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Atlas Information Systems

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Encyclopedia of GIS

Synonyms

Atlas information system; Atlas, electronic; Atlas, interactive; Atlas, multimedia; Atlas, virtual; Atlas, web; Cartographic information system; Earth, digital; Globe, virtual; Google Map/Earth

Definition

Atlas information systems (AIS) are systematic, targeted collections of spatially related knowledge in electronic form, allowing a user-oriented communication for information and decision-making purposes. As in a conventional atlas, an AIS mainly consists of a harmonized collection of maps with different topics, scales, and/or from different regions. The maps usually come in standardized scales or degrees of generalization, respectively. The different map types have a common legend and symbolization. The access to the maps is granted through thematic or geographic indexes. AIS dispose of special interactive functions for geographic and thematic navigation, querying, analysis, and visualization in 2D and 3D mode. Unlike in many geographic information systems (GIS)...

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Correspondence to Lorenz Hurni .

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Hurni, L. (2017). Atlas Information Systems. In: Shekhar, S., Xiong, H., Zhou, X. (eds) Encyclopedia of GIS. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17885-1_847

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