Geographic Information System - Essay Example

Assessment of the viability of using GIS within planning and limitations Planning has always been the first step for any successful implementation. Land, Air and Sea, the three basic surfaces available to us for any kind of application, have been further enhanced by Geographic Information System (GIS). GIS has become an essential decision making tool to provide a safe, practical and an economical approach towards planning. Since planning is for the people, it is imperative to study the project viability revolving around them. The evolution of GIS and its ancillary technologies have led to the development of decision support systems that facilitate process like service and employment centers. Planning support systems are instrumental to plan out a successful strategy in services and employment centers through which the public participation can be analyzed through studying the demographics and population density along with the socio economic structure. Moreover, planning support systems facilitate the process to measure and compare performances of different planning scenarios that includes the active involvement of parcels, land use and land cover, transportation and logistics, natural resources, and employment. A GIS is very vital in what-if scenarios. Attributes such as land use and land cover, population etc. can be entered in the database following a certain data model to maintain integrity and then different scenarios visualized, analyzed and compared. The scenario best suited for the purpose is then bought on to the implementation stage. The ease of doing the scenario built up is attributed to a well conceived GIS software package and the selected data model. Planning support implementation in Geographic Information System have become an indispensable part as a decision making tool and urban planners, architects, civil engineers are categorically taking the support of GIS for successful implementation of their projects. Since the early 90’s, Geographic Information Systems have slowly carved its way to become an integral part of any kind of planning activity. The evolutions of GIS software have enabled planners to visualize and envisage the planning and operational aspect of any project. Alternative development scenarios can be studied and proper decision taken to ensure a successful implementation of the project. In the current global scenario, spatial location is of paramount importance than the structure itself. To critically evaluate services business and the optimal location for employment centers, GIS provide the tools to visualize, manage, and analyze the raw data in numbers and letters and represent them spatial with a base map, thus increasing the value of the data and a clear understanding of the process. The recent global economic slowdown has caused many organizations to rethink their strategy in employing and locating their target audience and customers. Hence there is surge in GIS application in all the major fields today to have a firm grip on the profitability aspect of any related business. In terms of planning services infrastructure or employment centers, there are major parameters that must be considered, namely; Strategic planning Distribution of residential and commercial areas Proximity to the transportation hubs and site suitability Strategic planning Strategic planning is the first step that defines the scope and a successful execution of the project. In this, various overheads are assigned, researched and concluded to ascertain the viable location of services and employment centers where they will be best utilized by the public. After the recent economic meltdown, the number of unemployed people has increased exponentially. It is up to the planners to assign an accessible location and facilitate the ease of logistics. Distribution of residential and commercial areas Any updated GIS urban city map will show the parcel distribution and its attributes that helps in spatially locating a query. Most cities have clearly defined areas of residences and commercial interests. Without GIS, it would be impossible to assess and locate the accurate distribution and segmentation of the interests. Accessibility to services would largely depend on the accurate data as the parcel distribution will determine the nature of services that are to be made available to the public. A simple service such as an ATM machine can be spatially identified and installed in the commercial and residential areas with the help of GIS. Banks can strategize the distribution by carefully analyzing the distribution and population frequency, and accordingly, funds can be deposited in the ATM. Proximity to the transportation hubs and site suitability In any city, transportation plays a major role in creating a systematic traffic and avoids congestion. Careful analysis of the transportation points is vital to understand the movement of public and assess the site suitability accordingly. The socio-economic factor plays a crucial role in determining the mass traffic movement. Suburban commuters would always prefer the railways than bus and would prefer utilizing the services that are in the vicinity. Nowadays, as result of the careful planning through GIS, navigational maps in mobile phones, taxi cars, and personal navigators are being utilized. The heart of these GIS enabled instruments is the process of Geo-coding which takes into account the vector data of the city along with their integrity rules with turns and the optimum route. With a GIS, every address can be accurately turned into a real-world location and many countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands have a well planned urban mapping system where the basic integrity of address with individual parcels are maintained. When the city map is digitized and the basic information is entered in the GIS software, individual parcels, landmarks etc are marked corresponding to the address. The user has to enter the keywords and the attribute data will connect itself to the spatial data, thus guiding the user to the desired place. Some of the application of GIS deals with the following: Customer base analysis: To know the customer base, the companies have to be prudent to collect the relevant data such as population density, socio economic structure, the political scenario of the location. These aspects where previously ignored due to the lack of understanding of their relevance to the customer based analysis. Only the competition spread was studied and decisions were made. With the advent of GIS , which gives a robust decision making tool to careful plan out the spread of business in a particular location thereby facilitating the distribution of the same business in the proximity. The market segments and verticals: These parameters in any kind of business can be ascertained and strategic sales planning can be prepared and executed. The primary function is the company strategy to use GIS as the tool to make the vision possible. GIS would not only help in depicting scenarios but give tools to optimize and manage the proper implementation of the segment in the consumer sensitive market. Geo simulation is bottom based paradigm, which starts with entities (i.e. humans and infrastructure elements) of an urban system and tries to understand the system’s properties that emerge from interaction amongst these entities, and what the properties of highest levels of the systems are (Benenson and Torrens 2004, p. 256) Limitations A GIS is entirely dependent on the schema and the data model to study a particular case. Services and employment centers would involve a data related to demographics, per capita income, and business distribution. It is pertinent to understand vulnerability in terms of data acquisition. Some of the factors related to data are as follows: Garbage in is equal to garbage out : GIS personnel have to vigilant to enter the correct data as a GIS result is entirely dependent on the data entered. Continuous schema: Behind the spatial representation, there is a complex combination of mathematical equation and logic. Data model integrity : To logically determine the relationship between the different parameters such as geo coding information, land use, demographics, population density and the businesses, an universal data continuity has will have to maintained to avoid erroneous conclusion thereby affecting the decision making process. Data availability: Availability and acquisition of the data through various government and private agencies is time consuming and expensive and involves bureaucratic process that hampers the progress. Apart from the data constraint, other factors include the limited knowledge of the domain on which the GIS system is applied. Employment centers uses geo-coding as their backbones as it gives users the flexibility to chose the centers in terms of distance, areas and so on. GIS shall play an essential role in the establishment of services and employment centers. Proper planning and execution of the related data can help achieve an optimum solution for the public to be an active participant in the creation and value addition in the society. References Benenson Itzhak & Torrens Paul M, 2004, Geosimulation: automata-based modeling of urban phenomena, Reprinted 2005, John Wiley and Sons Ltd, Sussex England.   Read More