A portable data acquisition device, including a position-determining device and data collector, determines and stores positional data associated with objects positioned in a geographical area within sight of the device. Data representative of attributes associated with the objects are also stored in the device. The data stored in the device can be transferred to processing circuitry of a computer and absolute positional coordinates of the objects are determined. The absolute positional coordinates and the data representative of the attributes associated with the objects are placed in files accessible by geographic information system (GIS) software which utilizes the data to form a geographic information system (GIS) database from which GIS maps may be formed.