Which statement describes the purpose of a Geographic Information System (GIS) in environmental science, and lists three common spatial analyses you might perform?

• A. To store, visualize, and analyze spatial environmental data; analyses include buffer/watershed analysis, hotspot/cluster analysis, and overlay/intersection/interpolation.
• B. To automatically replace field sampling with digital data.
• C. To perform chemical analyses in the laboratory.
• D. To replace regulatory reporting entirely.

Answer: (A)