Some usage problems of GIS in Japan

Some usage problems of GIS in Japan

Tsukasa Iwata Dr., Akihiro Teraki,Eiichi Itoigawa Dr.
Building Research Institute, Ministry of Construction
1 Tachihara Tsukuba-shi Ibaraki-ken 305 Japan

Abstract
January 17th, 1995, before dawn, the earthquake of magnitude 7,2 struck the metropolis Kobe. Immediately after the disaster, the Building Research Institute has started to set up the “Geographic Information System for the Restoration Planning in the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu Earthquake Area”. This system is the first practical GIS for restoration planning in Japan. It takes, however, about one year to set up because of the present Japanese digital mapping technology such as the quality of digital mapping data, the data generating and overlaying method and surveying method at both urgent and ordinary times. On the other hand, many municipalities intend to use GIS on usual works of the property tax, the resident registration, infrastructure management, urban planning and emergency works in an urban disaster from our recent questionnaires. One of the most critical problems using the GIS in municipal works is the expensive cost to make the digital map. This paper introduces our system and describes the possibility to reduce the cost up to the present Japanese digital mapping situation to promote the GIS for all of the municipalities over 3,000 from our experiences this time.

Japanese Municipal Organization

1. Addressing System

Fig. 1 Addressing system in Japan
2. Municipal Population and Size

table.1 The size of municipalities in Japan

3 Responsibility for Urban planning

Fig. 2. The level of the urban planning responsibility

Responsibility for map in Japan

1 The National Geographical Survev Institute. Ministrv of Construction. Japan
The national geographical survey institute has the responsibility to print the topographical map scaled less than 1/25,000 for all over Japan and also to setup the standard of the drawing contents, details and notation including the digital map for every scaled map in Japan.

This institute also publishes the map scaled 1/1 0,000 with buildings collecting the urban planning maps bellow printed bythe municipalities.

2 Map for Urban Planning
Every municipality with the urban planning area has the responsibility to make the urban planning map scaled 1/2,500 on the standard of the national geographical survey institute. They make the urban planning survey maps of building usage, height and structure as base maps for the urban planning.

GIS for urban planning in japan

1 Popularization of GIS on Urban Planning
Several municipalities uses GIS for urban planning. Our institute put a questionnaire survey into every municipality with the urban planning area in 1996, The consequence of this survey is bellow.

Fig.3 The using rate of the GIS for the urban planning up to the municipal size
The large city like a designated city already use the GIS for the urban planning. 75’%0 of the designated city has the GIS. The smaller is the population of the municipalities, the less is the rate of the municipalities using the GIS, because the amount of budget is usually up to the population size in Japan and the digital mapping cost is expensive. Only 38 (2.1 Yo) municipalities use GIS in 1857 bodies. The rate of the municipalities making the digital map is the same tendency as the rate of GIS as bellow

Fig.4 The using rate of the digital map up to the municipal size
107 (5.8Yo) municipalities already made the digital map and 25 (1 .3Yo) ones are making now. These maps is usually scaled 1/2,500 upon the mapping standard.

Fig 5 The cadastral surveying rate up to the municipal size
If the municipalities have intention to use the GIS especially in the taxation, they need the digital cadastral map. This map is very convenient to use for the urban planning or for the other also. The municipalities to finish making the cadastral map (it is not digital one) are 535 (28.8’%o) and to be surveying are 582 (31 .3%). Especially, the larger city is not surveying because the lager city has the more complicated land ownership rights. It is necessary to finish cadastration to promote the GIS.

Geographical Information System for the restration planning in the 1995 hyogo-ken nanbu earthquake

1 Taraet area
Kobe-shi (excluding Nishi-ku, Kits-ku), Amagasaki-shi, Nishinomiya-shi, Ashiya-shi, Itami-shi, Takarazuka-shi, Kawanishi-shi,

2 Diaital Base Map

GSI1 0000 (1/10,000 digital map excluding building vector data) issued by the National Geographical Survey Institute Japan for base map
Building vector data from the digital map scaled 1/2,500 issued by Kobe-shi
Building vector data created from paper map scaled 1/2,500 issued by other local governments. ((2)+(3) = about 559,400 buildings)

3 Buildina Data Before Damaae

Height/Structure : Low Story, High Story, No Wall, Unknown
Usage : Detached Houses, Apartment Houses, Commercial and Office Buildings, Industry Building and Warehouse, Others, Unknown

4 Buildina Damaae Data

Damage : Collapsed, Middle Damaged, Slightly Damaged, No Damage Found, Destroyed by Fire, Unknown

Fig. 6 Building Damage in our System
For the Detail, refer to Progressing GIS in Japan - mapping the 1995 Kobe earthquake , The 1996 GDS World Users Conference

4 An Example of Damaae Analysis
The result of the damage analysis is stored in the CD-ROM attached to A Survey Report for Building Damages Due to the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu Earthquake .

