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Theme 6: Geographical Information
Systems and Sustainable Information Society |
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Number
of abstracts currently posted to this Theme: 1 | 2 |
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to List of Themes |
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(Last
updated: September 29th, 2005) |
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New Cartographic Technologies
and their Potential to Map Indigenous Knowledge
and Land Use |
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Claudio
Aporta, Assistant
Professor |
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Department of Sociology
and Anthropology, Carleton University, Ottawa,
Canada |
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Despite all the social and economic changes that
Inuit peoples of the Canadian North have undergone
during the last 50 years, traveling is still a
very important part of people’s lives. Some
characteristics of well-established Inuit ways
of orienting and traveling are still actively used.
Inuit geographic knowledge is mostly oral, and
has been transmitted from generation to generation
for hundreds of years. Inuktitut (the Inuit language)
place names play a fundamental role in oral narratives.
Names, furthermore, constitute a very important
part of the Inuit heritage. |
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Since the arrival of the first European explorers
in the Arctic, a way of proclaiming ownership over
the “discovered” lands was to give
them representative names. These names (mostly
in English) were incorporated into the official
maps of Canada, where only a few Inuktitut names
were included. Thousands of Inuit names are still
remembered in oral tradition but recent changes
have made their transmission more difficult. |
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Mapping place names has become a major priority
in the Canadian North, especially among Inuit organizations
and the newly formed territory of Nunavut. Dozens
of mapping projects are being undertaken across
Nunavut, and making these original names official
is seeing as a way of re-appropriating the land.
This paper will describe current mapping projects
in Nunavut, and will especially stress the potential
of new cartographic technologies (GIS and GPS).
It will also argue that maps can become important
political tools, and that these methods could be
used by indigenous groups in other geographies
with similar results. |
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Painting the Future of
Africa: GIS "Development" Potential |
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Tagelsir
Mohamed Gasmelseid, Assistant
Professor |
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College of Computer Science & Information
Technology, King Faisal University |
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Kingdom of Saudi Arabia |
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The issues of poverty mitigation, political instability,
environmental degradation (deforestation, soil
erosion, potential water tress, decline of biodiversity,
and sedimentation of lakes), gender mainstreaming,
and accountability, among others, are moving to
the front line agenda of planners in Africa. The
spatial and temporal indicators associated with
these problems are stimulating the focus on “information
integration”, “decentralization” and “involvement
of stakeholders”. GIS technologies have the
potential to contribute the analysis of physical
settings, ecosystem dynamics, local community environment
and environmental systems. However, the “development” potential
of GISs is contingent upon:
1. The availability of sophisticated technological platforms that support, not
only mapping and database interface, but also enhance comprehensive model-calibration,
multitasking, and information communication.
2. The possibility of situational modeling to support spatial analysis.
3. Stand-by control mechanisms to maintain security, priority handling, equilibrium-assurance,
privacy and integrity particularly in “distributed environments”.
4. Reliable system management capabilities to ensure reliable planning and monitoring
the cost of data acquisition and processing. This calls for organizations capable
of managing technology-intensive acquisitions. |
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This paper investigates the “development’ potential
of GIS in Africa based on the above “requirements” and
attempts to draw “road maps”. |
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Environmental Information Managment and Reporting
in the Czech Republic |
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Jaroslav
Racek, Assistant
Professor, Faculty of Informatics, Massaryk
University in Brno; |
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Jiri
Hrebicek, Committee Member, Information
Systems in Waste Management, Ministry of Environment; |
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Tomas
Pitner, Vice Dean, Faculty of Informatics,
Massaryk University in Brno; |
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Czech Republic |
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Within the framework of the Czech Environmental
Information System, the Czech Ministry of the Environment
(ME) systematically collects primary environmental
data through monitoring, statistical research and
recording. After consolidation, primary environmental
data are stored as validated data in the ME’s
information systems and chosen indicators are reported
to the European Commission (the EC). Reporting
is defined as preparation of reports on the implementation
of certain directives and a regular submission
of these reports to the EC, or to the European
Environmental Agency (EEA) using the European Environmental
Information and Observation Network. |
