A Book That Explains GIS to People Who Don’t Do GIS

By David Yarnold

“I wish more people got how important GIS really is.”
“I wish my boss got GIS.”
“My friends and family don’t understand what GIS is or what I do.”
“I wish my students saw the potential impact they could have.”

I’ve heard GIS professionals lament how obscure geospatial technology is since I attended my first Esri User Conference (Esri UC) in 2011. That’s why I wrote The Geography of Hope. I wanted to write a book for you—one that you could give to the people around you who don’t get what you do.

Africans have put the world on notice that they will do conservation for Africans, by Africans. They will find ways to protect forests, jungles, savannas, and coastlines while raising the standard of living through city building, agriculture, and efforts to ensure that economic rewards flow to all.
Africans have put the world on notice that they will do conservation for Africans, by Africans. They will find ways to protect forests, jungles, savannas, and coastlines while raising the standard of living through city building, agriculture, and efforts to ensure that economic rewards flow to all.
Africans have put the world on notice that they will do conservation for Africans, by Africans. They will find ways to protect forests, jungles, savannas, and coastlines while raising the standard of living through city building, agriculture, and efforts to ensure that economic rewards flow to all.

While police and fire departments have used GIS for decades, Berkeley, California’s Police Transparency hub site reflects what may be the United States’ most advanced, transparent accounting of what the police do, how they do it, and where it all happens.
While police and fire departments have used GIS for decades, Berkeley, California’s Police Transparency hub site reflects what may be the United States’ most advanced, transparent accounting of what the police do, how they do it, and where it all happens.

Generations of warriors have dropped bombs, sabotaged farmers’ fields, and secured their battle lines with cheap antipersonnel explosives in more than a third of the world’s countries. Sophisticated GIS-based maps identify land mine hot spots and help eliminate costly false-positive locations.
Generations of warriors have dropped bombs, sabotaged farmers’ fields, and secured their battle lines with cheap antipersonnel explosives in more than a third of the world’s countries. Sophisticated GIS-based maps identify land mine hot spots and help eliminate costly false-positive locations.

The Geography of Hope describes GIS technology tools but focuses primarily on the extraordinary things people do with it. Although GIS can be “complicated to explain” or, perhaps, “doesn’t feel real to people”—thoughts I heard from attendees at the 2024 Esri UC—people around the world accomplish incredible feats with it, whether that’s using AI to reshape a national intelligence program or employing maps to give voters their fair shake in local politics.

I hope this book makes you feel appreciated and understood for the work you do. It really does change the world.

The Geography of Hope: Real-Life Stories of Optimists Mapping a Better World, 252 pages, is available. Ebook ISBN: 9781589487420 and paperback ISBN: 9781589487413. Want to buy the book? Explore purchasing options.

Get excerpts from the book, and more, by exploring the ArcGIS StoryMaps story.

David Yarnold

David Yarnold led a GIS-fueled turnaround at the National Audubon Society, helped Environmental Defense Fund teach China how to do carbon trading, and was executive editor at the San Jose Mercury News. He's a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor, a Pulitzer co-finalist for editorial writing, and an award-winning photojournalist and designer.

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