La maritimización y su huella territorial: una trayectoria sociotécnica.: El caso de la Bahía de Pasaia (País Vasco, España)

“Haphazard urban growth” or the expansion of physical and nonphysical elements in a city without a clear guideline, is a common phenomenon in many developing countries. Rapid increase in urban population, increase in urban poverty, formation of squatter settlements, and degradation of the urban environment are the main characteristics of haphazard urban growth. Urban planning in developing countries should be focussed towards planning and management of haphazard urban growth. However, in many situations urban planners find it difficult to acquire adequate data on urban problems. This situation results from a lack of an effective mechanism for collecting, storing and updating of data required for planning. The Geographical Information Systems (GIS), is a powerful set of tools for collecting, storing, retrieving, transforming, and displaying spatial data from the real world for a particular set of purposes. It is useful in almost all phases of the planning process. This thesis develops a GIS to monitor and manage haphazard urban growth, as well as to assist urban planning in the developing countries. Clear identification of the functions or tasks that the GIS is expected to support, is the first step in the process of developing a GIS. The other components of the system such as data base content, institutional structure, software and hardware, personnel and financial resources, should be formed subsequently, based on the functions of the GIS. Though the GIS has potential to support many development efforts and activities carried out in developing countries, it has not been used to its maximum potential due to reasons such as: financial constraints; non availability/ low-quality of data; low computer literacy/ lack of interest in modem tools among professionals including planners; linguistic problems; difficulties in maintenance of GIS; administrative difficulties; and shortage of trained personnel. Of 3.9 million urban dwellers in Sri Lanka, approximately 54% live in “Colombo Urban Area” (CUA). Like many other urban areas in the developing world, the CUA too is experiencing unguided expansion. Thus, establishing a GIS which is capable of monitoring and managing urban growth, and assisting the urban planning process, is timely and appropriate in order to uplift the quality of urban life in Sri Lanka. Due to limited availability of data as well as other resources such as adequate funds, personnel and equipment for data conversion, attempting to establish a large GIS, with a huge database covering all local authorities in CUA at one instance, is not very practical in the Sri Lankan context. Hence, the establishment of complete GIS covering all local authorities in CUA, should be carried out under a number of stages, over an extended period of time, rather than at one instance. In establishing the GIS for urban planning in Colombo, the priority should be given to installing a GIS in Kesbewa where the population growth is highest in 1991 -2001. This may also acts as the pilot project. Since the future generation of Sri Lankan planners are already being trained in GIS technology, the establishment of GIS, may improve the quality of urban planning in the country. However, improving the GIS knowledge among practising planners, is essential in order to acquire the full benefit of introducing GIS. Sri Lanka may be able to acquire necessary financial resources, and any other technical resources, for initial establishment of GIS from foreign aid, and the country might be able to finance the subsequent maintenance of the system. Nevertheless, execution of activities such as: surveys for investigation of data availability; preparation of a plan for phasing -in the implementation of GIS, as well as to improve the knowledge of GIS among practising planners; improving capabilities and co-ordination among institutions; and investigating the financial feasibility of the GIS, are important, prior to establishment o f a full scale GIS for CUA.

