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The use of GIS in Archiving and Accessing Hostels Information: A Case KNUST Campus

Results
The survey conducted on students during the study revealed that students need information pertaining to rent or hostel charges since rent or charges are fixed depending on the type of hostel, the number of students in a room, facilities present and the location. Hostels closer to the campus are preferred by students to those further from campus. From the survey, it was observed that in managing energy within the hostels, some of the hostels use prepaid electric meters whiles others have theirs added to the initial hostel charge. Also, it was observed that water is supplied to the occupants through pipe-borne, underground storage tanks or both. The consumption rate depends on the number of people living in the hostels. The hostel charges include water consumption rates.

The data collected on the fifty-five (55) hostels in and around KNUST indicated that 25% of the hostels fall under planned maintenance, where hostels are organized and carried out with fore thought, control and the use of records to a predetermined plan. These hostels were classified under first (1st), second (2nd) and third (3rd) class hostels. 20% of the hostels fall under unplanned maintenance, where hostels are organized and carried out without a fore thought, control and the use of records to operate it. These hostels were classified under fourth (4th) and fifth (5th) class hostels. 25% of the hostels fall solely under preventive and running maintenance. These hostels could be found in the first (1st) class and second (2nd) class hostels. There, however, exist overlaps in some of hostels as in relation to the preventive and running maintenance especially the third (3rd) and fourth (4th) classes. See table 1 for the classification of the hostels in and around KNUST as at March 2005. Figure 1 also shows the percentages of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th class hostels in and around KNUST campus.


Figure 1: Percentage display on the number of classified hostels as at March 2005.


The hostels falling under the first class are hostels having quality wall tiles in bath and water closet (WC), shower, shop, telephone and good security, finished terrazzo floors, sliding windows and sliding doors. These hostels are closer to KNUST campus. Hostels falling under unplanned maintenance have no tiles in bath and WC, Kumasi Ventilated Improved Pit (KVIP), no shop, no telephone, no good security, cemented floor finish, mixed mode of painted and unpainted wall finish and burglar proof windows. These hostels are not closer to campus and are located in very noisy areas. In addition, there is uneasy access roads and transport from these hostels are to KNUST campus. Most of these hostels were individual houses being converted to students hostels.

Discussion
Based on the above results, there is the need to raise an awareness of how these hostels are being maintained. This will in turn improve the learning conditions for students of KNUST.

Most of the hostels accommodating students have safe environment for students’ academic activities. However, from the survey conducted there is a concern that the living conditions in some hostels could harm students' physical and emotional development and their ability to learn. At present, some hostels are operating without any supervision and regard of the statutory laws. This is happening because there is no database of all the hostels in and around campus. The following can be deduced from the study:

  • Hostel operators must be educated on hostel management and endeavour to provide portable water, electricity and good sanitation for occupants (students). They must form a union to help curb the mushrooming of illegal and sub-standard hostels.
  • Better checking and monitoring of people who operate hostels. They must be made to pay taxes to the government or the university from which they are benefiting. Hostel charges must be monitored since most hotel operators take undue advantage of this.
  • Setting of clear minimum standards for hostel premises and management practices. That is, minimum standards for hostel management practices must be set to monitor hostel standards. For example, many of private hostels are operating without any standards. Almost all the compound houses around campus, for instance, have been converted to hostels and must be checked and added to the database.
  • Better intervention options where unsafe and inhabitable hostels can be identified. This must be done to check the safety of students in those poorly managed hostels.
  • The Ministry of Education must call for the various Universities’ input into the development of new regulations designed to monitor the operations of hostels in and around the universities throughout the country.
  • Hostel classification criteria defined must be made available for upgrading of this database between some time intervals. Updated maps of KNUST and the surrounding areas where there are hostels must be available to reflect current changes in status and emergence of new hostels.
  • Suggestion boxes must be placed at vantage points to obtain suggestions from students because they have in-depth information about the hostels they live in.
  • Maps of hostels could be placed at vantage points on campus for hostel direction. Hostel information must be published in a gazette and made available to students seeking hostel accommodation. In addition, the classified hostels can be a form of advertisement for continuing students. This can be part of the Universities admission forms in order to help students have a fair idea of the hostels in and around KNUST campus.
The KNUST web site displays information on only the halls of residence but does not have a database of the hostels and their locations. The application can be added to the KNUST web site for accessing hostel in and around KNUST campus. The published database on the schools website will provide useful hostel information for both local and international students. Hard copies could also be disseminated to students during the sale of admission forms.

