Study Area The study area is San-En-Nanshin region, an area spread across parts of the three prefectures of Aichi, Shizuoka and Nagano in Japan. It comprises of the Higashi-Mikawa (Mi also read as San in Japanese) region of Aichi Prefecture, the Enshu region of Shizuoka Prefecture and the Nanshin region of Nagano from which it derives its name, and is further divided into 32 (57 before the Heisei Mergers) municipalities. It covers an area of approximately 5,700km2 and has a total population of about 2,089,800 according to the year 2000 census. The population distribution in the area is a characteristic of its diverse settlement structure. Most of the population lives in or around the major cities of Toyohashi in Higashi-Mikawa, Hamamatsu in Enshu and Iida in Nanshin region whereas the mountainous regions located in between these cities are dominated by forests with sparse settlements mainly found along the low-lying river courses. Just like other regions of Japan, the cities are characterized by a vibrant population and dynamic industrial and economic activities while the mountainous regions are plagued by aging, excessively declining population and sluggish economic activities raising concerns of regional disparities and sustainability in these regions.  Fig.3 The data process flow Development of a PRPSS Using WebGIS The final objective of our project is to create an “Information Platform” that can support the regional planning process by offering accessible and easy to understand information on current and even future situations of the region as timely and as accurately as possible. GISs are great tools for expressing most regional planning decision making issues since most of these issues are essentially spatial in nature. WebGIS or Internet GIS combines the powerful functions of GISs and the high accessibility provided by the internet to deliver “intelligent” and dynamic spatial information with advanced analytic capabilities to a wide range of potential users. Without the GIS, the web is limited to display of static non-interactive map information and without the web, GISs are restricted to individual management, browsing and analysis functions. Other merits of these systems that have been raised include: 1) Accessibility from any place, anytime and anywhere 2) Cost effectiveness 3) Freedom of expression without fear 4) Possibility of hierarchical presentation of information which can increase in complexity according to users’ interest 5) Quicker information turnaround etc3. Geerman et al further suggest that these systems could “create a more level field in which to conduct public debate” while Lenk5 points out that these systems can promote and support citizen participation particularly or support cooperative regional planning approaches. Others and have suggested that use of these systems contribute to an increase in effectiveness, accuracy, and acceptance of planning. 1) System Architecture The proposed system consists of a Web Server, GIS server and a Data-base server. Using the user interface (webpage), the user sends a request across the internet to the web server which interprets the requests and forwards the specifications to the GIS server. The GIS server, linking to and extracting data from the database server when necessary, calculates the responses to make then sends the output, rendered in raster form, to the Web Server which in turn sends the results to the user interface. |