Coastal Aquaculture and Mariculture

Unit 8- Deep sea fisheries

8.3. GIS application and remote sensing uses in fisheries
Applications of GIS, RS & GPS in Fisheries Science
Burrough (1986), defines GIS as, "Set of tools for collecting, storing, retrieving at will, transforming and displaying spatial data from the real world for a particular set of purposes". In a nutshell GIS is a tool to assist in decision-making and management of attributes that needs to be analysed spatially.

Data is a collection of attributes (numeric, alphanumeric, figures, pictures) about entities (things, events, activities)
Information is the organization of data such that it is valuable for analysis, evaluation, and decision making
Information Systems
Information systems are the means to transform data into
information.
Information systems are used in planning and managing
resources

Elements of GIS Data

Attribute data
Data pertaining to the entity under study.
Eg: Fish is the entity under study.
Weight, length, age, feeding habit, fecundity, physiochemical parameters of water in which it occurs, etc.
Questions that a GIS can answer
1. Location: What is at...?
2. Quantification: How big, How long ...?. How many in ..?
3. Condition: Where is it...?
4. Routing: Which is the best way to..?
5. Trends: What has changed since...?
6. Patterns: What spatial patterns exist...?
7. Modelling: What if...?
Geographic Information Systems - Describing Our World