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

TL; DR — 地理信息系统 是专门从事位置数据的存储，检索和显示的信息系统。

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.

已经为那些熟悉GIS的人编写了地理信息系统(GIS)的标准定义。 这个定义对于那些只想知道该术语含义而又似乎找不到一个术语的普通人来说，并不是很好的翻译。 即使是经验丰富的GIS专业人士，也无法向与之互动的普通受众充分解释该缩写。 尝试提供所需的清晰度。

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.

信息系统要理解“地理信息系统”一词，请删除“地理”一词，并专注于“信息系统”。 信息系统是描述任何管理信息的系统的通用术语。 诸如Gmail，Outlook或Yahoo之类的电子邮件服务可以被视为信息系统。 该系统存储电子邮件，并根据请求将其作为信息呈现给用户，并在表格的行中具有管理(撰写，删除，回复等)电子邮件的功能。 可以说，电子邮件服务或电子邮件应用程序是专门用于电子邮件的信息系统。

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.

信息系统的另一个示例是旅行预订网站，例如Skyscanner，Expedia，Trivago等。 这些信息系统专门用于机票，酒店预订，汽车租赁，游轮等的检索-提供使用信息进行预订的功能。 实际上，几乎所有站点，平台，应用程序和软件都可以想象成专门用于某种类型或类别的数据的信息系统。

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

因此，GIS就是一个专门管理地理数据的信息系统。

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.

什么是地理数据？ 地理信息系统(GIS)一词的地理部分代表坐标形式的位置—一对数值¹，也称为“纬度，经度”或“ x，y” 。 信息系统访问存储的坐标，并将数据显示为屏幕上绘制的图像。 坐标几乎总是代表地球2上的位置，这就是为什么使用地理一词来描述这些信息系统的原因。 在屏幕上渲染坐标的结果是一张地图，为组织和人员可用的数据提供了不同的视角。 这里要提到的重要一点是，GIS不仅可以访问坐标并显示地图，而且这种独特而独特的映射功能将软件³归类为GIS。

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

综上所述，这是GIS的各种定义，由组织和资料来源陈述，现在应该更加清晰。

• 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是基于计算机的工具的集合，用于组织来自各种数据源的信息以映射和检查地球上的变化。 — 由NASA

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

  GIS是用于收集，管理和分析数据的框架。 — 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使您可以将表格数据(例如电子表格)与地理边界(例如地图)结合起来。 — 由QGIS社区提供

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

  GIS可以捕获，存储，分析，管理和显示链接到位置的数据。 — 在GIS Wiki中

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

GIS捕获，存储，分析，管理和显示链接到位置的数据。

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

泛化的额外清晰性上面的解释泛化了某些思想，以便于理解。 为了清楚起见，这里有一些更详细的信息。

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座标是识别位置的基本单位，很少单独存在。 它通常与其他信息(数值，日期，描述，图像)和其他坐标相关联，以形成数据类型，例如点，线，多边形，3D对象，图像，点云以及其他许多位置，对象，资产和要显示在表面上的数量。

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，另一个天体，历史或虚拟环境中。 但是绝大多数的GIS用例都是将数据和信息显示在地球表面。

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不仅仅是其软件组件。 它是一个具有四个其他组件的“系统”。 a)GIS软件所需的硬件或云基础架构，b)通过GIS提供的数据，c)使用GIS的技术人员，以及d)为确保新内容或更新内容的可用性而制定的流程(数据，地图，应用程序，工具)。