GIS Utilized in Law

December 17, 2008 by Timothy
Filed under Career

There are many uses for GIS. Although they all revolve around the same system, they can be totally different. I recently discovered an unusual industry taking advantage GIS. Attorneys are using GIS to help with their law cases. With one example I found on the JurisPro Expert Witness Directory, GIS helped determine remediation in quality of groundwater. The article Hydrology Expert Witnesses & GIS gives further example of how GIS helps monitor groundwater pumping and land subsidence or intrusion in coastal areas.

An additional resource for GIS in law was a link I found on the Remote Sensing and Geospatial Data Used as Evidence in Court post through GeoData Policy. This document is a list of case law from Crowsey Inc. Some of the interesting cases documented include:

Privacy Laws Pertaining to Aerial-Photography and Remote Sensing
Aerial Photography to Prove Deterioration Marsh Land
GIS in City Council Districting
Satellite Photos Used to Determine Location of a Barge Accident
GIS Identified a Drug-Free Buffer Zone Around Schools

All of this goes to show that no matter what industry that you may be in, GIS can be used to not only benefit a company but provide evidence in a court of law. Although these examples show pieces of evidence that are pulled from every day GIS work , it also gives and interesting career idea.

Combining GIS and Law make for an exciting career adventure. Who would have of thought?