A geographic information system ( GIS ) is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present spatial or geographic data . The acronym GIS is sometimes used for geographical information science (GIScience) to refer to the academic discipline that studies geographic information systems [1] and is a broad domain within the broader academic discipline of geoinformatics . [2] What goes beyond a GIS is a spatial data infrastructure , a concept that has no such restrictive boundaries.