Development and Applications of GIS in Asia
The development of Web based GIS will make the applications and availability of GIS in Asia faster to come. The availability of Web based GIS will be able to make data available to the public without the need of expensive GIS software. Some real estate agents in Asia in the Web are now using some sorts of georeferenced textual data. Many of them are making good use of web GIS in the form of location map with the display of the searched property with map information of its surrounding neighbourhood and land use zoning plan (www.centamap.com). The worldwide move towards intelligent transport system (ITS) with the increasing use of automobile navigation systems will also make digital georeferenced data to be available faster to meet the needs of this big market.
There is a move towards the provision of spatial data infrastructure in Asia. The Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific was formed recently. It is comprised of directors of national surveying and mapping organizations of the countries. The objectives of the Permanent Committee are to form a regional spatial data infrastructure and to be part of the global spatial data infrastructure. One of the concerns of the Committee is data standards and interoperability.
The major barrier to the availability of data is the attitude of some governments towards data security. With the commercial availability of remote sensing data of 0.6 to 1 m., such as IKONOS and QuickBird and the increase of the resolution of general GPS to 10m, it is very easy to prepare a 1:5,000 digital GIS base map and data. Over control of GIS data is no longer very meaningful for national security. It will only limit the applications of GIS in business and daily uses and not facilitating economic development and daily uses which GIS can be of great services. Perhaps these countries can use an incremental strategy in making GIS data available. They can make 1:5,000 digital maps with highly generalized boundaries and attributes available for vehicle navigation and web GIS purposes for selected cities which are already open to foreigners and where GIS can help to promote economic development, such as the special economic development zones and open cities in China and big cities and in Asia.. Similarly that can make 1:20,000 digital maps with highly generalized boundaries and attributes available to region with have a vibrant logistics industry.
There is also a general lack of data development policy for most countries. Different departments without centrally coordinated effort are developing GIS data. There is a need for a well-coordinated strategy in developing GIS data (Yeh, 1996). Very often, data that are needed by the private sector, such as socio-economic data are not readily available or in a format that is not readily usable by GIS and mapping software. There is a need for an institutionalized coordination at the top government level.
Many governments have overlooked the contributions of GIS data in economic development, especially the development of the service industries and are slow in supplying the much needed georeferenced socio-economic data or supplying them at a price that scared off many applications. With lower price of GIS data, the government may get back the same economic return, but more people and industries will benefit from the GIS technology (Figure 2). It is only when the type of data needed by the private sector are available at an easily affordable price that GIS will be more useful in Asia, making GIS technology to be able to serve the people and economic development of Asia – a role that GIS should play in modern society.
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