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As it is currently not possible to make the reporting
from ME’s information systems into Reportnet
easily due to different attributing, technology
and methodology, the ME needs an exchangeable central
output data model (CDM). The CDM would also reflect
the needs of strategic planning, supra-field information
support for public administration, providing information
to the general public, cooperation with the business
sphere and international reporting. Current requirements
of integrated reporting are the main driving force
and the team of authors has been solved them in
a research project since 2003. |
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Effective Implementation
of Sewerage System in New Paradigm: Some Issues |
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Ijaz
Ahmad & Nasim-UL-Haq Farooqi, Assistant
Professors |
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Department of City and
Regional Planning, University of Engineering
and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan |
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The design of any urban system is governed by
the consideration of the least capital expenditure
for the most effective service. To this end the
designer must carefully estimate the present and
future demands upon the system. Urban development
is depended upon the population growth. It is essential
to study that an accurate reckoning of existing
population projection be established and that a
population projection be made which is reasonable
in the light of all predictable influences upon
the area. Such influences are; growth trends of
the national population, Internal migration, population
densities, opportunities for self improvement,
social environment and alike. People are flocking
to the metropolis. The attractions are job opportunity,
education and research and cultural and political
activity. The immigrants stay with friends and
relatives or build rough homes in the squatter
clusters. At the same time more affluent citizens
are moving out of the metropolitan core to suburban
developments. Area is rapidly gaining population;
the districts within the area have their own varying
patterns of growth. This heavy population increase
exerted a heavy pressure on the existing available
services of an area. |
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For example, in the provision of an efficient
and effective sewerage system, these demands depend
upon the number of residences and commercial and
industrial customers which it must serve throughout
its life. Therefore, a compilation was made of
the area and location of existing residential,
commercial, industrial, and public land uses. This
compilation was the basis for projecting land use
throughout the design period. Various conditions
influenced the estimation of wastewater flows including
water supply, pattern of water use, plumbing and
sewerage facilities, and other criteria. However,
the actual coverage of land by residences, factories
and shops was the basis upon which the other criteria
were applied. |
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This paper attempt to highlight the effects of
population growth on the existing services specially
sewerage system. This also provides guidelines
to line agencies as how to cope with the arising
problems of such kind. At end recommendation gave
direction to line agencies to formulate a uniform
policy to achieve sustainable development of an
area. |
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Geographical Information System (GIS): A Tool
to Solve Urban Sewerage Problems |
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Ijaz
Ahmad, Assistant
Professor |
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Department of City and
Regional Planning, University of Engineering
and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan |
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Nasim-UL-Haqfarooqi, Associate
Professor |
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Department
of City and Regional Planning, University of
Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan |
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Computers have been applied in urban planning
almost since their inception, but only recently
with the development of graphics, distributed processing,
and network communications has software emerged
which can now be used routinely and effectively.
At the basis of these developments are geographic
information systems (GIS) but gradually, these
are being adapted to the kind of decision and management
functions that lie at the heart of the planning
process. |
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Computing devices have been used in public planning
for 100 years. Hermann Hollerith invented the punched
card machine at the turn of the century for the
US Population Census, and this eventually led to
the formation of the world's largest computer company,
IBM. Once the digital computer was developed half
century later, applications in public planning
and management became widespread. By the mid 1950s,
population and transportation data were being processed
by computers and these were quickly followed by
various simulation modeling efforts. By the late
1960s, urban data management systems were being
widely implemented by public agencies for a variety
of routine and less routine management and strategic
planning functions. This experience has been well
documented but in the last 10 years, applications
of computers in planning have changed dramatically. |
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Conservation and management of resources is vital
for sustainable economic growth and human development
in a country. Instead, poor planning and governance,
coupled with population pressure, poverty, and
limited understanding of the environment have led
to fast deterioration of these valuable assets.
