USC GIS

Conceptualize the Field

The Integration of Data and Geography
Thinking spatially can benefit us all, whether we operate in commercial, public, or not-for-profit environments. The rapidly evolving field of Geographic Information Science and Technology is dramatically changing the way we work.

Geospatial technologies, datasets and science are effectively employed to develop an accurate interpretation of the world around us. From the collection of meaningful data to the visualization of that data in geospatial content, Geographic Information Science (GIS) connects data to geography, and people to places.

In Context: Geographic Information Systems and Technology
Understanding GIS begins with spatial thinking. This means discerning and extrapolating the true shape, size, orientation, location and direction of information in a geographic context, examining not just the data collected, but how it was collected and the environment that surrounds it. Spatial thinking represents a multidimensional approach to research and information visualization that organizes and analyzes accumulated knowledge in an understandable framework based on geography.

What Does It Mean?
By using geographic information science and the accompanying geospatial technologies, business professionals, scientists, public administrators, educators, students and other people seeking answers can fully understand the information they’ve collected. The possibilities for use are seemingly endless.

Learn why you should pursue an online Master of Science or an online Graduate Certificate in Geographic Information Science and Technology from the University of Southern California.

Analyze the Program

GIS in Business
Geospatial data can be used to drive business strategy; it improves operational performance, manages costs, reduces complexity, increases market understanding and helps a business to better serve the needs of its customers. Spatial thinking and geospatial technologies support marketing efforts, optimize business openings and closings, segment and illustrate consumer data, and help to manage the supply chain.

As economic conditions force many businesses to reexamine their operations, GIS can be used to drive innovation for continued profitability or determine feasibility. GIS technologies can also help business professionals apply appropriate metrics to their physical locations or transportation systems while using spatial thinking techniques to analyze and understand the interrelated components.

Banking, real estate, retail, insurance, media and logistics—these industries use location intelligence to make smarter business decisions and improve the bottom line.

GIS in Our World
Beyond the business world, Geographic Information Science and Technology is being used globally to help humanity better understand and develop our world for the future. From conservation efforts to infrastructure development, to education and laboratory science, GIS and spatial thinking have helped us craft a better picture of the world around us while creating a sustainable future for upcoming generations.

By viewing life through a spatial lens we can create responsible, sustainable and scalable solutions to our world’s challenges. We gain a better understanding of the social and economic phenomena that influence our societies locally and globally. GIS technologies fuel scientific developments and create new ways to look at our world. From these unique perspectives we can create innovative solutions, build new technologies and specifically target relevant areas to have the most impact.

GIS is actively employed in the earth sciences, health and human services, environmental protection and conservation, infrastructure, transportation system development, government and policy, public safety and education.

Discover the program objectives for the online Master of Science and the online Graduate Certificate in Geographic Information Science and Technology from the University of Southern California.

Visualize the Outcome

Creating the Connection
The rapid growth of Geographic Information Science (GIS) from its roots in computer science, geography, mathematics, and surveying coupled with the growth and spread of the Internet promise to transform the numbers of ways in which geographic information is used in the years ahead.

Major global challenges—climate, human health, economy, sustainability, urbanization and cultural homogenization, to name a few—are explicitly spatial issues. Furthermore, the very technology that has facilitated globalization has also put geospatial tools into the hands of multitudes of new users, making everyone with access to a computer or smart phone a consumer and producer of geospatial information.

GIS Today
We now have more access to information than ever before in human history, and with that stream of data comes an increase in spatially informed research that spans the breadth of scholarship. Technology has democratized the ability to make and obtain maps, but it has not taught spatial reasoning or literacy.

Today’s GIS students are learning the skills and innovative ways of thinking involved in spatial analysis. They are emerging to champion the importance of GIS technologies and present new ways of making sense of the data-rich, globally connected world-system in which we find ourselves and in which our researchers and working professionals compete.

GIS Professionals Use:

Learn more about the curriculum of the online Master of Science and the online Graduate Certificate in Geographic Information Science and Technology from the University of Southern California.