Growing list of acronyms commonly encountered in the fields of GIS, GPS, cartography, surveying and remote sensing. To submit an acronym, please email editor@gislounge.com.

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A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

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– A –

ACSM – American Congress on Surveying and Mapping

ASCII – American Standard Code for Information Interchange

ASPRS – American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing

Regional Organizations

AGRC – Utah Automated Geographic Reference Center

– C –

CAD – Computer-Aided Design

CADD – Computer Aided Drafting and Design

– D –

DEM – Digital Elevation Model

DO(Q)Q – Digital Ortho(quarter)quads

DRG – Digital Raster Graphic

DSS – Decision Support System

DTM – Digital Terrain Model

– E –

EIA – Environmental Impact Analysis

EIR – Environmental Impact Report

EOS – Earth Observing System

EPA – Environmental Protection Agency

ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning

ESRI – Environmental Systems Research Institute

– F –

FGDC – Federal Geographic Data Committee

FOSS4G – Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial

– G –

GOES – Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite

GIS – Geographic Information Systems

GITA – Geospatial Information and Technology Association

GML – Geography Markup Language

GOES – Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites

GUI – Graphical User Interface

GPS – Global Positioning Systems

– I –

IEEE – Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.

IGUG – International Intergraph Graphics User Group

IT – Information Technology

Regional Organizations

IGIC – Iowa Geographic Information Council

– K –

KML – Keyhole Markup Language

– L –

LBS – Location-based Services

LiDAR – Light Detection and Ranging

– M –

MAPPS – Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors

MIS – Management Information System

Regional Organizations

MERLIN – Maryland’s Environmental Resources and Land Information Network

– N –

NEPA – National Environmental Policy Act (1969)

NMAS – National Map Accuracy Standards

NOAA – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NSDI – National Spatial Data Infrastructure

NSPS – National Society of Professional Surveyors

NTF – Neutral Transfer Format (formerly National Transfer Format), which is used by the Ordnance Survey in Britain.

– O –

OGC – Open Geospatial Consortium

OS – Operating System

– P –

PARC – Public Access Resource Center

PDA – Personal Digital Assistants

– Q –

QA/QC – Quality Assurance/Quality Control

– R –

RDBMS – Relational Database Management Systems

ROI – Return On Investment

– S –

SDK – Software Development Kit

SGI – Silicon Graphics Inc.

SPOT – Système Pour l’Observation de la Terre

– T –

TEC – Topographic Engineering Center, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers

TIFF – Tagged Image File Format

TIN – Triangular Irregular Networks

– U –

UGIC – Utah Geographic Information Council

UMAC – Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium

URISA – Urban and Regional Information Systems Association

USGS – United States Geological Survey

UTM – Universal Transverse Mercator

– V –

VRS – Virtual Receiving Station

– W –

WGA – Western Governors Association

WWW – World wide web

– X –

XML – eXtensible Markup Language