Geographical information systems officer : Job description

Geographical information systems (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.

GIS officers are involved in the production of data and analysis to help plan and deliver many different services 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. This might entail working in the public, private or voluntary sectors.

GIS is increasingly regarded as being part of the IT mainstream and many opportunities exist for users and IT-led developers of GIS.

Typical work activities

Due to the wide range of organisations that use geographical information systems (GIS), work activities vary for GIS officers. Types of activities may include:

Collection of geographical information:

• capturing the location of 'assets' using GPS (global positioning system) tools in the field, e.g. location of bridges, street lights, road barriers, flood defences and so on for private companies, government agencies and local authorities;
• desk-based data capture (digitising) to convert paper maps to GIS datasets, e.g. to record the location of telecoms cables or water pipelines from original maps.

Storage 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: 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.