A Brief History of GIS: From 1960s Origins to Modern Geospatial Technology

by Mark Brown, Senior Consultant – Geospatial Solutions at WKC Group

Introduction: The Geospatial Revolution

GIS is now more accessible than it has ever been. Google Earth provides us with satellite imagery of the Earth with a few clicks of a mouse. We can all easily find maps and our location on our mobile phones. The adoption of open source software means software such as QGIS is downloadable and accessible by anyone with a computer.

Black and white image of a person loading a 5 megabyte hard drive onto a plane

A 5 MB hard drive being loaded onto a plane in 1956
(Credit Techspot)

In fact, a geospatial revolution has been occurring since the mid-2000s. This revolution has been driven by advances in technology, increased access to the internet, capability of remote sensing satellites and a shift in how geospatial information is applied across various industries.

Smartphones and mobile apps have brought geospatial technologies to the masses with applications ranging from location based services (e.g. Uber, Google Maps) to fitness trackers and personalised advertised. GIS has become ubiquitous with many people not even realising that the technology they are using has its roots in GIS.

Let’s have a quick look through the history of GIS to see how far it has advanced since it’s early days in the 1960’s.

History of GIS: Decade by Decade

1960s

CGIS

Origins of Geographic Information Systems

An early GIS map (Tomlinson, RF; (1974))
(Credit: James Cheshire)

  • CGIS: The first GIS, developed by Dr. Roger Tomlinson for Canada’s land use analysis.

  • Focused on digitising and analysing spatial data for large-scale planning.

  • Computing the extents and perimeters of a few thousand polygons took 11.5 days! Can you imagine having to wait that long for habitat impact calculations!?

1970s

Esri Founded

Early Commercialisation of GIS Technology

A drafting class in the early 1970s
(Credit: Rare Historical Photos)

  • Esri Founded: Introduced commercial GIS software with raster and vector data models.

  • Governments and forestry services, like the U.S. Forest Service, used GIS for land management and conservation.

1980s

Desktop GIS Emerges

Growth and Accessibility of GIS

Jack Dangermond, Founder and President of Esri digitising a wildlife refuge with ARC in 1982
(Credit: GIS and Science)

  • ArcInfo (1982): Combined mapping and geoprocessing, running on personal computers.

  • MapInfo Corporation (1986): Introduced MapInfo Professional, a desktop GIS that was user-friendly and affordable, focusing on business applications such as market analysis and site selection.

  • Satellite data (e.g., Landsat) integrated into GIS, advancing environmental analysis.

1990s

User-Friendly GIS

Mainstream Adoption of Geographic Information Systems

A computer monitor showing a map

Esri’s ArcView 3.2 for desktop computers (1992)
(Credit: San Diego State University)

  • ArcView (1992): Esri released a user-friendly GIS for broader audiences.

  • MapInfo’s Expansion: Gained traction in the private sector with an intuitive interface and focus on applications like retail site analysis, insurance mapping, and public utilities

  • Geospatial data standardisation by organisations like the United States Geological Society (USGS) and the rise of internet-based GIS.

2000s

GIS Goes Public

The Web and Data Revolution in GIS

NASA’s 2002 Blue Marble composite image, built from months of MODIS observations
(Credit: NASA’s Earth Observatory)

  • Google Maps/Earth (2005): Popularised GIS for the public.

  • MapInfo: Continued to serve niche business sectors and evolved into part of Pitney Bowes’ software portfolio, focusing on location intelligence.

  • QGIS (2002): Early days of open source GIS.

  • Cloud GIS and crowdsourced data (e.g., OpenStreetMap) emerged.

  • Integration of LiDAR and improved satellite imagery.

2010s

The Rise of Geospatial Big Data

Advanced Analytics and Big Data in GIS

A Sensefly eBee aerial survey drone on a patch of green grass

Sensefly eBee aerial survey drone
(Credit: Mark Brown, 2013)

  • Rise of Geospatial Big Data and open-source tools (e.g., QGIS).

  • QGIS: Gained popularity among professionals and institutions as a cost effective alternative to proprietary GIS software.

  • MapInfo: Declined in popularity due to the advent of open-source GIS and never recovered.

  • Early days of Machine Learning: Methods including supervised classification.

  • Enhanced 3D mapping and modelling.

  • Drone Technology: The first commercially available drones made aerial mapping more accessible than ever before.

2020s & Beyond

Future Trends

Advanced Analytics and Big Data in GIS

Aerial view of a bustling city street filled with cars and lined with various buildings under a clear blue sky.

Automatic counting of the number of cars at a car park using machine learning
(Credit: Esri Developer)

  • Real-time GIS from IoT and sensors.

  • AI and Machine Learning: Automation and enhancement of geospatial analysis, predictive modelling, feature extraction.

  • Digital twins, AR/VR, and geospatial AI.

  • Focus on sustainability, smart cities, and resilience.

Conclusion: More Than Just Making Maps

As you can see from this historic overview, there is a lot more to GIS than making just maps using QGIS. And I am sure I have missed a lot out!

Next time you ask for a map to be made, think of all the technological advancements that have been necessary to accomplish this, and how GIS has developed to be at the stage where it is today, where you can access spatial information about anywhere on earth and where computational tasks that would once take weeks can now be completed in seconds!

– Mark Brown, Senior Consultant – Geospatial Solutions

Speak to our geospatial specialists to see how our GIS mapping and analysis can support your environmental projects.