IU celebrates technology with 12th annual GIS Day

IU will celebrate Geographic Information System (GIS) Day today with booths and activities. The celebration will include and a keynote address to showcase University, local business and government agency work with GIS.

This is the 12th anniversary of GIS Day, a worldwide event celebrating GIS technology and its applications.

GIS technology, a rapidly growing industry, converts the rows and columns in databases and spreadsheets to maps displaying locations for new businesses, routes for emergency responders or geological features for locating minerals, oil or gas.

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today in the lobby of the Herman B Wells Library, there will be games and information about GIS, as well as a geocaching workshop at noon.

The day will conclude with a keynote speech at 5 p.m. in library conference room E174, titled “GIS Sustainability: Science, Application and Implementation,” by Tom Evans, director of the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population and Environmental Change at IU.

Evans’ work focuses on human and the environment interaction, with an emphasis on forest and agriculture in South America, Southern Africa and the Midwest.

For more on GIS Day, visit www.gisday.indiana.edu.

— Margaret Ely