August 1, 2024

Edward Shabatayev 

12th Grade

The Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences

Introduction 

The concept behind Civil Engineering is creating and supporting the infrastructure that surrounds our lives. GIS (Geographic Information System) technology equips people with the necessary tools to manage, produce, study, and envision the data correlated with controlling and expanding infrastructure. GIS allows civil engineers to turn the data they have gained into simple and understandable reports and graphics that may be studied and shared with other people. The data can be presented in layered graphics using digital geographic maps. These systems combine various types of data to create detailed maps and models that are essential for planning, designing, and managing infrastructure projects.

The History Behind GIS

The concept of GIS dates back to the 1960s, as computers and early concepts of quantitative and computational geography emerged. Roger Tomlinson, often referred to as the “father of GIS” had initiated work to begin, plan, and expand the Canada Geographic Information System. This resulted in the first computerized GIS ever in the world during 1963. The Canadian Government had contracted Roger Tomlinson to produce a controllable registry of its natural resources. He had visualized using computers to blend the natural resource data from all the territories. Tomlinson had produced the blueprint for automated computing to reserve and process great amounts of data they may have. This enabled Canada to begin its national land-use management program. In 1969, Jack Dangermond and his wife Laura founded Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc., which is known as Esri. The consulting firm used computer mapping and spatial analysis to support land use planners and managers to make well-informed decisions. Its early work showed the value of GIS in problem-solving. Esri down the road developed many of the GIS  spatial analysis and mapping methods that we use now.

The Future of GIS

GIS technologies will play a crucial part in enhancing city infrastructure, presiding over resources, and improving urban living overall. The future of GIS in civil engineering holds large potential. Great advancements in technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and big data analytics are anticipated to improve the abilities of GIS and give more precise and efficient solutions for projects of civil engineering. GIS's future is encouraging when combined with machine learning. A perfect example of this is autonomous vehicles. In the future, we will see a great deal of self-driving vehicles on the roads. This requires a blend of a variety of different technologies, the sensors may collect data about the surrounding environment around the vehicle, which is then processed using the GIS software. The incredible result of this is a map of the surrounding area, which then may be displayed for you. The job of GIS here is to calculate the shortest route, capture traffic, weather, and road conditions, and also navigation support. Through a combination of GIS, AI, machine learning, and deep learning we can expect a lot of great benefits. They could help fight crime, predict extreme weather conditions and outcomes, and many more possibilities!

Examples of GIS in Civil Engineering

GIS is used in a wide range of civil engineering applications. We could not go a single day without interacting with the work of a civil engineer. All maps can present basic location information, but GIS maps can show spatial relationships, allowing us to answer more intricate questions about the data. You're able to layer data to visualize patterns. If you'd like to look at how a new building affects wildlife, you could add a layer for migration patterns, water sources, vegetation, and local animal populations, which may lead to discovering some of the impacts of a peculiar structure that wasn't visible before. You could also use a GIS map to look at various trends over time to see the effects of a project year in the future. Another application was conducting environmental impact analyses. You may add a layer to a GIS map related to the environment — runoff, air emissions, soil composition, elevation, erosion, water sources, migration patterns — there are various possibilities. Layering these conditions, you can better assess their relationships and the ripple effects a new development could have. An Engineer could layer the current CO2 level, the expected CO2 emissions from a factory, and the wind patterns to have a greater examination of the effect that a factory could have on air quality. You may also add a layer for traffic flow and population changes to evaluate how a highway system will affect driveability in a city in the future. There are great possibilities with such a technology – it is an excellent benefit for civil engineers and for our infrastructure that surrounds our very dear lives.