Problems to Promote GIS in Japan
The GIS is very useful for the urban planning including the utilization in the case of emergency. Many municipalities have an intention to set up the GIS for official use. Fig.3 show us few larger municipalities are possible to use the GIS and almost all of the smaller municipalities like machi are impossible to use the GIS, mainly because of the cost or technical problems of making Digital Map . For the conclusion, we show you the cost problems have intimate relations with the technical problems in Japan and should be solved to promote GIS for the urban planning in the municipality level through our experiences this time.

The most important motive to introduce GIS is the effective official works in the municipalities.
For the efficiency, there are two factors. The one is the utilization at the many windows in the public office, and the second is necessary data jointly.
The data collected by the municipality in Japan is the one of
- the residents and families
- the land for tax, agricultural usage and urban planning project
- the land for tax, agricultural usage and urban planning project
- the building for tax, urban planning control(usage, height, structure) and building inspection system
- the plan and maintenance of the urban facilities(road, water supply, sewage)
Each data is collected and maintained by each section independently by manual up to the present. Every data has an intimate relation with each other for the planning, project and maintenance. GIS has a possibility to join all of these data in every section in a public office.
For GIS, they need the digital base map with the building and land polygon to put these data. It is necessa~ that each building and land should be drawn independently. The scale of the digital base map should be 1/1 ,000 or more on the aerial survey.
For the plan, project and maintenance of the urban facilities(road, water supply and sewage system), they need the road, river, train and height of the land.
The height of the land usually is indicated by the contour line. In our system, we cut off the digital data of the contour line because the amount of the data is very huge and the system cannot get the necessary quick response. In the GIS, the height itself should be necessary on the mesh or along the road, river and train line for urban planning or projects. The contour line or height point instead of the contour is useful for only the case they need, They need usually 2D data.
Cutting off the contour line from the digital base map reduce the cost to make the map half because Japan is covered over by many mountains and hills.
The marks on the map of the building like a public office, a hospital, police station, fire department and so on, or the marks of the land surface condition like a forest, a rice field, a housing area and so on make cost high, because to attach the mark to the building require the on-the-spot survey. Also these marks are put on the limited buildings and land. On the other hand, all of the building and land usage are checked by the daily works for taxation and the surveyed every 5 year for urban planning. These data should be utilized instead of on-the-spot survey.
The cadastral map is maintained by the taxation section. This map is ve~ indispensable for the urban planning. The GIS in the municipality should install the acreage of lots. The mapping standard have no mention about the cadastral map because it is for the aerial survey. The cadastral mapping standard is controlled under the National Land Agency in Japan. Fig.5 shows the cadastral surveying situation in Japan. It is necessary to promote cadastral survey in order to promote the GIS in the municipalities.

From our experience this time, we estimate that the digital base map using in the municipality should have the only data of the building polygons, the acreage of lots, the road, the river, the train, and height point every 10m mesh and every 10m along the road, river and train scaled 1/1 ,000.

Miharu-machi(population:20,000, area:73 square km) estimate the cost of the 742?digital base map. On the standard of the National Geographical Survey Institute, 1/2,500 map cost $Imillion and 1/1,000 map cost $4 or 5million. The map we mentioned above cost $1.4 million ($0.4 million is for the cadastral map digitizing). In the same scale, the cost is only 1/3 including cadastral map. The budget of Miharu-machi in one year is almost $70million. This cost reduction is vety important factor to promote the GIS. Of course, they need to input more data like a usage to be able to use in the daily works.

The system cost is also important. Workstation system cost ten times as the micro computer system. Iwaki-shi (population : 350,000) expense $120 million for all of GIS on the UNIX workstation for only urban planning use. The data input and maintenance need high cost. The municipalities also need the GIS on the micro computers which is controlled easy at the time to input, output or maintain the data in order to reduce the cost of data generation and maintenance. It is the most important point that the ofFicers can control the GIS by themselves.

Anyway, one of the critical problems is the expensive cost of the digital mapping on the strict standard unfamiliar with the utilization of the municipal works. It is the most important thing to make the effective and available digital map in order to promote the GIS in all of the municipalities over 3,000 bodies in Japan.