Section 1: Perspectives on Information Systems Development. The Machine is Not the Woman: Cyberfeminism and the Techno-Determinism of Information Systems J. Arnold. To Err is Human: Implications for Information Systems Development G.J. Bakehouse. CRISP: The Campaign for Real Information Systems Production M.F. Chester. Methodological Rigour and Methodology Relevance in IS Development S.K. Probert. Section 2: Information Systems Development Methods. The Impact of Reference Modeling in MRPII/ERP Systems on Business Process Reengineering G. Bartoszewicz. A Maturity Framework for the Enterprise Modeling and Engineering Process K. Borgen, O. Ohren. Development Methods for Knowledge Intensive Applications I.T. Hawryszkiewycz. Framework Oriented Software Development and its Challenges: Commercial Software Solutions Provider Perspective R. Polovina, et al. Are Use Cases Necessarily the Best Start of An OO System Development Process? G. Skagestein. Section 3: Information Systems Development Tools, Techniques and Technologies. Using Hierarchies to Adapt Domain Analysis to Software Development M.J. Forsell. A Mobility Prediction Algorithm for Quality of Service Improvement in Wireless ATM H.-k. Kim, et al. FTI Algorithm for Component Interface Meta Modeling of the TMN Agents S.-H. Park, et al. XML: A Challenge for Databases? J. Pokorny. Process Diagram Technique for Business Processes Modeling V. Repa. Artificial Neural Networks in Predicting a Dichotomous Level of Financial Distress for Uneven Training and Testing Samples J. Zurada, et al. Section 4: Management of Information Systems and Systems Development. Managing Software Development within a Virtual ProjectEnvironment S. Balint. Managerial Enterprise Structural Stakeholders (MESS) Model -- Modelling the Influence of Organisational Politics and Structure Upon Cost of Systems Development L. Carver, E. Lewis. Development Recommendations for Knowledge Management/Organizational Memory Systems M.E. Jennex, L. Olfman. An Integrated Object & Fuzzy Cognitive Maps Approach to Business Process Management D. Kardaras, et al. An Empirical Assessment of IT Disaster Probabilities W. Lewis, et al. Knowledge Management: Trusting Knowledge Workers A. Nottingham. Information Systems Audit for Investment Decision M. Pankowska. Section 5: Information Systems Application Areas. Implementation of an Integrated Software Package T. Ahlin, J. Zupancic. Matchmaking Mechanisms for Agent-Mediated Electronic Markets M. Bichler, A. Scharl. Implementing Enterprise Resource Planning Systems: Implications for Financial Specialists A. Caglio, et al. A Model for Organisational Integration of Meeting Outcomes C.J. Costa, et al. Decision Support Systems Implementation Research: Review of the Current State and Future Directions S.B. Eom. WWW Workflows Based on Petri Nets K. Knorr. Information Technology in the Marketing Mix of a Modern Business J. Unold. Manningham On-Line -- Using Global Technologies for Building Local Electronic Commerce Business K. Vigo, et al. Section 6: Information Systems Education and Learning. Maintaining Software May Help an Organisation Learn D. Edberg, L. Olfman. Object Based Learning Systems (OBL): A Virtual Context for Embedding Artificial Intelligence in Tutorial Software K. Folkman, J. Holmberg. Teaching XML in a Business School: Lessons Learned from the Agder Expe

This study explores the origin of GIS in Dane County in the state of Wisconsin, U.S. and traces the role of key actors and network of relations established among the key actors that were critical for the historical development of geographic information systems (GIS) in Dane County. It then discusses the interconnections between the county's past GIS history and its repercussions on their current GIS practices. The approach taken by this study draws inspiration from Chrisman (1997) who emphasizes the significance of situating the study of GIS implementation in its historical context in order to improve understanding of its use. GIS activities were initiated in Dane County because of the efforts of certain key actors from the university, county, and county board and networks established by these key actors with other powerful actors and agencies who worked in collaboration on key projects that laid the foundation for GIS implementation and use in the county. This article examines those key projects and their role in initiating GIS adoption in Dane County. Their role in establishing the Wisconsin Land Information Program is examined as well as their role in facilitating appropriate resources for initiating GIS use in the county. The article then argues that this historical context has influenced the current GIS activities of the county in three different ways such as the county's land-use oriented GIS use, more emphasis on parcel spatial data model development, and availability of funding for GIS endeavors.

