18 November 2014 | Comments
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Day is a worldwide event held every year in more than 80 countries across the world. Celebrated for over a decade on the third Wednesday during Geography Awareness Week, GIS Day allows communities to participate in local events such as workshops, school assemblies, geography spelling bees and community expos.
St Helena has been celebrating GIS Day for seven years promoting geographic knowledge on the Island. However this year, unlike previous years, there is no set theme for the actual day.
GIS Manager, Murray Henry, explains:
“Like every other year our key goal on GIS Day is to promote GIS awareness and demonstrate how GIS can be used to answer questions about St Helena’s geography. To celebrate this occasion we will be having an open house gallery from 10am to 3pm in the GIS Office, Essex House, inviting the public to come and view displays and to learn what GIS is all about.”
The GIS team will also be visiting schools throughout the week to talk about GIS, ensuring children and students are aware of what GIS stands for and how this technology can be used.
In addition to the day there will be a chance to have a go at ‘Geocaching’, a global GPS treasure hunt enjoyed by over 6 million people worldwide. Find one of St Helena’s geocaches – just one of over 2.5 million that are hidden worldwide.
If you would like to participate in the hunt join the GIS team on Wednesday 19 November at the bus stop near The Briars and Constitution Hill junction at 4.30pm. It will be a short walk but the GIS team would like to advise those wanting to participate to wear sensible shoes and also bring water. A GPS enabled device would also be handy, but a few will be provided.
If you have any queries and would like to find out further information about this event and GIS Day, please contact Samantha Cherrett on 23876 or Murray Henry on 22270.
For more information about geocaching visit www.geocaching.com
GIS is a computer-based system that allows to you store geographical features of your surrounding in a digital format. GIS is beneficial to St Helena as it allows users to overlay various features/information to assist in answering questions and solving problems such as finding out the best place for a development by assessing access routes, utilities and slope of terrain.
SHG
18 November 2014
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