GIS, REMOTE SENSING and GPS — What is the difference?

For people who are closely working in the area of remote sensing, this question may not be a big deal.

However, for many people outside it is lot confusing and difficult thing to differentiate. In this article, we will try to describe these things briefly.

At the end of this article, you will get a clear idea about these things, and you can tell others what’s the difference between each concept.

Though, these things can be studied in any order, I would like to explain the things in the order of remote sensing, GPS and GIS.

Remote Sensing: Remote sensing is the study of objects (mainly earth surface objects such as water bodies and vegetation for civil engineers) with out being in contact with those objects using imagery captured with help of electromagnetic radiation.

In remote sensing objects are studied with out going to them from a far/distant location.

Remote sensing relies on various devices and instruments such as satellites, aerial cameras etc for capturing imagery.

GPS: GPS full form is global positioning system. It is a constellation of 24 satellites. It provides information related to location of an object or area to the users using a ground based antenna and receiver, with the help of signal collected from the satellites.

GPS is widely used in many applications related to surveying and navigation.

GIS: GIS full form is Geographical Information System. It takes data collected from many sources in many forms as input, and converts it into information depending the process adopted by the user. GIS provides information related to geographic data. It is widely used for preparing different types of maps in cartographic studies, and also in environmental applications, transportation applications such as road network planning etc.

For more details about remote sensing and GIS concepts, you may ask query here or follow the author at his blog given in the description.

Thankyou.