Urban growth is inevitable over the next two decades. The bulk of this growth will take place in less developed countries. This growth presents a formidable challenge for urban planners and managers. In this context, we consider some of the ways urban planners can make use of the recent developments in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote-Sensing (RS) technology to respond to this challenge. GIS projects were initiated in late 1980s in Turkey by both the public and private sectors. Currently, GIS and RS technology play very important roles for urban managers. At the present time, RS technologies are being continually improved; new satellites have been launched with imaging abilities enhanced by new techniques, allowing images to be obtained faster and at higher quality. Current applications use these imagery data for many purposes, among them automatic feature extraction from high-resolution satellite imagery. In this context, automatic and manual object extraction and GIS are the most important issues. In this study, the primary issue was the design and development of Urban Information Systems (UISs); another, more specific, goal was to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of OrbView-3 and IKONOS imagery for their use in UIS. A test case, consisting of a UIS design, development and application, was executed for the Kozlu, Turkey area. Automatic and manual extraction methods were employed using pan-sharpened IKONOS and OrbView-3 images of the Kozlu urban test area. The NetCAD v5.0, eCognition v4.0.6 and MapInfo v9.0 software packages were used for automatic and manual extraction analyses. Digital reference-vector data were obtained from large-scale digital maps. The extracted results were then compared with a database of reference digital building and road information created from large-scale digital maps in a GIS software package. Thus, utilizing GIS-based analyses, the availability of UIS updating was tested with high-resolution imagery. Key words: Urban information systems, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote-Sensing (RS), high-resolution imagery.

Developments in information systems for land use and other geographical data have attracted increased attention from planners during the last decade. In Scotland an example of this interest was the project for a Rural Land Use Information System (RLUIS). The problems experienced by this scheme are reviewed in this paper in the light of more recent technical improvements that have led to advances in Geographical Information Systems (GIS), such as the incorporation of data derived from remote sensing. Illustrations are given of planning applications of GIS in Scotland which show some of the technical developments and flexibility lacking in the RLUIS project, but which also reveal a series of problems that need to be considered in order for planners to maximise benefits accruing from the use of GIS.

This chapter presents an overview of the development, capabilities, and utilization of geographic information systems (GIS). There are nearly an unlimited number of applications that are relevant to GIS because virtually all human interactions, natural and man-made features, resources, and populations have a geographic component. Everything happens somewhere and the location often has a role that affects what occurs. This role is often called spatial dependence or spatial autocorrelation, which exists when a phenomenon is not randomly geographically distributed. GIS has a number of key capabilities that are needed to conduct a spatial analysis to assess this spatial dependence. This chapter presents these capabilities (e.g., georeferencing, adjacency/distance measures, overlays) and provides a case study to illustrate how GIS can be used for both research and planning. Although GIS has developed into a relatively mature application for basic functions, development is needed to more seamlessly integrate spatial statistics and models.The issue of location, especially the geography of human activities, interactions between humanity and nature, and the distribution and location of natural resources and features, is one of the most basic elements of scientific inquiry. Conceptualizations and physical maps of geographic space have existed since the beginning of time because all human activity takes place in a geographic context. Representing objects in space, basically where things are located, is a critical aspect of the natural, social, and applied sciences. Throughout history there have been many methods of characterizing geographic space, especially maps created by artists, mariners, and others eventually leading to the development of the field of cartography. It is no surprise that the digital age has launched a major effort to utilize geographic data, but not just as maps. A geographic information system (GIS) facilitates the collection, analysis, and reporting of spatial data and related phenomena. The capabilities of GIS are much more than just mapping, although map production is one of the most utilized features. GIS applications are relevant in a tremendous number of areas ranging from basic geographic inventories to simulation models.This chapter presents a general overview of geographic information system topics. The purpose is to provide the reader with a basic understanding of a GIS, the types of data that are needed, the basic functionality of these systems, the role of spatial analysis, and an example in the form of a case study. The chapter is designed to provide advanced students and experts outside of the field of GIS sufficient information to begin to utilize GIS and spatial analytic concepts, but it is not designed to be the sole basis for becoming a GIS expert. There is a tremendous level of sophistication related to the digital cartographic databases and manipulation of those databases underlying the display and use of GIS that is more appropriately a part of geographic information science (i.e., basic research issues associated with geographic data including technical as well as theoretical aspects such as the impact on society [1]) rather than being relevant to this chapter. The utilization of GIS for conducting spatial analysis is the guiding theme for the chapter.

