National Park Service Geographic Information Systems Data and Information

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Training

GIS Day is part of the National Geographic Society's exciting new initiative, Geography Action, which is a year-long initiative encompassing key educational achievements such as GIS Day and Geography Awareness Week. In addition to events such as GIS Day and Geography Awareness Week, there will also be many worldwide activities supporting geography action, with their goal being to engage people in learning and caring about geography

The National Geographic Society has sponsored Geography Awareness Week since 1987 to promote geographic literacy in schools, communities, and organizations, with a focus on the education of children. GIS Day 2003 will be held on Nov. 17, 2004. Geography Awareness Week will be held November 15-19, 2004

As recently as 1987, there were only four national parks with operational GIS's. Currently there are about 200 and it is expected that over the next 5 years there will be many more parks utilizing GIS technology to manage park resources. The GIS Program is aimed at implementing GIS in the parks and institutionalizing the use of GIS throughout the Service for planning, cultural and natural resource management, scientific research, interpretation and other management functions.

The following gallery highlights a number of current projects throughout the Park Service and illustrates how GIS is used to protect, educate, and inform.