Out of the total number of students admitted in the 2004/05 academic year, the total number of students with accommodation in the halls is 7,130 and that of the non-resident students is 9,165. These numbers shows that greater number of the students is not accommodated by the University, hence the need to inform students of the hostels available for their lodging.

The developed GIS application is composed of a geo-spatial database which describes the geographical location of hostels, pictorial view of hostels and attributes information of hostel as well as a web application for dissemination the geo-spatial information to students through the World Wide Web. However, further study is needed to help present maps of hostels in and around KNUST campus in a dynamic and interactive manner.

Conclusion
In designing the application, the spatial location and attribute information were integrated into ArcView 3.3 software and the web pages were created using the Macromedia Dreamweaver MX trial version software. These developed application have varied unique capabilities such as:

  • easy identification of hostels at Ayigya, Ayeduase, Ayeduase New Site, Bomso, Kentenkrono Kotei and on KNUST campus.
  • obtaining detailed hostel information such as the charge, number of students per room, availability of water and electricity et cetera.
  • estimating the shortest distance between a hostel and central classroom block, lecture theatres, commercial area, central library, the halls and any other important place for students on campus.
  • visualizing the spatial location of the various hostels on the map.
  • updating of both the spatial and the non-spatial data can be done easily.
  • easy access of hostel information for users on the WWW.
The application can also provide information on hostel charges, number of beds per room, availability of water and electricity, nearness to lecture area and easy source of transportation. Distances and the geographical locations of hostels from the lecture theatres and other important places on campus could be determined on the map of the study area The classification of the hostels was done using a criterion from the Estate Organization Unit, can help in maintaining the classes of hostels.

The objective of the research by integrating the topographic maps of the study area and the geographic positions of the hostels for visualization in a GIS environment as well as making hostel information readily available were achieved. Other key information and issues that influence hostel management in KNUST were identified and archived for reference. The software ArcView 3.3 provided a very excellent management tool in terms data storage, data retrieval, data update and analysis, and data visualization.

The Macromedia Dreamweaver MX software which was used to design web pages which displays attribute and pictorial information of the hostels helped in publishing the application on the WWW for the benefit of accessing by both local and international students.

The hostels have been put into five classes with the first class being the best, down to the fifth class being the lowest. With this research, students seeking hostel accommodation can easily access and make decisions beforehand and also customers interested in management of University hostel may also be interested in the information provided by the database.

Reference
  • Adjetey, E. S., Eshun, Y. F. and Jiro, K. K. (2005): “Use of GIS in Hostels Management.” BSc. thesis, Department of Geomatic Engineering, Faculty of Civil and Geomatic Engineering Dept., KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana.
  • Aronoff, S. (1989): “Geographic Information Systems: A Management Perspective.” WDL Publications, Ottawa Canada.
  • KNUST Estate Organisation Unit (2005) : “Criteria for Hostel Classification.” KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana.
  • Macmillan and McGraw-Hill (1993): “School Dictionary 3.” MacMillan and McGraw-Hill School Publishing Company, New York, USA.
  • Uren, J. and Price W.F. (1994): “Surveying for Engineers.” MacMillan Press Ltd., London, Great Britain.
  • Schofield, W. (1993). “Engineering Surveying.” Butterworth – Heinemann Ltd. Oxford, UK.
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