The GIS Lady

Here is a sign post for a bus that is not readable. In this case, I called the bus company to report it. But did you know some cities have a way to report things like this on a public-facing GIS system, which really speads up the time involved to fix the problem. We will explore more of this very soon! Happy GISing! Oh and if you are just joining, see the posts from the beginning. The GIS Lady started in late August 2025. Please follow The GIS Lady!

It's Polygon Time! I love this image by google.com/gemini! It actually has points, lines and polygons. Looks like space with polygons bursting forth. So polygons are made up of lines and points. Polygons are used to identify jurisdictional boundaries like Cities, States, Countries. More locally: Buildings, Parks and Sushi. Remember? If you didn't see that post, check it out! Polygons can also identify really small nano-things. What if GIS could help cure diseases! Wouldn't that be fantastic? I can't wait to explore more about that! Follow me to learn more... Happy GISing!

Lines: Straight. Short. Long. Curvy. We use them in all kinds of things. Art. Engineering. Music! Science! To build, to represent. That is what we do in GIS with our lines. GIS is mostly used to represent the Environment, but it could be used for Medicine and other Science too. Anyway, lines. With two endpoints and a way to control the curves. Lines represent Streets, Rivers, Fences, Utilities, and are used in making Polygons. More on that later! Happy GISing!

It's Tuesday, Foodie GIS Day! Let people know you heard it here. I wanted to do this with a movie, and eventually I will... anyhoo, you can try showing this to kids when they are eating! Imagine the gooey yellow of an egg is a river! See how it spills out? See the picture we are taking of it? If Satellites were taking pictures of the rivers, and GIS was used, it could automate alarms, but what about the cloud cover? Well research out of Stanford University in 2020 found optical imaging could do it, however there are some scattering effects, and it may take a minute to an hour to process images. For more info on that, see: https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2020/09/seeing-objects-clouds-fog. So maybe the digital video cameras on the ground at certain check points could be taking data for the GIS to process and sound the alarms. If you can help make this happen, get busy! Do it! GIS Lady says: Please take a Moment and Pray for families affected by recent floods in Texas and 3 other states.

Happy Labor Day Everyone. I was thinking a map of the USA by State, showing counts of people who had today off from work and those who didn't. Yup GIS could do it. Now where would the data come from? Maybe a future survey. Hmmm.... Happy GISing!

GIS Games! Sometimes I'll have fun things for kids and sometimes concepts for older people! Wait there is a message here for you too! So, the game musical chairs builds spatial awareness! Where is the empty chair? When the music turns off, everybody finds a seat. Where is the last empty seat? Everyone loves watch. How is this useful? It trains the mind to see the shortest path. A GIS can do that too! Find out if your City 911 system uses GIS to route its ambulances. If not, write your City manager. (Thanks to imagineanything.ai for the image). GIS Lady says Happy GISing! Follow me!

Hi GIS Family!

Here is a first map posting of our neighborhood, showing where all the garage sales are located today. This map is manually made, but a GIS could put symbols on a map automatically. What is that called? Follow me to find out! Thank you Apple for the basemap on my iPhone. (It is Antique Faire weekend in Niles (Fremont), CA and tens of thousands flock our town and Niles Blvd is closed off for the Antique Fair. Also, Happy Labor Day Weekend). And Happy GISing!

Say Hello to GIS Dog Keira! She is showing off her bed, which is a LAYER over the carpet! Layers are used in GIS to depict different types of features. So far we have talked about POINTS. Just wait till the GIS Lady shows you more about POINTS, LINES and POLYGONS. Follow me and Happy GISing!

Lets start at the very beginning! Points. This is just a bowl of blueberries right? Well, if using a GIS, what we really have here are points (blueberries) in a polygon (the bowl's edge). > How many blueberries do you see? How long did it take you to count them? The GIS can (zip) count them (oh so fast). What do we need that for? Stay tuned and follow me for more GIS magic! GIS Lady says, Happy GISing!