TL;DR — A Geographic Information System is an information system that specializes in the storage, retrieval and display of location data.

TL; DR — 地理信息系統 是專門從事位置數據的存儲，檢索和顯示的信息系統。

The standard definition of Geographic Information System (GIS) has been written for those who are conversant with GIS for years. This definition does not translate well to laypeople who simply want to know the meaning of the term and don’t seem to find one. Even seasoned GIS professionals fail to sufficiently explain the acronym to general audiences they interact with. Here’s an attempt hoping to provide the required clarity.

已經為那些熟悉GIS的人編寫了地理信息系統(GIS)的標準定義。 這個定義對于那些只想知道該術語含義而又似乎找不到一個術語的普通人來說，并不是很好的翻譯。 即使是經驗豐富的GIS專業人士，也無法向與之互動的普通受眾充分解釋該縮寫。 嘗試提供所需的清晰度。

Information SystemsTo understand the term Geographic Information System, drop the word Geographic and focus on ‘Information System’. An information system is a generic term to describe any system that manages information. An email service such as Gmail, Outlook?or Yahoo, can be considered an Information System. This system stores emails, and upon request presents it as information to the user in rows of a table with functions to manage (compose, delete, reply, etc.) the emails. It can be said that an email service or email application is an information system specialized for emails.

信息系統要理解“地理信息系統”一詞，請刪除“地理”一詞，并專注于“信息系統”。 信息系統是描述任何管理信息的系統的通用術語。 諸如Gmail，Outlook或Yahoo之類的電子郵件服務可以被視為信息系統。 該系統存儲電子郵件，并根據請求將其作為信息呈現給用戶，并在表格的行中具有管理(撰寫，刪除，回復等)電子郵件的功能。 可以說，電子郵件服務或電子郵件應用程序是專門用于電子郵件的信息系統。

Another example of information systems are travel booking websites such as Skyscanner, Expedia, Trivago and others. These information systems specialize in the retrieval of airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruise ships etc. — providing the capability to use the information for a booking. In-fact almost all sites, platforms, apps and software can be imagined as Information Systems that specializes in a certain type or class of data.

信息系統的另一個示例是旅行預訂網站，例如Skyscanner，Expedia，Trivago等。 這些信息系統專門用于機票，酒店預訂，汽車租賃，游輪等的檢索-提供使用信息進行預訂的功能。 實際上，幾乎所有站點，平臺，應用程序和軟件都可以想象成專門用于某種類型或類別的數據的信息系統。

And so, the GIS is just that, an Information System that specializes in managing Geographic data.

因此，GIS就是一個專門管理地理數據的信息系統。

What is Geographic data?The Geographic part of the term GIS represents locations in the form of coordinates — a pair of numeric values1 that are also known as ‘latitude, longitude’ or ‘x,y’. The information system accesses stored coordinates and presents the data as an image drawn on the screen. The coordinates almost always represents locations on earth2, which is why the term Geographic is used to describe these information systems. The result of rendering coordinates on a screen is a map that provides a differing perspective to the data available to organizations and people. It is important to mention here that GIS is a lot more than accessing coordinates and presenting a map, but this specific and unique mapping ability categorizes a software3 to be a GIS.

什么是地理數據？ 地理信息系統(GIS)一詞的地理部分代表坐標形式的位置—一對數值1，也稱為“緯度，經度”或“ x，y” 。 信息系統訪問存儲的坐標，并將數據顯示為屏幕上繪制的圖像。 坐標幾乎總是代表地球2上的位置，這就是為什么使用地理一詞來描述這些信息系統的原因。 在屏幕上渲染坐標的結果是一張地圖，為組織和人員可用的數據提供了不同的視角。 這里要提到的重要一點是，GIS不僅可以訪問坐標并顯示地圖，而且這種獨特而獨特的映射功能將軟件3歸類為GIS。

With all that said, here are various definitions of GIS, stated by organizations and sources which should now be a lot more clearer.

綜上所述，這是GIS的各種定義，由組織和資料來源陳述，現在應該更加清晰。

• GIS is a collection of computer-based tools for organizing information from a variety of data sources to map and examine changes on Earth. — by NASA

  GIS是基于計算機的工具的集合，用于組織來自各種數據源的信息以映射和檢查地球上的變化。 — 由NASA

• A GIS is a framework for gathering, managing, and analyzing data. — by Esri

  GIS是用于收集，管理和分析數據的框架。 — 由Esri

• GIS allows you to combine tabular data (e.g. spreadsheet sheet) with a geographic boundaries (e.g. maps). — by the QGIS Community

  GIS使您可以將表格數據(例如電子表格)與地理邊界(例如地圖)結合起來。 — 由QGIS社區提供

• A GIS, captures, stores, analyzes, manages, and presents data that is linked to location. — in the GIS Wiki

  GIS可以捕獲，存儲，分析，管理和顯示鏈接到位置的數據。 — 在GIS Wiki中

A GIS captures, stores, analyses, manages, and presents data that is linked to a location.

GIS捕獲，存儲，分析，管理和顯示鏈接到位置的數據。

Additional clarity on generalizationsThe explanation above generalizes certain ideas for ease of understanding. Here are few finer details for clarity.

泛化的額外清晰性上面的解釋泛化了某些思想，以便于理解。 為了清楚起見，這里有一些更詳細的信息。

1A coordinate is a basic unit to identify a location and rarely exists by itself. It is usually associated with additional information (numeric values, dates, descriptions , images) and other coordinates to form data types such as points, lines, polygons, 3D objects, imagery, point clouds and many other representations of places, objects, assets and quantities to be presented on a surface.

1座標是識別位置的基本單位，很少單獨存在。 它通常與其他信息(數值，日期，描述，圖像)和其他坐標相關聯，以形成數據類型，例如點，線，多邊形，3D對象，圖像，點云以及其他許多位置，對象，資產和要顯示在表面上的數量。

2Locations in a GIS can also be above or below the earth’s surface, on another celestial object, a historical or a fictitious setting. But a overwhelming majority of GIS use cases are for data and information to be presented on the earth’s surface.

2GIS中的位置也可以位于地球表面的上方或下方，另一個天體，歷史或虛擬環境中。 但是絕大多數的GIS用例都是將數據和信息顯示在地球表面。

3GIS is more than just its software component. Its is a ‘system’ with four other components. a) The hardware or cloud infrastructure required by the GIS software, b) the data made available through the GIS, c) the people skilled to use the GIS and d) the processes set in place to ensure the availability of new or updated content (data, maps, apps, tools) in a GIS.

3GIS不僅僅是其軟件組件。 它是一個具有四個其他組件的“系統”。 a)GIS軟件所需的硬件或云基礎架構，b)通過GIS提供的數據，c)使用GIS的技術人員，以及d)為確保新內容或更新內容的可用性而制定的流程(數據，地圖，應用程序，工具)。