Geographic Information Systems in Regional Geography
Marie Novotn
áDepartment of Geography
FPE ZCU PLZEN
Regional geography studies space units-regions from point of view of different aspects. Nowadays geography doesn’t mean describing areas only, which one may think the name of the field expresses. This science solves the space relations of different phenomena. Even so systematic description orientated to the particular purpose plays an important role. Geography fulfills it by supporting various fields and studies.
Making an inquire system directed to single geographical objects and information organizing by using geographic information system GIS makes working faster and more efficient. The maps of subject are very important components. Their contents may be immediately actualized thanks to the new information that the system includes. Therefore producing these subject maps and principals fore working the space information out become an important part of education at this time.
We can take the advantage of modelling when solving the space relations between objects of interest of socioeconomic and regional geography. GIS is very useful here because its procedures solve basic space operation in standard way. Some of these procedures are, for example, searching for the location with optimum qualities, zone defining, surface analyzing, etc. That’s why GIS allows solving these tasks of socio-economic and regional geography:
The following subsidy is an example of using GIS for regional studies concerning the area of the National Park Šumava. It is evaluating tourism there in connection with the attractive places in the protected area. The research results came out from questionnaire investigation and the information from professional guards. Finding the problematic locations in the area and suggestion for solving those problems is the result of the analysis.