In recent years, a belated but concerted effort
is underway to control the usage of natural as
well as man made features. Increasing attention
is focused on the roles, functions, characteristics,
and performance of individuals, communities and
public/private sector institutions for natural-resource
management in promoting sustainable development,
poverty reduction and equitable access to resources
at all levels. |
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Geographical Information System and Remote Sensing
are emerging powerful techniques widely applicable
in natural as well as existing resource management
and development. These techniques, not only enable
a manageable storage and prompt access to large
volumes of data, but also provide efficient tools
to extract information/knowledge for logical decision
making. Recent developments in Remote Sensing,
Aerial Photography and GIS techniques are highly
useful in sustainable land-use, forest and natural
resources planning and management, bio-diversity
conservation, infrastructure development, and monitoring
at regional and local level. |
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This paper highlights the usefulness of GIS in
urban services provision with particular focus
on Sewerage System. The applicability of GIS will
show how the sewerage problems in an area can be
solved. |
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Spatial Portals: Adding Value
to Spatial Data Infrastructure |
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Winnie
Tang, Chief
Executive Officer |
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ESRI China Limited, Hong
Kong |
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Jan Selwood, Project
Manager |
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ESRI China Limited, Hong
Kong |
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This paper examines how well-designed spatial
portals bring value and return on investment
to Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). Spatial
portals are often the visible front-end to
SDI, they are the gateways (or brokers) through
which users access the geographic services
made available through SDI. Until recently
the geographic information (GI) community has
tended to focus its effort on the practicalities
of building infrastructure. This includes:
the development and implementation of the data,
metadata, policies, standards, interpretations,
networks, skills, database and application
resources, and so on. SDI would not exist
without this essential work. However,
this focus has perhaps distracted attention
from the spatial portal - the ‘vehicle
of final delivery’ to the user - which,
it is argued is of vital importance for the
success and continued viability of SDI. |
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Access and distribution of geographic information
is at the heart of every single SDI project.
The United States National Research Council’s
Mapping Sciences Committee (MSC) who first
coined the term “spatial data infrastructure” in
1993, defined SDI as “the means to assemble
geographic information that describes the arrangement
and attributes of features and phenomena on
the earth. The infrastructure includes the
materials, technology, and people necessary
to acquire, process, and distribute such
information to meet a wide variety of needs” (Masser,
2005:7) (authors italics). The first
sentence of the GSDI’s more recent and
considerably longer definition (GSDI, no date)
is even more explicit, stating the aim of SDIs
is to “support ready access to
geographic information.” SDI cannot
exist without datasets, metadata, policies,
standards and so on, but in the end they are
judged by the ease with which users can find
and use spatial resources. Well-designed
spatial portals play a critical role in securing
tangible benefits from the (considerable) effort
and investment involved in building SDI. Equally,
poorly functioning or unstable portals will
not be accepted or used by the user community,
and will disengage service providers. They
undermine the infrastructures on which they
are based regardless of how good or comprehensive
these are or the effort involved in building
them. |
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Spatial portals have developed significantly
in the last four to five years and are beginning
to attract considerably more attention from
the GI industry as a whole. This is evidenced
by interest in conferences and academic journals
as well as the appearance of commercial off-the-shelf
(COTS) technology designed to facilitate portal
construction now offered by a number of GIS
software vendors. There have also been
a number of high profile portal projects that
have attracted international attention such
as the Transport Direct site (www.transportdirect.com)
sponsored by the United Kingdom government
and the United States federal government’s
Geospatial OneStop (GOS) program and the recently
released GOS2 portal (www.geodata.gov).
Recent work focuses heavily on delivery of
service and ways to improve usability and user
experience of the portal. This includes
improving the speed, flexibility and effectiveness
of searches; and work on portlets and technology
that enables users to integrate portal functionality
with their general work practices by customizing
their own dedicated portal interfaces or imbedding
portal tools within desktop applications. It
includes ways to promote direct linkage to,
viewing and use of remote services, as well
as ways to use the portal to encourage participation
and debate in the process of building and maintaining
the SDI. It is suggested that these developments,
play a fundamental role in securing and extending
the success of SDI, and will have a significant
impact on the shape of GI industry in coming
years. |
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The paper is divided into five sections. The
first establishes definitions and the framework
for general the argument. We then go
on to discuss the evolution of portal technology
from the late 1990s and identify distinct phases.
In the third section we look at a number of
design considerations that are making a significant
difference to contemporary spatial portals.
We illustrate these with reference to portal
projects drawn from around the world that are
based on SDIs of varying size and nature. All
highlight elements of good portal design. In
the final section we summarize the arguments
presented and look forward to future developments
and the challenges that still remain. |
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