What is GIS and how is it used in environmental assessment?

• A. Geographic Information System; stores, analyzes, and maps spatial data for land use, hazards, resources.
• B. A memory management system for computers.
• C. A global weather model.
• D. A system for tracking inventory.

Answer: (A)

GIS stands for Geographic Information System. It stores, analyzes, and maps spatial data, letting you combine different layers such as land use, soils, water, habitats, and hazards to see how they relate across space. In environmental assessment, GIS helps evaluate potential project impacts, identify areas of environmental sensitivity, model scenarios, and communicate findings with clear maps. You can perform spatial analyses like overlaying hazard maps with proposed development to assess risk, measuring distances to sensitive receptors, and tracking changes over time with time-series data. Data in GIS can be raster or vector, and you build maps by layering information, running spatial queries, and producing outputs for monitoring and decision-making. This makes GIS the right tool for environmental assessment, whereas the other options describe computer memory management, a global weather model, or inventory tracking, none of which capture the spatial analysis and mapping core of environmental work.