31st October 2001

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Want a map of a city’s sewage system or to find out where is the best place to set up your business - then Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is the tool for you.

A conference being held in Belfast later this month will outline the potential of GIS to a wide range of professions from local authority planners to engineers; from environmentalists to market researchers.

The GIS 2001 conference and exhibition is being organized by the University of Ulster’s School of the Built Environment and will be held at W5 in Belfast’s Odyssey complex on 14 November .

GIS essentially provides information in map form and is particularly useful to land-use planners, engineers, environmentalists, health and local government professionals, property developers and managers and business marketeers and researchers.

Conference organizer Bill Deddis, a senior lecturer at the School of the Built Environment, said: "It is an analytical tool which puts information in a geographic perspective rather than just simple number crunching.

"For example, someone setting up a business can use GIS to determine the best location based on the geographic spread of the target market. Or it can be used to continuously measure and monitor environmental pollution or map traffic congestion in urban areas.

"It is an invaluable tool for policy makers and decision takers and its range of applications is almost infinite as will be demonstrated by the wide range of speakers at the conference", he added.

As well as the conference, a number of exhibitors will be present to demonstrate GIS applications in a variety of contexts.

A full programme is available at www.geo-ni.co.uk

For further information, please contact:

Press Office Department of Communication and Development
Telephone: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk