What is GIS Data?
Geographical Information System (GIS) is software that enables multiple datasets, that describe aspects of an area, to be incorporated into a geospatial database for analysis of their interactions with each other. This data can be added together, subtracted from one another, or otherwise processed to create new maps describing features of interest within an area. The USGS has a GIS Poster available that describes GIS in detail (http://erg.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/gis_poster/). For this study, information describing housing, sewerlines, waterlines and roads were layered together and used to make inference about colonias boundaries. This is described more in the project pages.
