Below are some of the areas that GIS is being applied in.

Environment:

• Conservation and Monitoring
• Planning and Policy
• Wetland management
• Wildlife management
• Forest management
• Water pollution
• Air pollution
• Land
• Climate change
• Renewable energy

Natural Resource Management:

• Mountain Environments
• Water resources
• Ocean Environments
• Coastal zone management

Sustainable Development:

• Future land use by analyzing past and present demographics
• Estimated future populations
• Projected climate change
• Future habitat change

Tourism Development and GIS:

• National park and Protected areas
• Planning and Zoning
• Visitor strategies
• Visitor management
• Urban Planning

Utilities:

• Infrastructure
• Services

 

 

 

The purpose of my research is to determine whether measurable marketing advantages can be identified from Responsible Tourism activities of small and medium sized tourism enterprises (SMMEs) that constitute the vast majority of businesses in South Africa. SMMEs, specifically those in a rural tourism setting, will be analysed for their approach to Responsible Tourism and the responsible tourism marketing of their sustainability actions. Because of their agility, SMMEs have the ability to be at the forefront of responsibility but it is not been establishd the reasons why they do responsible tourism actions. This research will look at organisational learning for tourism SMME's to estbalish how owner-managers make decisions towards sustainable tourism and how to assist owner-run tourism businesses on thier path to sustainable tourism.

GIS as a technology can be used as a framework for sustainable development. A GIS database can begin at the baseline and with the addition of new data, changes in once overlapping data sources can be monitored and mitigated against. GIS allows the user to measure assets and understand patterns of change so as to better understand the use of resources. A GIS database can ensure better utilisation of resources by leveraging geographic information with analysis tools that support planning as well as operational activities.