Traditional knowledge GIS differ from ordinary cognitive maps in that they express environmental and spiritual relationships among real and conceptual entities.
[4] Map biographies track the practices of local communities either for the sake of preservation or to argue for resource protection or land grants.
[4] GIS technologies are powerful in their ability to accommodate multimedia and multidimensional data sets, which allows for the recording and playing of oral histories and representations of abstract ecological knowledge.
As adherents to traditional lifestyles decline in population, a degree of urgency has developed around the collection of data and wisdom from aging local elders.
Bilingual visual and auditory maps depict oral traditions and historical information in places of cultural significance at various scales and levels of detail.
[10] Interests of local residents in these regions often conflict with those of migrant workers, state conservation units, and domestic and foreign mining or logging enterprises.
Economic development through traditional knowledge GIS is subject to local ownership over the systems and full access to relevant data and training.