While we have seen the wide use of other information technologies in health services and management, the use of geographic information technologies in health related services has been limited so far. Given that location-related data play important roles in many health related services, it is anticipated that geographic information technologies have a lot to offer in helping improve health related services, management, and research. As an example, the authors report the development of a geographic information system (GIS) for Texas-Mexico border disease surveillance and environmental health research. This presentation covers three important aspects in the development of the GIS: (1) the specification of uses and users of the GIS and the associated data, products, and functions; (2) a preliminary design of the data types and formats in the GIS; and (3) a prototype of a GIS-based spatial search tool that can be used to support environmental epidemiology research. In some disease monitoring and environmental epidemiology studies, it is often necessary to perform spatial search to determine the distances between environmental hazardous sites and the locations of cases and controls when distance is used as measure of exposure. The GIS can be used to interactively and automatically determine the distance between any possible pair of environmental hazardous sites and cases/controls. Preliminary results suggest that the prototype GIS is indeed a powerful tool for spatial search when distance is used as a measure of exposure in environmental health research. The reported system should be useful to researchers facing similar situations in disease monitoring and environmental health research.

Multilevel modeling is an approach to model-driven engineering (MDE) in which the number of metamodel levels is not fixed. In this paper, we present and discuss the application of multilevel software modeling to the development of geographic information systems (GIS), and its potential benefits. Different GIS applications may provide different features and functions, but they all share a set of common concepts (regarding spatial data types, operations, services, etc.), common architecture, and a common set of technologies. Although we do not present a complete set of models, we present representative parts of that set (spatial networks, territory decomposition, and trajectories) that, when compared with previous work on MDE applied to GIS, support our proposal that multilevel modeling can provide more benefits to GIS development than just applying a more traditional two-level MDE approach.

The development of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a computer-based technology to handle spatial information has been one of the most fundamental research tools to have benefited archaeology in the late 20th and early 21st century. Since its adoption in archaeology in the 1990s, there has been a gradual increase in the use of GIS in the discipline across the world, including in southern Africa. GIS technology has enabled a variety of spatial questions to be investigated thanks to its capability to handle multiple forms of data and their inherent spatial relationships. In southern Africa, archaeologists have used these systems (a) to present and visualize prehistoric settlement locations and patterns across space and time; (b) as a surveying tool to locate past settlements (archaeological sites) through manipulation of remote sensing data; (c) to develop three-dimensional (3D) models, especially of cave formations, in order to understand site formation processes and hominid behavior in these locations; (d) to predict the locations of archaeological sites; (e) to investigate the extent to which past societies understood and made use of landscape visibility, terrain variability, and other landscape characteristics in order to maximize benefits against perceived costs in resource exploitation; and (f) to develop information systems that can be used in heritage management and academic inquiries involving space use. In some research contexts, the GIS technology has made it possible to integrate old and new spatial data, allowing for revisiting old questions on prehistoric land use and on the occurrence of pastoralism, farming, and metallurgy in southern Africa. The intensity and extent of GIS use in the southern African region varies across countries, institutions, and individuals, although a number of trends can be discerned from the literature. The analysis of published and unpublished sources containing evidence of GIS exploitation in southern Africa shows that these systems have been used first and foremost as map-making tools to provide visual perspective on the locations and distributions of archaeological sites or material under discussion. This is, first, because maps are communicative devices, although they can also serve as tools to think with. Second, there is more use of GIS to answer localized intra and inter-site spatial questions than there is work that investigates issues that cut across present national boundaries. Third, there are more researchers who have made use of GIS in archaeology in South Africa and Zimbabwe than in the other countries of the region. GIS technology is also being exploited by national heritage management institutions and a few private organizations, for the production of spatially enabled heritage databases. Another observation that can be made is that some of the archaeologists who are using GIS in their research in southern Africa were or are themselves based outside the region, reflecting the continuation of the global north-south pattern in the penetration of GIS technology in southern Africa. Undergraduate work on GIS helps reflect on the training that is taking place in education institutions. The popularity of the topic at undergraduate levels may have implications for its uptake at higher levels. Unfortunately, GIS work conducted by undergraduate students is not easily accessible through online means due to the repository policies of many universities. However, the literature consulted suggests that overall there is a growing interest in the use of GIS in the region.

