The meaning of the letter "S" in the acronym GIS seems to have been the subject of some debate in the world of geographers over the past 20 years (Wright et al., 1997). ; Pickles, 1997). Geographic information science or geographic information systems? Goodchild (2010) describes geographic information as information that links an entity to a location on or near the Earth's surface as well as to a specific point in time. He also cites the definition of geographic information science set up. presented by David Mark: “The development and use of theories, methods, technologies and data to understand geographic processes, relationships and patterns. » Geographic information systems have their roots in cartography. Schuurman (2004), who broadly describes geographic information science as the theoretical basis of GIS, cites the example of Ian McHarg in 1962, who was tasked with planning the route of a road crossing an area with several different types land cover. He decided to choose the route that would cause the least disruption to habitats in the region. To do this, he developed a method called layering which involved drawing each piece of land cover on a separate sheet of tracing paper and superimposing them. This formed the basis of spatial analysis and provided the basis for what would later become the layers we use in GIS today. Another early example mentioned by Shuurman is that of John Snow, who located the source of a cholora outbreak in London by creating a dot density map of each individual case. The spatial data this gave him allowed him to narrow down the source to specific water pumps in the city. Although the two examples above are much simpler than with...... middle of paper ...... graphic information science. International Journal of Geographic Information Science, 26(12), pp. 2227-2237. Pickles, J., 1997. Tool or science? GIS, Technoscience and theoretical turning point. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 87(2), pp. 363-372. Schuurmann, N., 2004. GIS: a brief introduction. Oxford: Blackwell. Sengupta, R. and Yan, C., 2004. A Hybrid Spatio-Temporal Data Model and Structure (HST - DMS) for Efficient Storage and Retrieval of Land Use Information. Transactions in GIS, 8(3), pp. 351 - 366. Wright, DJ, Goodchild, MF and Proctor, JD, 1997. Debunking the persistent ambiguity of GIS as a 'tool' versus 'science'. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 87(2), pp. 346-62.Wright, DJ, 2012. Theory and application in a post-GISystems world. International Journal of Geographic Information Sciences, 26(12), pp.. 2197-2209.