS (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 1995: UK Ordnance Survey achieved full coverage of the United Kingdom in a GIS database. Britain is the first country to have completed a large-scale digital mapping program (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 1999: First GIS Day (History of GIS, n.d.).

  • Ralph Nader was the person who inspired GIS Day, and is now celebrated worldwide on the third Wednesday in November during Geography Awareness Week (History of GIS, n.d.).

Early-2000s:

• 2001: First million GIS users. GIS marketplace was estimated to be worth $7 billion at this point in time (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 2004: National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) was renamed to National Geospatial Agency (NGA) to emphasize the growing importance of geospatial intelligence (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 2004: Web 2.0 was developed; Web 2.0 laid the foundation for GIS to move online (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 2005: Google Maps was released. Google Maps to this day brings GIS access to many (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 2006: Cloud computing became freely available which helped people obtain large amounts of data, including GIS data (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 2007: First iPhone was released. iPhones brought mobile GPS devices to the masses (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 2009: US government shared authoritative, open datasets publicly on Data.gov; this endeavor still to this day brings GIS dataset access to everyone (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 2012: Esri released ArcGIS Online, which changed the way many could work with GIS (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 2014: Esri introduced the Living Atlas to the public (Berry, 2024)

• 2018: Esri’s AI team pilots GeoAI. GeoAI creates AI-driven spatial workflows that excel at automation and make sense of large datasets. (History of GIS, n.d.).

• 2020: Johns Hopkins University used GIS to track COVID-19 (History of GIS, n.d.)

References:

Berry, L. (2024). Your Living Atlas Questions Answered. https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-living-atlas/sharing-collaboration/your-living-atlas-questions-answered/

Esri (n.d.). History of GIS. https://www.esri.com/en-us/what-is-gis/history-of-gis

GRASS GIS (n.d.). GRASS GIS history. https://grass.osgeo.org/about/history/