Ultra high resolution remote sensing for urban information systems and 3D city modeling

Geographical information and decision support system

Development of a temporal geographic information system (GIS) and spatio-temporal data modeling are key to incorporating time into geographic information science. This paper describes how to design and develop temporal GIS that will work with spatio-temporal data represented in various data models, and it introduces a prototype temporal GIS with a case study. In temporal GIS, the integration of multiple spatio-temporal representations is based on common spatial and temporal reference systems. In other words, a map window of temporal GIS visualizes spatio-temporal data valid at the same time within one spatial area. To achieve such visualization, separate data editing and query modules are required for each spatio-temporal data model (STDM). In the temporal query interface, after a user specifies a time, the system automatically hires correspondent modules to retrieve spatio-temporal data valid at that time. Besides temporal queries common to all STDMs, each module may provide additional temporal query capabilities specific to that STDM. In the case study, I implement a prototype temporal GIS for three STDMs. The examples of query and visualization, which use three datasets (census data, land use/land cover, and elevation data) demonstrate the prototype temporal GIS can integrate multiple temporal representations.

The development of an information system is essential for the generation of information to support the decision-making process, extending its benefits throughout the public sector especially to healthcare related organisms. To guarantee a timely government intervention, it is essential to identify problems, develop and evaluate public policy and activity, coordinate implementation, and monitor and control the provision of related services. The objective of the present study is to describe the development of a public health care information system in the Brazilian Health Ministry. In order to achieve that, a study was conducted on the development of the information system in the Strategic Management Support Office of the aforementioned Ministry. The results show that the development of an information system expands the array of relevant and reliable information through the systemic collection, integration, analysis and data presentation, which can be a key factor for the improvement of health services to the Brazilian population.

Recent developments in geographical information systems (GIS) have dramatically advanced the ways geographical data are stored, manipulated, analyzed, and displated. Architectural librarians now can utilize GIS to efficiently manage their maps and graphic illustrations of architectural designs with copmuterized procedures. For architects or architectural researchers to integrate architectural designs with geographical data, GIS functions are especially suitable to stimulate or to realize the designs. The CAD-like functions available in GIS for map composition can also be used by architects and architectural researchers as part of their designing environment. This article briefly introduces the concept of GIS. It discusses how GIS can be defined, how GIS can be used, and what functions GIS typically provides. Sources of geographical data are also described. In addition, this article reviews selected GIS textbooks, professional conferences and periodicals as initial reference for interested architects and architectural researchers. Finally, several example geographical information systems are described to facilitate an introductory understanding of the available software packages.

The development of geographic information systems (GIS) is now being accompanied by an increasing popularity of Internet GIS mapping services. This study concerns two important issues with Internet GIS interoperability and Open source resources. Centering on the interplay of these two issues, we provide a systematic overview of techniques that have been used to deliver Internet GIS mapping and the relevance of the two issues with regard to these techniques. We then present a standard-and-open-source-based framework for Internet GIS mapping services to achieve data interoperability and high visual quality. The framework employs the Web Feature Service (WFS) to handle vector data and raster data. The Geography Markup Language (GML) standard is used for interoperable data storage and management. The Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) standard is used to visualize GML data in web browsers. Two preliminary prototypes have been developed to demonstrate the capabilities of the framework. We conclude that using standard-based solutions is an important and viable direction of interoperable Internet GIS services. Advances in standardization and technology have significant implications for Internet GIS mapping. There are many powerful open sources tools which, when coupled with open standards, may be used to develop high-quality online GIS services. Importantly, these solutions require no investment in software, yet achieve excellent interoperability and visualization quality; they are excellent alternative approaches to Internet mapping.