Though the geographic information system (GIS) has greatly shaped the way public and private companies, governmental entities, and charitable groups conduct their business, few seem to understand just how important it has become. Even when people comprehend the basic framework of a GIS, the way it combines geographical information with other kinds of data, they often fail to see the revolutionary way in which it has impacted decision making.
Though the geographic information system (GIS) has greatly shaped the way public and private companies, governmental entities, and charitable groups conduct their business, few seem to understand just how important it has become. Even when people comprehend the basic framework of a GIS, the way it combines geographical information with other kinds of data, they often fail to see the revolutionary way in which it has impacted decision making. GIS has become an essential tool across a wide variety of industries. Urban planners use it to evaluate zoning and infrastructure needs, while foresters rely on it for habitat conservation and wildfire planning. In defense, GIS supports terrain analysis and logistics. It has also transformed fields like supply chain management, insurance, banking, and public health—powering real-time tracking, risk assessment, resource planning, and more. Read on to learn more about the various applications of GIS in different industries, including ours – Electrical Utilities!
How do electric utilities use GIS?
Just as GIS interfaces with diverse industries in different ways, so such systems look unique when it comes to electric utilities. How? Well, each component of a utility’s distribution system appears in the real, physical world and generates data related to it. By using GIS to produce a detailed electric circuit connectivity model, electric utilities can more efficiently operate their grids.
In practice, this helps electric utilities prepare for and deal with natural disasters such as hurricanes, fires, and various geological disturbances that could damage a grid. On-site sensors feed real-time data to your GIS, letting you know what’s happening and where. Such information can move beyond merely protecting an electrical utility’s assets. It also lets decision makers know when customers, employees, or the environment face unsafe situations. Additionally, maintaining a GIS connectivity model allows electric utilities to efficiently plan, an essential step in today’s fast-moving environment.
GIS encompasses a truly wide field, and Milsoft Utility Solutions understands how it has revolutionized numerous industries. Our unique GIS helps electric distribution utilities achieve greater efficiency, because it’s tied into an engineering circuit model, providing real-time information. To learn more, contact us or request a demo.
How GIS is used in other industries
Urban Planning
Anyone who has suffered through a bad windstorm or snowstorm can appreciate the work of a talented urban planner. These designers of infrastructure can help keep the electricity on, the water flowing, and the internet piping the World Wide Web into property, usually through decisions made decades or more in the past. One of the ways they make those decisions is through detailed GIS projections.
GIS plays two roles in urban planning, the first being analysis. By compiling spacial information from sources such as satellites and planes, cities and municipalities can add in other data for examination. Planners can then spatially sort the following data:
- Demographic
- Zoning
- Environmental
- Economic
- Transportation
- Developmental
Spatially sorting this data allows decision makers to understand the context that their actions will affect.
The second contribution of GIS for urban planning involves modeling, the manipulation of projections to determine their potential impact. This allows urban planners to determine the potential impact of approving development near a wetlands area or approving a new block of conditional-use zoning or the potential load on a proposed power plant. In other words, it makes alterations in a metropolis or community something far more than mere guesswork.
Forestry
While the roles GIS plays in the urban-planning space might seem varied, they’re surprisingly varied when applied to forestry. Broadly stated, GIS aids with forest management. That aid, though, can take many different forms.
Timber companies have turned to GIS in order to maximize their profits, selecting the most lucrative sections of forest to harvest. However, both private and public companies have put the technology to use in planning for wildfires, analyzing the properties of various types of vegetation, complying with environmental regulations, and preserving forest habitats for various species.
Military
For millennia, nations have fought over places, assets, and even individuals located on various points on maps. Geography has played a vital role in armed conflict with military commanders struggling to take control over the proverbial high ground, and it’s no wonder that they employ GIS to evaluate terrain. That’s far from its only function, though. GIS can provide up-to-the-minute weather information, aid in camp-site management, play a role in anti-submarine maneuvers, and facilitate logistics management, all of which are often vital.
Geography and Mapping
Geographically focused map making might seem an entirely different discipline from GIS. In one sense, it is. GIS involves multiple data sources, of which the actual map is only a part. However, GIS and cartography have become linked in multiple ways. Map makers use GIS to employ multiple forms of relief shading (i.e., a visual technique for representing topography). Various algorithms have allowed mappers to better understand colorblindness and how to make maps more accessible. And GIS technology allows those charting maritime geography to more accurately represent bodies of water.
Supply Chain Management
In today’s complex global economy, supply chains must operate with precision, speed, and resilience. GIS plays a central role in achieving this by enabling real-time tracking of goods, assets, and delivery vehicles across vast geographic networks. Logistics teams use GIS to analyze traffic patterns, weather conditions, and infrastructure constraints to determine the most efficient routes for transporting goods. Additionally, GIS assists in strategic planning—helping companies choose optimal warehouse and distribution center locations based on proximity to suppliers, customer demand zones, and transportation corridors. The insights gained from GIS reduce fuel costs, minimize delays, and enhance customer satisfaction while providing the agility needed to respond quickly to supply chain disruptions.
Insurance
For the insurance industry, understanding geographic risk is essential to underwriting and claims management. GIS allows insurers to analyze spatial relationships between properties, environmental hazards, and historical loss data. By layering this information onto detailed maps, insurers can assess risk exposure with far greater precision—informing pricing models, guiding policy coverage, and identifying areas susceptible to events like flooding, wildfires, or hurricanes. GIS is also instrumental during catastrophe response, helping teams visualize affected zones, dispatch claims adjusters, and support disaster recovery efforts. As climate risk and natural disasters increase in frequency, GIS has become a vital tool in developing forward-looking, location-based risk strategies.
Banking
Banks and financial institutions increasingly use GIS to guide growth strategies and better serve their customer base. By analyzing demographic data, economic indicators, and competitive landscapes within specific geographies, GIS tools help identify underserved markets, evaluate branch performance, and assess the potential impact of opening or closing locations. This spatial intelligence supports more targeted marketing, tailored lending programs, and improved community outreach. On the risk management side, GIS enables banks to map and monitor geographic trends in credit defaults, fraud, or economic downturns—giving analysts the ability to respond proactively and protect financial assets in vulnerable regions.
Health and Human Services
GIS has become indispensable to public health agencies, hospitals, and social service organizations working to improve community well-being. During public health emergencies such as disease outbreaks, GIS enables rapid visualization of infection clusters and the tracking of transmission patterns across neighborhoods and regions. This geographic insight guides everything from vaccination site placement to the allocation of emergency medical resources. Beyond crisis response, GIS supports long-term planning—helping agencies identify healthcare deserts, assess social determinants of health, and evaluate the accessibility of services for elderly or low-income populations. By linking health outcomes to geographic and environmental data, GIS empowers organizations to make more equitable and data-driven decisions.
The value of GIS extends far beyond simple mapping. From utilities and urban planning to health care and finance, geographic information systems are reshaping how industries visualize data, solve problems, and plan for the future. As more organizations realize the power of spatial analysis, GIS will continue to serve as a critical bridge between data and decision-making.
At Milsoft Utility Solutions, we understand how vital GIS is to operational excellence—especially in electric distribution. Our GIS platform is uniquely integrated with engineering models and real-time system data, giving utilities the tools they need to improve reliability, enhance service, and respond with confidence.
Interested in seeing how Milsoft GIS can make a difference for your utility? Contact us or request a personalized demo to explore our powerful, user-friendly solutions.