The application of geographic information systems to geochemical studies in Jamaica

The Centre for Nuclear Sciences (CNS) uses a raster based geographic information system (GIS), integrated with a relational database to store information on point sampled data, including concentrations of over 50 elements and/or ions in a variety of sample materials. These data are filtered in the GIS to create surface layers and are assigned colours according to percentile ranges allowing visual inspection to be used to identify significant features and trends. The database currently contains raster map layers for soils and geologic features, point site data for water and air, and vector data for roads, rivers and streams. While data are still being added to the database interesting results are already being obtained and a few instances where the GIS was used to assist in the data interpretation are reported.