Geographical information systems officer: Job description

Geographical information systems (GIS) is a fast-growing and important part of a number of businesses. Estimates as to the size of the geographic information business in the UK vary from around £650million to over £900million, according to the Association for Geographic Information (AGI).

GIS are computerised systems used for the collection, storage, analysis, manipulation and presentation of complex geographical information, relevant to most sectors of government and commerce. Previously, this would have been a combination of electronic versions of traditional paper maps and social and economic data.

Roles within GIS can vary between company and sector. However, all GIS officers are involved in the production of data and analysis to help plan and deliver services or products in areas such as defence, construction, oil, gas, water, telecoms, electricity, the environment, healthcare, transport planning and operation, retail location planning and logistics, insurance and finance. With such a wide range of possible roles available in the public, private and third sectors, there is even the potential to combine a career in GIS with other interests or passions.

As the world becomes more mobile, the rise of applications utilising GPS (global positioning systems), such as geotagging photographs and augmented reality, could lead to new uses for GIS and opportunities in the field.

Typical work activities

Due to the wide range of organisations that use GIS, work activities vary for GIS officers and may include:

Collection of geographical information:

• Capturing the location of 'assets' such as bridges, street lights, road barriers, flood defences and so on using GPS tools in the field for private companies, government agencies and local authorities.
• Desk-based data capture (digitising) to convert paper maps to GIS datasets, for example, to record the location of telecoms cables or water pipelines from original maps.

Storage, analysis and presentation of geographical information:

• Creating and maintaining the structures necessary for GIS data storage.
• Developing the tools for loading/transferring GIS data between different systems.
• Manipulation, analysis and presentation of geographical information by creating programs to convert GIS information from one format to another.
• Developing internet applications to present GIS data and tools on corporate websites.
• Using tools to join together different GIS datasets and create new information or investigate patterns, e.g. estimating the number of people potentially affected by flooding, using population growth figures and planning information to estimate increasing/decreasing demand for school capacity, or calculating the number of potential customers for a new supermarket and predicting buying patterns based on socio-economic factors.

Many of the activities are project based and involve working with clients to clarify the nature and purpose of the information they require.